My male betta Flanders built a bubble nest. So I decided I'd buy him a female. I bought two and they were living together without too many problems. One of them was slightly more aggressive and would chase the other one around sometimes. So I put Maude in with Flanders and they did their thing and then Flanders started chasing her around again. So I took her out and put her back in with Nellie. But then those two got into a huge fight and Maude ripped a big chunk of Nellie's fin off and then ate it! I took Maude out. Why did this happen? They never actually fought before.
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Re: aggressive female bettas
Fri, December 1, 2006 - 3:03 PMFemales (of many species) can be aggressive and territorial especially with other females. So what happened was that at first Maude controlled the female territory and Nellie stayed out of the way, but once Maude left it became Nellie's territory and she "became Queen" so when Maude came back now Nellie defended "her territory" (and didn't defer) but Maude wasn't about to back down!! So they fought. (to re-establish dominence). -
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Re: aggressive female bettas
Fri, December 1, 2006 - 6:41 PMWhat he said... hehe... and all females will fight. Some to the death and some just for ownership of the hide or territory. They can be vicious enough to kill a male, too. Especially if the male isn't doing the spawn thing right... she gets frustrated I guess and just kills him. I've seen all kinds of scenarios with these fish while breeding and raising them up. They are amazing beasts! -
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Re: aggressive female bettas
Fri, December 1, 2006 - 6:44 PMI forgot to add that you can try three girls together, depending on the size of your tank... take the two original girls out and sit them aside. Put the new girl in and let her wander around for awhile... make sure there are plenty of hides and plants at all levels of sight, so's to distract them from fighting constantly... and then release all three into the tank together.
This should even out the aggression... one against two rather than one on one. Alpha will get tired and mellow out a little. I have 10 females in a 30g tank and they do fine. -
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Re: aggressive female bettas
Sat, December 2, 2006 - 11:23 AMaww, how cute, a school of beta fish, you should post a photo!
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Re: aggressive female bettas
Sat, December 2, 2006 - 2:25 PMThanks for all the advice!! I took both fish out and cleaned the tank out and then put them back in at the same time. They circled each other for a bit but now they are back to basically ignoring each other and sticking to their own sides of the tank.
