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Hi everyone,
I have a 16-gallon filtered and heated (25°C) tank housing a 6 member betta sorority and a male Butterfly halfmoon betta. (the male betta used to have a 5 litre tank all to himself, but this tank is currently converted to a temporary tank for betta fry).
The bettas went along just fine until yesterday evening. One of the very small females suddenly went berserk on the male without apparent reason at all (the male is very calm and appart from flaring sometimes when the most dominant female is in his way, he doesn't care for or annoy the females in any way ever, he just lives his happy life). The female started nipping the lowest finn of the male and litteraly tore it to shreds in 5 seconds.
Since then, my male is mostly hiding in his favorite hiding spot and seems stressed out. Though he eats fine, I am afraid this might cause the fins not to heal properly and develop fin rot. As in Belgium I previously found out with other fishes it is almost impossible to find decent medicine (methyl blue is not allowed for sale for example, and the other few remedies I bought in the past for another betta that had fin rot when I got him from the store do not work) I would like to try to prevent this happening in any way possible. Normally I would have separated the male but this is not possible as the tank is in use for the fry (I will try to find a glass separation somewhere though).
Additionnal problem: I need to do my weekly water change but I am afraid that will stress him even more. But if I dont, the quality of the water will be too low, increasing the chances of disease. What should I do?
Additionnal information:
I feed the fishes once a day with Atison Betta food pellets (5-6 pellets per fish) and perform a weekly water change (10-20% of the water both vacuuming and dipping out water). The source of the water is tap water which I condition with JBL conditionner. PH is usually around 7-8. GH and KH are quite high but I havent tested today yet, I was planning to do the water change & filter cleaning anyway because it has been slightly over one week.
Photo of my fish,
![Fish Beak Marine biology Tail Feather]()
I have a 16-gallon filtered and heated (25°C) tank housing a 6 member betta sorority and a male Butterfly halfmoon betta. (the male betta used to have a 5 litre tank all to himself, but this tank is currently converted to a temporary tank for betta fry).
The bettas went along just fine until yesterday evening. One of the very small females suddenly went berserk on the male without apparent reason at all (the male is very calm and appart from flaring sometimes when the most dominant female is in his way, he doesn't care for or annoy the females in any way ever, he just lives his happy life). The female started nipping the lowest finn of the male and litteraly tore it to shreds in 5 seconds.
Since then, my male is mostly hiding in his favorite hiding spot and seems stressed out. Though he eats fine, I am afraid this might cause the fins not to heal properly and develop fin rot. As in Belgium I previously found out with other fishes it is almost impossible to find decent medicine (methyl blue is not allowed for sale for example, and the other few remedies I bought in the past for another betta that had fin rot when I got him from the store do not work) I would like to try to prevent this happening in any way possible. Normally I would have separated the male but this is not possible as the tank is in use for the fry (I will try to find a glass separation somewhere though).
Additionnal problem: I need to do my weekly water change but I am afraid that will stress him even more. But if I dont, the quality of the water will be too low, increasing the chances of disease. What should I do?
Additionnal information:
I feed the fishes once a day with Atison Betta food pellets (5-6 pellets per fish) and perform a weekly water change (10-20% of the water both vacuuming and dipping out water). The source of the water is tap water which I condition with JBL conditionner. PH is usually around 7-8. GH and KH are quite high but I havent tested today yet, I was planning to do the water change & filter cleaning anyway because it has been slightly over one week.
Photo of my fish,
