Hello! I'm very new to the hobby and have set up my first aquarium (a 20 gallon long tank, pic below). I went to Petsmart last night just for plant fertilizer but ended up walking out with a betta lol. He's a beautiful blue and red koi and I love him so much, don't have a name quite yet though.
I reset my quarantine tank to make him a temporary (or permanent) home until I can purchase a lid for my main display tank. Anyways, I have a question about his behavior. I want to put him in my community tank (don't worry I've read up on it and I'm planning on purchasing a few more plans this weekend for a better outcome) and I had his little cup near my display tank and I keep catching him staring at the fish swimming around and he seems to be trying to swim to them? As I'm writing this I can see him doing it out of the corner of my eye.
You can't see it up he's opening his mouth a little bit too. Is that aggressive behavior or is it just because he's curious? I'm thinking curious cause he keeps staring at me but I'm a newbie so I'm not sure. He's been active and has explored every inch of his tank the moment I put him in and he's ate good with a few Tetra betta pellets and some frozen brine shrimp (I didn't give it all at once, one was for dinner and the other breakfast).
Any comments or advance are welcomed. And for reference I have 8 Neon Tetras, 6 Albino Corydoras, 3 Ramshorn Snails, a few stowaway Bladder Snails, and I believe 7 Cherry Shrimp.
Also, some name suggestions would be amazing as well! Thank you all so much!
https://v.redd.it/6yvtgvtq5ixf1
Posted by honey_bee_927
6 Comments
i would put him in his own tank. bettas overall are an aggressive and territorial species. i’ve had a betta that i tried to house with corys and the like before and he killed them all. the shrimp might be safe if they are big enough
Your best bet is just putting him there and then monitoring. Observing fish from cups and breeder boxes and such wont tell you much. Mine will always react to fish floated in bags until they are actually released.
I don’t *think* it’s aggression. I’ve got a betta in my 55 with about a hundred guppies, from what I’ve seen he will have short bursts of aggression, he will chase someone for about 5-10 seconds, then he forgets and goes back to hunting fry
It could be either honestly… it’s hard to tell. One way I’ve heard can be a gauge for aggression is how ready they are to flare, be that at a mirror, another betta, other animals, your finger, whatever, but that’s not a guarantee. Best practice with attempting bettas in community tanks is to add the betta last, that way they’re more likely to accept the other animals as part of their territory, rather than intruders. It can also help to pick species that don’t occupy the same section of the water column (the top two thirds usually), but as another commenter mentioned with their Cory’s, that’s not a guarantee either…
Best plan is to have a solo tank cycled and set aside so you can immediately transfer the guy over if he turns out to be mean. If not, congrats! You have a new quarantine tank!
My betta would eat any snails small enough to fit in his mouth. A friend of my daughter received a betta as a gift, in the evening she came home, all her other fish had been killed by her betta.
It’s hard to tell because he’s in the googly cup.. but is he flaring or just looking?