Isolated my male betta

Hello,

2 days ago started a 20gal tank with 3 female bettas, and also a male.
The tank is heavily planted. Now before you tell me I'm not supposed
to put a male in with females, keep in mind that everywhere you look
for advice about fish, everyone says something different.

Now, the fish were all going ok, the male was having fun chasing the
females, then he took a break. Then about 5 hours after getting them,
I found the red female had grabbed my male by the tail fin and was
spinning him around! So, I promptly put my male in isolation. He was
ok again after about 15 minutes, and remained so until today - he still
looks ok in colour, but now he has this cotton wool white stuff stuck
around his gills, which I think is a fungus. He has been swimming, but
mainly resting in his leaf (from one of the 20gal tanks plants) that is
floating in the tank.

I put some fungus medicine in the tank with him, but should I take the
leaf out? Is there anything else i should do, like put in some salt?

As for the females, well since the red one attacked the male, they were
being a bit nippy and fighting a little, so I went to the pet shop and
bought some more yesterday - they are great now!! So lovely to watch
too, very frisky and getting along great.

Thanks for help!

Beano wrote:

I put some fungus medicine in the tank with him, but should I take the
leaf out?

Can't say for sure if it does any harm being in there, but since he
doesn't need it, it would be wiser to take the leaf out than to leave it
in. That's erring on the side of caution.


Is there anything else i should do, like put in some salt?

Bettas are fine with a little salt in the water, and it certainly can't
hurt. Salt is good preventative for retarding a wide variety of bacteria
and parasites. You can use one rounded tablespoon of aquarium salt or
natural rock salt per five gallons of water.

- Logic316



"My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation
which outlaws the Soviet Union forever. The bombing begins in five minutes."
-- Ronald Reagan (Joking during a test before one of his radio addresses.)

Yay, I think it's working! I put some salt in a little while after my
original post, and some of the cotton wool bits seem to have fallen off
- there's still some on him though. Having said that, he's as frisky
as ever, dancing around the tank, holding his fins up really nicely!
He wasn't that active when I first bought him, maybe the stress of
bringing him home from the store activated a dormant disease or
something...

Thanks for your help, I'll keep posting if things change.

Beano wrote:
Hello,

2 days ago started a 20gal tank with 3 female bettas, and also a male.
The tank is heavily planted. Now before you tell me I'm not supposed
to put a male in with females, keep in mind that everywhere you look
for advice about fish, everyone says something different.

Now, the fish were all going ok, the male was having fun chasing the
females, then he took a break. Then about 5 hours after getting them,
I found the red female had grabbed my male by the tail fin and was
spinning him around! So, I promptly put my male in isolation. He was
ok again after about 15 minutes, and remained so until today - he still
looks ok in colour, but now he has this cotton wool white stuff stuck
around his gills, which I think is a fungus. He has been swimming, but
mainly resting in his leaf (from one of the 20gal tanks plants) that is
floating in the tank.

I put some fungus medicine in the tank with him, but should I take the
leaf out? Is there anything else i should do, like put in some salt?

As for the females, well since the red one attacked the male, they were
being a bit nippy and fighting a little, so I went to the pet shop and
bought some more yesterday - they are great now!! So lovely to watch
too, very frisky and getting along great.

Thanks for help!

It's fungus. Leave him his leaf - no sense in stressing him. Fungus
can be treated by putting medicine on the fungus rather than in the
water. It's very effective and is far less stressful on the fish than
medicine in the water.

Get some malachite green from LFS. Net the betta, gently hold him out
of the water and dab the malachite green directly on the fungus using a
cotton swab. Keep it off of his eyes, and try to get it only on the
fungus and not on healthy gill tissue. The fungus should turn green.
Release the betta and the fungus will fall off within a few hours.
Watch him and treat again if the fungus reappers.

Good luck!

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

Beano wrote:

Hello,

2 days ago started a 20gal tank with 3 female bettas, and also a male.
The tank is heavily planted.

Very good setup.

Now before you tell me I'm not supposed
to put a male in with females, keep in mind that everywhere you look
for advice about fish, everyone says something different.

I am certainly not saying that. In fact of course, males and females
co-exist in nature too. The harem system (1 male, 2-3 females) protects
the females from too much attention by the male.


Now, the fish were all going ok, the male was having fun chasing the
females, then he took a break.

Perfecly normal behaviour, so far.

Then about 5 hours after getting them,
I found the red female had grabbed my male by the tail fin and was
spinning him around!

Sounds like your red is no female at all, but a male, probably closer to
the wild form without the fancy fins, which are a result of breeding.
Females are usually camouflage-brown. So you will not be able to keep
the two in a common tank anymore.

About the treatment of fungus others have already advised.

Well I thought that, but she doesn't harrass the other females that
often, and when I first had the male in with them all, he completely
ignored her! Of couse he probably thought she was a girl! I thought
maybe she was getting revenge for him not paying attention to her
beautiful redness... regardless of her sex, I decided that her name
will be he-she...

I recently tried to reintroduce the male to the tank, and once again,
she attacked him - so something is definitely up - I'm considering
taking her back to the fish store and swapping her for a less
dominating female and telling them that she is gender confused...