Betta (Siamese Fighting Fish) help!

Cherrypipp1

Hey, I recently bought a male Betta from Boardwalk Pets on Wellington Quay. I went there because the reviews of the shop were good and the girl seemed knowledgeable when I went it. I set up the tank correctly etc and introduced my male. All good. Very entertaining active fish. Eating well.

The girl in the shop said I could put a couple of female bettas in with him after a couple of weeks so I went and got a pair today.

He has them literally terrorised. Flaring, gills out at right angles to his face and is just charging them any time they appear from behind the plants (which at this point is not often at all). The internet is full of conflicting info about males and females together so what I want to know is will this calm down in a couple of days or should I just get them out and take them back to the shop? I'm worried that a)he will kill them, b) if he doesn't kill them and just terrorises them like this that they will have no quality of life, or c) if things do settle down, will he ever let them feed?

Yes, I am quite new to keeping fish, but I am doing my best and trying very hard to make sure they are comfortable and happy so please don't "shout" at me. The tank is a 5 gallon baby Biorb and I have it set up correctly and the water is tested properly. There's a couple of silk plants in there with the heater and thermometer etc, and I've put in a little china espresso mug to give them something else to hide behind.

Please help!

Cherry Blossom

It's been years since I had these so my memory might be a bit foggy on this, but I do vaguely remember my male doing something similar, I started off with a male/female pair (in with other fish) female died, very hard to come by around here so shop had to order me in another. In the meantime the male seemed almost 'depressed' for want of a better word and then did something similar to what you describe for a few days when the new female finally arrived. I don't know if it's asserting his dominace or something but he settled down after a few days and went back to his normal self building his bubble nests and whatnot. I also remember him trying to attack his reflection (gills flaring etc.) on occasion when light fell on the tank in a certain way.

donal2000

Check out www.irishfishkeepers.com for some help

Good bunch of friendly and helpful people which should be of some help to you

Cherrypipp1

Thanks a million guys.

I actually separated them all yesterday because I walked into the room thinking I'd give them another day or so to get used to eachother and the male was literally ramming the female in the side, while the other female was trying to hide by practically burying herself face first in the rocks at the bottom of the tank. They're now in 2 separate plastic bags with the male still in the tank at large :-) because even the girls were starting to flare at eachother.

Anyway, quick recommendation for Boardwalk-just spoke to them there and the girl was as always super helpful and without hesitation said that she would take them back from me, so they're back home this morning!

Thats interesting , but you can never tell with some fish . In the past i have only ever had 1 male fighter and no others . Best to be safe then sorry .

In the past i have bought mollys and one of them just turns out to be a rogue. You can never tell.

On a side note , i have tried to buy fish in that place and the guy there wont sell to me for some reason :rolleyes:

he keeps telling me to come back .