Betta Devoured My Guppy!

[MissusHazel]

Today I bought a beautiful purple betta and I placed him in my tank. He swam around for a couple of minutes and then latched onto one of my guppies tails, the guppy doesn't have a big tail and he's always quite shy and sticks on his own at the top.

Could it be because there is a female betta in there? He saw her within a minute or two and flared his gills at her...

Planning to take him back to the shop now and in the future will keep a male with betta females ONLY!

 

[Josiee]

Aside from the Betta/guppy issue, you shouldn't be keeping your male with females. Males are agressive (hence the alter-name Siamese Fighting Fish) and do best on their own as a general rule. There are exceptions, but generally with experienced Betta keepers that know the nature of these fish inside and out!

 

[Sesshis_grl]

I'd be careful with putting males and females together. I thought it was ok too and within 1 NIGHT he all but killed her

 

[loraxchick]

ill third the statement- you should not keep male and female bettas together. breeding is a very careful process which needs to be monitored. only in this condition is it advisable to keep males and females together.
cheers

 

[MissusHazel]

Oh I see, I thought they would be ok together as long as there was only the one male and I'd planned to give breeding a go later on when we have a seperate tank...
Gone and swapped him for two microrasbora galaxies now:

 

[loraxchick]

LOVE the galaxies! they are such beautiful little fish!!! havent owned any to date but always drool and heavily consider them every time i see them in the shop. id say that is a nice trade. i heard they can be really picky/difficult to feed. so lemme know how they get on if you dont mind.
oh, and where are my manors???!!!
WELCOME TO THE FORUM
Cheers!

 

[kizno1]

You will need more than 1 spare tank for breeding bettas. You will need a 10-20G for spawning tank 20g+ tank for growing out fry and then a 2L tub for every make fry which if you get a spawn of 100 fry and half turn out male that means you need 50x2L tubs and 20G for the females. Plus theres not much point breeding VTs as there so common you will probably struggle to sell them. The galaxy rasbora are a better option but they need to be in groups of 4+ but 6+ is best.

 

[Sesshis_grl]

I've never seen those before, very pretty!

 

[fry_forever!]

I've never seen those before, very pretty!

I've read about them and seen them, and I do say.. I wish I would have bought them when I had the chance. Apparently they spawn pretty easily.

 

[MissusHazel]

Yeah I've read a bit about them too and they seem pretty "frisky", I'm not gettting my hopes up about getting too many little ones for now though as I imagine the eggs will get eaten and I have a puffer who would eat any little babies but when I'm more established when I'm over my first year at uni I hope to breed them.

I think we've got a boy and girl as one's always chasing the other, cute!

I've seen them eating "TetraMin Crisps" (fish flakes), they tend to go for yellow/orange ones and I put defrosted bloodworms in everynight so they may have a nibble on them too but I think they could be a little too big and every couple days a sinking wafer... but I've only caught them eating the flakes!

 

[elisew]

Hi, firstly welcome to the forum.....

Secondly, am I right in believing that you have a puffer in the same tank as your other fish?? They are also very aggressive and to be honest I'm surprised your guppy didn't get munched sooner

Really hope your puffer doesn't do any damage to those other fish

 

[MissusHazel]

He's only a little dwarf puffer (just over a centimetre) and I've got a lot of hidey holes and loads of plants and we've not had any problems yet...

We have a very good, small local fish store (not where we bought either fighters) who is good at matching fish to our tank and steering me away from those fish which aren't suitable and they recommended him for eating snails on plants.

 

[Sesshis_grl]

Not entirely sure..but I think even though they are dwarf puffers they can take a good chunk out of a fish later on. Also aren't they brackish fish? Anyhoos good luck =) I had a green spotted puffer when I first started but had to give him up as he was stalking my other fish =O. Would love to have a species tank later on though ^.^

 

[Jenste]

no offense intended MissusHazel because we have pretty much all been in a similar situation...but I think you should do some research about the fish you are keeping and plan to keep...

only reason I say this is because any research whatsoever and you would have found that male and female bettas should not cohabitate unless you have been conditioning for breeding (a decision that requires massive research and money for bettas) or if you are a highly experienced fish keeper who can properly meet the fish's needs and be prepared should something happen. also the fact that you have a DP (dwarf puffer) in a community tank.

please, read up on the species you have...you should seriously consider restocking your tank.

 

[Assaye]

I'll have to agree with Jenste. A dwarf puffer is just asking for trouble, the galaxies should be in a shoal of 6-8, male bettas are known to attack guppies and mixing betta splendens (unless they are all female, in a big group and a fairly large tank) is another huge risk. Glad the bettas were taken back - hope the store apologised for misleading you!

Seriously, we've all been there. I've had some shocking fish combos in the past as a result of being mislead or doing bad research myself. I now don't trust pet shops (even if I think they are good) and always double check on here and other online resources. I've also got an excellent book on general fishkeeping that has become my bible (Tropical Fishlopeadia by Peter Burgess and Mary Bailey, if you're interested).

If keeping a community, I'd rehome the puffer or get him his own 5-10 gallon tank. When I worked for a pet shop I saw dwarf puffers taken chunks out of small plecs, tetras, live bearers - you name it, they attacked it. They are good snail eaters but shouldn't be used for that - snail populations can be kept undercontrol with good tank maintainence and not over feeding and puffers are not generally community compatible.

How big is the tank? I imagine it would be big enough for a nice group of the galaxies.

How is the guppy now?

What other stock do you have?

I don't mean for this post to sound horrible, it's just we've all been there and we're now fairly used to seeing new members get bad advice from shops.