My Betta is a murderer..

After some careful consideration and research, my mother brought home 4 ghost shrimp and a pleco to see if Frio would get along with them. This was two weeks ago. My filter, which has a wide slitted strainer, has caused some minor problems before but I have not rigged it up to be fixed yet. This is where the trouble starts.

In the first two days both of the male shrimp met their end at the filter. Pepito the Pleco and Frio would bully each other, and the two remaining shrimp would mind their own business and eat from the bottom. Until yesterday, two weeks after we got the shrimp and pleco.

I found Pepito dead yesterday, floating in a corner. He had been there the day before, but I thought he had been attached to the tank and didn't look closely. The poor guy had all of his fins ripped up and his skin had questionable looking marks. Then I noticed another shrimp limpy and floating, sucked to the filter. Frio is looking a little plump when I know I had not fed him much at all for a few days, cause I was concerned about him possibly getting bloated.

I took a nap today. What did I find when I woke up? A half mangled shrimp, still alive, stuck to the filter and Frio attacking it. The little fish has been offing his tank mates with the filter! I tried to rescue the shrimp, but low and behold she was horribly mangled and I suppose Frio was hungry.

x_x I'm just grotesquely and sadly amused by this.

Well I just don't know what to say LOL. I am surprised however that the Betta didn't just outright eat the shrimp. They are carnivores and will eat anything that moves and they can get into there mouth. As for the pleco I have had big plecos in a grow out tank with baby Bettas and I had to take him out because they nipped at him so badly. I think they where nipping his slime coat. How big is the tank and where there any plants for hiding places?

5 gallon, a massive tree stump & cloth plant set up that Pepito liked to hide in. The reason we got so many shrimp was because we were prepared for most of them to die.

And these shrimp were BIG. If Frio didn't have massive finnage, these ghost shrimp would be the same size, the females possibly bigger. If he tried to bite at them when they were fully capable of movement and not sucked to the filter, they would jump away and attack him back.

I just can't believe I caught him in the act! It was terrifyingly hilarious almost.

My sister, who Pepito belonged to, is telling me she is going to buy an oscar and feed Frio to him. I told her to bring it, that my fish had some experience in murder. xD All joking, of course.

LOL.

Decided to get the good camera out and try to take pictures of the little butt hole. Flash finally made his color visible. Will upload pics of the murdering little wench later. Couldn't get him to flare up, though. He's hilarious when he does that. Fins flittering about and his face all flared/puffed up at the glass. I watched him for 3 hours one night, him convinced that he was going to annihilate his reflection.

Put a mirror up to the tank. He'll flare at it.

That's just the thing, I don't think he can see it. I bought the tank not knowing its inside reflected back into the tank. It's already extremely reflective inside because of this, but its hard to see outside because of the reflections, if that makes sense. He can see a little. o3o I know this because he likes to pretend he's going to eat my camera.

Here's the pics. He's looking horrible bloated. I guess that's to be expected after eating two shrimp that are your size in 24 hours. Gonna have to watch him and fast him for a few days.


Showing his color

Such a pretty little murderer.

Gosh, he looks so bloated. x_x

Wow he is a Little bit fat, Hope the fasting works and he survives. But he is a beauty

If he doesn't make it, I might just cry like a big baby and rage quit fish keeping. I wasn't even sold on a beta until I found his hateful looking little self at a LFS. I wouldn't have even got him except that he looks bald on his head. o.o I think he might have a little defect or something - it looks almost like he's missing scales on the top of his head.

bettas are no match for any cichlid, and im only talking about the dwarf cichlid variety

While cichlids are awfully colorful and attractive, I just do not like the way they look personally. o.o So no worries on Frio tearing into one of them or vice versa. xD

you might just be turned off by petsmarts selection of cichlids, i know i am. look into Kribensis, Apistogrammas, and Microgeophagus (mini earth eaters). they are little harder to find, lotsa specimens are washed or unattrative, but its finding that diamond in the rough thats the exciting part. bettas are too "common" unless u acquire from exceptional stock

just a personal opinion of course. i started out with bettas and then moved on to kribs, and have been hooked on this particular dwarf cichlid variety since. the idea of monogamous pairs intrigued me, unlike the booty-call lifestyle of bettas.

