Killer Betta!!!

[ryanjcalifornia]

So, I have this betta, that I tried out in my community aquarium, and he worked GREAT for months!  But recently he's been terrorizing my glassfish and tearing at his fins and stuff.

And he does the "betta flare" at the glassfish.  Which confuses me, the glassfish has been in there the entire time with the betta, and they've never had a dispute before, plus, the glassfish isn't a betta, so why does my betta suddenly go into attack mode?  I mean, glassfish are clear...not colorful, if anything, one would think, color wise, that the betta would go after my neon tetras or something!

So, my betta had a psychotic episode?  Or just had to have someone to pick on?  Craziness.  Any thoughts or opinions are appreciated...I did remove the betta from the tank because of his constant chase of the glassfish.  But, that's crazy!

-Ryan

 

[luvfishies]

I wonder if the betta had just sexually matured and now sees any fish in "his" turf at the top of the tank as a rival. Only thing I can think of.

 

[Vyache]

Hmmmmm. Perhaps your betta is seeing his relfection in the "glass" of the fish. I know it sounds crazy but...

 

[ryanjcalifornia]

Those are very interesting and unique opinions and diagnoseses(sp ) heh  Thanks very much...

Well, an update, is that the glassfish must have got either too stressed, or too beat up, but unfortunately started doing barrel rolls around the tank, and now, is no longer with us.  I put the betta back in the community tank, and he's fine, doesn't bother anyone, no one bothers him...

Must have been his reflection he saw in that there glass fish!!!

heheh

Thanks ya'll!

-Ryan

 

[Fatboy]

My girlfriend just told me about a friend of hers from university that just recently tried to get 2 male Bettas to fight each other but for some reason they wouldn't. I don't know much about Bettas except that you shouldn't put 2 males together because they will probably fight, possibly to the death. Now I don't know any specifics about these 2 individual fish that wouldn't fight, but what would be the reason for them not doing so? Could it be that they might not be mature fish and therefor not competitive or could it be that they are just peaceful fish that don't want to fight one another. This story intruiged me because given the fact that Bettas are notorious for fighting each other or like in Ryans case even attacking and killing other fish that even might resemble them or reflect their image like this poor glass fish, lol sorry that's some fu@%!d up S#$t Ryan. What is your opinion? ???

 

[ryanjcalifornia]

Opinion on fighting bettas!?

I would hate to see fish fight to the death!!!

I mean, just for sport or entertainment?  To see another living thing that one KNOWS will kill the other kill it!  Man!!!

I dont see the entertainment value in it!  If that's why PetSmart goes through so many bettas its a sad sad world, i think they're beautiful fish, that deserve their own private kingdoms, and never should two males be in the same tank!

I think it would be sad if people did this.  As for my glassfish, I wish i removed my betta sooner so the glass fish didn't die, but, now that the betta is back in, it hasn't touched a single fish, or attacked anyone...I do think it was the reflection.

But as for my opinion, betta fighting, is bad, and buying betta for their own deaths for sport, is not a good thing.

Your opinions?

-Ryan

 

[colesea]

Male Bettas that have been jarred away from other males and have reached sexual maturity will beat the living daylights out of any other male betta it comes across. Usually to the death if the looser cannot find a place to escape or if neither fish will back down.

Male betas that have been raised from fry with their brothers and sisters in a large enough tank will not fight each other. They have established their pecking order and a balance has been reached. Of course, any male removed from such a community will not be able to return to it, nor does it stop the necessity from having to seperate out the dominate bully should one happen to develop.

I've had bettas in communities before with white clouds and bloodfin tetras, all smaller fish that could get away from the betta. My betta used to flare at a snail if it moved under his nose, and he'd watch it for a bit until it proved unthreatening. He'd also chase his reflection and occassionally pester the zebra pleco if he felt like it. Other then that, as long as he was top fish of the tank, he didn't care who else was around.

