Wow, What Have I Been Missing! Got My First Fish Today

[-Rob-]

well, after sorting out both my tanks, having them set up, live plants making sure the water is alrite and mature etc. i thought it was about time i put some fish in them.

so this is what arrived this morning.

1 male crowntail betta, put into my living room tank with 5 amano shrimp and 2 assasin snails, currently AWOL most prob buried in the sand some where.

after taking a good while to get him uset to the temprature of the water, then adding a little tank water to the water in his bag over about 25 mins, i let him out into the tank.

he seamed to love the tank straight away, he hid away for about the first 5 mins, but after that he cant stop swimming around and checking out the tank ,

i have to say i am stunned at how good his temprament is, he is only just about 4cm's he will happily follow my finger along the tank, take food off of my finger , he has no problems with the amano shrimp at all, he looked at a snail for a while asif what the heck is that, but no problems with him at all.


i also got a female , that is in the tank in my kitchen, she was very happy at first , but she is on her own apart from 2 snails, so while she seamed rather happy at first i think she is now lonely. an moves around then stops still for a while. she is swimming fine, but seams so alone , should i get a couple more females to house with her?

or should i try introduce her into the tank with the male as he is so very placid? i could always use one of those spawning things to see how it goes?

 

[Curiosity101]

Males and females cannot live together I am afraid. More often than not (ie. 99.99% of the time) they will kill eachother if they are simply placed in the same tank. They should only be brought together during spawning, and even then it has to be done carefully.

What size is the females tank? As females have to live in either a group (4+) or alone. Females can be very aggressive to one another, so the group is needed to allow them to form a hierachy, and spread that aggression out.
I reckon 10gal could hold 4 females biload wise, but I can't remember off the top of my head what is the recommended size for a sorority (sorority = often used to mean a group of female bettas)

 

[ellena]

Congrats on your first bettas-they can have great personalities
Don't be fooled though, if you put a male and female together, they will attack.
Spawning them isn't something to be entered into lightly, you need to do lots of research and have somewhere to house upward of 100 males separately once they grow a bit, not to mention all the water changes!
You can house females together, but you need at least 5/6 to spread out the aggression and a minimum tank size of 10 galls for this.
When you say 'the water is mature' have you cycled the filter (adding ammonia and measuring the levels for about 6 weeks)?

 

[Rezatii]

Awww, I'm sure they love their new homes.

Curiosity is correct, do not put them together, it won't end well

I would say in a 10g, if you overfiltered you could put 6 in quite merrily, overstocking just a little is worth it with aggressive fish, in my experience

-Rezz

 

[-Rob-]

hi guys, cheers. i wont place them together at all then.

yes both tanks cycled ammonia added , all doing the correct things there ment too lol.

the tank the male is in is a 20G and the female is in a 15G (i think) maybe a little less.

 

[JustKia]

Congrats and welcome to the addictive world of the betta =)

 

[GuppyGoddess]

hi guys, cheers. i wont place them together at all then.

yes both tanks cycled ammonia added , all doing the correct things there ment too lol.

the tank the male is in is a 20G and the female is in a 15G (i think) maybe a little less.

With a 15 gallon you can do a sorority. I had planned to do that with my 10gallon but my female began flaring and I decided I didn't want to deal with their bickering. Instead I put rasboras in which has become a huge mistake. Be sure IF you put in any tank mates with your female that they are quiet peaceful fish, not anything hyper/schooling.

 

[Rezatii]

Oooh lots of space, If I were you I'd add lots of plants and caves, then put in 6-8 more girls Also, you could have a divided tank for your male betta, allowing you to keep another male in the same tank (They would be unable to interact ) How many sections you split the boy tank into depends on dimensions, but by the sounds of it you could easily put another 2 males in seperate sections in there

-Rezz

 

[Jonty]

I'd put the male in the 15gal and put in 4 corys, and have a sorority of 8-10 females in the 20 gal

 

[JustKia]

LOL before we drag poor -Rob- into the world divided tanks and naughty sororities, let's get them established with their first fishies

 

[aly_starh]

hi!
congrats on the bettas!, more will be coming soon!

I'd say put the male into the 10g and put the female into the 15g,
When housing female bettas together you get a Sorority, so 5 females min, will stop aggresion, but in that size of a tank you could have about 7-8. Initially there will be slight aggression, this will just be so a dominent female gets found, im predicting it will be your current female betta.

Definatley dont put the female in with the male, they will fight till one is dead.

Oh yeh, and pics! we do love pics

EDITL; LOL. JUST SAW I ECHOED WHAT OTHERS HAVE ALREADY SAID.

 

[-Rob-]

thanks for the advice everyone, i may decide to do a split tank, possibly swap fish into opposet tanks etc, just going to try let them settle in an that first

a quick question , how often should i feed these 2? and how much? i currently have flake food , which ive fed both a very small amount as was unsure on how much to feed them, obviously though im going to buy some other food to supplement there diet.

 

[aly_starh]

a quick question , how often should i feed these 2? and how much? i currently have flake food , which ive fed both a very small amount as was unsure on how much to feed them, obviously though im going to buy some other food to supplement there diet.

with flakes i would say, 3 flakes 2 times a day for 4 days, fast 2 days, then give them a de-shelled pea.
make sure the flakes are slighltly crumbled.

I personally use Hikari Betta Bio Gold pellets, i would reccomend buying that, my bettas love them, the feeding instructions of them are on the packet.
Oscar is the only one who likes flakes, but he spits them out 2 times before he actually swallows it.

 

[-Rob-]

happy to report both fish are doing very well still. the colours in the female have came out alot more, so think shes starting to be more at home in her tank,

the males is also still doing very well,

the only odd thing is, out of my 5 amano shrimp, i can only find 3, i cant see him eating any as there bigger then him almost. ive looked everywhere and i cannot find the other 2 shrimp, had a look in the filter and cant see them in there.

 

[aly_starh]

the only odd thing is, out of my 5 amano shrimp, i can only find 3, i cant see him eating any as there bigger then him almost. ive looked everywhere and i cannot find the other 2 shrimp, had a look in the filter and cant see them in there.

they are most likley to be hiding atm, but dont know for sure as i have never owned shrimp.
Hopefully will get some soon.

Can you show us pics please!