[lexylex0526]

So I've had my male betta fish,Jack, in a ten gallon tank with 5 neon tetras. (I had six but one died a week or so ago) There has never been ANY problems at all with them. There was no chasing or any fin biting that I could see. Last night I saw jack chase a neon around the tank....I thought that was really strange but didn't think much of it. Later, I saw jack chase one of them and neon practically jumped out. I was starting to get worried so I sat down by the tank and watched them for awhile. Then to my horror, I saw jack jump at one of the neons and bite him. More like rip a piece of his back fin off. I was in shock Jack has NEVER done anything like this before. The neon is fine...swimming around pretty normally, so anyway I asked my sister to keep an eye on the tank while I went downstairs and got one of my extra bowls ready for jack to stay in over night....as I was cleaning the tank my sister started yelling that Jack just tried to "eat" one of my neons. I ran back up and sure enough jack just again attacked one of them. So I quickly got jack out of the tank and put him in my spare bowl over night. Today all the neons are fine and so is jack but I am VERY confused why Jack all of a sudden has a problem with the neons they have all been in the ten gal together for a few weeks. Any ideas on what happened? Should I try to put Jack back in or get him a new home?........HELP!

 

[Bethydan]

This isn't uncommon when housing bettas with other tankmates. Especially colorful ones. They can be fine for weeks or months and then all of a sudden they're atttacking, injuring, and killing their tank buddies. It can be an unpredictable situation sometimes. Definitely don't put him back in. I would just give him another home with his own space.

 

[Micho]

Yeah it seems like Jack isn't very friendly. He may not be cut out for the community life. . . . You'll have to re-home but if you would like to try again, re-arrange the decor in your tank and make it look new and re-add Jack to the tank, if he still chases then it's solitary life for him.

 

[Pogthefish]

It has ahppened to me before, so I got ghost shrimp and a snail because he mainly does it when he's bored. whenever he gets bored, I change up some decoration or put in a ping pong ball, or give him a mirror to flare at.

 

[nicebear24]

I think that you should get a new tank for Jack, but if you really want to try again than you could either buy new decor or re-arrange the same decor you have now, but try to make it look as different as possible! If he still bits the neons than yeah, you should re-tank Jack.


Good LUCK!

 

[lexylex0526]

Thanks for all the advice! I decided to re-home jack to a 2 gallon for now.