Devorax
Fish Crazy
As you some of you may know, I have added 6 female bettas to the main tank (my siggie). I have had them about a month and tbh they have never truly 'settled down', that is, they never seem to completely lose their stress stripes. I am puzzled by what this may be.
The tank has a cave for each of them, plus many natural hiding places provided by the bogwood, and the copius amounts of foliage in there, but they never seem to lose the barring. I have on rare occasion seen them with the vertical breeding bars (which then disappeared as soon as another female spotted them). I am getting concerned now for their state of well being. We have had an ammonia problem of late (AGAIN) which has just come from nowhere (ie weeks no none showing then suddenly off the scale in 36 hours after 80% water changes-which may or may not be connected to the fact that we tried to boil all the tannins from the bogwood only to discover in actual fact that you can't).
They have the demeanour of always watching over their shoulder, always on the look-out. We have one in particular that is prone to picking on one particular guppy male (whom has to be frequently saved by placing him in the shrimp tank). Granted water quality may now be giving them grief, as 80% changes are necessary every 2 days DESPITE 2 filters running on the tank that both claim to be capable of handling the tank by themselves, but how can I get them to settle down? Is it that there are fish in there that they simply do not 'like' or are there not enough of them/too many for the tank? They do hang around together ALOT in groups of 2-3, sometimes 5.
They feed well on Attisons Betta Pro and bloodworm, ignoring all other food except that which wriggles, so what can I do? Ideally I'd love to seperate them all in to 3 gallon cubes, but the idea of 8 of them dotted around doesn't appeal to anyone but me, so I can't. Suggestions?
The tank has a cave for each of them, plus many natural hiding places provided by the bogwood, and the copius amounts of foliage in there, but they never seem to lose the barring. I have on rare occasion seen them with the vertical breeding bars (which then disappeared as soon as another female spotted them). I am getting concerned now for their state of well being. We have had an ammonia problem of late (AGAIN) which has just come from nowhere (ie weeks no none showing then suddenly off the scale in 36 hours after 80% water changes-which may or may not be connected to the fact that we tried to boil all the tannins from the bogwood only to discover in actual fact that you can't).
They have the demeanour of always watching over their shoulder, always on the look-out. We have one in particular that is prone to picking on one particular guppy male (whom has to be frequently saved by placing him in the shrimp tank). Granted water quality may now be giving them grief, as 80% changes are necessary every 2 days DESPITE 2 filters running on the tank that both claim to be capable of handling the tank by themselves, but how can I get them to settle down? Is it that there are fish in there that they simply do not 'like' or are there not enough of them/too many for the tank? They do hang around together ALOT in groups of 2-3, sometimes 5.
They feed well on Attisons Betta Pro and bloodworm, ignoring all other food except that which wriggles, so what can I do? Ideally I'd love to seperate them all in to 3 gallon cubes, but the idea of 8 of them dotted around doesn't appeal to anyone but me, so I can't. Suggestions?