Betta Tank

[becky19]

(I accidentally posted this in the non splenden section :s) Ok, I have a bit of a problem with my Bettas, (a bit of background first) I had one male Betta splenden with a few mollys and platties, the platties died and the mollys were biting his fins so I moved them to my other tank. My Betta started to look lonely so I decided to get him some company and the guy at the fish shop said the best thing to do was put some females in. I took his advice and got 3 females and a load of plants (now to get to my problem) but now my original Betta looks like he's being bitten again and one of the females is starting to look like she may well be a he... I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on my problem.Thanks  xx 

 

[RCA]

Becky19 to the TFF
 
Firstly Bettas do not mind being on their own, so it is unlikely your boy was lonely.  The guy at the fish shop has given you bad advice as you should not keep females with males, they will beat him up or vice versa.  In my signature there is a link about my old boy Bob and you will see I warn of this and tell you what happened to Bob living with females.
So the problem is, regardless as to whether one of the new females is actually male, they are not compatible to be in the same tank.  If one of them is actually a male then you need to remove him ASAP.  I would be tempted to return the "females" to the guy who misguided you in the first place and get your money back!  Bettas need to be conditioned for breeding and if you research about this you will see the trouble it takes to condition them i.e. they cannot normally live together.
 
Can you put your location in your profile as this helps us to advise you further as different countries have different products etc.
 
Can you also let us know what size your tanks are, and whether they are heated?

 

[phoenixgsd]

so you were advised to put 3 female bettas straight in with a male? i think you might find you were very badly advised, they should not be housed together at all, only put together for breeding purposes and then they have to be conditioned to each other, they arnt called fighting fish for nowt, how big is the tank they are in? my advise to keep the peace in that tank is to separate

 

[phoenixgsd]

so you were advised to put 3 female bettas straight in with a male? i think you might find you were very badly advised, they should not be housed together at all, only put together for breeding purposes and then they have to be conditioned to each other, they arnt called fighting fish for nowt, how big is the tank they are in? my advise to keep the peace in that tank is to separate

 

[becky19]

I did think it was a bit odd that he suggested it but he said he'd had bettas for years and never had a problem but I guess he was just lucky I'll post the tank sizes tomorrow (not around them atm) but they're both heated.
Thanks for your help

 

[Shelster]

I think he may be a fibber!

 

[372xp]

First off, just to get things straight, I would never advocate mixing male and female splendens.
That being said, the guy who runs one of my lfs keeps about 8 females with one of his breeding plakat males. Seems odd? He also adds another male to the tank to get them to breed. Hmmmm? I would instantly question his wisdom in doing this if he wasnt so sucessfull at breeding, his breeding females are massive and nearing there 6th birthday.
This I stress is not the way I do it.
Point is everybody does things differently. Putting females in with your male creates un-nesassery stress on your fish and will more than likely end in tears. I have heard of it working, particularly when someone has been mis-sold a female and accidently adds a submissive male to there sorrority, and then it has to be a fair size tank.