Beginner Fish Keeper - Need Advice Regarding Aggressive Betta

[Regalia]

Hey everyone,

A few weeks ago I went out and purchased a 5g starter aquarium kit. I set it up with some live plants, sand and a few decorations and added in a betta fish. I was told by my local fish store that I could add in a bottom feeder after a few days so I purchased a small cori catfish. The betta paid no attention to him and they seemed to be perfectly happy healthy and eating. About a week later I went back to the fish store and came across a really nice rosy barb, the salesperson told me that it would be a risk buying it since it may nip at the betta's tail. I ended up buying the fish and added him to the aquarium and heres where my problems start. My betta has been bullying the barb a lot, constantly chasing it and trying to nip at it. Luckily the barbs a lot faster than my betta is. Im worried that the stress from constantly being chased would kill the barb so i removed my betta and placed it back into its fishbowl for now. Upon removing the betta i noticed that up in the corner of the tank is a large pile of bubbles. I'm assuming this is a bubble nest made by my male betta correct?

What should I do? Is my male betta ready to mate and could this be causing him to be aggressive towards the barb? If so, will they always be like this or will the betta settle down eventually?

Advice would be much appreciated, i'm not sure if i should return the rosy barb and put the betta back into his tank...

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Oh, forgot to add that recently the bettas food was changed from pellets to flakes. Not sure if this could be a factor in the fact that his belly is very swollen and bloated. I'm very confused! lol

 

[erk628]

Ok once a again a situation were a LFS gives bad advise. A five gallon is perfect for a betta and a salute you for getting one that big most people try to go smaller. The cory is a schooling fish and needs to be in a school of at least 5 so you need to take him back. Now male betta can be very aggressive and usually need to be by themselves especially is a tank as small as a five gallon. However there are a few tank mates you can stick in there but I'm going to let someone else chime in on what those are because I dont want to give you the wrong list. What I do know is the barb is not one of them. So what you need to do is take the barb and the cory back to the store and then you can get one of what ever some one of here says will be ok. The bubbles you say on top is correct its a bubble nest more then likely. In my sig at the bottom of this post is a link to the beginners resource I suggest you give that a read there is a lot of useful information in there. Also in this forum we have a beta section that you can learn new things about your new betta. So let me recap this post.

1. Dont listen to the people at your LFS they have proving they don't know what there talking about. I'm not saying never listen to someone that works at a LFS I'm just saying not that person. They have to prove to you that they know what there talking about and that person proved that they don't.

2. Take the cory and barb back ASAP and get the beta back in the 5 gallon.

 

[llamalord305]

I agree with taking the barb back. Although usually LFS (Local fish stores) give unreliable advice, that man was right, barbs sometimes do that.
How much are you feeding the betta and what kind of food? This is the main cause of bloat. On the other hand, it could be a disease called dropsy. I assume you don't have a water testing kit, so you'll probably need the whole lowdown on cycling and whatnot. Someone else will chime in.

 

[erk628]

Yes make sure to get a water testing kit most of us on here use API master test kit. Make sure you get the liquid test kit the strips are very inaccurate. As for the cycling there are links in my sig. Since you already have the betta you'll have to do the fishin cycle.

 

[Regalia]

So unfortunately I'm going to be away over the weekend I have someone able to do the feeding but I'm not going to be able to take the barb back until monday. For now should I put the betta back in the fish bowl since it could still live in there and the barb can remain in the tank peacefully until monday? Is this a bad idea? I'll definitely do my own research before adding another fish and not depend only on the LFS advice.

I'm feeding them Nutrafin Max (the flakes that came with the tank). I could be over feeding but I don't really think so. I try to give enough so that some floats down for the cory to eat. But the betta does manage to eat most of it. I guess I'll have to cut back.

I'm also going to take a look at those links in your sig and look into getting a water testing kit when I bring the barb back.

Thanks again.

 

[erk628]

Seperating them sounds like the best idea because you could come home to either a dead fish or a very beat up one.

 

[Regalia]

Okay, I'll do that.

 

[GreenEyedTerror]

I keep my betta with shrimp, and my friend keeps hers with a frog, she says that the frog ignores the betta and vice versa, i would only warn you that you need to get the dwarf variety, dont get anything that says clawed frog, they get giant and eat your fish, but look the same as the dwarf frogs when they are young. I recently added 4 ghost shrimp in with my betta, only one survived. I am not sure if they were unhealthy (i got them from petsmart ) or if they werent geting enough oxygen, or if my betta beat them up. I added extra aeration and the ghostie has been alive for over a week now, and my betta doesn't seem to bother him, so i added three cherry shrimp, and it's been two days and the betta seems to igore them too. I think it really depends on the betta with shrimp though... my friend's betta killed all the shrimp in his tank... I also keep rams horn snails, they are great for cleaning up extra food debris

 

[Assaye]

Hi there!

