Male Betta being bullied

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Leann.blundell

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I've had my tank for about 6 months now. I have a male Betta, 7 harlequin rasboras, 4 Cory catfish, and a common pleco. My Betta has never been an aggressive fish. He's super sweet and even comes to the top of the water to let me pet him. But recently, he's lost about a quarter of his tail fin. It's as of every morning when I turn the light on, a little more is gone. So I started watching the fish at night after the light goes out.
My rasboras always stay schooled together in the bottom half of the tank, but the minute the light goes off they go crazy and start darting around the top of the water. Then they start chasing my Betta. He acts tough for a minute, but then hides in the plants. Could these tiny rasboras be picking on my sweet Betta?
 
Could these tiny rasboras be picking on my sweet Betta?
From what you describe yes, Can you post a photo of the damaged area?
 
The picture makes it look like it's black near the edges, but it isn't. The end of his tail was blue and I guess that's what's showing through. When I turned the light on to take the picture, he chased the rasboras off and they left him alone. There are no signs of fin nipping in any other fish besides my Betta.
 

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You have to separate them, This will end in disaster, Both the rasboras and Betta are stressed and this will cause illness and aggression resulting in the death of one or more fish, Basically the rasboras will stress the Betta so much he will either kill them or become sick and die.
 
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Right before I read this comment, I found a rasbora in the process of dying with a missing eye. I'm in the process of separating them. I'll probably take the rasboras back to the pet store. They were fun, but my Betta is my first priority. I just don't understand how they have lived together for 6 months with no problems until now.
 
I had a female Betta that lived with Hengali Rasboras for about 4 or 5 months then one day she snapped and killed 3. I also had a male that killed a bn pleco. Some Bettas are fine with tank mates others are not, each one is an individual.
 
....and a common pleco....

You need to take this fish back to the shop as well. They grow to well over a foot long.
I would replace the plec and harlequins with more cories of the same species as they need to be in groups of at least 6.
 
Bettas do have very much individual personalities, hence why some get on fine with shrimps and tankmates whilst others may not tolerate anything other living creatures in their tank.

Have to take each betta as they come.

As already suggested, separating the harlequins from the betta is the first step to help stop stress for both species.

You do not mention what size of tank you have so I cannot really comment on adding cories (also the specie of cory is not mentioned either...) or not as this info is needed, as well as how hard is your water, cories are soft water fish so its pretty important to know what your water hardness is.
Can get this info from your local water authority website, easiest is to copy and paste the link of your local water authority and your region onto here and we can help out if you get stuck.

It was mentioned that you have a common pleco, well, as essjay mentioned, they can grow pretty big and therefore needs a pretty big tank with some nice bogwood so if you have a small tank, then I'd agree to rehome the pleco as they can get stunted growth if kept in too small a tank.. Also plecos are very messy fish so a bit of overfiltration is good to help keep the water parameters good and steady as well as helping to keep the water nice and clean.
 
Like I said Bettas will be Ok with tank mates or they will not.

You Betta has attacked other fish, He will not be OK with tank mates regardless of what they are.

I would keep him on his own and maybe put in a few glass shrimp to give him something to hunt.

Welcome to Betta keeping.
 
Like I said Bettas will be Ok with tank mates or they will not.

You Betta has attacked other fish, He will not be OK with tank mates regardless of what they are.

I would keep him on his own and maybe put in a few glass shrimp to give him something to hunt.

Welcome to Betta keeping.

I've had him with tank mates for 6 months, and it's the other fish attacking the Betta. I took the rasboras back to the pet store and ALL the remaining fish seem to be more active and happy. I'm going to give them time to settle and my Bettas find to heal before I add a few more corys
 

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