Thank you for the suggestion, but the only other tank I have is a questionably leaking 10 gallon and no time for more fish. D: Frio in a 5 gal is as much as I can handle with my classes, not even considering what its going to be like when the soccer season picks up. The bottom feeders were an attempt at buddies that would help keep the tank a littler cleaner. But evidently, Frio is not sharing his tank!

Edit;

Taking a closer look at Frio, I'm getting a little concerned about his bloating. His belly is looking huge. x_x I wish I could have prevented him from EATING the darn things, as opposed to just killing them. The poor little guy looks like he's about to explode! If he dies, I'm going to have to find something impossible to kill.

He is a beaut!

As to your tank and trial of 'buddies' - I keep my male bettas in heavily planted tanks with all manner of amano shrimps, dwarf shrimps, troops of Oco algae eaters, snails, and now balloon molly groups. While I'm sure that weak/deformed shrimpletts have been snacks - I've had success in shrimp reproduction even with the predatorial bettas. Now, I have found that the mollies - if alone with the bettas - will begin to pick at the bettas. But as long as there are two or more mollies - they will focus on each other and not the bettas (who just move out of the way and stare at the insanity)

My theory is that there was simply not enough cover in your setup. Pack the back half with some Myrio or cabomba and try again. I've also had good luck in mixing male bettas with larger black tetra groups.

If you're really pissed at him, stick a green puffer in there.

Haha, not pissed at him. Frio comes first, definitely, even if I was absolutely mortified by his deed. xD

As for the planted tanks.... I'm not sure how I would go about setting one up and managing it. My tank isn't the biggest thing in the world, the biggest I can upgrade to is a 10 gal, and there aren't local fish stores to provide live plants. I have no money to pay shipping on top of the sale price, and I'm not sure my mother would even allow it. So, while I absolutely adore the idea of a planted tank, I'm heavily restricted on money, space, and availability... not to mention I would think a planted tank would be a pain to keep clean.

Yes he does look bloated. Do the fasting thing for about 4-5 days then feed him frozen,thawed, blanched, shelled ,crushed peas for a few days. That should help.

You can purchase a nice collection for around $10-20 from:

http://www.aquariumplants.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=fern+java&PageAction=PRODSEARCH&Click=13330&gclid=CPnrztiXqK0CFcYZQgodnTwxmw

Stick with the fast growing and easy to care for 'feathery' types of plants. I purchased my Myrio (red, green & filigree varieties), and my cabomba (green & purple) from this supplier. You can also do anacharis as well. All of mine are in 10G tanks (have three planted betta tanks). I also have a low light 5G tank that I keep my two puffers in - planted with Java ferns.

For your 5G, I'd recommend starting with two clusters of either Myrio or Cabomba in the back corners. You just rubber band them to rocks and drop them in. Should run less than $10. These plants will grow just fine with regular high-efficiency 'daylight' screw in bulbs bought at Walmart/Lowes/Homedepot. ($10 for a pack of four - so convince your mother to switch over to them and just snag 1). Or you can simply move tank so that it is next to a window and gets 1-4 hours of sun (filtered through bubblewrap)

The plants will go NUTS and once they've grown across top of water, just pinch back down half-way and make new clusters with the trimmings. Within 4-6weeks you'll have a nice thick background of green feathery plants. Place decoration in middle-center and slowly fill plants in until the entire back half of tank is a forest. Then you can sell the excess clippings.

Once you have some nice cover, start with some cheap snails for companions. I've found nerites and/or ramshorns work the best and come in some real cool colors. Your betta will investigate the 'moving rocks' at first - but can't get to the soft tissues of these two species. Once he's used to snails, clean tank and rearrange it - then introduce a fast species of fish such as the larger black-light tetras. You'll have to introduce a minimum size group of 3 at the same time. That way betta can't pick on one more than the others. He'll soon get tired of them whizzing by him and give up. At this point, you'll have enough cover for shrimp - IF- you change your filter type to a bubbler.



