Solex69: Your fault!!

[rogerrabbit]

Hi All

Went to the lps(come electrical supplier, come general dealer) this morning to get some dither fish, and walked out with some cardinals(as planned) and a nice male and female Betta. I put all the blame on Solex69 for constantly posting about bettas on this forum.:p

Had to put them in with the angels and cardinals, but will set up a separate tank for them soon. The female is a bit smallish, will she grow out if in the same tank with the male or should I move the male and give her a month or two maturing time in my big tank?

[solex69]

How does that saying go again? ....blame it on the bunny hey? ;) lol

Seperate the male & female if you don't intend breeding them. If you have more females, then you can put one male in between them. If there's only one female & one male, then he would tire her out quite quickly. In some instances, male & female can coexist fine together (assuming the male's old or he just aint into breeding)

[Zoom]

Hi Solex,

I put in a female Betta with my male last week friday. She seems to spend her time in hiding. Whenever the male sees her, he chases her, flares his fins and prances around like a transvestite on steroids. Is this aggression or mating ritual?

Should I introduce more females?

[solex69]

That's the mating ritual.

If you dont want them to breed, then add more females (not too many though). If you intend breeding, then put the male & female into their own tank and check out my breeding article written on TASA

[rogerrabbit]

I would want to breed, but the female is very small, most probably only 2/3 the size of the male and around 2 cm. Will it be better to give her time to mature some more? How much time, till summer?

[Carping]

Without looking under her skirt LOL, how do you spot the difference between a male and a female betta?

[solex69]

Difference is their fins...males have long flashy/flowy fins while the females have short ones. Except with Plakats, they can be mistaken for females some times. In this instance, best way to ID them is to 'look up her skirt' :)

Think by September she should be ready to breed

[Carping]

Another beginners question: Will a betta be ok in a community tank? Got an angel a bit larger than a R5 coin, 2 algea eaters about 10cm long and a smallish Bala shark. Tank is 400 liter.

[solex69]

Should be fine but some people say that some angels tend to nip at bettas' fins. I've personally kept one betta in a comunity tank where I had 2 relatively large angels in (approx a year ago) and he got along with them just fine.

Algae Eaters are agressive by nature, but I haven't see them chase bettas before (considering I at one stage had these oakes with some bettas)....they seem to pick their targets as far as fish species are concerned.

Maybe others can share their personal experiences with this if applicable?

[Zoom]

I've got a community tank with an angel about 2/3rd the size of your palm, and introduced a betta male 3 weeks ago. The are actually very good "friends" if fish can be friends. They ar often seen swimming together.

Last week I introduced a female Betta, so the male seems to have lost interest in the angel, and is more interested in the female now... but none-the-less, besides the very excited male Betta, the tank is still in good harmony.

[Zoom]

OK, I am sad to announce that I have just found my new female betta lying at the bottom of the tank. Saw her take her last breath, and then it was over. It would appear that the male did not appreciate her, as all her fins were completely chowed off.

He was even attacking her as I was fishing her out.

Not a good day... :(

[veegal]

Sorry to hear that Zoom there is not much that is as bad as seeing one of your fish die..... Some men just don't appreciate a good thing (oh, we're talking about fish....sorry) :)

[solex69]

sorry to hear mate....get more females next time and preferrably females that are not too small, else he'll repeat what he did with the deceased

[rogerrabbit]

Just convinced me to go get another(the only other) female from my local cafe, I mean fish shop.

[solex69]

Mkay....go and hunt for more :)

I'm busy raising my 1st batch females, so once they are ready to be shipped, I'll let post it on here