are my new couple OK

i have one male called bruce, and he's lived alone for about 3months, today i bought a female to keep him company, and i have noticed that the female hides away alot, i was watching them earlier and i noticed that all the male seems to do is sneak up on her, whilst flaring alot, and then dart at her when shes about an inch away, is this normmal, or am i goin to wake up to a dead fish tomorrow please help

males and females should never be kept together. he will kill her or she will kill him. again they should never be kept in the same tank and can only be bred under specific conditions and even then the males and females often maim and kill each other.

i was told that they would be alright, i thought it was just males that shouldnt be kept together ive got nowhere to put her, does anybody know of a quick homemade divider, i dont have any spare tanks, and need to make one asap and the shopes are closed now

What size is your tank?

60litre

you could float a plastic tub in the tank and put her in it, or use a baby net as a divider. even putting her in a large glass bowl for the evenign will be better then leaving her in with him.

Hi
Yeh, Newfishy has told you the correct & safest info here. For every few people that claim they have kept males and females together, there are hundreds that have ended up with a disaster on their hands.

It is possible in a massive tank, but even then its not ideal. I'm guessing that a fish shop told you it would be ok?

I agree with Newfishy.

BTW hope you enjoy your time here!

oh dear sorry you got told the wrong info. I was once told that males and females could be kept together too

welcome to the site

its sometimes told to new fish owners that males and females can live together. in the normal aquaria its just not possible.

the only situation i have heard of is a little old man from thailand that had a massive plant and betta buisness, he placed one male and one female in a massive fish pond that were also his plant grow out tank. think like 3 foot deep 8x8 wide pond. he allowed them to spawn naturaly. then he would scoop all the 2 months olds out and put the parents and the younger generations of fry back in the pond. his show fish and anything older then 2 months was jarred sepertaly.

As the others have said, keeping ,ales and females together is a disaster waiting to happen. Even in the cases where they don't fight, having a male around really stresses the female out - so much so that she could get sick or even die from the stress.

Many people who don't actually know much about bettas (but think they do, because they have kept them or tried breeding them) will tell you that males and females will be fine together. This is often because they have only done it a few times and never had a disaster. However, knowing about how bettas behave and how they interact in the wild tells us that it isn't a good idea at all.

Remember - there is a difference between genuine knowledge and experience and someone who puts them together, doesn't have a disaster and then recommends it to others.

When i first kept bettas i was told by the fish shop that you could keep a male with three females as it reduced the aggression, i did keep them together for a time, until i read tons of info on them and realized it was the wrong thing to do for the well being of the fish. Once i changed them around they were much happier!

Now all my males are housed separately and the females have a large well planted tank. I also occasionally keep some of the females individually.

Hope you found a solution to this problem... many LFS's seem to say males and females can be kept together unfortunately

bad news. By the time i read the post, i tried to find the female, she was cowering in a plant, ive got her out, and her fins and tail are a right state, ive quarentined her, and im going to try to nurse her back to health,, im going to try to do something about the fish store, surely thats cruelty to animals or something...thanks everyone, atleats shes got a bit more a chance at survival

Sorry to hear about your girl for really bad fin damage I find the eSHa 2000 med really good. If you have some of that you could give it a try

clean clean clean water, very little stress and low lights and noise. like not have her tank in a busy room will help her calm down and regrow.

if she was going to die from stress how long would it take, shes been alive on her own for 3days now :/, and i noticed today shes bleeding on her side, i hope she pulls through it

Newfishy wrote:clean clean clean water, very little stress and low lights and noise. like not have her tank in a busy room will help her calm down and regrow.

Ditto....what Newfishy said plus patience. Just give her time to settle and with very very clean water her fins will start to grow back but it does take time.

Also, if she is bleeding don't use any aquarium salt and maybe add some Stress Coat to help her. So sorry she got so badly beat up Cammeronlaud!
I will put in a special prayer for her!