Betta Eating Difficulties

[BumbleBeejay]

Hi there,

New to the forums, and have enjoyed browsing the various topics for the last few days. I have a 100 Litre tank with 1 male Betta and three females. The male and two of the females appear to be in good health, and my water conditions are decent. I'm concerned about one of my females though. She is not as brightly coloured as the other girls and I noticed a clean split in her tail this afternoon. Today I also noticed that she seemed to go to eat food, spat it out, ate it again, spat it out, and continued this process for about 30 seconds before leaving the food chewed up and uneaten. The others seem to be eating normally, and have no signs of fin damage.

I'm not sure whether she's sick, or maybe lowest in the pecking order and just not thriving in the tank. The other two girls have intensified in colour since i purchased them, and conditioned up lovely. I would just like some suggestions as to whether this could be signs of sickness, or just bullying. In either case, do I remove her from the tank into a quarantine area, or should I provide more cover and hiding places, and wait to see if things settle down? The females have only been in the tank for a week, and I have driftwood, rock structures, and plants for hiding in.

*concerned about the newest member of the family*

Any suggestions would be appreciated =)

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hi and welcome to the forum !
Its quite normal for small fish like bettas to spit out food and then eat it again as they often do this when they want to eat food that is too big for their mouths, the process of spitting it out and then eating it again helps them break it down as they have no teeth to chew food with to do this .
The discoloration/fading is most likely due to the presence of the male in the tank and not enough females, male and female bettas do not mix very well and can often end up fighting, even killing each other- the reason why she is the most faded as you guessed is most likely because she is at the bottom of the pecking order. In the wild males and females rarely ever come into contact with each other except when they want to breed, and as they are an agressive fish by nature, do not like been forced to be in close quarters with each other all the time. Female bettas can mix with each other quite well on the other hand, but the more females the better as it helps disperse agression between them and helps prevent any single female getting picked on too much .

Personally i would separate the male from the females, as even if they appear to be toleraterating each other for now they may get very catty/agressive with each other given time(there isn't much benefet in keeping them together either way because at the least they will just stress each other out with their presence in the tank) and get the male his own tank(betta unlike most other fish do not require filtration as long as regular water changes are done, heating though is required) of at least 2gals+- he will be very happy on his own as male bettas prefer not to have tankmates as in the wild they are very terotorial and do not socialise with other fish.
As too the females, i would just get more of them to help balance out the pecking orders, if the bettas are all you have in the tank you have alot of space to add more bettas- i think adding a minimum of at least 3 more females would be good although the more the better(as long as you dont overstock the tank of course) .
If you sort out the gender ratios/stocking in your betta community the females colors will come out alot more like the rest as bettas fade when they are stressed and the stress in this case is most likely resulting from the stocking .

A couple of notes on feeding though, i take it you are feeding them normal fish flakes? Bettas benefet much more from a diet of freezedried/frozen/live foods like tubifex, bloodworms, mosquito's and their larvae, krill and river shrimp and similar critters and occasionally cooked peas as their natural diets consist of insects and small critters found in the water in the wild and they are much better suited to eating and digesting these foods- you should be able to get these foods at your local fish store no problem if its any good .
Like most things in a fish's life, good diet is often the key to good health .

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hello...? Any news ?

 

[BumbleBeejay]

Hi again,

I ended up taking a trip to the local aquarium and purchasing two of those isolation clear perspex containers that suction cap to the side of the tank. They normally have a divider, but i thought i'd give the both of them a bit of room. Currently I have my boy in one of them, and the girl in question on the other side of the tank in the other. I've been feeding her up on brine shrimp, black worms, and pellets and she seems to be looking a lot better. I tried the pea idea, but all of them turned their noses up at it. =p

In other news, I've since purchased a crown tail female (to bolster numbers to 4) and am looking around for another girl to add to my pack. The latest girl I added to the communal tank, and she seems to be holding her own. I think i'll keep an eye on Persephone (the currently quarantined one) for the rest of the week, then release her back with the females and see what happens. As with Emielio (That's my boy), I think I might take your advice, and purchase him his own independant tank.

I'm keen to get some Lace (Pearl?) Gourami in the large communal tank when i'm satisfied that the situation at present is under control. Most likely one male with 2 or three females. My only other addition then would perhaps bea couple of Peppermint catfish, and maybe a small school of rummynose tetra (tetra optional, depending on how the community is going). As I'm new to this whole fish keeping thing, does this sound like a plausible setup? I've had mixed responses from various aquariums.

Thanks for the time spent in response to the earlier problem. It was really appreciated, and put my mind at ease having someone experienced give good solid advice. I've had probelms with mixed responses from local aquariums.

Loving the forums! =)

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Glad to help .
Im not sure on the gourami idea, im no expert on gouramis but they are closely related to bettas so im not sure if they'll get along- tetras like rummynose tetras should be fine with the female bettas, although in any tetra group you should go for at least 6, the peppermint/peppered corys/catfish should be fine with the bettas no problem, they are one of the most peaceful fish you can get, but you should go for at least 3-4, they need fine rounded gravel substrate or sand though to keep them happy so if you have large or non-rounded gravel i wouldn't really go for corys as they filter through the substrate to look for food and substate that isn't good for them can lead to bacterial infections in them.
The bettas wont be too impressed with the peas at first, although if you cut off their other foods for a bit they'll take them- too many high protein or dried foods can lead to constipation in fish you see, even if its a fairly natural diet, so its good to try and get the bettas to take some sort of veg based food once every 2-3weeks just to try and help cut down on the posibility of them getting constipation in their life times .