I sell aquatic plants, and one buyer (who I think is a betta breeder) gave me three adult and one juvenile male bettas, saying he no longer had space for them. Since I’ve been looking for fish that could eat mosquito larvae in my tanks (my molly seems uninterested in them), I immediately accepted.
My mistake was forgetting about the hundreds of shrimps I have in all my tanks (10g, 15g, 35g, and 2.5g), all heavily planted. I tested each betta to see if they’d snack on my shrimp, and unfortunately, only one didn’t show interest — the juvenile. I’m still not sure if he truly won’t eat shrimp, so to be safe, I placed him in my 2.5g tank with only 10 shrimp. I’ll observe him for a week or a month, and if the number stays the same, I’ll move him to the bigger tanks.
As for the adults, I recently purchased a pre-owned tank set (4×6×8, 5g, and 20g tanks). I plan to resell them cheaply as a set (one betta + lots of aquatic plants + snails + tanks:5g/20g) since I don’t have space anymore. I also want to make sure they go to someone who’ll give them a comfortable life; my conscience wouldn’t let me sell them to people who’d keep them in tiny containers with plastic decorations.
For now, I’ve placed one male in the 4×6×8 planted tank, while the other two are temporarily in small containers (I know, how hypocritical of me) while I wait for buyers.
Right now, I’m still hoping they might have a change of heart and stop eating shrimp, that’s why I’m here in this sub, hoping maybe I introduced them to my shrimps the wrong way. They’ve only been with me for a few days, but I’ve already fallen in love with their curious personalities. It makes me sad, because I think they used to live in small, empty spaces with no other life around. The juvenile looks really happy, I often see him watching the snails and shrimps, hunting, and eating the ostracods in the morning that I gave every night.
How I introduced them:
In a small container with plants, I fed them tons of ostracods, which they eagerly devoured. When I noticed they stopped hunting them, I introduced a “sacrifice” shrimp into the container. Three of the bettas immediately chased the shrimp, but they failed to catch it since it hid deep in the thick hornwort. Even after several minutes, they were still interested in the shrimp. The juvenile, on the other hand, just stared at it…
https://v.redd.it/25ar5dljx1zf1
Posted by slytsi
2 Comments
It’s really down to their personality. I did have one male who didn’t care for shrimp and 3 months later … he killed all but 4 overnight. Killed the chilli rasbora. Again he was fine … til he wasn’t. I have also had other males just observe the shrimp and or not mind. You can usually tell that first hour of their interest in the shrimp is curiosity or killer. Obviously you can keep your dudes well fed but it didn’t stop my dude from binging one day. If you’d hate to loose em (the shrimp) I wouldn’t risk it. My dude fruit roll up was again fine for those three months and then turned to a murderer. He’s in his own tank now 😂 slow intro, direct intro, the betta will do what he wants with shrimp sadly.
They all eventually figure out the shrimp is tasty.