He is acting diferent...

[emeraldmaster]

My little fish, red, used to be calm. Yes red is a male, but he never showed aggression. I have owned him for a month and now he has killed 3 guppie, 1 goldfish, and 2 neon tetra. I tried to remove him for 3 days then put him back. He is acting good but... Any help??? The tank is 25 gallon at 78* F It has a slightly rough filter with a pump the creates bubbles at the water's top. Please help!!!

[ChoclateBetta]

That sounds like breeding behavior when Male Bettas defend there eggs strange. Did you see your Betta kill them what strain of goldfish was it common or comets they are cold water.

[DragonFish]

While many do have success keeping bettas with tankmates, at the end of the day this captive-bred variation of the Betta Spendens is an aggressive species that was originally bred for fighting. On top of that, each betta is an individual.....some tolerate tankmates just fine while others just don't deal well with sharing their space with anything....and sadly its nearly impossible to tell how your betta will react to tank mates until you try it.

It sounds like your guy just doesn't play well with others, its probably best hes left alone. ;) While I'm sure he'll of course enjoy being the king of a 25 gallon palace, if you are really interested in having other fish in there, you might want to look into getting Red his own tank.

[registereduser]

Try putting taller plants or some fake tree branches in your tank. The idea is to break up the line of sight like they do with sorority tanks. If the fish can't see each other that's a good thing. Also add more hiding spots on the tank floor. If that doesn't work you may have to get him his own little tank.

[thekoimaiden]

As Dragonfish said, it sounds like your male is just too aggressive to live with other fish. It happens from time to time as betta were originally bred to fight. Some people report their betta are too aggressive for even snails. What you are experience isn't too uncommon.

In your case, I would remove the betta, place him in his own 5 gal tank. And then use the 25 gal tank for a simple community (or a sorority tank).

[Mako]

Well I read a lot of different sources that all stated that guppies and tetras are some of the worst pairings with bettas because bettas mistake guppies as their own species because of the fins and tetras are fin nippers. I was thinking of trying to put in a female betta with my male betta. I think my betta is quite calm and I haven't tried to give it a tank mate yet.

[Sceven]

Originally Posted by Mako

Well I read a lot of different sources that all stated that guppies and tetras are some of the worst pairings with bettas because bettas mistake guppies as their own species because of the fins and tetras are fin nippers. I was thinking of trying to put in a female betta with my male betta. I think my betta is quite calm and I haven't tried to give it a tank mate yet.

While some bettas co-exist together fine, you will still have to worry about breading, you may very well end up with 50+ bettas to re-home. I would try this VERY VERY cautiously and very slowly. But in the end some bettas are just single bachelor kind of guys.

[DragonFish]

Originally Posted by Mako

Well I read a lot of different sources that all stated that guppies and tetras are some of the worst pairings with bettas because bettas mistake guppies as their own species because of the fins and tetras are fin nippers. I was thinking of trying to put in a female betta with my male betta. I think my betta is quite calm and I haven't tried to give it a tank mate yet.

Most peaceful tetra species do OK with a calmer betta, and generally if kept in a large enough school in a big enough tank they won't nip at a betta most of the time.

While a couple(that I have heard of)of very experienced breeders have kept males and female captive-bred Betta Spendens together, they are in large heavily planted tanks and the bettas are siblings bred and raised by the breeder.
In any other circumstance, males and females of your common store-bought betta spendens species should never ever be kept together in the same undivided(theres even some controversy on divided)tank as permanent tank mates. Thats just a bloodbath waiting to happen, one of them will end up killing the other. They aren't called 'Fighting Fish' for nothing.

[emeraldmaster]

you are all so helpful. i have noticed that after removing the goldfish, a rosey red with a gill tumor that i save from walmart for $0.28, he has loosened his grip from the throats of the other fish. i am going to leave the goldfish i my other tank, guppies only.