Kayin1470

Hey everyone, well good news and bad news, the good news is my beta is calm, showing no aggression whatsoever. the bad news is the killa fish I added last night are racing back and forth seeming very very uncomfortable, and they have almost a yelloish color on there heads which I didn't notice in the store. they are very very skiddish. hopefully this will clear up and they will start calming down. any info about these fish would be nice.

and on a higher note, (kind of lol) my mollies.... one is male, the other is female. woohoo? I suppose I should get a small fry tank to adjoin to my main tank just in case right? I don't want my beta eating them all. Ha.

HatchetHaven

Kayin1470

ty, but every beta has a different personality, and I am proceding cautiously. but so far, my beta has been fantastic, and was only aggressive towards other gouramis. he is very active and very calm around the other fish in the tank, and he has a good size shell that he treats as his cave. other then this he is doing really well, not being aggressive at all, and also I only add in other fish when it's feeding time.

HatchetHaven

Kayin1470

i edited my last post, please read.

HatchetHaven

ShaynaB

I'm glad your betta's doing ok so far. Be cautious. Like we've said, we've heard/experienced some horror stories with bettas in community tanks.

A word of warning about your mollies... THEY BREED LIKE RABBITS! I have two females and they were both pregnant when I bought them... 40 or so fry later (and pregnant again... They can give birth multiple times without a male, let alone with a male and a female!) I bought an additional 10 gallon for them and have a 20 gallon waiting for when they get larger. It's not the most inexpensive thing. >.< But at least I can give them to my LFS! They give birth around 28 days apart and most LFS won't take them till they're adult size...

Hatchet, he got rid of his gouramis.

Anywho, did you get your water tested yet?

Kayin1470

just got back from biology lab. and no, I forgot to bag up some water =(. but I will get it tested soon, I will be going to the store again tonight, and I will probably get a 10 gallon quarantine tank, to put my beta in for a while, so that we can use meds on his fins. this will give my killas a while to get used to the tank surroundings without having to be so skiddish. I will also get a small tank that sits inside the larger tank, this way I will have somewhere to put my mollie if she decides to get pregnant lol.

By the way, in the 10 gallon I hope to get (a little low on cash atm....) If I use Bio Spira in it, how soon can I acclimate and transfer my beta?

Kayin1470

Also, about the live bearers with beta deal. I was looking on a compatibility chart, which someone claimed was very good (a patron of the site if i remember correctly) and it said mollies and betas are fine together =\.... do you have any specific examples? tank size, aggression of beta towards other "compatible" fish etc? This will help me make a big decision. Thank you. and as shaynab said, I took out my gouramis last night. the fish were labeled in the store as "Blue Paradise" and I was kicking myself for not doing good research first, but even after research nothing affirmed what I was trying to find out, which was if the blue paradise is in fact a blue gourami. (the pictures of these fish I found were all different and of no help at all) plus the people at the fish store who I no longer trust told me they would be fine, NOT JUST THAT! they sold me another blue paradise because they said it would mellow him out... so now my killa fish are totally terrified and seemingly shell shocked from all of the fighting that was going on. I took out the gouramis and returned them this morning, AND on a total accident the store gave me $32.50 back for the fish, I paid $14 and I didn't say a word. anyways. any added comments would be well appreciated.

ShaynaB

You could keep the betta in the 10 gallon! *wink wink* Haha, in all honesty, I have a 2.5 gallon in storage that I use for a Q tank, along with a small filter and heater. They're the same price as a 10, though... Get the 10!

My Mollies get nasty, especially when they're pregnant. They attack anything that comes around them... (which is why they've been separated into their own 10 gallon with their fry until I'm sure they're not going to get pregnant again! The fry can just deal with it!) Make sure you watch her tummy! I've never been able to get my girls into a breeder box before they've had their fry. I don't want to leave them in there too long and I just end up chasing them around with a couple of nets and putting them in the breeder after they're born.

One of my bettas is really mellow but I still don't think I'd be comfortable putting him in with my mollies. Normally the mollies are nice, but they get SO moody when they're pregnant. (Also, I don't know about the guys... The only male i have is a juvenile.)

Welcome to bad fish store advice getting. It never ends. There are only two stores that I'll go to, and only when I know the employees that I like are there. They're good about humoring me and my fishie needs! Even at my favorite store, if I go in on a weekend, I'll get ridiculous advice from the kids that get hired just for extra help. "SURE! Put a Green Terror in with your mollies in a 10 gallon!" I actually heard one of the guys say that to some poor customer and I had to interject. (I normally don't like to butt in, but COME ON, you know?)

Ignore what most pet store employees have to say until you find someone you actually trust. USUALLY, the owners will know what they're talking about, but not always.

