# Poor Bettas...



## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

I was at a Fun Fair at my kids school today. They had one of those games were you try to get a ping pong ball in to a cup and if you do, you win a betta. Now, think about the logic here.. A bunch of elementary school kids are handed bettas with an instruction sheet that simply says put in a quart sized bowl, and change water when it gets cloudy. Poor fish. RIP to 99% of them..

Oh yeah, and my kid won one.. I don't know what to do with it though. I highly doubt it would survive in my 10g that already has two male mollies and three guppies.. I guess sending it home with their Mom is my only real option here. I'd love to take it in, but I'm not about to buy another whole setup for one fish I told my daughter NOT to try and win.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Actually it might be fine in the tank. You could try it. The thing to look out for is fin nipping. No fin nipping and you are good to go, fin nipping, re-home it.


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

I don't think it'd be a good idea. I checked on aqadvisor and it came up with all kinds of warnings:

# Warning: Betta [Male] will likely to fin nip Dalmatian Molly.
# Warning: Betta [Male] is not recommended to be with Dalmatian Molly - further research is highly recommended.
# Warning: Betta [Male] will likely to fin nip Guppy.
# Warning: Betta [Male] is not recommended to be with Guppy - further research is highly recommended.
# Warning: Guppy is not recommended to be with Betta [Male] - male betta may attack a male guppy by mistake thinking he is another male betta.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

And it does often work as well. Those are the things to look out for. Notice I said if fin nipping then re-home


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

I guess I can try it out. Maybe on Sunday when I'll have the day to really watch them. Do you think keeping the betta in his little bowl, and submerging it in the 10g for a day or two will help ease the aggression when I release him? Or what if I set up my tank divider for him? Would it help him establish his territory? 

BTW, the male betta seems like a young one. My male mollies are both full grown, and totally black. I have two shiny blue guppies, and one black fancy tail guppy. All 3 of which are about 6 months old. 

Update: Submerged the tiny bowl in the 10g. So far, the betta seems to just be observing the other fish, no flaring or anything. The mollies seem to care less that there's another fish around. The guppies though, seem to be obsessed with the betta. They keep circling around the betta bowl looking at him. 



Obsidian said:


> And it does often work as well. Those are the things to look out for. Notice I said if fin nipping then re-home


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

have you any idea how stupid "aquadvisor" is...it probably tells you to not put guppies with guppies...
sorry...just my rant against the aquadvisor..


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## phlyergirl (Nov 6, 2011)

lohachata said:


> have you any idea how stupid "aquadvisor" is...it probably tells you to not put guppies with guppies...
> sorry...just my rant against the aquadvisor..


Quoted for truth.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Put them together and see how they do. In my experience with a female betta and a guppy, the guppy tried to inseminate the female betta and she beat him up (and I can't blame her!) Not all male bettas are that aggressive.


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

Kids are watching Twilight so I have a couple hours to observe. Gonna release him now. Wish me luck!

Update: He's been in about ten minutes now. He's mostly just moving around slowly checking out the tank. A few times he got really freaked out when one of the other fish went too close to his face and he darted around a bunch. The other fish haven't nipped at him yet, and don't seem like they really care to.. At least yet. The two mollies are still swimming around together, and the three guppies are swimming around together as they usually do. My only worry right now is the plastic plants in the aquarium. My other betta ripped up his tail pretty good when he had plastic plants in his tank, so I hope this guy has better luck with them seeing as his tail is less then half the size of my other betta.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Post pics! My fish like to strike at night. try keeping them separate over night.


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

I left my room and turned the light off for about an hour. Just came in, and the betta seems very comfortable now. But... He keeps following around the two shiny blue guppies. He's not attacking them or anything, but he's creeping on them, and whenever they get close, he flares at them. Hopefully he stops it. I'll post some pics, or video, a little later tonight. How do you think I should separate them at night? I have a divider, but that would be a major pain to set up nightly. Think a cave would work so whoever is getting bullied can hide in it? 

Update 2: I'm officially getting the betta out. One of the blue guppies tail is ripped, obviously had to be the betta because he was fine a couple hours ago before I added him. I think the guppies would have been fine if they were all black fancy tailed, because he leaves the fancy tail alone. They must be too bright and shiny for the betta, I think he thinks they're other bettas or something. 



Betta man said:


> Post pics! My fish like to strike at night. try keeping them separate over night.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Yup they might be too shiny. At least you know you tried to solve it  He will be okay in a container of some kind until you can either put up a new tank (which I know you don't want to do) or can re-home. 

Toss a little melafix into the tank for the guppies tail, should be fine in no time. It's always a good thing to add if you have ripped/ nipped fins of any significance.


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

I feel really bad for my guppy. He's just been laying around in the gravel now barely moving. Hope he's ok.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

It doesn't sound like you had the Betta in there long enough to create much damage. He will probably be okay. You did things right by just watching to see that he would or wouldn't nip.


