Something Strange..... And Bad!

[guppy2002]

my betta,chase, has been living peacefully with my guppies.he never attacks or even chases anymore.i thought thing were going great, so I could add more fish......oops.

my 3 mosquito fish live in a 8g with no filter.i wanted to try and add them to the guppy/betta tank. the only thing l was worried about was the mosquitoes attacking the guppies. so l decided to add only 1 at first. l acclimated her, while l was doing so, she must have jumped out of her container! i searched the tank but couldn't find her at first. the other fish acted normal. l left in hopes of her coming out while l was away.I looked for the little fish again and finally found her in the little cave thing.terrified.i thought she was just scared of the new surroundings. l checked on her a little later to find both Chase and the mosquito in the cave.

Chase was ATTACKING!!!

  i quickly removed the mosquito fish and put her back in the old tank.Chase instantly relaxed.he swam right by the guppies without a care in the world. why did he attack the other fish

 

[ncguppy830]

my betta,chase, has been living peacefully with my guppies.he never attacks or even chases anymore.i thought thing were going great, so I could add more fish......oops.

my 3 mosquito fish live in a 8g with no filter.i wanted to try and add them to the guppy/betta tank. the only thing l was worried about was the mosquitoes attacking the guppies. so l decided to add only 1 at first. l acclimated her, while l was doing so, she must have jumped out of her container! i searched the tank but couldn't find her at first. the other fish acted normal. l left in hopes of her coming out while l was away.I looked for the little fish again and finally found her in the little cave thing.terrified.i thought she was just scared of the new surroundings. l checked on her a little later to find both Chase and the mosquito in the cave.

Chase was ATTACKING!!!

  i quickly removed the mosquito fish and put her back in the old tank.Chase instantly relaxed.he swam right by the guppies without a care in the world. why did he attack the other fish

Bettas are aggressive in nature, thats all really.what your were seeing was two aggressive fish match up with each other.Also you betta was used to the guppies, the Gambusia you added was new to the tank and the betta didnt like it.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

The cave may have also been part of his "territory" and the Mosquito Fish "invaded".

 

[becketlady]

Betta does not like new addition to his/her territory. Try setting up a new tank and add all of them. Or.....try changing the things inside the tank around to confuse the Betta. I did to my son's king male betta as he killed some. I changed his tank around inside and he did not do it again. 

 

[tunagirll]

Sounds like he was defending his territory - like becketlady said, best way to fix this is to rearrange his tank so that his 'territory' is gone. With all the fish in there together in a rearranged tank, you are more likely to be successful in getting him to settle and accept your new fish.

 

[ncguppy830]

On another note i suggest you dont keep the mosquito fish with the bettas. Both are aggresive and most likely it will end up bad in the end.

 

[guppy2002]

I got rid of the mosquito fish. just dumped them back into the pond!