Male dies and female lives, same bowl

[Lazo]

Hi there, I just recently bought a male beta (sister wanted to buy the weakest looking one and try to save it), and also bought him a female. They got along ok for a little while, but the male always looked near death and rarely did anything. A few days later, the male died and we bought a new betta - lively and compatible with the female (made a nice big bubble nest, rarely flared at the female and they would actively swim around the bowl). Just recently however, my female betta (she's blue) started getting a brown colour. Also, the male betta started acting all sick (like the last one we had), and only got worse until he died today. From what I've read, chances are that there was some kind of ammonia or nitrate posioning... I'm just wondering, why are the males dying off, the female seems to be handling this well as opposed to the last two males (if the problem was that bad, wouldnt she have died as well?)

PS. I've cleaned the bowl and added some water cleaning agent before adding fresh water quite a few times. Also havent overfed them.

[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to FishForum. Males and females shouldn't be housed together except for breeding purposes only. What size bowl do you have them in? When you said "water cleaning agent" did you mean water conditioner? I have no idea what could have caused the death of your males. How often do you change the water?

[Lazo]

Originally Posted by dramaqueen

Hello and welcome to FishForum. Males and females shouldn't be housed together except for breeding purposes only. What size bowl do you have them in? When you said "water cleaning agent" did you mean water conditioner? I have no idea what could have caused the death of your males. How often do you change the water?

Thanks. Yeah, its a water cleaning agent. The bowl is a 10 gallon fish bowl, and I've followed almost all recommendations I could read online :) I considered separating the beta but I wanted them to start breeding if possible first, and they never got aggressive anyways. Just puzzling why the male would die off :/

[AngelicScars]

You shouldn't try to breed bettas until you've done TONS of research.
The male could have been sick in the first place or the female could have killed him. Either way, never house Bettas together.

[LaniBaby]

I agree. Breeding bettas is a BIG job. If they spawn, you'd have to be ready with TONS of jars to separate them into as soon as they matured, or you'd have a tank full of fighting fish. That's why they're housed in those tiny cups at the stores.

[dramaqueen]

I'm still not sure what "water cleaning agent" means. I hope it isn't soap.

[Vikki81207]

I agree. You've made a HUGE HUGE HUGE mistake. NEVER EVER keep two bettas together. Even if you want to breed there are tons of things to do and research before you even THINK about that. Separate them.

[ScentedLove]

Yeah I agree with what everybody else said you should of did more research before putting then both through the stress.

[dr2b]

I've go to agree with everybody else. NEVER EVER EVER house bettas together. Even when they are together for breeding purposes you need to watch them like a hawk. Also, PLEASE do not try breeding until you've "researched till your brain hurts" (as Mr. Vampire would say).

And I am with DQ, what is a "water cleaning agent"???