Help! New betta not eating.

[SuriahAnderson]

I recently added two female bettas to my tank. For the first week or so everything seemed fine with them. But over the last couple days, one of the bettas has stopped eating. She's become lethargic and often just lays about the bottom of the tank, or floating near the surface. Also, I'm not positive as I only got her recently, but I think her color has faded somewhat.


Now I'm trying to figure out what's going on. I don't think it's a problem with the water, as I've changed it three times in the last week. I also saw the other betta chasing the affected one around, but I only saw this a couple times and I've been watching them often, so I don't know if that's it.

It's already been a while since I've been able to get her to eat, and I don't want her to end up starving to death. I don't know what the cause of this is and I want to figure it out, if anyone could help me get to the bottom of this I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Sewerrat]

Tank size and other inhabitants would help diagnose but my guess would be aggression issues between the two. Recommend separating and seeing if it helps l.

 

[SuriahAnderson]

Tank size and other inhabitants would help diagnose but my guess would be aggression issues between the two. Recommend separating and seeing if it helps l.

Well, the two bettas aren't alone in the tank. I also have some platys, some harlequins, and a couple otto catfish. I have a ten gallon tank.

Aside from that though, how would you recommend I separate them? I only have the one tank at the moment, so I have nowhere to move the other to.

 

[Noroomforshoe]

Female bettas can be very aggressive towards each other, almost as bad as males. It is not ideal to just add females here and there, if you want to try to keep more then one female betta, You need to buy 5 or more and release them all together the same day.

May I ask why you changed the water 3 times in one week? is your tank not cycled?

 

[SuriahAnderson]

Noroomforshoe:
Female bettas can be very aggressive towanords each other, almost as bad as males. It is not ideal to just add females here and there, if you want to try to keep more then one female betta, You need to buy 5 or more and release them all together the same day.
May I ask why you changed the water 3 times in one week? is your tank not cycled?

No, my tank is cycled, it's just my tank is a little overoverstocked, so I'm trying to get to a system of preforming partial water changes on Wednesday and Sunday, and when I was worried that the water quality is what was affecting the betta, I did A third just to be safe.

Like I mentioned in my initial post, I don't know if the one betta is being a bully to the other, I've been watching them and I haven't seen the one chasing the other very much, maybe only once or twice.

 

[wayfareranima]

You’re over stocked and the more stressed fish is showing the results.
If you have more than one fish, you should have more than one tank.
Female bettas shouldn’t be kept in “sororities”, it’s a dangerous and stressful misconception.
They are happiest and healthiest when kept alone.
I would organise another tank asap.

 

[SuriahAnderson]

Honestly, I'd love to set up another tank, but I don't have the funds right now. And even if I did, I don't have the space needed for another at the moment.

 

[Sewerrat]

Sorority tanks can be hit or miss but there doable. Does the tank have alot of sight breaks to help curb aggression

 

[SuriahAnderson]

Sorority tanks can be hit or miss but there doable. Does the tank have alot of sight breaks to help curb aggression

Yeah, there are a bunch of hiding places and stuff available.