my bettas dream of nothing but murder

I somehow simultaneously acclimated Gamma to a lower pH and Chroma to a higher pH. Having done so, I tried introducing Gamma to his promised half of the 10 gallon. Everything's fine for a few minutes, and then Chroma finds his way to Gamma's half. He slips right by a tiny sliver of space near the top between the divider and the glass. I was watching, thankfully, and immediately scooped up the closest one in a cup (in this case, Gamma while Chroma was in hot pursuit). Saved them before the first nip.

I secured the mesh divider with borrowed rubber stickies. It's a lot more secure at the top than before, so I reintroduced Gamma back in. They have been pacing, flaring, and trying to will their way to the other side ever since. And they know exactly where the structural weaknesses of the divider are (namely, the sides).

Chroma almost always looks the same, because he's a halfmoon. Fins are generally not in what I'd call a "relaxed" posture, while Gamma the veiltail is usually pretty mellow -- fins down, kind of chill. It's hard to get pictures of the violet colorings on his caudal fin when he's just doing his thing in the 2.5 gallon. He's now on high alert mode though, fins stiffened and on display. Even as I type this, as I glance over, it's just so nervewracking because I keep seeing one of their reflections and thinking they've gotten through.

 

I think you need re enforcements on all 4 sides of your mesh...and the bend in it, is going to caught them to have that "small" space needed to find a hole...after a week of finding they cant get through the divider, they should calm down....if they do not, you need to get a darker mesh, and maybe even add some tall leafy plants on one side to break up the vision of one another.....great looking boys !

 

So far, with the 2 rubber stickies on the front of the tank and the rubber stickies attaching the heater to the back panel pulling double duty, it's holding pretty well. I'm going to put one more sticky on the back panel opposite the heater before I go though, in case Gamma gets it into his head that he really wants to go to the other side and get his butt kicked by his younger tankmate. (It would be marginally easier for Gamma to push through the back than Chroma to push through to Gamma's side at this point -- but soon to change.)

They've already calmed down compared to a few hours ago, but I hope they chill out even more. I didn't think that the color of the mesh was going to be an issue, so I picked light. My backup mesh is light blue, so that's not really going to work either...I can do more plants though. I won't be able to hit up a petstore or LFS until next week though. >.< Really hope nothing bad happens before then.

Thank you.

 

Update: just got home and the boys did not find their way to the other side and kill each other. They appear to have calmed down, and Gamma is back to his bubblenest-blowing ways.

 

Hello Midthought

You have some beautiful Bettas there! Thanks for sharing.
Ken

 

Thanks, Ken.