My Betta

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Satsumas

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jan 29, 2005
Messages
610
Location
Cambridge, England (UK)
Last night i went to feed my fish when i noticed my betta wasnt swimming about at the top.
I wasnt really surprised at this because he often sits on the bottom or lodges himself in a plant somewhere.

What surprised and slightly worried me was he wasnt there this morning either! He's never been out of sight this long before.
I looked all over the tank top to bottom, left to right and i couldnt see him.
Then i spotted some blue in a plant, so i got my planting tool out and parted the branches then he swam out. Gave me a scare though! Like my loach do when they dont move!

Anyway when my betta swam out he swam straight for the surface and took some air in. I know betta's are labrynthy (spelling?) fish but he has never gone to the surface like that before?!

I was thinking maybe he couldnt get out? he is always swimming past stuff finding somewhere to lodge himself but he's never been in 1 place all night! How long can they go without taking a breath from the surface?
 
He probably was asleep and you scared him. Lost his breath.

My bettas like to hide in my plants, and often I cant find them. I move things around and they always dart out and directly to the top for air. They are funny creatures.
 
Oh right, lol

I just went and looked at my tank and he was gone again.

I looked in the same plant, and any other plants that he has sat in before and he's nowhere to be seen.

It dosent help that my tank is up against a wall so i cant look from the back.
I reckon he's somewhere along the back, sitting on the substrate where i cant see him
 
Hi, Im new at this game. Would like to get a betta can someone give me the real low down on this fish as am getting conflicting advice from the lfs ets in the area.whats the best temp for them and also what fish are ok to keep with? is it true that you cannot keep females with a male? :?
 
Hi samantha :)

Yes, its true you cant keep male bettas with another betta (male or female) or they will fight and possibly kill eachother. but you can do a female community with at least a 10 gal with 4 or more females (Its best if they're siblings or they may fight) and lots of hiding room.

The best bet with them is keeping them alone in a 1 gal or more tank, heated around 76-82*. No filter as long as you do water changes at least twice a week (if you use a bigger tank, you can to clean the tank less often). They dont like water flow, they perfer still water, so no filter or air pump.

you can keep them in a 10 gal with some cories, and they may or may not fight, you just have to keep an eye on them.
 
Male bettas can also be kept in community tanks, as long as there are no other inhabitants that may look distinctly like a betta, and/or fish that may nip at the bettas fins.
 
that's a risk, Rach. every male betta I've put in a community tank always went after another fish. I tried with 3 different bettas and all tried to fight. In the end, I deemed it best and safe to keep them alone
 
I thought this was my thread about my betta.

Anyway, my betta is a constant hider, seems to like sitting in the plants.
I scared him out yesterday so he could eat, he didnt eat the day before so i thought he should.

He dosent seem to notice when i remove the hood for feeding like the neons and danios do. He does when he's not hiding though.
 
Satsumas:

Bettas will hide if given the opportunty if they feel threatened in any way. Mine used to hide out in the plants just like yours.

Also, a fish not eating one day is not a huge issue. The digestive tract of fish is approximately 2 days. For some fish it is 1 but for most it is 2. Watch your black neons closely, i have seen bettas go after these fish quite often.

As to dispose of other myths in this thread ....
Yes you CAN keep a male and female betta together. You do, however, have to seperate them with somehing like an egg crate for 2 months or so so that they get used to one another. I have done this and they have co-existed for some time. Infact they started making many bubble nests together. Though watch them consistantly if they do coexist because in most cases it is the female that will kill the male off. However you cannot keep 2 or more males together unless there is a definate tank divider that they cannot jump over, swim around or get through any hole in it whatsoever.

Secondly you can keep them in a community tank. This is something that is trial and error and has been sucessfuly done by many people. There are a few guidelines you must follow for the best success with this though. Any fish with trailers (IE Gourami species and angelfish) will be at risk. The betta thinks it is food for him to eat. Any fish with fins that seem to flow in the water like a betta is at risk (ie black ghose knife fish, serpae tetras and long finned fish like long finned danios). The betta will see these guys as competition. Also, no fish that is of similar color to other common bettas. These blues and reds will almost attract him like a magnet to metal. So that mean no Neon tetras for example.
 
Reintroducing Betta to community tank

am a beginner with keeping fish. My daughter got a Betta from Santa
She talked me into a 10gal tank so she can get more fish. I researched online what kind of fish to put with the betta. We set up the tank and after a few days we purchased 2 platies and a mollie. We put them in first and waited about 45 minutes and put in the betta. He seemed to be fine with the other fish, just flared once or twice.. and swam everywhere. One of the platys seemed a bit stressed and hid, but the mollie seemed unphased.

The next morning the betta was relentlessly chasing the mollie and the other two--if they dared get close enough. But the mollie he persued, then stopped, then again, and again. It didn't keep the mollie from going near him again though. Anyway, I took out the betta and put him back in his small (.5 tank- freshly cleaned), since I had to go to work and was afraid that my daughter would come home to dead fish.

My question is can I re-introduce the betta and try again? When? He didn't seem to be biting although he did "push" the mollie a few times.
 
IMO mollies get too big and need more room than a 10 gal. I'd bring the molly back and try putting the betta in with just the platies.
 
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