Attacking

[xxBettaLoveroo]

Hello. Well I heard that snails are safe inside tanks with bettas so, I bought one. Now I put him in the tank and watched for a few minutes to make sure everything was okay. My betta(Elmo) watched him for a moment then swam off. But, later I caught Elmo attacking the snail. He tried to push him off the side of the tank and was flaring at him. I quickly seperated them and removed the snail. Now, my question is... Why did my betta attack the snail? I thought they were safe.

[briggs]

Ontario huh? Me too!

He attacked the snail because..

1. It's in their nature and they are aggresive most of the time

2. You introduced an intruder to his house and he doesn't like that.

What might work is taking the betta out for awhile and re-arranging his tank if you feel up to it. Then put the snail in first, and then after awhile put the betta in as the betta will/could think it's new territory so he may not be as inclinded to defend it and he might leave the snail alone.

Lots of people put snails in with their bettas, because as I've read on here and many other forums, the betta will attack one of the appendages of the snail .. and usualy after that, the snail 'learns' to hide in its shell when mr betta comes around (and they grow back things too apparnetly).

but if that doesnt work then I don't know what else as I don't have any snails yet. Kind of a hit or miss thing. He either gets along wonderfully with the snail, or he intimidates it by flaring, or he physically abuses it, or he down right tries to kill it. Just takes awhile to see the outcome I suppose, but since snail has a shell he's less likely to get killed I think

How big is your tank?

[xxBettaLoveroo]

Thanks for the information. Your from Ontario too? Thats Cool . To answer your question, my tank is about 3 gallons.

[briggs]

Sounds big enough to me for a snail and a betta, people do slightly smaller.

I dont know what else to tell ya or to try, search around forums like petfish.net they might have some other ideas or someone else might on here, but those are the two best ideas I can think of.

[iwuvmyfish]

i got one of those cheap snails and he never even looked at it but it only lasted 3 months but I don't think he killed it.

[twoluvcats]

Ya, my bettas worry thier snails....as long as the snail is big enough, the betta shouldn't be able to harm it...he may bite off the snail's antennae, but after a while the snail will get smart and won't stick them out when the betta is on the prowl.

p.s. I also have a betta named Elmo