Insane

[Faia Betta]

I just stopped by a friend's place to try and find out what's wrong with my male betta - he appeared to have cloud eye but it's affecting only one eye???

Anyways, as I was waiting for my companion to get home - he works - I noticed the current situation in his 5 gal.


Usually, every other time, I come here he has two females and a 1 male betta in a divided tank --- he does regular water changes and has a fully fuctioning filter in there --- ammonia and everything is down at 0.

But when I stopped by this time, I noticed that the divider was gone so I instantly thought oh no someone's gone up and died on him.

However upon approaching the tank I noticed that
A) the three fish were all there
B) the male was swimming amongst the females & actually IGNORING them - he'll flare & chase but it's all half hearted

When my friend got home I asked him what the heck he thought he was doing and he explained what occured.


First off, since he's kept them all together - via the divider --- they've known each other for about 2-3 weeks
Yet 2 1/2 days ago the divider ripped when he was doing a water change at the nighttime - something he didn't notice until the morning after and he found that the girls had wriggled through the rip and into the half where the male was.
After an hour of observation - including scooping them out and checking for ripped fins etc he found that no there was nothing wrong with any of the fish
And they've been like that ever since

So that's 2 1/2 days of 1 male betta & 2 females living together

I've checked the fish myself, and they are perfectly fine...
And the strange thing is, is that the tank isn't even well planted --- there's 2 plastic plants attached near the water level.

Odder still is the fact that come feeding time all three INCLUDING THE MALE will use the feeder ring to eat.





Maybe it's a fluke... but it's still amazing

 

[wuvmybetta]

amazing though it may be- it's most likely temporary. If the male decides he wants to breed, the females may begin to bicker with each other- or maybe not. Ya just never can tell with bettas, they're all so unique.
Best wishes to your friend and his bettas At least his situation is simple enough, for now, if all heck breaks loose he can just throw the dividers back in.

As for the cloud eye, I firmly believe that some clean water and good food is the best medicine. Perhaps he is blind in one eye? I have a male like that (I suspect he suffered injury from a sibling at a young age), when you look in his eye it's cloudy yet seems to go on forever while the other eye is fine.

 

[jourdy288]

Whoa! Any pics?

 

[I Love my fishies]

In most cases (not all but most) the male and females will live happily together but whe they Spawn and the male is protecting the eggs he will kill anyone around and that includes the female.

 

[leec]

Hiya

I have often kept males, one at a time, with multiple females, without any probs. It does depend on the fish though, so it doesnt always work. If the male is in the presence of several females, he will not (usually) chase properly and rip the girlies and try to breed. I have never seen an attempted chase/embrace/spawn in such a mixed tank. However, as soon as you remove all the girls except one, or remove the male and one female to another tank - the chase and spawn is on! Its like the male and a female wont attempt breeding unless they have privacy, but in reality the other females would probably interfere and disrupt the spawning process so the would-be couple dont bother trying. I cant be a typical male and say the disruption is due to jealous females, it probably stems from a desire for the females genes to be passed on and not anothers, just like the whole alpha male thing in species that form herds/groups etc.

I have often seen females jump the divider and start chasing/spawning with the male, but then the other girls invade too and the process stops immediately. If the other girls aint getting it they make sure the first one doesnt either! They seem quite happy to mooch around the males section once no seduction with another female is happening

Hope this waffle helps
Lee

 

[branjie]

I'm wondering what people are using for dividers. If it can rip, it probably wasn't suitable. My dividers are 3mm thick and as stiff as glass (but stronger). There's just no way a fish could get through.

Having said that, it sounds like it's possible for these fish to get along o.k. But I'd be keeping a very close eye on them. I'd probably replace the divider so I could relax.

 

[gurnie]

I had a boy and a girl co-exist after having them divided for several months.

They never spawned, but got along fine since the boy was very mellow.

I dunno, just happens.

 

[Luketendo]

Maybe they've been looking at each other the whole time and got used to each other?

Probably totally wrong though.

 

[jourdy288]

Probably right though. Males in divided tanks flare and are mad but soon settle down.

 

[monica]

I have had my male and female bettas together for a couple days now... at first, the male chased, but never nipped except maybe once (when he just couldn't help himself) He just poses, doesn't want to fisght, or make her scared really, but she is. So when he saw her afraid, he sort of gave up chasing, with only a random flare every once in a while. He allowed his bubblenest to scatter, and now the female can swim by his nose without him reactiong, or with only a minimal half-a-second flare.

I don't know if this is normal?

 

[jourdy288]

Yeah, perfectly normal. Sometimes spawns go like that.

 

[afishdude]

he didnt say anything about spawning...

 

[Amunet]

I would still never do it.
My betta Raj and Afia that share a 10gal have been divided in the tank ever since I got them and I would NEVER let them together.
I'm just too paranoid to ever try to see if they'd get along.
Plus I see how they act towards one another through the divider.
They play with eachother, but they both flare a heck of alot at one another.

I'm sure there are some bettas that could live together just fine, but I just wouldn't risk it.

 

[AJGray]

yeah my two boys are in same tank but seperate and theres no way id take divider out, parma would tear stripe apart

and i seen what my females did to a male that we thought was a female