Bettas & Sinking Wafers - Enemy Sighted?

I have no idea Roan, except that maybe, being an aggressive fish, they have to find something to take it all out on...lol.....my bettas EAT the dang wafers !! I've dropped one in at night for my otos and in the morning I find the bettas belly swollen and greenish...lol....not sure if the oto got any or not, they don't seem to really like them anyway, but will eat them if the algae in the tank is a bit sparse...and if they can keep the dang betta away from them !
 
Jericho said:
If you are worried about the other guys drop an extra wafer in for them, your betta can only destroy one at a time ;)
Click to expand...
You'd think so, eh? I've tried that and it's a HOOT! It also doesn't work. Why? 'Cause he picks up one of the wafers in his mouth and drops it beside or on top of the other one. They he goes about annihilating them both :)

I've got my digital camera set up in front of the tank. Later today I'm gonna drop in a wafer and make a mini-movie. I'll post it if he does some great moves with Mr. Wafer.

Hrm. One thing I AM going to do today is thoroughly test both his tank and my bigger 36g. I put 3 otos in Jakers' tank. Only 1 died. I put 4 otos in the 36g and 3 died. Basic params (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH) all the same. So either there is something else that is different about the water, or the inhabitants of the bigger tank spelled the demise of those otos. I did find one with missing eyes. Probably those **** ghost shrimp.

Roan
 
You have bettas in with ottos? The ottos don't get harrassed? That's amazing. My g-f's betta attacks everything in a tank with it so we had to seperate it... (snails, glass catfish, tetras, bala sharks, rocks, driftwood, and the heater).
 
My betta did the same, when he had a catfish tankmate. He looked like a puppy carrying a frisbee. The only reason I could see for his behavior is "because he could" :)

Bryant
 
Mine does the exact same thing!!!!
It sees the waffer first, since the other fish are all ont he bottom, follows and attacks it. I didn't find anything weird with the behavior, it acts as the dogs I grew up with did. I think it is very amusing, that he isn't really getting any nutritional value, yet he expends all that effort. His only objective in life is to destroy every food-thing that comes into the tank!

Even better, my ADF's launch themselves into the pile of betta-loach-cories and really mess things up! My loaches are sassy and hold their own, but the poor cories in a frog pile!

hurray for amusing fish!!
 
Hi Roan, I had a betta that did the very same thing. I just attributed the behavior to the fact that he was an absolute pig.

It didn't matter that he had been hunting snails all day, or that I had already fed him some betta bits in the morning. It didn't matter that he had chased all of the pygmy cories away and devoured as much of their food as he could find. He just had to kill the algae wafer and eat as much of it as he could.

One time I was watching him and just laughing as he tried to eat the wafer, I knew that I had broken it into a piece that was much to big for him to swallow. Then, to my horror, I watched him swallow it... The only solution I ever came up with was to stop putting wafers in the tank.
 
I saw something like that but it envolved a 7" knife fish and a 1" platty. Guess who was the wafer sticking half body outside the mouth of the other. And horrendous but interesting show.
 
HAH! I did it!!!!

Hah! I fooled Mr. Betta fish and got him to stop harassing the otos. *SNORT*

Yep, he was still chasing them around too much and I didn't want to add another one into my tank (it's only a 6 gallon). So I thought, maybe if I add something FOREIGN. Something UNUSUAL. Something STRANGE. SOMETHING he can't really hurt.

I dropped a 2" Gold Mystery Snail in there and he is FASCINATED with it. The otos rest on its shell and I've seen them eating off it. Jakers hardly even notices the otos now, he just watches the snail. I saw him approach it once and try to nip it, but all he got was a bruised mouth. HAH!

He's stalking it now, it's funny. OMG that thing ate those wafer crumbs SO fast. Do they always eat that much that fast? BOGGLE.

So now this 6 gallon planted tank has 1 betta, 2 otos, and a gold Mystery Snail.

Hope his fascination stays for a while.

Roan
 
Hannys_Papa said:
I think i told you before i really like that tank - how about posting a new pic of it and its inhabitants ?
Click to expand...
Sure thing! I'll snap a shot tomorrow night. Digital works best in the dark with the tank light on. I need to "pretty" it up a bit. I moved things around trying to fix some Java that wasn't attaching to the bogwood and now Buddha is hilter-kilter.

If you'd like to see a movie of the otos, I have one here:

http://members.cox.net/roan/Oto%20Spawn.MOV

I honestly think that they are spawning. They did that for over a day and are not doing it anymore. If I suddenly have 3+ otos in the tank over the next week or so (dunno how long it takes for eggs to hatch), you're going to hear my excited screams all the way to Europe!

I'll probaby name the snail "S-Car-Go" or something equally stupid :)

Roan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom