I want to cry, I feel so guilty.

[cajunamy]

Backstory:
I had bought a 55 gallon and tried to use DIY dividers in it for 8 bettas. Well, apparantly they aren't as snug as I thought they were b/c this one Thai import (beautiful white boy with a little blue wash on his fins) tore up my turquoise boy. That he was next to.

I started to get new tanks ready for everyone, with much more secure dividers - you see the problem with the 55 is that it is so tall, it was very difficult to work with each divider when the previous one was in place.

So I started getting my spare tanks ready, divided in 3, much more secure this time b/c they are not hard to work with. Made sure each divider was snug to the glass.

Well tonight I'm goning to feed the boys in the 55 - I should have taken them all out and jarred them while waiting for the other tanks to be done ... my beautiful copper/red rosetail is just torn to SHREDS! The white boy was in the rosetail's section, and the rosetail was in the white boys!!! His entire anal fin is gone.

I have just jarred the nawty white boy so he can't hurt anyone else - he will be staying jarred or I will get him his own tank. I have never ever had a betta so aggressive before!! The rosetail is in his own 2.5 gallon clean tank with heater set to just above 80, and will be getting daily water changes. He has scales missing as well. I just want to cry

[UglyMuffin777]

Oh my... That's terrible :( I hope their fins grow back!!

[cajunamy]

I'm 100% positive they will, but they probably won't ever be the same :(

[Pitluvs]

I'm so sorry about your boys! Will you set the 55gal back up again?

[cajunamy]

I will, but not as a divided tank. It's just too tall to divide, and if I buy dividers instead, well, $15x7=ALOT and my husband is already fussing about how much my fish cost! So it will either be a community, a grow out, or a goldfish tank. I haven't decided yet.

[Pitluvs]

Originally Posted by cajunamy

I will, but not as a divided tank. It's just too tall to divide, and if I buy dividers instead, well, $15x7=ALOT and my husband is already fussing about how much my fish cost! So it will either be a community, a grow out, or a goldfish tank. I haven't decided yet.

You're telling me... I've spend so much in the last 3 months... $400 on the Bettas alone. My fiance's about to boot me and my fish out LOL But yea, that would make a very nice community tank!

[cajunamy]

LOL and my next project is a baracks system .. that'll be another $200 right there LOL. I am forcing myself to put it off though, we're going to Disney in November and he will kill me if I buy something else large for the fish!

[Sakura8]

Aww, Cajunamy, I'm so sorry that happened! Your fish are so beautiful too. :( But on the bright side, no one was killed and the fins and scales will heal. And on the plus side, you have a great nice big tank to play with. I'll be sending fishy healing prayers your way.

[cajunamy]

I am SO thankful that no one was killed. But so sad to have lost his original glory :(

I got them out just in time last night too - the rest of the dividers started to fail as I was taking it apart and 3 boys had access to each other. Really really stupid of me really, to not take them out before messing with dividers on the opposite side of the tank ... BUT none of those 3 messed with each other. As soon as they saw each other they high tailed it elsewhere.

What a big fat FAIL of a divided tank! It was so good in theory - I didn't want the dividers permanent so I could change it up later, and that was the ultimate downfall of the tank.

I have decided what to do with it though. I'm going to put all my girls in it, and divide up the smaller tank the girls are now in (15 gallon)

[Sakura8]

You're right, it was definitely a good idea in theory. Maybe the dividers need moveable brackets or something but to put that into action is probably more work than it's worth right now. Still, think about how many times the Wright Bros must have crashed before they finally built a plane that got off the ground. Maybe someday you'll design the perfect divided betta tank and everyone on the forum will be scrambling to get one. For now, at least your girls will be so happy to have a nice huge tank to roam around in.