New To Betas

[Jilly-beans mom]

Hi, I have to betas "nemo" is the male and "Dory" is the female, (my 2 year old named them).
We have had Nemo for about 2 months and he is doing great. Dory we have had for only 3 weeks and she is also fine. When I forst got Dory I just let her float in teh little cup she came in inside the fishbowl so Nemo could see her but nto hurt her, a few days later I let her free with him and things were ok, it didn;t look like Nemo was being a pest but a few days later I looked at her and some of her fins had been ripped off so I put her back in her cup in the bowl, this was last week. So she has been living in this cup for a week and doing fine but I would liek the 2 of them to live together in harmony, will that ever happen?

This morning I get up and go to feed them their bloodworms and notice that Nemo has built a pile of bubbles around the cup and the side of the bowl, he is still workign on it so I am sure he's not finished. Do you think it is now safe to put the 2 together? I assume he is wanting to mate with her which is fine I will go an dbuy fry food etc etc or whatever I need. She is a tiny little thing compared to him, she used to be just a little purple in colour on her sides but now the purple is not so bright and she has stripes running up and down her sides....not sure what happened, figure she is just getting older.

Is there a trick to gettign them to be able to live together without him ripping her fins? do they need to establish hierarchy? is this why he ripped her fins? Can male and female live togther in peace I mean is it possible? Should I just put them together and hope for the best or should I maybe put them together for short times at first until he is used to her?

 

[FishEnthusiast]

It is never advisable to put a male and female together except for breeding purposes, and then only for a short time. It will never end in peace. He can and will kill her, especially if they do breed. He will want to protect his nest and will do whatever it takes to keep her away. Are the stripes you see going from the head to the tail? I suspect so. Those are stress bars, caused by being put in with the male.

I am guessing you have a normal male in that he is a veil tail. Like the majority of the bettas in my sig. That is another reason you should not breed him. Veil tail(VT for short) are dying on pet store shelves every day. In my opinon it is irresponsible to contribute to that.

What size is the bowl? Your male should be in at least a 1G tank, preferably a 2G. Your male will bubble nest with or without a female in his tank. Mine are all alone and they all bubblenest every day.

My suggestion to you would be to go get a nice 2G tank for Dory and put beside Nemo. That way you can enjoy your fish together without worrying whether or not Nemo will kill Dory. Good luck and thanks for coming here and asking the question. You have probably saved Dory's life.

 

[catxx]

males and females can NOT co-exist in a tank.
you'll have to get a new tank for her, girls can be kept in groups of 4 (in 10gallon tank or bigger) (any less and they'll beat each other up)

 

[Jilly-beans mom]

Are the stripes you see going from the head to the tail? I suspect so. Those are stress bars, caused by being put in with the male.

No the stripes are going up an down

 

[nino]

Stripes going vertically means she is ready to mate. But I would advise against this. If you look at other people's spawn diaries, you can see it takes a lot of time and money. It's not like guppies, where you can throw in fry food and leave it at that.
It'd probably be nicer for both fish to have their own tanks, I think leaving her floating in there would eventually stress her out too much.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Don't. You might think they'll get better with time, or they'll exist peacefully, but nope. My experience-
Bought two female bettas, had suspicion one was male, but wasn't sure. As they'd lived together in the lfs, probably for a few weeks, and they might both be female, I put them both in a tank together. Fine together at first, although ignoring each other, a few hours later he has already started biting her.Moral? 98% of the time, it doesn't work, and you end up with one dead betta and one half dead betta.

 

[Synirr]

I agree with that has been said... they absolutely can't live together, and if you intend to breed them, be prepared to lose literally hundreds of dollars. Like nino said, it's not like breeding guppies... you have to raise live food for them, clean their water EVERY DAY, and house the males individually once they begin fighting, not to mention that you can easily have 200 or more fry from just one spawn. The best option is just to house them in two separate tanks/bowls, and sit them side-by-side so they can still see one-another without being able to fight. They should be in 1 gallon + containers, and their water changed once a week to keep them happy and healthy. BTW, for the female, it is absolutely essential to have a lid on the container. It's important for the male too, but with a short-finned female, if you leave the lid off I can guarantee you she will jump out sooner or later.

 

[nino]

BTW, for the female, it is absolutely essential to have a lid on the container. It's important for the male too, but with a short-finned female, if you leave the lid off I can guarantee you she will jump out sooner or later.

Synirr, is this true? Do females jump more than males in general or does it have to do with the amount of finnage? I've only lost females to jumping, but I've owned more females than males and since my last jumper I've been extremely careful with the remaining male.

 

[Synirr]

BTW, for the female, it is absolutely essential to have a lid on the container. It's important for the male too, but with a short-finned female, if you leave the lid off I can guarantee you she will jump out sooner or later.

Synirr, is this true? Do females jump more than males in general or does it have to do with the amount of finnage? I've only lost females to jumping, but I've owned more females than males and since my last jumper I've been extremely careful with the remaining male.

It has to do with finnage. Long-finned males have all those fins weighing them down so they can't jump as well. I'm very careful with my females and plakats. For example, my Aquaview tanks have a tiny 1" wide hole for you to feed the fish through, and I don't bother to block this for the long-finned males, but I plug it up with a bit of sponge for the others. I've actually had a female and a plakat male jump out through those tiny holes and die before.