"Liz McGuire" wrote in message
...
So, I was tired of taking care of two tanks (a 10g and 6g), cuz the
10g was a little over stocked, thus requiring extra care, and the 6g
(planted, w/ betta) was growing every algae known to man (cuz I don't
know how to take care of plants, I suppose, and I don't really relish
experimenting with a poor fishy in there...).
So I decided a 50g was the answer. :-)
So, we got the 50g and I got it all set up (fake plants & various
decorations + a nice piece of drift wood). I let it go for a day and
then transferred the filters and fish from the 10g (6 neon tetras, 5
harlequin rasboras and 2 otos). I let them get used to it for a
couple hours (yes, I'm impatient) and then the experiment began...
I captured Dart, the betta, from his 6g isolation tank and put him
in. The curious rasboras immediately came over to say hi and he
promptly flared at them and chased them away. For about the past 2
hours, he's been exploring: got his tail caught on the filter intake a
few times -
Get an aquarium sponge (those made for the Aquaclears are ideal), snip a
small hole in one end and pull it over your filter's intake strainer. Make
sure to cover the whole "strainer" part. Some of these filters for larger
tanks have a suction strong enough to actually trap and kill smaller fish.
I have them on all my filter intakes to prevent accidents and torn fins.
I think he's learning; has covered most of the tank and I
think he's figuring out the currents (at least some of his surfing
seemed involuntary g). Ah! And he just discovered that there's an
inside to the big tree-stump + mushrooms decoration! I was hoping
this might become the betta cave!
It sounds like he's really enjoying himself. :-)
Perhaps this is why his second
favorite targets are the rasboras - who are much too fast for him, but
he still seems to want to herd them about the tank.
I once had a community betta who learned to sneak up on the other fish -
then rush attack them an rip their fins. :-() All my bettas now live
alone.
I'm not sure how long to let this go on - I'm hoping we can all calm
down and live in peace... But I guess we'll see how things are at
dinner time.
Keep us posted.
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
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