My Betta is a murderer..

First topic message reminder :

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.

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... :<

Oh I understand about your emotional attachment to one breed over another. I feel the same way. I switched from breeding the Bettas to now breeding Angelfish. The Angels are beautiful but my heart is still with the Bettas and I may some day get more Bettas. I really miss having them.

I understand as well. I'll never get rid of my planted tank that has two EBJDs and two Dinosaur Bichirs in it. Those guys have really grown on me! (pun intended)