Fight To The Death?

[Richie Hell]

Today we bought a small black molly and a medium sized spotted molly and ever since we introduced them about 3 hours ago our betta has been displaying like crazy and going for them. He doesnt stop and his gills now look raw and painful. He doesnt seem to have stopped, and only has tiny breaks when he cant see the mollys. We think it may be because the mollies are the same size or slightly bigger than him and also that all our other fish (even the so-called mid feeders) stick around the bottom of the tank and he has full range of the top and middle. Now we've introduced these mollies he has a bit of, lets say, competition for his territory.

Is he going to fight these mollies to the death? We only have one tank and dont know whether to temporarily move the mollies or wait and see if poor old Steve the betta calms down.

Advice please as hes looking pretty knackered now.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

have you got a large CLEAN gallon bowl, jar or water pitcher? give the pitcher a thorough rinsing in the sink and then fill it with dechlorinated water. move Steve to the container. cover with a towel so that he can't jump out but fresh air is still available.

odds are good that you'll need to return the mollies to the store. mollies are rather nippy anyways, so they don't really make good companions for long-finned male bettas. steve can live in the water pitcher for a couple of days until the mollies are relocated. just give him fresh dechlorinated water each day.

 

[Richie Hell]

Hmmm. Poor old mollies. Steve is being really vicsious towards them. Can probably take the mollies back today as the store is open until 6pm every night.

 

[dwarfgourami]

It is very possible that he is mistaking them for other betta males, this does happen with platies, so why not with mollies. A male betta whose territory has been invaded by another male will often fight to death.

 

[Richie Hell]

Took our mollies back () but was for the best. Guy in Swallow Aquatics said it was most likely a territory issue.

Steve has issues with newbies moving into his tank, especially big ones, but was never this bad before.

He has since calmed down, but we are steering clear of anything that even slightly resembles Steve's colour, size, shape or mannerisms.