Brutal Beta

[Lugrl]

Help! I'm a newcomer to this fish thing. I have a 10 gallon tank with a betta, a snail and 2 plattys. The betta is absolutely terrorizing the plattys. It will lurk until it has an opportunity to flare at them and then chase them. This happens all day long. I knew bettas could be territorial, but is it being over-aggressive? Maybe new-tank jitters? I don't think water quality is the issue, as I used cycled water from my boyfriend's established tank. Should I buy a new one or find something else? I liked it b/c it was "pretty". Is there anything similar in appearance, but not quite as fiesty? If I do purchase another betta, what specific qualities should I look for? Or any fish for that matter. I'm thinking about sparkling gouramis instead. Please offer any suggestions. Thanks!

[SomeGuy88]

the cause of your agression is because the bettas and plattys have almost the exact same body shape. The Betta is probally thinking the plattys are other male Bettas so he is getting territorial with them. If you want, you could try getting rid of the platys and try putting in some different fish with a different body shape. White cloud mountain mimmows are the best to go with Bettas in my opion because they are also fast and not too nippy. You could have a nice school of those along with your betta in a 10 gallon.

Hope that helps!

[kikuchiyo]

Somebody has to go. Bettas don't get along with other fish for too long generally. Many bettas like their space and will chase away other fish.

One small gourami might be fine in your tank with the platies, but not with the betta. Bettas are aggressive and males tend to get more aggressive the older they get. Sometimes bettas work out in a community setting, but its nearly impossible to tell which bettas well. Additionally, bettas sometimes just lose it and go after tank mates sometimes.

Sometimes bettas will get picked on by guppies and platies.

In short, bettas are really not suitable for community tanks.

Unless you get a new tank, someone's going to have to go back to the petstore.

They aren't called Siamese Fighting Fish because they thought it would sound cool ;)

[9tails]

If you want "pretty" fish, guppies are very showy. They also breed faster than rabbits so you could find your tank overstocked in record time.

[OrionGirl]

You might want to test your water--the water from an established tank will not contain the bacteria needed to process fish waste--in fact, it likely just brought some waste into your tank. If you can get some filter media and gravel from the established tank, this will help much more.

[Lugrl]

Wow. Thanks everybody for your expert advice! Today I returned the betta. :( I'm thinking a guppy might be a better addition to the tank. I'm going to the LFS tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

Also, this is definitely a rookie question, but here goes: could my betta have killed my blue snail? I don't even know how to tell if its dead or not, but its halfway out of its shell, doesn't react to touch, and has a sort of grayish cloud coming from its body. Any ideas?

[Alicia]

I don't think that your Betta killed your snail, but if it has a grey cloud comming out from its shell... it's most likely dead. I know that this sounds totally gross, and will most likely make you gag if you do this, but I was told that another easy way to tell if your snail is dead is to smell it. If it reaks, then it is dead.

[Blinky]

I have heard of bettas harassing snails relentlessly, I guess this could eventually lead to the snail's death if it couldn't ever come out of its shell to eat... Snails are also very sensitive to water parameters, and react often before fish do. If your tank is still cycling, the snail could have died from an excess of ammonia or nitrite. Unfortunately, I've never heard anyone say Cycle actually works. I've used it myself, and found it to be useless. If the snail isn't reacting to being touched and smells terrible, it's dead. Remove it from the tank or it will foul the water. If it's been there for a while, you might want to do a water change.

[Lugrl]

Thanks again to everyone who responded for all your help. The snail was definitely dead. I'm going to take some water to the pet store to be checked for nitrates, etc. today.