When I worked for the LFS, people would always put the bettas from the display together in the same bowl. It was cruel. Usually I found one male cowering on the bottom, his fins all torn, and he was just wipped. But I couldn't baby-sit the display all the time, and it just boggled my mind how people could be so insensitive.
~~Colesea

 

[ryanjcalifornia]

Wow...i didn't know that they wouldn't fight if raised together!

thanks colesea...learn somfin new every day

-Ryan

 

[Vyache]

I've told this story before on a different thread, but since we are on the subject:

I once put two male bettas in a 240 gallon tank to see if they could coexist in a large volume, I figured they might each claim half the tank. I watched them intently for about an hour and they stayed away from each other the whole time. Then the phone rang or something and I walked away from the tank. When I returned moments later I saw shredded fin pieces on the bottom of the tank. They couldn't get along even for that long in that much water! I seperated them and they both regrew their fins, later one just disappeared out of his bowl. I month or so later found what appeared to be a large blue cornflake while sweeping hard to reach places in the kitchen where Choad Perry, the blue betta had dissappeared.

I was told that even sibling males had to be seperated after about three months. I'm trying to breed some bettas right now and a lady that co-owns a LFS breeds all kinds of them.

 

[Fatboy]

Hey thaks Colesea and Vyache for offering some of your knowledge on this very interesting fish. Ryan I am sorry if I offended you in some way but I wasn't asking these questions so that I could go out and buy some Bettas so that they would kill each other. That' not my MO and I did not mean any disrespect about the glass fish that your betta killed. I agree it's sad that there are probably a lot of people who would enjoy watching these beautiful and interesting fish kill each other just for some sort of brief pleasure, but hey we all know it's a sick world and people do all sorts of sick things. I asked that question about the 2 bettas not fighting because I never had a betta and I was interested in knowing why these 2 fish wouldn't fight since I keep on hearing about how "bettas kill anything they can". What exactly this friend of my gf was trying to accomplish with this I don't quite know but I definetly do not advocate cruelty to animals. Even though I don't have bettas and never did I bought one for my gf the other week at my lfs so she could bring him back to her university. She thought it would be a good idea because she was getting very stressed from school and as we all know having a pet can be a stress reliever so we purchased "Herr Blau", a beautiful blue betta who seems to be doing quite well in his little plastic tank so far. At my lfs they keep all their bettas in these little plastic cups where the fish don't even have room to turn around. Now I find that kind of cruel in some way, even though the fish can survive like that I believe that they are much happier in a larger space of water. When my gf and I arrived at the cash in my lfs, the cashier started talking to me about how bettas don't need the amount of space that we were going to give "Herr Blau", so I then proceded to tell her that I thought he would be better off in a small tank and not a little cup or something. When all was bought and we left the lfs I realised that the cashier had forgotten to charge me for the small plastic tank that I had bought "Herr Blau". So not only did we get a great little fish but his new roomier home was free as well.  ;D ;D

 

[colesea]

Fish are great de-stressers. When I lived in the dorms I had "Elwood" also a blue betta, that lived in a 2.5 gallon UGF tank on my desk. Lived with me for four years. I would sit at my desk doing homework and when I got bored I would "play" with Elwood with a mirror, or I would do little "experiments" to see what type of stimuli he would flare at by placing different color/shaped cut outs against his tank glass. Great little fish.

Good luck with "Herr Blau". Tust me, bettas do like space. My current purple male has 6 gallons all to himself and he loves it.

~~Colesea

 

[ryanjcalifornia]

I understand now, fatboy...for some reason its often impossible to understand everything someone says.  

Since everyone is talking about their bettas, I'll throw my fishies names out there

I have my betta King Bartholomew in my 10 gallon community tank, and he's nice to everyone now, and I have a 1 gallon "betta throneroom" for my other betta Brutus...and i'm trying to figure out how to decorate it the best way, right now i have one pretty realistic plant in there, but I'm trying to figure if i should put a little rock in the bottom or something...

anyhow, have a great day everyone!  See you later!

-Ryan