Boo Hooo!!

[layla]

I need help!
I have had my fish for about 2 months. hes been swimming happily without no problems. But i felt he looked abit lonely! So i bought him 2 friends (females of course).
At the same time, i also bought a male and female Red Neon Gourami.
As they were new fish, i put them into the tank to climatise and my fighter started to go mad at the Gourami. He was puffing out and displaying his fins.
I didnt think nothing of it, but when i released them into the tank, he started to chase the Gourami's and trying to attack them. Then he turned on the females and any other fish that went near him.
I had to fish out a dead tetra.
Please help me, what shall i do. Im stuck!
Also, ive put my fighter into a floating breeding tank. I know hes unhappy and dont know what to do.

 

[canarsie11]

How big is your tank?

 

[layla]

my tank is 37 gallons i only have about 42 fish ( molly's tetra's platy's a couple of ghost cory's gourmi's and the fighter's) there is enough cover and plant life, when i bought the gourami and female fighters the person at the store didnt say anything about the chance of my male going crazy so i didnt think about it im stumped.

 

[kaley822]

isnt 42 fish a lot for 37 gallons?

 

[nutter]

a 37 gallon is pretty big though but it might be slightly over stocked, maybe section of a part of the tank, say 4 gallons? and put the fighter in there, thats what i do, hope it helped

 

[heresmike]

Am I understanding right that you added 2 female bettas into a tank with one male betta? I'm not a betta expert, but I thought I heard you aren't supposed to mix males and females unless they're spawning.

I guess if I were you I would buy a small tank for the male betta. Either that or see if you can return the new fish and put the male back in the tank, but that's not a guarantee that he won't go berserk again.

 

[3lfangor]

Your male betta is territorial. Bout 5-10 cm radius (depending on height) of territory in a tank with other fishes. The thing about guramies and bettas is that they are both colorful and perhaps your betta mistaken it for another colorful male? Another thing is not to store smaller fishes with male bettas. I use guppies to excercise my bettas (if you catch my drift). Male bettas are best kept solitary.

 

[s6king]

There are only a few fish that are compatable with bettas. Your best bet is to find some reading on them if you want them in an aquarium. If you want to breed a betta there is a special way to do it. Bettas live in puddles (stagnating water) in the wild. they jump from puddle to puddle (reason why you see lids on betta Jars at the fish shop. To breed the male has to be Happy. you can tell when he is happy beacuse he makes bubbles at the top of the Bowl he lives in. when there are a lot of bubbles take him out put in a female let her lay eggs remover her put the male back in let him fertilize the eggs then remove him (he may eat the eggs). It is not wise to put males and females together as they will fight also. Good Luck.

 

[heresmike]

... when there are a lot of bubbles take him out put in a female let her lay eggs remover her put the male back in let him fertilize the eggs then remove him (he may eat the eggs). ...

Are you sure about that? Never heard of that method of spawning before!

Everything I read about spawning bettas follows the process in this thread.

 

[Morrgan]

Am I understanding right that you added 2 female bettas into a tank with one male betta? I'm not a betta expert, but I thought I heard you aren't supposed to mix males and females unless they're spawning.

You can keep a male with females, but the tank has to be large, over 25 gal. It also needs to be full of plants and hideouts (think "jungle"). I've kept a male and females together on several occasions, it works well if you realise their nature and don't try it in a tank that's too small. If you want tankmates, they have to be few and carefully selected.

In this case though, the tank sounds too overstocked and it also has other gouramis, so I'm not surprised that it didn't work.

 

[xXMrBonesXx]

when there are a lot of bubbles take him out put in a female let her lay eggs remover her put the male back in let him fertilize the eggs then remove him (he may eat the eggs).

the male has to squeeze the eggs out....