Help! Please! 1st Visit To This Website.

[ibbledibble]

if the stripes run the length of the body (from head to tail) they are stress stripes. if they run over the body of the fish (from back to belly)they are whats know as breeding bars (but these appear to actually just be a sign of submission as young males will often show them when within sight of a more dominant male)

please listen to what people have told you regarding separating the male. it is VERY likely that the dead male and 2 dead females you have already got were caused by keeping them together. i have seen the damage that can be caused in these situations (i was sold a short fin male as a female by mistake and had it in my sorority tank, i lost 3 females, just before it bred with another female in the tank) although in some cases they will get along fine together for long periods, they can turn on each other in an instant, if one of them is feeling grumpy and the other is pestering them, that could be it! Dead!

breeding bettas is a complex process, which usually requires conditioning for at least 2 weeks followed by controlled introduction of the male and female (so they can see each other but not touch) followed by release of the female, who is then removed as soon as the mating is completed. once the fry are free swimming (about 3 days) they require regular feeds with live foods such as microworms (the cultures for these smell and are not pleasant, especially for the squeamish) once the fry reach about 2 months old, the males will need separating into separate tanks for each fish, which must be heated and have 100% of the water changed on a daily (or more frequent) basis. are you prepared to do all this? for maybe 200 fish?
also bear in mind that nesting males get even more aggressive than normal, and in the unlikely event that they were to breed in the biorb, your guppies and tetras etc would probably all end up dead

if your husband will not accept another tank in the shop, then i would suggest you try and rehome the male with somebody local who can provide the conditions he requires. tetras and guppies are notorious fin nippers and really not good tankmates for a betta, what do his fins look like? are the ends torn and ragged?

sorry to sound harsh, but you have been given good advice on here and have chosen to ignore it

you cannot watch them every second of every day.

 

[vinylman]

Have you tried posting in the betta section about the bettas? They were really useful for me
My lfs told me that a male and female betta would be fine, I added them to my community tank and they just hid at the bottom. Whenever they moved they got fin nipped.

I think the best thing for bettas is a seperate tank, I have a 10 gallon divided for the two. They seem much better in this. And they don't appear to be bothered about being alone, they can see each other through the divider. I say this because even the female in my community tank was getting fin nipped

It would help to buy a standard tank, but we havn't all got the money So if you can't afford a new tank you can easily make the biorb work, as people have already advised you. Good luck! but definately ask the 'experts' about the bettas in the betta section!

Thanks!! My Husband decided to put the male back in the biorb last night! He decided that the hosp tank was too small and he didn't want another tank - he's had enough of the biorb!! Therefore i have got the male and female Betta in there, 6 x guppies (all male) and 5 x silver tipped tetras. Anyway... I am keeping a very, very close eye on them at the moment. To be honest they do both seem absolutely fine and happy - they are swimming around fine and eating, and they have been in there together for about 4 months (although as i have recently lost the 2 other females, this is the first time they have been in there as a pair only). I haven't seen any sign of aggression between them or the other fish - yet! It would be fantastic if i could keep them together, so i am going to keep a close eye. I purhased a book called 'What Fish'. It states in there that you can keep either a pair, or one male to 2 - 3 females? I don't know if anyone else has kept a male and female together successfully, but would be great to hear if they have. Fingers very crossed that this works out - if i do see any sign of a prob then i will put my foot down and buy him a seperate tank!! Any thoughts???

You seem to have gone back to exactly what you were doing before, despite everything people have advised you. The same thing WILL happen again. Stress will weaken a fishes system and leave it open to diseases; please take the Guppies and Silver Tips back to the shop, along with one of the Bettas. It WILL happen again. This needs to be sorted quickly.

 

[iankent]

You seem to have gone back to exactly what you were doing before, despite everything people have advised you. The same thing WILL happen again. Stress will weaken a fishes system and leave it open to diseases; please take the Guppies and Silver Tips back to the shop, along with one of the Bettas. It WILL happen again. This needs to be sorted quickly.

there are probably a lot of exceptions to this rule, and it is possible that everything would turn out fine, BUT - loopy1, you are taking one hell of a big risk if you do. people on here have given advice, and if you choose to leave things as they are, then only you are to blame if things do go wrong

good luck with whatever you choose though!