Sneaky little girl!!

[Katy]

Dang Cleo keeps sneaking through her divider, she so wants to mate with Fishywishy on the other side. 4x in 3 days I've found her swimming casually next to my CT male, vertical stripes quite pronounced. They are good friends and Cleo has ALWAYS been very social, but she gets nipped when she "visits" her boyfriend.

Any advice on her recovery? She's a bit shredded after her 4 visits. I think I've found her method of entry and fixed it (though she's quite a jumper so I can't be sure). I really don't want to quarantine her, as she's extremely active still and is sooo social, she gets depressed when alone.

They are in a 10gal, water quality is good, I use prime and stress coat routinely. I am hoping she will heal naturally, but I must admit she was one of my original sorority of 7, and I lost all but 2 to infection. I bailed on sorority and split my last 2 girls and have watched them like a hawk for 2 months for signs of disease. I had just recently breathed a sigh of relief for them. Now with Cleo's injured fins I am terrified of losing her!

Thoughts on best actions for recovery?
Thanks in advance.

[sparkyjoe]

I've always heard it wasn't a good idea to keep a male and female together in a divided tank?

Partially for the reason you're having, and partially because even if they can't actually see each other they still *know* the opposite sex is near and will get stressed because they'll instinctively want to mate. There are probably other reasons as well.

I'm sure it's been done successfully but I don't believe it's recommended.

As for recovery, I believe warm, clean water is generally the first course of action.
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[Katy]

Thanks Sparkyjoe! Actually m/f i divided tanks are debatable but do-able. Differing opinions exist on this site. But yes they know each other are there via pheremones. Which is fine as long as they don't physically mingle, or you may have a lot of little babies on your hands!

The benefits of having them together are that if they do accidentally mingle they tend to be less aggressive than 2 males. If some of my male pairs had mingled, one would be dead I guarantee.

Anyway, I have a lot of split 10gal and I did it this way with my girls for that reason. Also, I chose male pairs that don't seem interested in embracing.

I've had experience with both my females crossing over, as well as male/male pairs, and the female/male accidents turn out a lot better, I promise!

Anyway, thanks for your advice! Yes clean water is always a good start. Cleo will likely be fine. I tend to be extra-paranoid about my females since my sorority took a hit several months ago. But she seems well, looking at me right now begging for food actually:)

[Sceven]

I would say split her from his tank if it gets worse. I know it is sad, and if your not ready to try a sorority again, maybe you could get her a little shrimp buddy? Or maybe some guppies?

[Katy]

Yeah I will split them if I have to- She's gone 24hrs without sneaking in his side, so hopefully I fixed the problem. Right now I am just watching her fins closely, will likely add an IAL with their water change tomorrow.

[betta lover1507]

Originally Posted by Sceven

I would say split her from his tank if it gets worse. I know it is sad, and if your not ready to try a sorority again, maybe you could get her a little shrimp buddy? Or maybe some guppies?

i agree with other fish, not sure about shrimp because some betta's think there crunchy munchies (like what happened to my brother XP)
but other's don't, you could get her some calm community fish say (i think) tetra's. I had 2 angel fish in a sorority, i don't recommend it. besides they where juveniles and never fought or nipped one of my girls. But currently i have no sorority, because my parents don't want me to

[Danibunkins]

Have you considered doing a double divider? (Just in case the problem happens again)

Seems a lot of people have an "accidental escape" divide that houses the heater between the two sides.