dvc_r

We have someone in our fish club that purchase and breed bettas direct from Thailand. My wife just bought two the other night so I had to run around trying to set up a suitable home for them. I had an 8 gal tank that I split and pulled out some substrate, deco and filter that I had tucked away from last year.

I thought that the clear divider which has tiny holes which would obscure the view between each side, but the two Males still can see each other and they spend most the day flaring and trying to nip through the plastic. Will this be detrimental to them? Don't get me wrong, the flaring is breathtaking! But will the constant flaring harm them. They're so beautiful, I want to prevent any problems before it's too late.

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Shawnie

wow beautiful boys!!!!!!!! give them a few days to calm down ..its normal for now...you can get some bushy taller silk plants to cover some of the view....if in 3-4 days they are still in a tough guy war, you might have to buy a dark piece of crafting plastic mesh to put in front of the clear one...congrats!!!!!!

bolivianbaby

Oh, wow! They're gorgeous! Congratulations!

DrGueedo

Yeah they will eventually calm down. I use to put a mirror against my betta tank when i had one to get him to flare up. He eventually caught on and didnt flare...well not has much lol I miss my betta sushi

ABCDemily

Golly! They are B-E-A-UTIFUL! They will calm down eventually, they'll probably forget each other in the end, let alone flare! Brilliant buy!

Martinismommy

They are never going to stop so you better send them to me! lol....They are gorgeous...Flaring is a natural part of being a Betta male...

dvc_r

I think all that flaring has got there testosterone levels up, they both made bubble nests! I don't even have a female...


...yet

Gouramiguy17

Don't worry mm can fix that, btw beautiful boys

Red1313

Gorgeous babies

eiginh

Beautiful bettas!

dvc_r

NOT ANY MORE!!! I woke up this morning to find the red betta must have jumped the divider! I don't know how that was possible but ones laying on his back the other in all shredded apart!!!

My next question is if I can get them back to health, will their fins grow back?

Martinismommy

Yes, their fins will grow back if you keep the water super clean and use fish protector and vitachem...

That is horrible to hear!

peacemaker92

OMG... sorry about your boys. Most bettas should be able to heal themselves after a fight if they're not seriously wounded. Try solving the problem of how one of them jumped to the other side by maybe putting a cover on top or something, then give them some time to heal. I'm not sure of any meds that could help so hope that another member with that experience comes soon! Keep us posted.

TFA101

i've had my bettas jump the divider, a male halfmoon and female veiltail. There were a few shredded fins, but they quickly grew back, and the halfmoon's fins grew back completely.

You will want to keep the water very clean to prevent infection, and use stress coat+ as a water conditioner. vitachem and fish protecter will help as mentioned above.

to prevent this from happening again, lower the water level, or raise the divider, for one. also, i think now that they know there's competition on the other side of the divider, maybe it would help if they couldn't see each other. You can use a dark colored crafting mesh, or make a wall of java moss on either side of the divider.

dvc_r

Never heard of vita-chem, I went to two LFS but they don't have it. I called the Breeder that I got them from and she told me to soak this almond tea leaves that she gave us last week and add it to the tank. For some reason that's what they do in Thailand, and that's what they are used to. The Bettas in the states are bred without it. So that's what I did, I also fixed the divider and clipped an old background to the divider. I hope it works. By the way, the myth that fish have a three second memory is a bunch of hogwash!!! The two are going back to the same spot trying to find each other!

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks guys!

Martinismommy

I use AIL (indian almond leaves too) .....I didn't figure you had any available right now....That will help but the most important thing is water quality for growing fins back....

Who was the breeder on these 2 lovely boys?

dvc_r

They did it AGAIN!!!! I spent half the morning re-doing the tank, I just walked into the door around midnight and they're both on one side of the tank... floating on the top!!!

I hope they make it over night!

I don't want to write her full name without permission, well just say her name is Angela "H-P". She does a lot of selling on Aquabid.

scatty

Oh nooooo!!! Naughty fish! Oh you poor thing, you must be beside yourself!

whisper

Lower the water level so they can't jump that high. Probably about 2" lower. As for the flaring I have about 35 males in containers all next to each other and they do get board with each other and stop.

Mystic54

I recently had my two females jump the divider. They got pretty tore up but they are healing. Most important factor to help them is pristine water conditions.
Do you have a lid for this tank?

dvc_r

16 hours: and still alive...

I don't have a lid for the tank, it's an 8 gal (weird size), but I'm gonna lower the tank and do those water changes. I'm pretty good at water changes because I have to do it 3 times a week for my Discus (and I also have 5 other tanks that need periodic water changes).

Red1313

I think that since both these boys are proving to be olympic high jumpers you may want to start looking on sites like kijiji, craigslist etc. for a second tank. If out tank isn't too odd ball a shape you can also take the measurements for a place like speedy glass and have them cut a lid to fit.
Sending you the best fishy vibes so those pretty boys will smarten up.

dvc_r

Thanks Red!

I lowered the water level and have the Indian almond tea mixed. They are still alive, actually doing a little "betta" (I need some comic relief).

I have 4 small hex tanks (I think about 2 gals) but they're too hard to keep up the maintenance. I know that sounds like a cop-out but I have six other tanks running and one have Discus, which take up most my time.

Red1313

No worries. I've got a small hex 2.5 gal that I hate. I just can't seem to keep it or any betta in it healthy. However I have two 2.5's that are a regular tank shape and they're by far easier to deal with. The 5's I have a very low maintainence as well.
Wishing you the best,

fishtroy

I'm sorry to hear about the fin shredding. It sounds as though you have too OVER aggressive males especially the culprit who jumped the divider. My advice would be isolate him (in his own container preferable with a lid) from other male fighters. He is a risk to their safety. As for your boy with the shredded fins. I'm not sure what is available to you in your local shops but I once had a fin shredding disaster in a breeding attempt. I used a product called 'Bettafix'. You add it to their water and it stops infection and promotes the fins to grow back healthy. I would be checking the male that faired the worst in the battle for any bites or cuts in his actual body, these can be fatal and it takes a few days for the worst to happen. I had an over agressive male once, his name was Orestes. I kept him away from my other males. One day I was unable to clean them and asked someone else to do it for me. They didn't know about this males aggressive tendencies and put his container near a nother (very placid) male named Apollo, tank whilst she cleaned them. He jumped over and although she separated them in seconds Apollo copped one bite on his chin. He became depressed, lethargic and passed away about a week later.
I am devasated for you and the fish. I hope they get well.

dvc_r

Update:

Things are looking "betta"

We added Betta Revive for three days then daily water changes and added those almond tea leaves. Although the fins are shredded (one guy worse than the other), they look like they're gonna pull through. They started to eat and are now swimming around again.

Here are the latest pictures of their recovery.

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Red1313

YaY

fishtroy

ok,, you should get these two fish as far away from each other as is humanly possible!