You ate my guppies and a Mollies!?!

[spanky_pp_]

Im thinking of expanding my tank, for years and years i have had mollies and guppies. I would go to good aquatic pets stores when i was younger, and see the siamese fighter fish, and think they were devine darling devine.
I would stand in the humid dark aquatic centres thinking, i dont want a fat boring goldfish, i want one of those. I was always told by my parents, no sweetheart, theyre to difficult to look after! SO i left with the crappy goldfish.
My questions iare, Are Siamese fighter fish difficult to look after?
Will they attack my guppies, Mollies, Swordtails and Platies?
I dont wanna look at my new fighter purchase and think, You ate my guppies and mollies!?!
Why do i always see only one fighter in each tank? Do they doh doh doh Fight?
What conditions or special treatment do they like?
all help will be brilliant............

 

[fishy buisness]

i was also finkin of gettin some more stuff for my tank and was thinkin about a fighter i think they are ok with all fish, and dont mind what conditions they have. Well that wat i heard. bye

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

from what I've heard, as long as you have a shallow tank, and only 1 male, they aren't hard to keep (with routine matenance). just in case you dont know,the mails are the ones with the large flowing fins. females are more bland and have smaller fins, but if you keep a male with a couple females, they should breed after a while.
one a note of percausion, I have seen many stores that have been advertising "peace bowls" in which a betta is placed into a vase and then had a plant jammed in above him. The pet store will tell you they thrive in this enviroment and live off of the plant roots. this is however incorrect. betta's are mainly carnivourous and should be fed meaty food like krill and shrimp pellets.
anyways, no, they will not eat your mollies, for they are mostly smaller than mollies.
some special treatments would be to have a large air pocket at the top of your tank. bettas are laberinth fish and breath air from the surface.
how big is your fish tank?
It seems strange that your parent would o nly let you get goldfish, because goldfish get 10" long and are messy and quickly poisen themselves without any attention. Betta's are less polutant and big.

 

[Alien Anna]

Bettas (Siamese Fighting Fish) are wonderful fish but they aren't great community fish. They are not particularly compatible with guppies (they mistake the guppies tails for miniture male bettas and attack them) and mollies are very dominant fish (as are bettas) which can lead to some clashes.

However, bettas, being anti-social fish, actually do very well in a small tank on their own and this is the perfect opportunity to take the next step in your fish-keeping career: a second tank. A little 5 gallon would be absolutely fine with a silk or live plant. You can go for a slightly bigger tank and have a few gentle tank-mates (some small tetras, otto catfish, corys or whatever you fancy) but bettas all have their own personality and they aren't all willing to share.

Be warned that "Just getting a little tank with a betta" is the way most of us started to get MTS (Multiple Tank Syndrome) and it is the slippery slope.

Bettas are definitely "personality fish". A betta is a pet much more than a school of danios or some tetras, or even a goldfish and so you will be likely to develop a betta addiction that you may never recover from (you already have the symptoms even though you've never actually owned a betta).

One more thing, purple-blue "moggies" are gorgeous but if you want a truly spectacular betta it pays to shop around and get them direct from a breeder. Oh - and don't forget to cycle your tank!

 

[cassandra]

i got a male betta in my fish tank about a month ago and put him in my tank with all my mollies etc.. they are doing really well.
when i got him i asked the same questions about him, will he eat them etc... and my friend i was with at the time said " i was crazy.. " but i got him anyways and said to my self i hope this works, i put him in the tank, he flared at the other mollies, and fishies and that was it
i was scared for the other fishies, but a few days later i relaxed and now they all swim together and everything. they are all best friends.
spanky pp if you really want one go for it, but stand there and keep a eye out, and if he hurts the other fish then take him out or go to the store and get the in the tank betta tanks there neat!! you'll know what i'm talking about when you see them.
im not sure what they are called. they are not that much, and you can still have the betta in your tank, but if you know the differents between male and female betta's get a female there less agressive,
cassandra

 

[Alien Anna]

The thing is, Cassandra, that was what I was saying about all bettas having their own unique personality. None of my bettas have been vicious, but Sumo my last betta couldn't have a giant apple snail in his tank because he'd try to eat it! Bruce, OTOH, ignores snails completely.

We've had people on the forum who's bettas attacked mollies (and mollies who attacked bettas). We've had people with bettas so vicious they couldn't live harmoniously with anything, and others who've kept bettas with guppies or even other (female) bettas without incident. So you can't really say anything definite about what a particular betta will do.

What you can say is that you need to keep a close eye on any betta in a community setting until you are confident its working. I have a betta living in a 12 gal tank with a school of black neons, cherry barbs and some snails and I've absolutely no problems whatsoever, but I wouldn't assume that every betta can live like that. Fortunately, since they can live in a small tank, you always have the option to set up a betta tank if the community tank idea fails.

 

[cassandra]

yah your right, it all depends on the fish, and just telling my story and my betta was fine with all them and their best friends

 

[spanky_pp_]

You are my first forum helpers thankyou. Great information and ideas.
Ive got the urge to go and buy one now, but its 1.15 am in the morning, and not all aquatic cetres are open at this time.

Im going to get a male and a female betta, and try and breed them. I also want to get s few rosy barbs i think they are called. IS that a goos or bad idea..?

