Over, Under, Around . . .

[Andie]

This question is aimed chiefly at MiniBow owners, though of course anybody else with a theory is welcome to jump in; I just don't understand how this happened and it's driving me nuts.

In anticipation of my trip home on Sunday I've been "jarring down"- everybody's going into the smaller bowls they'll be in over the Christmas break. Since I'm moving into the new residence right after Christmas, the more I have packed before I leave (bigger tanks, equipment and stuff) the faster the move will be. Boq and Brill, for their part, got moved from their five gal to a divided 2.5 MiniBow that will be their home for the holidays (not a homemade divider; it's the one that came with the tank. It fits into the grooves on the sides and bottom and locks in place quite solidly).

Today, however, when I hauled myself away from an essay and went to feed everybody I had to look twice- I thought it was just a reflection at first, but nope, there was Brill in with Boq, the two of them doing the "feed me" shimmy together like a pair of hungry dogs.

Fortunately they were both more interested in me than each other- not a nip out of either one of them even though they were tumbling over each other to try to get out of the water to meet the bloodworms. I popped Brill back onto his side and neither of them seemed to even realise anything had happened (although I, of course, was a nervous wreck) and I've been racking my brains for the rest of the day to figure out how on earth he did it. The divider fits snugly all around, and after this happened of course I triple checked it from every angle. There's room for maybe a penny to slide through on one side at a time; these two boys have always been a little on the small side, but they sure aren't THAT tiny! There's no clearance at the top, either, so I'm totally baffled.

Has any other MiniBow owner ever had this happen to them? If so, did you ever find out how the betta got through? There's no substrate, so would it (even in theory) be possible for them to have somehow lifted the divider up enough to wiggle underneath? I'm grasping at straws, I know, but it's driving me crazy and I want to know what I can do to the tank to keep them secured as much as possible.

 

[afireinside]

Bettas are pretty strong, they could slide through if they tried hard enough. Though, this is why I like hommade dividers better.

 

[Ethos]

Is it with the undergravel filter? If yes, than no, its not possible.
If your 2.5 is without the undergravel filter, then just maybe. Just its very unlikely..

 

[Andie]

Nope, there's no filter, undergravel or otherwise; it came with a Whisper but that seemed to upset the boys more than anything so I haven't used it in there in a while. It was a birthday gift three years ago and I've gotten a lot of mileage out of it, both as a single-fish home and for two fish with the divider, but this is the first time anything like this has happened.

http/www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3635102
<-- same model as I have

 

[Elise]

Same thing happened to me, Ula just jumped the divider into Carp's side. I had to cut a piece of plastic canvas to fit over Ula's side because he started making a habit of it. No worries, just cover the top with a piece of plastic craft canvas to where it touches the divider.

 

[Andie]

Gah that's brilliant. Or maybe it's just common sense and I'm exceptionally slow, but either way, thank you! One thing I am definitely not short on is plastic canvas. Thank you so much for the sugestion

ETA: Hah! I caught him at it! He wasn't going over, he was going under. I didn't even take them into account before, but there are two teeny tiny little troughs on either side of the divider base, about a centimetre wide and half a centimetre deep. He was actually nosing around down there and looked very confident that he could fit through it again! I guess they were never a problem for me before because none of my other males were ever as "dainty" as these two are, at least in terms of build. I've filled the troughs in with a little gravel and that should keep them both where they belong

 

[afireinside]

Ya, that's happened to me before. Quick story.
Was gone for two hours. I came home, both bettas were in the same section. Not flaring, just sitting together like they were best buds. Though I paniced inside. I quickly put the other guy back in his side, washed some new gravel and put in the new stuff.