New Female Betta, No Safe Home For Her!

[kcalbat]

ok. Update.

Over an hour and a half, i acclimated her to the 44 gallon tank.

She is very passive, very sweet and completely ignores the rasboras. They, however, having not seen a fish of another species for at least a good year and were very interested. When i first released her i think one of them confused her red/green tail as a flake food and nipped but i didnt see any damage done.

She so far is just exploring the area. It worries me alittle when she swims fast through the plants and the currents. I dont want her to tire herself out and get stressed.

The rasboras randomly check her out one or two at a time, especially when she dives down or swims fastly. It scares me because i dont want them take a chunk out of her tail.

seem like normal behavior? im still curious about my previous post about food as well. Thanks for your help!

 

[Booboo puppy]

I usually fed the flake food to the Rasboras on one end of the tank, and then I put the pellets for the bettas on the other end. The bettas learn to come out from the caves and plants when it is feeding time

 

[jollysue]

Random should always be heeded!

I have girls in cycled and uncycled tanks. My sorority with 6 girls, 3 ADFs and 3 Botia straita is cycled and filtered with some strong currents. My boys are all in filtered 2.5 usg tanks. My gimpy girls are in unfiltered bowls. Bettas do fine in unfiltered tanks with weekly or bi-weekly changes for very small tanks. As a matter of fact my Miss Quasi is so tiny in her big bowl, she doesn't see fresh water once a week.

You should be able to keep the girl in either tank. As long as she can swim to the surface she will be fine. I don't know what species of Rasabora you have. None of my harlequins ever nip anything. They are the ultimate peaceniks. I would be more concerned for them than the Betta.

Any Betta pellet is fine; I like Hikari and Atison's Pro. Any freeze dried is fine, just soak it first. Any frozen is fine, defrost it first. Her favorite treats will be live. But frozen blood worm and baby brine shrimp will delight her. I don't buy frozen in the little bricks, but I suppose you could chip a bit off and not use the whole thing. Once a week fast her a day, then feed her a bit of mushed blanched pea for her tummy and digestion. We have not yet developed cod liver oil for the piggy Bettas yet. They can not be trusted to eat what is best for them.

Oops! I see you said harlequins. Don't worry about them. They will most likely be ignored, unless your girl gets a wild hair and goes whako. They can't hurt her and wouldn't.

 

[kcalbat]

thank you jollysue for the helpful information!

so far so good, she completly ignores the harlequins and often runs from their activity. One or twice one nipped but i think they confused her for flake food because they didnt continue (guess she didnt taste so good!) They have stopped checking her out so i guess they are used to her now.

Feeding time was pretty crazy but she was right in the middle of the school. Everytime she went for a piece of food a rasbora snatched it up leaving her pretty dazed and confused! She managed to eat one flake...haha.

It took her about 3 times to finally catch a hikari betta pellet (some rasboras are enjoying betta food...hungry little buggers). Shes learned not to run from my hand but rather follow it real closely and wait for me to drop her pellet....smart girl!

i still want her to stay in my more mellow 10gallon but i need the filter to mature so i can switch her over. I just think that will be better for her.

About the peas: do they need to be frozen peas? how to i cook them? for how long? Will it be ok to fast my rasboras as well and feed them peas too?

thanks again!

 

[jollysue]

Well, I am lazy and nuke a few frozen peas. They should just be tender so they will smush between your fingers. Then smush them real good so that they dissolve a lot in the water. Your Rasaboras will go right for them. But they will only be able to get the tiny dusty pieces. Your lady will most likely grab a big old piece at some time and carry it around. Bettas are such piggies with eyes bigger than their tummies!

Most fish need some green in their diet. I don't worry much about the planted tanks, but the unplanted ones need at least a piece of algae tab. And many won't take it if they get the other. I think the Rasaboras will be ok with a fast day, although if the lady likes her pea, it may be enough--especially if she is getting daphnia too--to just have a pea day.

It's easy to catch the OMBSyndrome. They are likable characters--as are most Betta lovers!

I don't think the harlequins have much nip to them, but I could be wrong.