Male And Female Betta!

[louishorton]

iv kept 2 siamese fighters, male and female for around 5 months, and never had any problems with them. saturday i put them into a new tank, 150litre. along with all the species from the other tank which they always got along fine with! only 4 fish that were already in the 150 was dwarf gourami. and they were in there a good time too.

the male siamese has started to act very strangely, staying at top of the water, in the corner above filter, and the female fighter seems to be laying on the bottom. the females fins have also started to turn white, along with a little of its body.
iv tested the water tonight and everything was fine! apart from ph, which read 6.4< which is lower than usual..

strangest of all! when i turned the aquarium light off to come to bed, they came out and started swimming around the top together.

im about 5 months into keeping fish and have a very keen interest to keep learning, so be kind. im willing to go out tomorrow to buy whatever treatments you guys reccomend. all the other fish are fine, and the water is always treated for chlorine when carrying out changes or adding fish.

 

[KrystaK]

First off, not to sound mean as many beginners do this, do not keep male and female Betta's together unless you intend to breed them. Other Anabantoids(sp?) such as Gourami should not be kept with Betta's either. So there are issues there.
The Male Betta and Gourami have probably had a skirmish for dominance, and said Betta may have lost and been banished to the corner of the tank.
The female's fins may be turning white due to fin rot, though that shouldn't affect her body, she could also be paling due to stress, vibrant fish are known to do that in stressful environments.

I'm sure your parameters are fine. Just make sure you keep the water clean because we don't want them to get anything due to stress and poor water conditions, assuming you don't have Cory's or other scaleless fish in the tank adding a handful of aquarium salt or unscented epsom salt wouldn't hurt either.

My main suggestion is get the male Betta his own tank, a 5 gal would do, with a gentle filter and heater.

The female Betta and the Gourami may be alright together, but I have no experience with female Betta's. I've heard they can do well in sororities, but I don't know how that would work with Gourami in the tank, I'd wait for someone with experience in that area to respond to that.

 

[Llegmore]

First off, not to sound mean as many beginners do this, do not keep male and female Betta's together unless you intend to breed them. Other Anabantoids(sp?) such as Gourami should not be kept with Betta's either. So there are issues there.
The Male Betta and Gourami have probably had a skirmish for dominance, and said Betta may have lost and been banished to the corner of the tank.
My main suggestion is get the male Betta his own tank, a 5 gal would do, with a gentle filter and heater.

+1

Gouramis can be pretty territorial, so I wouldn't advise putting them in a tank with bettas, male or female.

I can't say what's wrong with your female. I would agree with stress on impulse though.

What lighting are you using in the tank? Bettas introduced to new tanks can sometimes be sensitive to more intense lighting.

 

[louishorton]

unfortunetly the male and female were dead when i got in from work, iv had someone come out for a small price and he said my tanks fine but confirmed what you guys said about stress. shame i didnt know earlier as i have a few tanks i could of moved them to. guess i can only learn fromit, and now know the aquarium staff dont always know what there talking about when telling me which fish can go well with others.

 

[Llegmore]

unfortunetly the male and female were dead when i got in from work, iv had someone come out for a small price and he said my tanks fine but confirmed what you guys said about stress. shame i didnt know earlier as i have a few tanks i could of moved them to. guess i can only learn fromit, and now know the aquarium staff dont always know what there talking about when telling me which fish can go well with others.

sometimes it's the only way to learn.

 

[fuzzynicki]

really sorry for your loss. A hard lesson to learn. Male and female bettas should always be housed separately. Females can be kept in sororities though. Minimum of 5 is recommended to cut down on aggression. Best of luck for the future