I just got my daughter two beta fish, one male and one female. The clerk said that would be fine. They seemed to do okay at first, but I noticed today that the male won't leave the female alone. He keeps picking at her!! Is he trying to eat her or is this normal?
Answers:
Its normal. they are most likely just playing.
If the female become injured, separate them into different tanks.
Good luck with the fish!
i believe it is normal
Either normal, or aggression. He starts eating her tail and fins, seperate them.
He may be ummm.interested in her.or they could be playing, or she may be sick %26 he maybe picking.watch carefully.
THAT IS NOT NORMAL! Male beta fish ur somtimes called fighting fish. I would seprate the tanks.
This is normal. However, you should not keep both sexes together. The male will start attacking the female if she is not ready to spawn with him. Bettas are also territorial. He may just be telling her to go away, and in a tank there's nowhere for her to go. In the wild, if the male went after a female, and she was ready to lay eggs, she'd stay near him and if she wasn't, she'd flee.
Fish do not "play" as the first poster believes lol. Yes, betta males are very aggressive and very territorial. Some are more so than others. He may wind up, killing her, either physically or she will die from the stress of being chased and attacked. He may injure her to the point where she gets a parasite or infection and dies from that also. Fish in tanks are very sensitive to their tiny surroundings. If it keeps up for more than a day or so, you need to get rid of him or separate them asap. Sometimes you get tank fish and find one that really is just too aggressive and he has to go. Also it is good to try and put in the tank fish that are all of similar behavior and compatible (including which sexes get along) , otherwise you have these problems. Your local aquarium store can help you decide what fish go well together and which ones are docile and which are aggressive. When they chase each other and touch each other aggressively, this is not play. It is being territorial and showing dominance. Male bettas will fight eachother to the death. Unless the females are ready to spawn they need to be kept apart from the males.
The sales person may have given you two males in error. Beta's are very aggressive. It may be that he is too agressive. You may want to contact the store you brought them from and speak with the "fish" department "specialist" just to confirm that he is not trying to kill her. Because if he the fish keeps it up he will eventually kill her.
The clerk is a moron. The male betta (pronounced bet-tah, not bay-tah) is trying to get the female to spawn. If she is not ready, and by the sound of your question she isn't, he is going to eventually kill her.
You can only keep females in groups. They will not fight with each other. The males fight with other males and pick the females to death trying to get them to spawn. Once they have spawned, he will drive her away and tend the nest and the babies by himself.
BTW, it is spelled betta, not beta. Beta is the 2nd letter of the Greek alphabet.
Yes this is normal. He's most likely going to kill her. Bettas are very aggressive, and terriorial. Males can't be kept with any other betta. (There are exceptions, but you aren't raise betta from birth.) Females can often be kept together in large tanks with lots of cover, but they will fight it out for at least a week until a pecking order is established. (Then they are mostly peaceful unless betta are added or removed.) Note that some female are very aggessive, and I've had the female beat up a male before. (My old alpha of my female tank use to bully my 4 inch sailfin molly when he got out of line.) Generally unless the females have been raised together from birth you should limit them to 1 per 5-10 gallons.
You need to seperate them. The best case is they mate, produce 100s of offspring, and then the male attempts to drive off the female in defense of his nest. (As she has no where to go she often dies.) This assumes both betta are in the mood for mating, and they don't stage a betta version of "thunder dome". 2 betta enter, one betta leaves.
Remove the female into a jar with water of the same temp as she was in before. Keep her water clean. Don't over feed. Don't subject her to rapid temp changes. You might want to add some table salt 1 teaspoon per 2.5 gallon. Also betta fix/Melafix will help prevent infection of ripped fins. The male may also have ripped fins depending on the aggressiveness of the female.
The males will constantly pick at the females. You should not keep them in the same tank unless he has blown a bubble nest to mate Whit her. After he mates, you have to take her out or he might kill her.
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