Shredded Male

[Fly258]

I have a 120 litre community tank, one of the residents is Tyson, my beautifull fighting fish, the most docile and friendly fish you could wish for.
About 3 months ago I decided to add a female to keep him company. The proviso with my LFS was I could bring the female back if she did not get on with Tyson. Happily they completely ignored each other and all was sweetness and light until a couple of days ago, when the female started "having a go" at Tyson. I woke up this morning to find Tysons beautifull tail and fins shredded. The female was immediately banged up in the breeding net to protect Tyson and give him some peace and quiet.
My question is...............
What went wrong!!!?
Regards
Jim

 

[wetwetwet]

Deffinately a strange one this,

I though it was normally the male that would go for the female???

 

[LiquidLife]

Both male and female bettas can be aggressive and that's why usually males are housed in separate tanks. A female betta will often aggressively attack a disinterested male when she's ready to breed but he's not. I've even heard of bettas tearing off the lips of other bettas. Any time you put a male and female in the same tank, you have to be prepared for something happening--doesn't mean it always will, only usually it will. Consider yourself lucky because bettas have been known to kill another betta. I had one perfectly healthy female that was attacked and killed by 2 other tankmate females one night who took a suddenly dislike to her. Female bettas can often be kept together (although there's always going to be seriously nasty females that need to be isolated), but a male and female in the same tank will always need to be closely watched so you can jump in when things turn mean.