Savage female

[Lee1]

I bought a new male Betta the other day after not having one in my aquarium for a couple of months. I checked on him about 15 minutes after letting him out of his bag and he was floating on his side with no anal fin, half a tail fin and literally 'chunks' missing from his head. I immeadiatly deduced that the culprit of the savage assault was my female Betta (due to the 2cm of blue anal fin hanging from her mouth!). So, a couple of questions:
1. Is it common for females to turn on new females?
2. When I get another male she will be removed from the tank, will it be possible to reintroduce her to the aquarium and if so after how long?

 

[Lee1]

Question one was supposed to read new males not females!

 

[Dorkhedeos]

first of all, you arent supposed to keep male betta with any other betta. second, that "female" might not even be a female. it is probably a male plakat, which is a short finned betta. a male betta will always attack first. who told you that you can keep female betta with male, i hope it wasnt the employees of the fish shop. if they didnt tell you and thought it would be ok, do some research before you put 2 of the same fish together that are known to be aggresive.

 

[Lee1]

Thanks for the advice, it looks like I've been completely misinformed. The female is definatly a female, I've got two. They were bought at the same time as my first male from the same fish shop who informed me that it was better to have a couple of females with a male because it makes him flair and show off. The three got on great until a case of fin rot hit the male a couple of months ago, then everything went nuts when I got a new male.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

the fish store risked the lives of 3 fish to sell 2 more fish? that is just wrong. now that you know, separate the male. when you bought the female, were they in one big tank together with other female betta? easy way to know if the fish store is lying or not is to look at their tanks, if they tell you something that they dont do, they are lying.

 

[Lee1]

The fish store I use always has lots of females, they keep them all together in about three different tanks, the males are all seperate from other males but their is always one in each of the female tanks, which is why I beleived them. Pretty much gutted that he was battered by a girl though!

 

[newfishies]

sorry to hear about your troubles! male and betta females will fight each other, just like 2 males would...definitely not advisable to keep them together!

 

[cation]

Also, it's not advisable to keep girls in groups of less then four. They can get really nasty, and may turn on each other. Four or more spreads out the agression.