killer

[corys]

my betta went for 1 female but not the other 2. it constantly nipt its fins and drove it to death.should i risk getting another female betta

 

[Valyrian]

You shouldn't be keeping males with females and females ideally should be kept in groups of 4 or more.

 

[corys]

my local fish shops all said it would be fine to keep a male with 3 females and its oaky with the other two and the males like to be kept with females

 

[Ethos]

Well they were wrong. I advise you remove all females, of the male because the male is going to fight. And win. Which means He's going to kill. Like I said, you shopuld remove one of the parties.

 

[riogal_11]

Take the male out and seperate IMMEDIATELY. And you also need to seperate the females. They will more than likely fight also. I would also suggest contacting the LFS and letting them know that they have an employee who is informing customers.

 

[Kiarra]

It is very dangerous to all parties to keep male and female Bettas together.

A male will stake out a spot to have his nest, and then he will defend it from the girls. This often means very, very violently defending it, resulting in the death of the female. This, however, is only one scenario. The presence of the male leads to competition between the females, who are trying to show the male that they are strong and fertile, and would make viable offspring. Sometimes the females will just flare at each other...and other times, they will fight mercilessly. This is why, when breeding Bettas, two females are not placed together with one male.

It is also possible to merely have an extremely aggressive male, who kills them regardless of whether or not he is "defending" a nest. On the other hand, it is also possible to have an extremely aggressive female, who kills the male or kills the other females.

Now, suppose they also bred in these numbers (it can and does happen). The male, after spawning, chases even the mother female away. Now he has EGGS in his nest, and suddenly he becomes a frantic, mildly psychotic father intent on keeping anything and everything away from his nest and his eggs. What chance do smaller (typically more docile, though not always so) females have against this suddenly hyper-aggressive male?

 

[AlexsDaddy]

It can also go the other way where the females will attack or kill the male. Please seperate them ASAP if you haven't done so already. Hopefully this experience will show you that it's always a good idea to double check fish store employees advice by doing research on the net about the fish you want to keep.