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301 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  TTemp 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I live in a house share and we have a house fishtank. We have a molly, couple of guppies and a female betta.

Yesterday, to welcome a new housemate, we went and bought some new fish. We bought a corydoras and a second female betta. I asked the shop assistant a few times whether the two female betta would be okay together and she confirmed that female betta are not aggressive towards each other.
This, combined with the fact that there were several female betta in the tank living quite happily together in the shop, we went ahead and purchased the second betta.

Big mistake. The resident betta went crazy. She started flaring her gills and her colours went very dark. After floating the bag, we decided to try putting the new one in to see if it was just a matter of the resident putting the newcomer in her place and then things would settle.

I took the newcomer out about 20 minutes later because there was just too much stress on all involved. The resident betta was getting so angry that she was going for pretty much everyone.

I went back to the shop and of course they can't take her back so now I have a female betta in a bag and the one in the tank has calmed down considerably. I have no idea what to do though.

I'd appreciate any advice or help offered. If anyone could give the betta a good home, that would be great. I'm located in Camden.

Attached, is a photo of the new betta during the 20 miserable minutes she spent in the tank.

Please don't attack me for buying the second betta. I realise now that it was a bad idea.
 

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#2 ·
If you want a sorority of bettas then you really must buy them all at the same time and put the into a heavily planted tank with lots of places to hide away when one gets bolshie, trying not to make line of sight easy
i tell you this for future reference, and, your LFS shouldve known better, unfortunately, as youve found out, some are more interested in their pocket than educating new owners
yes youre in a bit of a sticky situation and you cant keep that poor girl in a plastic bag forever do you have a live bearer breeding trap that you can hang in the tank? at least if you popped her in there she would be oxygenated and heated, as a very temporary measure it would be more vcomfortable for her than the plastic bag
DO you do facebook or any of the othesocial media? you might get someone close to take her if you post on one of your local ones.
Thank you for trying to find her a home and not just flushing her
 
#3 ·
If you want a sorority of bettas then you really must buy them all at the same time and put the into a heavily planted tank with lots of places to hide away when one gets bolshie, trying not to make line of sight easy
i tell you this for future reference, and, your LFS shouldve known better, unfortunately, as youve found out, some are more interested in their pocket than educating new owners
yes youre in a bit of a sticky situation and you cant keep that poor girl in a plastic bag forever do you have a live bearer breeding trap that you can hang in the tank? at least if you popped her in there she would be oxygenated and heated, as a very temporary measure it would be more vcomfortable for her than the plastic bag
DO you do facebook or any of the othesocial media? you might get someone close to take her if you post on one of your local ones.
Thank you for trying to find her a home and not just flushing her
Thank you for you reply and advice! I'll definitely keep that in mind and do a lot more research in the future when I have a tank of my own.
We have quite a few places to hide in our tank but the resident girl was just so angry that she kept swimming everywhere until she flushed out the newbie. And of course, as you said, they need to be introduced to the same tank at the same time!

I don't have a breeding trap, though I could buy one and get it here for tomorrow. I tried floating the bag inside the tank with it open at the top but the resident went crazy again as soon as she saw the newbie and attacked everyone else in the tank in her anger.
I'm going to reactivate my facebook account post on there now. Hopefully someone can give her a home.
I would never dream of flushing her. Worst case scenario, I'll buy another set-up, which I really don't want to do because I'm short on funds but it's my own fault after all!
 
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