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

Yeah it was only a few hours. The guppies moving around again, he might have just been in a bit of shock, or sleeping? He seems fine now. In fact, the guppies all seem to be teasing the betta in his little cup now, loll



Obsidian said:


> It doesn't sound like you had the Betta in there long enough to create much damage. He will probably be okay. You did things right by just watching to see that he would or wouldn't nip.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Haha, paybacks! Sorry it didn't work out for you. I am sure the guppy was just upset, glad that he is better now


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## ZeeZ (Feb 25, 2012)

So what are your plans for him?


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

He's going to the ex's house. She has spare aquariums, so she should set him up alright. Doubt he'll get a heater though. I might just buy a cheap one.. But I still don't understand why my daughter wanted a new fish? She didn't even like her last one?.. Oh, the mind of a 10 year old, lol I remember when I was her age I had a 1 gallon tank with no heater, no filter, and had it WAY overstocked. It had a huge angelfish, 2 goldfish, an algae eater, a frog, etc etc. The last survivor was the angel fish, and it refused to die.. I got so lazy with it, being a kid and all, and didn't change the water for like 6 months. You couldn't even see in the tank, and somehow that fish survived forever. 



ZeeZ said:


> So what are your plans for him?


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## ZeeZ (Feb 25, 2012)

Doberz said:


> He's going to the ex's house. She has spare aquariums, so she should set him up alright. Doubt he'll get a heater though. I might just buy a cheap one.. But I still don't understand why my daughter wanted a new fish? She didn't even like her last one?.. Oh, the mind of a 10 year old, lol I remember when I was her age I had a 1 gallon tank with no heater, no filter, and had it WAY overstocked. It had a huge angelfish, 2 goldfish, an algae eater, a frog, etc etc. The last survivor was the angel fish, and it refused to die.. I got so lazy with it, being a kid and all, and didn't change the water for like 6 months. You couldn't even see in the tank, and somehow that fish survived forever.


Hopefully the ex takes good care of him. There are cheap heaters available on forums, I got a free one from a local forum when I had to do an emergency separation. Wouldn't hurt to ask, IMO.

Angelfish are tough fish, mine won't take any backtalk from the other fish, not even the Three Spot gourami that's in the tank with him. Trust me, I understand on the issue of kids and animals... I've gotten my nieces a betta and an hamster but I forced them to sign an agreement that they were going to take care of the animals otherwise I had the right to take them back and they'd be mine.


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## austinroberts23 (Jan 25, 2012)

Just goes to show how much fish differ in their temperament. I have a betta in my 55g with an assortment of fish and they all do well together.


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

The guppy that had his fin ripped isn't do too well the past few days. He mostly sitting on the bottom of the tank breathing heavily. During feedings over the past two days I haven't seen him eat anything. He'll come up when food is dropped in, just won't eat any of it. His gills aren't red, so I don't think it has anything to do with ammonia. My levels are also all fine, and the tanks well established at I believe 8 months now? I think it might be stress related because the other two guppies seem to annoy him a lot. Gonna see if I can't find a decent cave at Petsmart today for him to un-stress a little better in.


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

Little buddy just died. Didn't think he was gonna make it..


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

RIP that's too bad.


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

Betta man said:


> RIP that's too bad.


Second guppy to die in the past month. I read that most of them aren't that hardy because the males are inbred to get the different colors. I'm starting to see that now..


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## LittleRedFishy (Mar 11, 2012)

A note about the original post...

I remember seeing a travelling carnival around here once that had goldfish swimming in the actual bowls kids would throw the balls into (you won the goldfish you almost squished, I suppose).


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## Flare (Dec 17, 2010)

Makes me so upset to see bettas tossed around as novelties like that, they don't deserve that... no one would give away a puppy at a carnival, I guess I'll never understand why fish are different


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## hairychicken101 (Mar 19, 2012)

i once had a huge angelfish and some tiger barbs the tiger barbs were doing dine with the angel until one one day they nipped at him so hard that the angel fish literally had no fins left he couldnt even swimi seperated the tiger barbs from the angel and in a week the angels fins had all grown back i didnt even add any chemicals to help his fins grow


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

ok chicken guy...we are sending you back to the 4th grade to learn punctuation.there are no excuses for not using it...


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

lol where's the periods?


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## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

lol I love how loha is the one lecturing about proper punctuation! :lol:


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

hey....if anything , i over punctuate...i put all of the extra periods because it help me to spread out my sentences so i am better able to read them...unfortunately my eyes are getting really bad...everything i see with my left eye is blurry so when i am looking at something it is a little distorted ; not to mention that my depth perception is pretty much shot...along with the fact that i am relatively uneducated having only finished the 9th grade...


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I get leaving it out if you a posting from a phone. However, more people will read coherent posts. There are few posters I don't bother to read.


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## Doberz (Jun 10, 2011)

emc7 said:


> I get leaving it out if you a posting from a phone. However, more people will read coherent posts. There are few posters I don't bother to read.


The worse is when people type out really long paragraphs and make them one big sentence it's so annoying I don't know why they do it or if they even learned anything from elementary school their parents should teach them better you know it's just common sense to use periods and commas and not leave them out and have a run on sentence that never feels like it's going to end kind of like the one I'm typing out right now


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2012)

I swear, you guys crack me up. I love it!


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

doberz......i'm gonna kick your butt for that......lol...
god , i hate when they do that..


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