Fish Lovers 3.0 [new poll]

[PeachFuzz]

Guppy Update: Lost another girl during birth :'c No surviving fry. I'm having zero luck with this breeding so far! Picking up a new girl this weekend.

[MacGyver]

Sousuke is doing well. His fins have mostly grown back, and no fin biting out of him so far.

[_breezy_star_]

Hello fishy lovers. :3
I just started my 20 gallon freshwater tank not too long ago. I have a pair of swordtails in it right now... and I think the female nibbled the males tail off. xD Poor kid. Later on I plan on adding guppies, platys, corydoras and maybe some shrimp too. The tank has to fully cycle though. The wait it driving me crazy. lol

[jess32247]

Hi guys, new to the thread and fish in general. ^^

I'm looking to set up a 10 gallon betta tank (those black crowntails are beautiful<3) but I'm a intimidated where to start on it all. Does anyone have recommendations for a forum or website that I can read through that has everything up to date and already posted? Figured I'd ask to get some opinions instead of picking one myself, I'm determined to do things right haha. I'm also considering buying a betta online when the time comes (not buying from a pet store), could anyone share how that went if you've ever bought fish online? Is there any place I should check out?

Picked up a 10g tank today, I'm really excited to get this started. It's going to be a long process, but it's really go to pay off in the end. ^^

[Lee-Sins]

Hi guys, new to the thread and fish in general. ^^

I'm looking to set up a 10 gallon betta tank (those black crowntails are beautiful<3) but I'm a intimidated where to start on it all. Does anyone have recommendations for a forum or website that I can read through that has everything up to date and already posted? Figured I'd ask to get some opinions instead of picking one myself, I'm determined to do things right haha. I'm also considering buying a betta online when the time comes (not buying from a pet store), could anyone share how that went if you've ever bought fish online? Is there any place I should check out?

Picked up a 10g tank today, I'm really excited to get this started. It's going to be a long process, but it's really go to pay off in the end. ^^

Betta's are actually a highly aggressive fish toward others of the betta species and also other fish as well. I know some bettas get along nicely, or at least from what I hear, with some fish mostly little guppies or neons I don't quite remember what they are. I currently own one betta in a five gallon tank, but looking into getting a ten gallon or using my spare 25 gallon to start breeding them. Though I haven't worked that out just yet.

A good online betta place would actually be;
- These guys - this is where I usually get all of my bettas from. They have amazing colors and beautiful fins (favorite is the halfmoon personally). They have a alive on arrival guarantee, if it is DOA you can have a look at their terms really friendly people and will usually answer any and all questions you could possibly have. Right now they have a few very nice bettas available for purchase.
- I would recommend staying away from sites such as aquabid. Granted a lot of the fish there are very beautiful, but you also want to look at where the fish are coming from since you pay THAT person selling the betta + shipment from there to the trans-shipper, then you have to pay ANOTHER person for the shipment until it arrives to you. Some of these sellers also don't offer alive on arrival guarantee so you have to be extremely careful with that as well.
- Though if you want to get bettas from a pet shop I would advice you keep an eye on the fins mostly. If there are any black areas to the outer edges of the fins they more than likely well develop fin rot of they don't already have it. Pick up the container and watch what the betta does. If it starts moving around a lot its usually a good sign. Though also be warned about the lethargic looking bettas in the plastic containers. Normally they will be laying at the bottom and a few up top. Tap the containers lightly to see if you can startle them and if they move and begin to be active they are a good fish. If they keep laying or staying in one place where their fins don't expand then I would recommend not getting it.

I don't know a heck of a lot about bettas but I know some basics as to which would be good, and which would be better. I have a friend who used to breed bettas who informed me about a bit of stuff when I first got my betta c:

[snarfsnarf]

Got 16 plant bunches and a betta (I wasn't planning on) yesterday.
I was building a 2 gallon fluval spec for my grandma's red-themed living room, because she's never had luck with fish and wanted to try to "do it right with the help of the family fish expert." When we picked out her betta I saw one I just absolutely loved and had to have.

This is my betta. I couldn't resist him, he looks like he's splattered in blood, and that's pretty metal. I needed him. Lol. I got my friend Robby to help me and my gma (he works at the store), and he agreed that it looks pretty metal.
I plan on keeping him in one of my spare brooder boxes on the front of my tank until Christmas, my grandma said around Christmas she's probably going to take me to get my own little setup for him, like hers, because she likes hers so much and thinks it's rather sad that my betta has to live in a brooder box. I mean I would have bought him his own little tank, but I'm broke because I've been dropping money like crazy on meds for my fish (the 3 lethargic tiger barbs STILL have ich somehow!!!) and I still have to repopulate the tigers' school after they get better, because there's still one that's perfectly fine and is getting lonely, so.. the betta has to wait. He'll be okay. It's only temporary.

This is a kind of crappy pic of my grandma's tank. Her betta is much prettier and brighter red than the pic, and his dorsal fin has a curl at the end. It's cute. She wanted to name him Scarlet, but I was like nahhh it's a boy that would be mean, so she named him Rhett Butler. I don't think I can compete with that name. But eh. She was also really excited that I chose only real things for her tank. I didn't choose any fake ornaments for her, because she never really believed in substitutes, she's an old-fashioned kinda person. She really liked that I picked out real driftwood and asked her to pick out her favorite live plants instead of fake ones. And I picked out two different foods for him so she could "vary" his diet a little. She's really impressed with the tank, and I'm really glad Rhett has a nice home with a nice owner that cares about him. I'm just sad that most of the other bettas won't have such a nice outcome. (She's even texting me this morning still asking questions, haha. I don't mind, I'm just glad she cares.)
I'm still thinking of a name for my own betta... It'll come to me soon enough.
Apparently when I was at my grandma's house my mom didn't treat my main tank like she said, because the ick spread back to my catfish (only a little, I can fix it up quick) and I lost a fish, not sure which one (because the others munched it into a bony chunk of meat) but I think it's a tiger by the bone structure. Oh well....

[PeachFuzz]

I got a new female guppy yesterday and after letting her acclimate to the water I put her in the tank. Everything seemed fine, but when I woke up this morning one of the male guppies had his tail in totally ripped up. Do you guys think the new girl did it? Should I remove her from the tank??

[scuttlefish]

Yes, remove her from the tank! If you just got her yesterday and his tail is ripped up today, then yes! Move her out immediately and heal the poor little guppy! I think the new girl did it.

[.:FarmGirlAtHeart:.]

I got a new female guppy yesterday and after letting her acclimate to the water I put her in the tank. Everything seemed fine, but when I woke up this morning one of the male guppies had his tail in totally ripped up. Do you guys think the new girl did it? Should I remove her from the tank??

How many males and females do you have?

[Dia.]

Yes, remove her from the tank! If you just got her yesterday and his tail is ripped up today, then yes! Move her out immediately and heal the poor little guppy! I think the new girl did it.

Eh, don't just jump to conclusions. That's like separating two toddlers and never letting them meet again if the first moment they meet, the one hits the other.
It happens. But there is always that period of weird introduction when they are getting used to each other with ALL animals. (it took my mare and this other mare two weeks to get used to each other and figure out their pecking order when they first met, but now they are inseparable)

All you need to do is keep watching. If the male guppy seems to be super stressed out after a few days and if you are sure she is the problem, then you can remove her.
He could have also been harassing her, causing her to retaliate.
Guppies are pretty tough little fish. He'll heal with clean water without much trouble.

I don't think it requires immediate removal of the female.