A few things. 5 gallons is not big enough for a cory. Corys also need to be kept in groups so you'd want at least 4 of the same species, if not 6. For normal corys, not pygmys, you would need a 50-60 litre tank. Pygmys could be OK in a 5 gallon, if you had 4 of them.

Rosy barbs are also not suitable for a tank as small as 5 gallons. I wouldn't want to see a group in less than 60 litres, ideally 80-100. They also need to be kept in groups of 6 or more and are nippy, so should not be kept with bettas.

If your LFS advises you that certain fish will not go well together, it's a good idea to listen. They always want to make the sale so will often give bad advice. If they are saying NO, then you know something is up and you should probably listen.

Bettas can be very, very aggressive fish. In a tank as small as 5 gallons (which is perfect for a betta), there are very few other fish you could really put with them and there is a lot of trial and error involved. I wouldn't get any tankmates for the betta unless you have another tank you could put them in if it all goes wrong.

If the betta is in a bowl he'll probably need his water changed daily. Do you have a test kit for ammonia and nitrite? If not, you really need one as even a small exposure to these chemicals (which occur in new or badly maintained tanks) is harmful to the fish. These chemicals build up when there are not enough good bacteria in the tank to get rid of them and new tanks (under a month old) very, very rarely have enough bacteria. The tanks must also have filters in order to grow the right bacteria.

Please read this - Behinners' Resource Centre

There is a lot of info there but it is all really important to understand. Keeping fish is not like keeping other pets. You can't just pop them in a cage, clean them out weekly and hope for the best. They depend on you for everything, including a safe and non-toxic environment. Please have a read and understand.

Also, please take the barb and cory back. They must be kept in groups, they are not suitable for your tank and your betta is too aggressive to have other mid-water fish with him.

 

[Regalia]

Alrighty, so this morning I brought back the Rosy Barb and Cory, it was pretty sad but I managed to swap her for two Blue Platy's. I added them in and so far everything seems to be going fine. Thanks a lot for the help

Oh and I found a little hitchhiker snail not sure what exactly it is, must have come from the live plants.

 

[Honeythorn]

AAAARGH! NO! There isn't enough room in your tank for all 3 fish. And platies may also end up being picked on by your betta if not the other way round.

The tank is suitable for the betta only. If you want a community, get a separate 10 gallon tank or larger and keep the betta by himself in the 5 gallon since he is clearly agressive.

 

[Assaye]

I plan to keep some endlers with one of my bettas but my tank is a little bigger and he's a total softie.

If you're new to betta keeping (which you seem to be), you're definitely doing the right thing if you keep him on his own. He could (and probably will) bully the platies and they need a bigger tank.

Seriously. Take things slowly and if you want a betta, keep him on his own. If you want a community, set up another smallish tank (say 10-20 gallons) and try that out.

Bettas don't really make good community fish, although there are exceptions.

 

[theshadowinc]

Hey everyone,

A few weeks ago I went out and purchased a 5g starter aquarium kit. I set it up with some live plants, sand and a few decorations and added in a betta fish. I was told by my local fish store that I could add in a bottom feeder after a few days so I purchased a small cori catfish. The betta paid no attention to him and they seemed to be perfectly happy healthy and eating. About a week later I went back to the fish store and came across a really nice rosy barb, the salesperson told me that it would be a risk buying it since it may nip at the betta's tail. I ended up buying the fish and added him to the aquarium and heres where my problems start. My betta has been bullying the barb a lot, constantly chasing it and trying to nip at it. Luckily the barbs a lot faster than my betta is. Im worried that the stress from constantly being chased would kill the barb so i removed my betta and placed it back into its fishbowl for now. Upon removing the betta i noticed that up in the corner of the tank is a large pile of bubbles. I'm assuming this is a bubble nest made by my male betta correct?

What should I do? Is my male betta ready to mate and could this be causing him to be aggressive towards the barb? If so, will they always be like this or will the betta settle down eventually?

Advice would be much appreciated, i'm not sure if i should return the rosy barb and put the betta back into his tank...

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Oh, forgot to add that recently the bettas food was changed from pellets to flakes. Not sure if this could be a factor in the fact that his belly is very swollen and bloated. I'm very confused! lol

Since you are new to betta world, find out info here, especially the specimen area the lfs carries splenden splendens hereusually, there are others you could keep together in that tank if you are up for spending the money and trying to find them. Its a good place for a begginer to read and understand, click on the clink provided by the website to take you to a page that is specific on the specimen

BTW welcome to the forum am I the first to welcome you? Also wouldn't be a bad Idea to check out fishless cycling, or now would be fish in cycling