My new Betta

[Madasmoo]

Helloooooooooooo I was wondering if you could give me any advice....

I got a new betta on Saturday and at first it was just lying at the bottom of the tank looking miserable, I thought it was bcos in the pet shop it was stuck in a small container with cold water. Anyway after a few days I was getting concerened, so I tested the water etc and it was all fine...

The day after I decied to completly spring clean my tank and I threw away all the plants as they had died slightly and I am going to replace them tonight...

However in doing this my new betta sprung into life as it had nowhere to hide, apart from under the bogwood (this may have been a bad idea).

My betta lives in a 30Litre tank with 3 x harlquins, 1 x odessa barn, 5 x neon tetras and 1 x pygmy cory (2 x until last night)

Anyway as my betta has sprung into life it has attacked my cory and killed it I thought cories were a suitable tank mate??

Was it due to me removing the plants why this happened??

I was scared to look in my tank this morning incase there were anymore deaths

Any advice would be great!! x x

[Noko]

Sometimes bettas aren't good with other tank mates, so he could of just thought your cory was another betta. I would keep an eye on him just to make sure he isn't attacking anyone, or anyone is attacking him.

By the way, your tank is overstocked. The rule is one inch of fish per gallon. 30 litres is just under 8 gallons. The odessa barb can get to 4 inches, the harlquins get to about 1.75 inches, then neon tetras get to about 1.5 inches, you pygmy cory will get to about .75 inches. The betta needs tons of hiding spots, and could of felt threatened by the amount of fishies sharing a tank with him. I would get another tank for him, preferably a 2.5 gallon or bigger.

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

I agree with Noko, the tank is too overstocked. Some bettas would rather be by themselves than with other fish. They also love hiding places.

[Madasmoo]

Thank you for your help :)

Is there anything I can do in the sort term to prevent another incident??

Plants may help??... provide some cover lol

[Eolith]

The only certain way is to put in a divider or something.

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

Yeah, I would put a divider in there so your betta can't get to the other fish until you can get another tank.

[1fish2fish]

I would go out and pick up a plastic rubbermaid box and put him in that for the short term.. it will cost less to do that then to build a divider that you will be taking out.

[Madasmoo]

Whats a rubbermaid box (I live in the UK)

@ 1fish2fish - my new betta looks like ur pinky one with teh spotted tail :) Are they a common colour??

Where can you get dividers from and would it be suitable in my 30Litre??

[Madasmoo]

Oh and are the fish I have got meant to be compitble??

[1fish2fish]

sorry.. um.. just a simple plastic storage box. Rubbermaid is the big brand here and we sometimes use it to mean any plastic storage box

The fish your talking about is named "Fish".. his coloring is called "orange dalmatian" its a fairly common color but often hard to find in your normal petshop fish. I would love to see pictures of yours.. Orange dals are my favorite color.

you can either purchase dividers at your pet store or make them yourself. ..
to make them yourself you can get craftstore plastic mesh canvas (used for yarn) and report binder edges.