Thanks again youve made my day.xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[Guppy_molly_lover]

They are really easy to take care of! i have had 3 at one time befor but they have ben seperated becouse YES they fight with each other! and i have ben told they do go after like guppys and other fish like that!

 

[tribalsilver_shark]

hello may i just add to what alien anna has said which is totaly right but
just to add you shouldnt really keep more then 1 fighter in a tank as
the male will ALLWAYS kill another male .also in the end he will even kill the female fighter

Temperament: Generally peaceful. DO NOT keep more than one male fighter in the same tank as they will spread their fins, flare their gills and kill each other. DO NOT keep male fighters with female fighters unless breeding is intended as the male will kill the female. Several females can be kept together. Male Fighters should not be kept with species that have large fins such as the Angelfish.

p.s my fiance is bristolian where you @

 

[toni99]

I disagree with most of your other replys I had 2 male fighting fish in with all of my tropical fish nothing was killed I still have them now your best bet if you want to put two in together buy them at the same shop and try to get them as young as possible coz the chaances are if they are from the same shop they will be from the same order of fish so they will most likely have been together anyway.
If you buy 1 then the other later I would not put them together I think that males kill the females more than what they kill males especially after the female has spawned. but it is up to you. An idea if you want to is to get 2 fighting fish and put them into 2 jars right beside each other you will tell by thier behaviour if they try to fight through the glass they will do the same thing in the tank but if they don't fight through the glass they should be fine in together!!!!!!

 

[fuman_chica]

A good tankmate for bettas are African Dwarf Frogs (dwarf, not clawed...there is a difference!!). They get along very well, and both breathe air from the surface, not the water, so you don't need the air stone stuff in the tank with them (unless you have other fish in there).

I have had my betta in with my frogs for about 3 1/2 weeks, and they get along GREAT!!! I put them in a tank together because neither one will eat the others food, so that way, I know everyone gets fed.

I had my betta in with the frogs and my mollies, but one of the females (Sunshine) has a problem with thinking she needs to eat everything in the tank and so she tried eating his fins when I first put my betta in. She didn't bite him after that though...he started chasing her everytime she came near him. She pretty much left him alone after that. But the mollies ate my betta's food, and the frogs' food, so I took out the betta and the frogs and put them in a small tank together.

 

[canis_lupus]

that's in really rare cases tho.......but cool anyways! my male bettas hate anything near their tank......even thermometers! it all depends on the betta u get and it's pretty hard to ask them to describe their personalities!!!!!! i had a betta eat all my guppies but i think i'll try a betta with mollies or platies!
-be warned if u buy a betta u might end up with 2 or 3.......i'm currently at 3 and possibly getting a forth )

 

[ramesses]

I have already told this story before but,I will tell it again to those who haven't read it.So.....I have this 55 gall tank with only a pleco and a cory and I decided it was time to introduce some fish.I went on line and got me the most beautiful betta,straight from Thailand,their homeland.Faraon(that's spanish for pharaoh)Got home a week after winning his auction.For about two months he was the king of the fish tank,swimming around,doing what he pleased,I even taught him to take fish pellets from my fingers---a trick that many of my friends were very impressed with----.Anyhow,one day I introduced some fancy guppies to Faraon's fish tank,and belive me,he was'nt too happy about it.He ran after the males,but being slower he couldn't catch'em.After a few days he got used to the new guys and everything "seemed" to be OK. One morning I woke up ready to go to work and as I feed them I realized one of the male guppies was at the bottom of the tank on its side breathing really heavy and what's even more puzziling,part of its delta tail was missing.Two days latter the same story, I woke up and found another dying male at the bottom of the tank but,this time I looked at Faraon with a chunk of the guppy's tail in his mouth.Now I know what had happened........Faraon could not chase them during the day while they were awake but,at night he would catch them and then....Well, you can imagine what happened next.
Now I keep him in a 3 gall tank,he's once again the king of his domain,his only roommate is a cory which he gets along with.My friends always ask me how come I don't keep Faraon in the big tank with the rest of my fish and I always reply..."'Cause I know better."
So you see,it could be dangerous to keep them with fancy guppies or any other fish with nice fins,they might end up belly up.

 

[Alien Anna]

I disagree with most of your other replys I had 2 male fighting fish in with all of my tropical fish nothing was killed I still have them now your best bet if you want to put two in together buy them at the same shop and try to get them as young as possible coz the chaances are if they are from the same shop they will be from the same order of fish so they will most likely have been together anyway.
If you buy 1 then the other later I would not put them together I think that males kill the females more than what they kill males especially after the female has spawned. but it is up to you. An idea if you want to is to get 2 fighting fish and put them into 2 jars right beside each other you will tell by thier behaviour if they try to fight through the glass they will do the same thing in the tank but if they don't fight through the glass they should be fine in together!!!!!!

You are the only person I've ever heard of who would even consider keeping two males together. I suspect you've been lucky with the personality of your bettas and if most people tried this they'd end up with dead bettas. I would not recommend people to try it - I think this is dangerous advice.

I would also not recommend keeping two bettas in jars next to each other (I wouldn't keep a betta in a jar anyway, personally). The stress of displaying to one another could kill them and its not fair.