Arrggghhh not having much luck!!

[aloaring]

Numerous swear words are coming to mind at the moment: yesterday came downstairs to find my 4 new rainbow fish in my 47 gallon tank dead ( see this thread Who killed the rainbow fish!

Got back form work yesterday to be told by my partner that one of my female bettas in the 18 gallon has been trying to go kamikaze by swimming into the filter outlet, twice!! She still alive but is missing scales and looking slightly battered and dazed and not her usual bossy self.

While in my small 10 gallon tank we decided to try and breed Hellboy my male betta, we followed all the instructions but it turned out that Hellboy wasn't even interested in the female he just went and hid behind the filter!! So we removed the girl and he is now looking very pale, is very lethargic and doesn't even bother to flare anymore. I am really worried about him.

I tested the water in all my tanks and ammonia is at 0 and nitrates are at 10. Sorry about this rant but i am just so frustrated at the moment.
Can anybody tell me whats wrong with Hellboy and what can i do to get him better again? Anybody ever heard of suicidal fish?

 

[Angry_Platy]

I have suicidal fish too...I had a swordy jump through the tank lid (glass) and land on the other side of the tank lid.....an out of water jump of about a foot. Luckily I made it to the tank in time to rescue him....my beautiful swordy...

I have had other fish jump on me too....unfortunately I did not find these in time...poor fishies...

I have been told that fish jump when stressed or when water conditions are bad....my water conditions were good an all ocassions and there was nothing to stress them out....

my clown loaches are always escaping into the filter....it is OK...they can't get to the impellor....they just hang around in where the media is....i let them do it as they can get in and out easily and I guess its like a little excursion for them

I hope your fishies get better and stop trying to escape

 

[aloaring]

Chooklet,Thanks for your support.
I had the same thing happen to a molly of mine last year. We never figured out how it got ontop of the tank covers. Unfortuneately it got fried by the lights
But we figured out why it jumped, turned out our EVIL Angel fish was hitting them from underneath, literally racing up to them, thus making them jump. he killed two mollies this way. We caught him doing it with the second molly. But he hasn't attacked our butterfly fish , red rainbows or our Panchax so we thought it would be okay to introduce more rainbow fish. But he is now the main suspect for killing them now. Bad fish , very bad fish!! and yet he looks so pretty !!

My female kamikaze fish is swimming into my internal filter and my boyfriend said all you could see was her tail sticking out of the water outlet spinning round and round. Why she woudl swim in there twice i don't know. Just hope shes learnt her lesson!! I stuck some more plants in the tank for her to hide incase she thought it would be cool to hide in there and shes eating bloodworm so thats good.

Just not to sure what to do about hellboy now. Just not himself and he is my favourite. I hate it when you know something is wrong but you can't see what it is!!

 

[cometcattle]

Do you have Hellboy and the female in the same tank still?

If so, I'd say she's trying to escape from him. I'd seperate them.

Did they embrace? Did he build a bubble nest? How long did you condition them for, and with what?

I should tell you that I've never bred bettas, but I've read most of the breeding posts, so I don't know first hand.

 

[aloaring]

The two betta incidents happened in completely different tanks. Sorry if i didn't make that clear !!
The female in the filter happened in my 18 gallon community tank with no males and 5 other females.

While Hellboy is in a 10 Gallon tank
He was looking great and being really active and making bubblenests.Him and the female were conditioned on live foods for two weeks. It was really weird we put a female in the tank with him (she was inside a glass tube thing) and she looked like she was heavy with eggs (no lines as she is white) Hellboy looked at her then promptly swum behind the filter and hid there. we left the girl in for another day but he did nothing! So we took her out and just to check that she was female we put her in with one of the other males-Leon. He started displaying and making a bubblenest. Hellboy finally came out from behind the filter but looks really pale, is not doign much, eating a little bit, but not much and sitting at the bottom of the tank. Maybe i need to give Hellboy fish Viagra or maybe he doesn't like girls or maybe he's depressed i am worried about him. Anyone got any ideas? Phsically he looks fine if pale bu this behaviour is just strange!!

 

[cometcattle]

I think Hellboy could be stressed from his encounter with the lady, so I would make sure the filter is on it's lowest flow setting, and definitely give him a while before you attempt to breed him. I would also continue to give him live or frozen food to re-build his strength , and frequent water changes.

If you could get some Indian Almond Leaf, I've heard it works miracles.

Maybe Hellboy would prefer Leon's company.

Not sure if you've ever seen this site, but it's VERY informative:

http/www.plakatthai.com/

I'm not sure how you female community is set up, but the key is to have lots of hiding places on all levels of the tank.
The best example is Sorrell's female tank:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...emale+community

BTW, Sorry about your Rainbows , That sucks.
I bet your angel did it.

 

[aloaring]

Thanks Cometcattle, those sites were really good.

I think when i get home tonight Hellboy will get a small pice of cockle as a treat (its his favourite -loves to tear into it and shake it all about he's been known to steal some off the amano shrimp before ) If that doesn't cheer him up i don't know what will! Might have to get him a boyfriend! keep you fingers crossed for me ! Unfortuneately can't find indian almond leaf over here but his tank will hae a clean again tonight !!

As for the female community i was lucky i had been down to Pet@home to by some filter wool and test kit for my 47 gallon tank (another story completley) and i bought a large silk plant at the same time. that has now gone into the female community in front of the filter. so will hopefully stop fish from going inside it and will supply even more hiding places they already ahad one large silk plant and acave system !!! They are very peaceful so hopefully it won't happen again!!

And yes i think the Angel did it as he was looking very full of himself. Though my boyfriend thinks our plec did it (as he 8 inches long and has a habit of rushing up to the surface) Stupid fish - i really wanted those rainbows grrrr