this is the tank setup i have been working on for my bettas:


this is chicago before i left my house yesterday:


this is chicago some hours later when i returned:



why are these fish so damn aggressive! how did the other guy figure out to jump over the divider from the far left to the middle, and from the middle to the right partition. the way the tank was set up, they couldn't see one another and there was nothing in the middle (yet anyways). the other male jumped or got across somehow from his side to the other, beat up the guy, and returned to his spot by the time i got home. sounds too amazing right? i saw him do it again! while i'm blowing off and telling my mother about how unbelievable that was, the bastard goes and does it again, just darts across and starts bullying chicago again. i had to euthanize the poor little guy

this is the first time i see this happen. people arent kidding when they say these guys are violent! what's surprising (besides everything else!) is that the surviving fish, Vulcan, is in perfect condition, not even a little tear or nip on his fins. so he bullied the other guy all the way through

Don't know much about bettas, but why couldn't he be saved? Don't the fins grow back with medications? Sorry about your fish.

That is sad, sorry for your loss, was his body actually badly damaged and that is why he had to put down?

it's difficult to notice in the picture but he was aimed like that because his spine (do they even have one?) or at least his back was bent like that. he was swimming like that the whole time. besides, whether or not he could be cured (my first instinct was to throw some meds in) it would be a painful and long road to recovery, which i doubt he would have made it through.
i hope i'm not wrong, i did what I thought was more humane. I would have kept him if i thought he had a chance

This post has been edited by trojannemo: Jun 25 2008, 03:42 PM

his body does look beaten up, esp around the head face and gills, yes fins can be regrown...but sometimes looking at the betta in person...you know that they arnt going to make it, so why prolong the suffering?

I am so sorry this happened, bettas can be incredable jumpers, you have one. did the dividers not go the whole way to the top? as in only a bit above the water line?

Sorry about the poor little guy

well i guess that's my fault. i had originally put them all the way up but even with all the original holes + the enlarged ones i had made, there wasn't enough water flow from the middle chamber to the other two. so i thought of cutting a bit from the top. i cut it so that the space left would be smaller than the body of the bettas, precisely thinking about them swimming across. i guess i didnt take it into account that he'd go sideways at the very top of the water (can't jump, would hit the top) to wiggle himself on to the next partition.
i still dont understand why he would do all of that if he couldn't see the other guy! i mean, why go through all the trouble?

seeing how this happened, what else can i do? i got to cover the top again but then how do i get water flowing across the whole tank?

OMG!!! That has got to be the most horrible thing ever!!! I am soooooooooooooooooo sorry! That is absolutely terrible. I knew they were vicious but I've never seen how vicious before.

Chicago...

sorry for your lose, dont under estimate females at any point either they can be worse, one of my females killed my black feathertail boy the other day b/c he decided he didnt want to spawn with her, it's just part of the hobbie even though it's not nice to see

So sorry you had to lose Chicago Some of them can be notorious jumpers and we had one about a week ago that did the same thing. We usually have wide strips of plastic that fit along the top edge of the dividers but one must have slipped and this little juvie got over and in with our juvie plakat male. As you can see he got pretty beaten up and the PK didn't have a mark on him. Luckily it was mainly fin damage and he's still doing ok and eating well!!!!

Aww, sorry to hear about Chicago. I bred bettas once, they were all stunted to an inch, all but two died to internal issues. Well, I went on a trip, and when I got back, there was a male in with the surviving female, and the male, who had a tank inside the tank, jumped, and was in with his sister who beat him so badly he couldn't use his swimbladder. He died a few weeks later. So sorry to hear about Chicago, my bettas name was ironically Charlie.

OMG that is a horrific sight!! I thought the sight of my poor male Betta was bad enough after he'd been attacked by a female who left him with practically no finnage or tail - but he survived and his fins have grown back (although raggedy) - seeing your poor fishie is all the more shocking, though.

Obviously, you need to try to solve the issue with the tank before adding any more Bettas to it. Let's think ... what if you firstly lower the water line a couple of cms, rather than trying to block the gap up. If the Bettas can't actually jump over it due to the lid, and if the water line is too low for them to swim sideways over it, then that should work.

Secondly, the problem you say with the water flow in all chambers. The middle chamber is fine, as you say and I'm sure that water does flow through the holes in the dividers. But if you are concerned that there is not enough going on in the outer two chambers to help disperse gases - why not set up an airstone in each outer chamber, linked to one pump. You can buy a little 3-way gadget to attach to your air pipes that join onto the airpump. Just an idea... but if you do go for an airstone, have the bubbles at a very gentle flow to keep things as calm as possible in their tank as noisy, turbulant tanks can irritate Bettas and make them stressed.

Can't think of anything else really but then I've never had a set-up like that with a tank divided into chambers.

Good luck and I hope you never have to lose another Betta this way again.

Athena

Oh my gosh, that is SO awful!
I'm so sorry you had to put the little guy down. Poor little fella.


To solve the water flow problem, go out to like Walmart or a hobby shop and get yourself a plastic mesh.
We got the one in my betta tank at walmart for I think a dollar. Maybe less, I can't remember.
It works fantastic.
The holes are throughout and are a great size to allow the water to flow through with no problem. Also it's alot more sturdy than the piece of crap sheet that comes with the petstore one.

I took a pic of the one in my tank.



Just make sure to keep the water lvl down.. I'd say at least an inch or more from the top of the divider.

the plastic mesh I use to divide a tank is actualy plastic needlepoint backing sold at arts and cradts places. comes in many different colors and is very cheap at .35 cents american per a large sheet.

Needlepoint! That's it! I can never remember what the mesh is used for lol
But yeah... that's the mesh I have as well heh

thanks for all the suggestions!
i'll try to locate some of that needlepoint plastic mesh sheets. i just hope it's better than what the LFS sold me
i actually already have an air pump that i'm not using, so i guess i could just buy the stones and dig them into the gravel!

let me try to do this one more time i guess! i'll post back when I have updates

try adding lots of ial in the water brilliant stuff best medicine about. put 2 -3 leaves in,will go very dark but bettas like it strong. Maybe a little bit of salt to help aaswell.

i get the sheets of plastic mesh from hobbycraft. It's downwith the kids beads and sewing bits, not where you would think it would be with all the proper sewing stuff.