bubbles

I recently purchased a 15 gallon tank. In it I have 4 aquatic plants 8 whitecloud mountain minnows and 1 male betta (siamese fighting fish). Everything was going fine for about 4 days, the fish seemed to be getting along. There were no territorial behaviour amongst them, in fact the minnows would follow the betta around as if its part of their school. Today I came home from work and to my horror found the Beta has lost all of its tail (caudal fin) and he only has one pectoral fin functioning! Its a very sad sight to see, if you ever saw a fish amputee, my Betta is a poster fish for it. I have already moved the Betta on its own. Should I euthanize the Betta or see if it would survive? I've reserached before I put this two types of fishes together and most of them said that the white cloud are compatible with the Betta and that they are peacefull community fishes. I certainly wasn't expecting them to act like a bunch of pirranhas. So besides other shoaling fishes what other types of fish can I put with the White Clouds. Im hinking of getting a few dwarf puffer fish , so in case the White clouds gets another idea of nipping they'll get a good surprise.

Jason

Whitecloud Mountain Minnows are a coldwater fish and need the temp. under 20 C while Bettas need a tropical environment of 24-27C. Your tank is still new and is going through the cycling process. Take a look at this link http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Isabella

J-Man, while I also have read that white cloud mountain minnows are cold water fish, I think that they can also do well in a tropical tank. Or at least those bred for sale can (since they do not come directly from the Chinese mountain streams, but are already used to varying temperatures through being bred for sale - what I mean is they were not captured in a Chinese stream). Besides, I think white clouds are quite hardy fish.

Bubbles, did you cycle your tank before getting fish? If not, like J-Man said, you should read up on the "cycling process". Although, could a tail "fall off" or "rot away" simply because the water wasn't cycled? Because I don't think white clouds could do such a thing. They're really peaceful fish, aren't they? Does anyone know, or ever heard of, white clouds nipping at some fish's tail to the point it's gone?

Bubbles, did you see the white clouds nipping at the tail, or you just saw the tail gone and concluded that they did it?

bubbles

I did cycle my tank for 2 weeks before putting them in. I did see one whitecloud in particular who not only nipped the Betta's fin but also swallowed it like a bloodworm. This one whitecloud is actually agressive against its own school cause it would chase the other ones and nip them in the tail and it would constantly raise all of its fins. Its must be inbreeding mode or something. Anyway I was really dissapointed cause I love Bettas, and I was hoping to get some great companions for it.

Butterfly

While white clouds can live in warmer water(have 2 in the 75G and can't catch them :P)
They really do better in cooler water(have 7 in an unheated tank) they also need LOTS of swimming room. Just about any fish in cramped quarters will be aggressive and may well have attacked your bettas flowing fins.
Unless you used Bio-Spira to cycle your tank it most likely didn't cycle in two weeks, the usual time is six to eight I believe.
Please test your water and let us know what your readings are.
Your betta could possibly grow his fins back but he needs to be alone and in extremely clean water until he recovers. Hope this helps
Carol

Miss Mouse

I bought my betta when he had no fins and I honestly thought he would die but I wanted to give him a good home for his last few days but he recovered fully so if you take him out and keep him in a dark clean and warm tank and treat him with an anti fungus and finrot treatment he may be ok. I've got my fingers crossed for you!

0morrokh

Check out the site www.bettatalk.com. It's an excellent Betta site. I hope he gets better!