Divided tank question! : )

[littlegreen]

Hello, everyone!

The day before yesterday, I put my two boys, Smaug and Caravaggio, into a 10 gallon divided tank. In retrospect, perhaps I shouldn't have bought the most aggressive betta when I got Smaug. A mellow personality might have been better for a divided tank!

The issue is that Smaug knows Caravaggio is there, and has been spending almost all of his time trying to find a way to get through the divider (which isn't happening). The divider is made of craft mesh, so if they can see each other, it's not very well. I think it's just in Smaug's personality to be aggressive.

Will this behavior go away after a few days, once he gets used to the divider? Caravaggio, after a few initial flares, stopped paying attention to the divider himself.

The boys when they spotted each other: (Smaug is on the left, Caravaggio is on the right)

[a123andpoof]

It may go away, another thing you can try though is to put two or three peices of mesh so its harder to see each other. But some fish are not suited to share a tank with other bettas and can become stressed.

[MissFutureVet]

Like yours, one of my bettas are super aggressive and the other one is calmer and rarely flares. I use craft mesh as well, however I use 3 of them together to help minimize visibility.

[XxBettaLoverxX]

If you use more pieces of the craft mesh then there may be less water flow to the other side. If you have filters and less water changes then I suggest a filter for each side or just more water changes. This is what I would do anyway if I have more than 1 piece of craft mesh.