hooxeii

After the passing of Iskierka, my female betta, I was saddened and not sure if I ever wanted another female betta again... it just wouldn't be the same, you know? But, I caved and decided to save another girl from a life of fishy torment and bought a lovely steel-blue female named Lily.

She's already filling a bit of the void Iskierka left... and while I'll never be able to replace either of the beautiful bettas I lost, the new ones are a reminder of how much joy they brought me and a chance to give more bettas a better life.

Lily is infatuated with the panda cory. She follows him around, looking for food he finds. She even shares food with him--I give the cory and the oto in the tank algae wafers, and she likes them too-and he lets her! They'll sit there on the bottom of the tank side by side nibbling at the wafer. She also likes to bother the otocinclus, but doesn't hurt him.

She and the ghost shrimp have a love/hate relationship. Neither are hostile to the other, but papa shrimp will chase her away from bits of food he finds--arms waving and all--and she'll chase him around the tank.

Any of your guys' bettas adopt other tank members?

Red1313

Oh she sounds like a cutie!!! Most of my betta's have lived alone, the only good story i have really is when Coolie used to go Otto hunting. Ozzi would dart somewhere and Coolie would go flaring around the tank all tough looking for the invader. But as soon as Ozzi stopped swimming Coolie couldn't see him. Coolie swim by and Ozzi would dart off and my tough little guy would whip around big as he could and go hunting in the new direction

P.S. love the pre-vet line in your sig. it's completely true

Shawnie

im so glad you rescued some new babies!! they all need a good life ....

but why would you put a female betta in a community tank after your last issues ? ...it makes no sense to go down this road again after the advice you received from our members about bettas in community tanks

hooxeii

I removed the tetras, which were the aggressive fish. The cory was never a problem and the oto and ghost shrimp are fine as well... the new girl seems to be doing well and at the first sign of trouble--meaning ANY aggressive behavior, signs of illness, etc--I will put Lily in her own tank.

I hope I've not given the impression that I'm keeping them with other fish willy-nilly. I am constantly watching the fish now--experience, sadly, is the best teacher--and will not likely introduce any more fish. I keep getting the urge to, but I'm controlling myself, and I apologize if my posts indicate otherwise. I'm really not ignoring the advice here, and I appreciate your guys' genuine concern for the fish... it's so refreshing.