So all-in-all, you can do the changes for around $20 and some time. Your betta will be happier the more soft plants you give him to wander through. Your water quality will increase substantially and you will end up with less maintenance cost once it is all established.

Speaking as a mother of a fish crazed girl - you might find your own mother willing to pay you for some extra work of her choosing. And over the next few weeks you might be able to earn the money you need. We parents like to find things to motivate you young people to work...

One of my planted betta/shrimp tanks:
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Haha, thank you for all of the advice! I'm still in the process of moving and cleaning up (cluttered house, big time), so there are tons of opportunities to earn money I would not normally have. Unfortunately, I've never been allowed an allowance and my school schedule is simply too crammed pack to have a job. So a cheap plant solution to my problem that will help my water quality as well is very much appreciated.

I had never thought of putting tetra with a beta. I had always assumed they would quickly become fodder because of how small and flashy they were, and never got my hopes up. Now I'm excitedd. I love those little fish.

You don't need live plants. Get some silk plants and stick in there. Much easier. That's all I have in any of my tanks because I don't want the hastle of screwing around with live plants. The silk plants will serve the same purpose.

Also Kasshan. I highly resent your statement about Bettas being plane.LOL. I too have never been a cichlid fan. I just don't get it with them. To me they all just look like the colorful Sunfish I used to catch in my hands as a little girl off the end of our dock at the lake. Tell me that these Bettas are plane or that a cichlid can even come close to there beauty and elegance. NOT!!!








Absolutely beautiful Whisper and that is what I start my kiddos off with betta. But none as beautiful as yours!!!!!!

Goodness, we're having some fish rivalry in here. I have silk plants with plastic stalks currently, with a felt covered stump. Seem to be more effective than plastic plants - Frio has only had a fin tear once, barely, and it healed within two days. I think the pleco gave it to him, as well. Still, the idea of a true planted tank is intriguing.

Hehe, Whisper's fish sure are pretty - but I've learned that having mine in heavily planted tanks reduces how much time (ahem - WORK!) I have to put into keeping my water parameters right. Nope, don't have to worry 'bout nitrates any more - plants just grow faster (especially the duckweed!) if levels get barely readable. Don't have to worry much about toxic metals building up - plants absorb them. Don't have to worry 'bout ammonia/nitrites since there's so MUCH plant surface area for denitrifying bacteria to colonize along with the filter!

Yep, I spend a WHOPPING 45 minutes per week on the maintenance of my five 10Gs, three 29Gs, one 55G, one 5G and two 2.5Gs... Most of that time is on the two 2.5G isolation tanks since there's no real plants at all. The rest of them? Just top off weekly for 3-6 months at a time. Change water every 3-6 months. Have so many snails, shrimps and algae eaters - and now that the planted tanks are in good balance of plants-nutrients-light-fish I haven't had to sponge away any algae since the summer.

Yes, the best thing I ever got into because of this site was PLANTED TANKS! I'll never go back. In fact, although I like my Lake Malawi biotope - I'll probably breaking it down and reconstructing it as yet another planted tank. Cichlids are interesting - but terrible on plants. Probably put another betta/snail/shrimp/mollie colony in that tank. The betta-mollie interactions are quite comical! Throw a mirror up in a corner - we're talking Seinfeld!

Oh and Zanna - Remember its the larger black tetras - not the blue tetras. Glofish are another compatible group if you're into wild colors. Basically, look for fast fish that aren't fin nippers. Make sure to do groups of three. And smaller species of snails will scrub your small tank free of algae.

haha, yes yes. the beauty of the betta is unmatched. but i lacked an emotional connection with bettas when i kept them. lol i never cried when a betta died, but i cried a lil when my mating pair of kribs die... :<