Tank Question

[beta 1991]

Hey! One of my neighbors has a 20 gal tank and has 1 male betta, 2 female bettas, 2 platties, 1 male swordtail, & 1 albino corydoras. His male betta has been losing much of his back fin. I told him that the betta could be causing fish like the swordtail to get in fights w/ him. I also thought that the swrodtails were plain nippy in their nature, and are not the best choice of fish to put in with fish that have long, graceful fins like the betta.

Am I right?

 

[Jules H-T]

If I were you, I'd re-post this in the main forum, it'll get a wider audience.

There is in fact a specialised Betta forum FULL of experts. Good luck, and welcome to TFF!

My personal gut feeling is that it'd be the females, but I'm far from sure.

 

[rdd1952]

There are a couple of problems in that tank. First, you can't keep male and female bettas together unless they are breeding and then they must be seperated as soon as the eggs are laid. You are almost assured correct bout the fighting. I'm surprised that the male betta hasn't killed the females yet. Second, bettas aren't good community fish period. They can get nipped by other fish and they also don't generally like a lot of water flow so the filter may be too strong causing the male to be stressed. Depending on the decorations in the tank, he cold be tearing or ripping his tail on those. If the tail has a black edge, it could be finrot caused by stress or bad water conditions.

 

[beta 1991]

Thankyou so much! I'll tell him this right away.