harold

Harold has been terrorizing Sheldon all night. He will sit right next to him waiting for an opportunity to take a nip at Sheldon. I'm in no position right now to be purchasing another tank/heater/filter to separate them. Kids wouldn't be too happy if I returned Sheldon to the store. So now what?

Any ideas to get a grumpy ol' Betta to live in harmony with a snail?

chickadee

Harold may just not be a betta who will tolerate any tankmates. It is unfortunate but some bettas are like that. You see, they are raised with no other fish or tankmates at all in with them and they do not realize that they must share their water.

The only thing I have heard that even may help is to remove Harold from the tank and put him in a cup of tank water for a few minutes while you rearrange the decorations and all in the tank and make it look totally different. Sheldon can stay in the tank, in fact he HAS to stay. Then before Harold gets totally cold put him in a baggie and float him and reacclimate him to the tank temperature and let him back into the tank. Hopefully, he will think he has gone to a new home and must establish a new territory and get along with the new neighbors.

This is my only suggestion. I do know that he cannot hurt Sheldon as Sheldon will just pull into his shell if he is tired of Harold being a bully and ignore him. Snails will not put up with it. They just ignore it. Harold will take a flying leap at Sheldon one of these times and find that the shell is HARD and that should be the end of that! But he will have to learn the hard way if the rearrangement of his tank does not work. The only other way is to get a small tank and seperate them and you already have said that this does not work for you at present. But do not discount Sheldon's ability to care for himself. He is able to handle Harold okay.

Rose

harold

So far so good.

I rearranged the tank as much as I could (2.5 gallon) and changed out the substrate from gravel to small river rocks. I'm not home to keep an eye out but so far there hasn't been any bullying. I fully expect Harold to go back to his bullying self after awhile but I think Sheldon will be just fine.

Thanks Rose!

chickadee

Oh, okay. Now one thing though. You probably threw away half of the progress in your cycle when you discarded the substrate and replaced it. The gravel in your aquarium or rock or whatever you use is the next most prominent place for the bacteria to grow and fluorish on other than the filter. This is why they say you can "seed" a new tank with a sock full of gravel from a cycled tank.

It is done now, but I would recommend that you do not do anymore decorations discarding at least until after your cycle is established.

I am glad that Harold has toned down a bit. The only other cause that may be the problem if he starts up again is that technically the tank is full with just the betta in a 2.5 gallon tank. He could be feeling crowded with Sheldon there and is reacting to the close quarters. He will get along okay, really especially since you do not mind doing the water changes necessary to keep the water quality up. You may the problem licked though so I would hope that he will be a good boy for you.

You can scold your betta and if he is trying to be your pal he will at least listen to you. I do it all the time. Sometimes the behavior is improved and sometimes they tell me, "tough". But they can tell from your voice when you are happy with them and when you are wanting them to do something other than what they are doing. Put your hand flat on the front of the tank and talk to him several times a day if you can and he will get to know you and your voice and soon he will react to you.

Rose

Barbrella

There's no way you can keep a mystery snail in a 2.5 gallon tank. They grow huge, eat a lot and make big messes which will foul the water. They need large filtered tanks.

I suggest you take the snail back to the store. If you really want a snail, get a small one like a Zebra Nerite, which are also great algae eaters.

Some bettas (like one of mine) just won't tolerate any living creature in their tanks, and can bite the antennae off snails, or hurt them in other ways by not allowing them to come out of their shells long enough to eat.

Drea

I second that post...Snails are very messy-big bioload critters. I like the MTS better

COBettaCouple

True, snails put out a lot of waste. As soon as it's possible to do so, I'd recommend a bigger tank for Sheldon. With that size tank, it will be hard to cycle it with Sheldon and hard to maintain the cycle when you get it. Daily water changes of 25-40% may be necessary while they share that tank. The water chemistry being off can open the door to fish disease for Harold - Prime is definitely the tap water conditioner for that tank.