Post by Pi on Jun 9, 2005 12:37:33 GMT -5
I decided to start a 10 gal. tank for 3 girls...did a fishless cycle, all is well...and then I introduced them:
I bought three, around the same size (one a little smaller than the other 2, but not by much). And I introduced them. Within a few minutes, the pink betta and the blue betta started to fight. Both seemed pretty aggressive, so I lept in and put the blue betta in my community tank (no longer has a male in it, long story, there's a reason to new quarantine fish
) Then the pink one went after the red betta (smaller). I deteremined she was the aggressor, and I didn't want to chance putting her in my community tank so I ended up throwing the other two in the community tank, and keeping her in solitary.
In a matter of a few minutes she had managed to shred the fins of the blue betta, her anal fin & caudial fin almost completely. The red betta suffered substantial damage as well, though not nearly as much.
Meanwhile, on the same shopping trip, I had purchased a male for the community tank, before realizing that the girls would try to kill each other. I have no room for another tank, so I thought I would just end up dividing the 10 between him and the pink evil female. But I didn't have a divider and it was late(no pet stores still open). I put him in with the evil female and watched them carefully. She didn't react to him at all. He wandered over and flared a bit, but he stayed pretty far away, and after several minutes they started swimming together. I fed them without incident. It's been two days now. There are no damaged fins, or signs of fighting. I did see the male working on a massive bubblenest...but that's it.
Yesterday I picked up a third female for my community tank (because I know that you aren't supposed to keep them in pairs). She was introduced without much incident, though the blue one seems to want to be dominant. No fighting though, just some flaring. The red one is stressed out, I can see faint horizontal lines. I watched them for hours last night (I even ate dinner in front of my tanks because I wanted to be ready in case any of them needed intervention.) No one is bothering her, but she is very timid.
So from all that. I have two questions.
1. My male and pink evil female. It seems like a precarious set up to me, but they seem to be happy. They hang around together. No signs of fighting...but I'm anxious. Is this workable? It's certainly not something I even would have tried if I had been in my right mind (as opposed to being sort of freaked out by all the various craziness).
2. What about the community tank? I have four tanks going right now. A 5(crab), 10(evil female +male), 29(community), and 125(2 turtles +goldfish)...I really, really can't fit anymore. Not that I wouldn't love to, but I'm spending most of my free time taking care of these. Is there any chance the females will calm over time? Is there anything I can do? They have plenty of places to hide.
I didn't realize that couple of girls would be such a headache! Thanks if you have waded through this.
JoAnna
I bought three, around the same size (one a little smaller than the other 2, but not by much). And I introduced them. Within a few minutes, the pink betta and the blue betta started to fight. Both seemed pretty aggressive, so I lept in and put the blue betta in my community tank (no longer has a male in it, long story, there's a reason to new quarantine fish
) Then the pink one went after the red betta (smaller). I deteremined she was the aggressor, and I didn't want to chance putting her in my community tank so I ended up throwing the other two in the community tank, and keeping her in solitary.In a matter of a few minutes she had managed to shred the fins of the blue betta, her anal fin & caudial fin almost completely. The red betta suffered substantial damage as well, though not nearly as much.
Meanwhile, on the same shopping trip, I had purchased a male for the community tank, before realizing that the girls would try to kill each other. I have no room for another tank, so I thought I would just end up dividing the 10 between him and the pink evil female. But I didn't have a divider and it was late(no pet stores still open). I put him in with the evil female and watched them carefully. She didn't react to him at all. He wandered over and flared a bit, but he stayed pretty far away, and after several minutes they started swimming together. I fed them without incident. It's been two days now. There are no damaged fins, or signs of fighting. I did see the male working on a massive bubblenest...but that's it.
Yesterday I picked up a third female for my community tank (because I know that you aren't supposed to keep them in pairs). She was introduced without much incident, though the blue one seems to want to be dominant. No fighting though, just some flaring. The red one is stressed out, I can see faint horizontal lines. I watched them for hours last night (I even ate dinner in front of my tanks because I wanted to be ready in case any of them needed intervention.) No one is bothering her, but she is very timid.
So from all that. I have two questions.
1. My male and pink evil female. It seems like a precarious set up to me, but they seem to be happy. They hang around together. No signs of fighting...but I'm anxious. Is this workable? It's certainly not something I even would have tried if I had been in my right mind (as opposed to being sort of freaked out by all the various craziness).
2. What about the community tank? I have four tanks going right now. A 5(crab), 10(evil female +male), 29(community), and 125(2 turtles +goldfish)...I really, really can't fit anymore. Not that I wouldn't love to, but I'm spending most of my free time taking care of these. Is there any chance the females will calm over time? Is there anything I can do? They have plenty of places to hide.
I didn't realize that couple of girls would be such a headache! Thanks if you have waded through this.
JoAnna