Asking questions here is better than asking fish store people!

Kayin1470

I concur, lol. maybe I will get two ten gallon tanks? I will have to check the prices on them though, and find somewhere to put them all HA! also, if I take a little gravel out of my 15 day old tank and put it in the new ones I get, with some of the 15 day old water as well, will it speed up the nitrogen cycle in the rest of the new water/tank?

ShaynaB

It's possible to take some gravel and hang it in a stocking in the tank... Although, if your tank isn't cycled, then I'm not sure how it'd do. If it is cycled, then yes, it certainly would help. That, or filter media.

That was my problem with extra tanks, too. Where to put them? MTS here you come! Congrats! Haha

Kayin1470

lol thanks, and also, my water is a little cloudy, and smelled horrible when I got home from classes, I suspected an ammonia spike, and did a 25% water change which someone else said I should do. The smell was horrid, AND it was in the entire condo. after the water change the smell wasn't in the house, but the water still smells, and my water is still rather cloudy =\. (i opened my tank lid and smelled the water lol...)

on a higher note lol, my fish are doing EXCELLENT! and I am very glad, my rummies and neons are schooling around the tank together, EVERYWHERE! it's so much fun to watch them move together in a group. my new killifish are doing great, they stopped hiding all the time, and they were eating tonight! (YAY)

my mollies figured out that the food comes from the top of the tank, lol. and were up there the whole time, my beta will eat almost out of my fingers, he will get so excited and come up to the surface and wait for me to drop a pellet into the water (lol), my cory's are doing well also, but not much new with them... OTHER then the big one, he was supposedly rubbing his belly side to side and back and forth on an algae wafer I had dropped in earlier, breaking it into a bunch of pieces, lol.

well thats about it for now... my mom said I can't get another tank just yet

I'm only 16 so I have to do what she says, and the worst part is, she doesn't believe me on half the stuff I tell her. she does the "we had fish growin up and we never did that and they turned out just fine!" routine, and it upsets me. but if I'm lucky I might be able to get a few more tanks. it will require a bit of persuasion. and since my dad works at a mine, he goes 3 weeks on 1 week off, so he actually doesn't know about the tank yet hahahaha. oh man what a surprise that will be =P. anyways. comments are always appreciated, I spend a lot of time on this site lol. I've stopped playing videogames so much, and I almost never watch tv anyways. its been college, FISH, highschool, FISH, work, FISH, friends, FISH again. LOL. a lot of fun, and rather addicting..... I want to get so many different fish which I have already picked out.. oy.... so many fish, so little tank space....

ShaynaB

You were right on with the water change. The tank is cycling. The cloudy water will go away. Sometimes, when I start up a tank, the water will go cloudy after a couple of weeks and it'll last for a day or 3, then it'll go away.

Aah, parents... I understand about that. I'm 20 and I live at home (making college affordable!) and I still argue with them about tanks. They've basically said that if it's in my room and with my money, I can do what I want. That took a while. Maybe you can show your mom a website or two about how bettas do better in their own tanks... Or a couple of websites on what ever you're trying to convince her of. It helps my parents to know that I'm not the only one rambling about weekly water changes and getting stuff for my fish. Parents... :P Gotta love them, though.

I'm glad your fish are doing so well. Maybe your betta will be the exception... Also, the betta may keep the fry population down. (Aww, poor fry. But maybe it's better if you can't get another tank. It's easy to get overpopulated with fry!)

Kayin1470

lol. poor fry lol... nah, I hope no one thinks I'm cruel for this, but I would probably start using them as food voluntarily if I got overrun.

HatchetHaven

sirdarksol

The issue with bettas and mollies are twofold.
First, bettas often see things with long fins as potential threats. Small, quick fish like neon tetras might be okay with a betta, but anything with longish fins could be seen as a threat.
Of more concern, however, is the potential for the mollies to nip at the betta's fins. This will likely just be them playing, but bettas are not conditioned for this kind of play, and it will stress them out and open their fins up to fin rot.

I will not, however, say that this will not work. Nobody can say that. There is always a lion somewhere that will lay down with the lamb. Most lions, however, would prefer to eat the lamb.
I completely agree with hatchet on the guoramis. Bettas recognize the labyrinth organ in guoramis and thus, see the guorami as a severe breeding threat. Either betta or guorami (probably guorami) will be dead very soon, as there isn't enough room in an aquarium for either fish to escape.

ShaynaB

Sir, he got rid of the gouamis already.

I agree with the bit about the millies nipping. Mine do that a lot.

Speaking about bettas, I saw mine go after one of the shrimp in his tank today. (The shrimp got away and hid in the castle.) He's never been territorial or anything, it was just out of the blue. They've been known to do that, so I'd be careful.