So I have had a male crowntail betta for about 3 weeks now and he has been doing splendid in his tank. I've been feeling for a while that he seems kind of lonely so today I bought him a girlyfriend and I also bought 2 Ghost Shrimp to help keep the tank clean since the posting they had at Walmart said that Ghost Shrimp are tank mates to bettas. My only problem is, is that as soon as I put the 2 shrimps and my female in the tank Sharkbait bumrushed and I guess was nipping at them. His gills were spread out as he chased after my female. He keeps chasing her around the tank like this and nipping at her. She keeps hiding behind the shells and up in the top corner behind the filter from him and wont come out in the open. And everynow and again he'll go after my shrimps again. Is this normal? Did I do something wrong? What do I do?
Well, no matter how lonely your betta looks, it's never a good idea to get him a girlfriend because he'll do just what he's doing: chase her. You'll want to get her her own tank right away because if you leave her in there, he could very well chase her to death.
Sounds like Sharkbait may be too aggressive for even shrimp roomies. Be careful because bettas have been known to eat shrimp. You might consider getting your new girl a 5 gallon and putting her and the shrimp in that and just leaving Sharkbait to live the bachelor life.
Dangerz!! But I don't have another tank and I am strapped for cash at the moment. D= My poor female! Now I feel bad and like I have just signed her death warrant...Is there a chance that he could settle down and be nice after a little while?
EDIT: When I first got Sharkbait I had bought a pleco tank mate for him because at that time I didn't have a tank with a filter. All I had to start with was a vase-like tank and right from the start there were no problems between them. They were perfectly fine with each other. Unfortunatly, my poor Pleco died from shock and possibly slight suffocation because the guy that helped me pick out Sharkbait said nothing to me about my Pleco needing some kind of live plant or something in the tank the produces oxygen. I had him in the vase for about 2 or 3 days before I found that out so I quickliy bought a tank with a filter because the lady at Petsmart said the filter would provide him enough oxygen. But when I transferred them both to the filtered tank he started acting all crazy like. He kept jumping up the sides of the tank, above the water level, and like trying to climb up the wall, still above water level. Other than that he would just keep darting from th etop of the water to the bottom then to the top then back down over and over again...spread out in short intervals of course. I called the Petsmart people and asked them what I should do and they said just give him time because he was probably just going through shock but he should calm down. Then the next morning I find him floating dead at the bottom of the tank.
:( I'm sorry, cash is a big issue, isn't it? Unfortunately, if he does settle down it'll be because he either killed her or they spawned. If they spawned, you're in big trouble because you'll have a bunch of baby bettas.
One thing you can do is get a fairly big Rubbermaid container at Wal-Mart and put one or the other in there. Like shoebox sized will do. Or, if you have to, I'd recommend returning her.
do you still have the vase you got with Sharkbait? that might work to house the female until you can get her a bigger tank. i, personally, adore these things:
that's what i have most of my bettas in. the 2 gallon one is just $10 or so, but you can't really put the shrimps in there with her. how big is Sharkbait's tank?
it'd be a good idea to get her outta there as soon as possible. did she come in a betta cup? if so, you can just re-cup her and keep her in there while you look. if not, if you got him in one, doing the same would work.
Even just a large mixing bowl with a towel draped over the top to stop her jumping would be good right now. It's certainly better than sharing a tank with a male.
If you don't have heaters, remember to grab some of those as soon as you can afford them. :) Heaters are very important for bettas.
A 1 gallon tank is not big enough for much, way too small for anything other then one betta even though a petstore will tell you otherwise. Ammonia will build up way to fast and will eventually kill the fish if the water is not changed frequently. Also keeping a male and female together is a bad idea, unless you are breeding and even then it's risky. I had a female KILL one male and rip the fins off two others. After that, I gave up trying to breed her.
I would go with the storage container idea. It's the cheapest option and you can get a decent sized one for under $6. They can be decorated like a tank and a heater won't melt the plastic. The downside is, even the transparent ones are kinda cloudy so the view of the fish isn't the best. I have two bettas in them right now. One will be going back into the all girls tank and the guy is stuck in there till i figure out what to do with him.
Alternativly, you can get a 5 or 10 gallon tank and divide it. For some reason 10 gallons seem to be cheaper then smaller tanks. Just be sure to cover it with something so they can't jump out. Ther eis a sticky someplace on how to make a divider. It's pretty simple.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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