New owner with a few questions

[kc0vbl]

Hi all. I have bettas in the past but now I have been captured by one from the local WalMart. So I bought him, a betta tank with divider, and a female that also caught my eye.

I do not have plans to breed. My tank has a divider which is in place but my fish keep jumping to be together. Once it was the male and the second time was the female (until I lowered the water level). I did not think they could live together, but they were together in a smaller space (I think the tank is only 3 gallons) and all fins were intact. They were together for at least 12 hours overnight.

Since then the colors of the fish have been pretty brilliant and the male is making his bubble nest. Is it putting to much stress on the fish to be in the same tank but separated? Since they seem to want to be together, should I remove the divider?

Second topic - from my research my male appears to be a crowntail male. I have never seen one like this before and was taken by his beauty. To find him at WalMart surprised me. Are these more common then I think? Like I said, I have had bettas off and on for 20 years I guess and never have seen a crowntail male before. Maybe I just did not give the betta that much attention other than they were really pretty fish and you could only have one. You know, the basic knowledge when you are young and have a 10 gallon tank. The betta I have looks very very similar to the avatar photo I am using. Once I figure out how to take photos of fish (I specialize in skinny pigs) I will post some. I think he is just wonderful!

[registereduser]

Originally Posted by kc0vbl

(I specialize in skinny pigs)

I had to google that, never knew they existed.

Can we see pics of yours?

Oh, and the fish too if you want

[aokashi]

keep them seperate :) no matter what it looks like, keeping a betta with a male is disaster waiting to strike

[kc0vbl]

Here is the link to my fish tank: http://www.fishtanks.net/fishtank.php?fishtank=5955

[kc0vbl]

I raise and breed skinny pigs. They are a breed of almost hairless guinea pigs. Everything is about the same as a haired pig - they are just naked! :) My website is at www.skinnypig.net

[kc0vbl]

Are there crowntailed females?

[xShainax]

Yes there are. Petsmart has a lot of them.

[teeneythebetta]

Males and females cannot be housed together. The only time betas can be housed together is when you have 4 or more females in 10 gallons or more, but that requires a cycled tank, lots of plants, patience and research.

There are people that have housed a male with females and they lived fine until 1 year later the male killed the females. It's basically a thing where you will never know what will happen or when.
Also if they breed, that will leave you with as much as 300 fry, who need special food, grow out tanks, warm water, cull the unhealthy ones and individually jar them, and find them good homes. If they are pet store bettas they aren't worth breeding because you don't know their genetics.

He is very pretty as a pet though :D

[registereduser]

Skinny Pigs are so homely they are adorable!

Your crowntail is a great find for a walmart fish. I have a blue crowntail female named Morag in my sorority:

[kc0vbl]

Oh, she is a beauty!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE the blue ones. I will have to keep watch to see what my WalMart gets in. Its the only big store around as I live in a small mountain town. Not to far from Colorado Springs, but when you dont drive much it could be a 1000 miles away...