FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Is a 4ft long tank (about a foot and a bit deep) too big for female bettas to handle? It's heavily planted in the middle- and the only other inhabitants are a breeding pair of kribs and two juveniles. Previouly there have been pearl gourami in there.

<Vet in Training>
Blog under development: http://www.nearlydrferox.blogging4life.com/

nup, its fine, just watch that the water flow is broken a bit along the bottom so that any that have impaired swimming or reduced energy (from illness or injury or bullying) don't get sucked along and end up plastered to the filter outlet, but that goes for most small tropicals.

Try to define a few territories too, maybe make sure there is a plant or two outside of the middle for each one to 'claim'. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

Not sure on the kribs, I've never kept them

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

That's good long tank, so territories for the bettas and kribs should be OK...but do keep an eye on the kribs - some can be terrorists when spawning to other tankmates (think convict nasty), whereas others are pretty calm if they have the space. With your long tank, I'd guess it will work out nicely.

If you put some floating plants in at one end at the top, and have some wood and rocks in the opposite bottom corner you should find that the bettas will stay at the top end away from the kribs, but I still tend to think that a male krib if stimulated to fight by a betta, could easily maim one. Might just go for kribiensis females.

The size of a tank for bettas though isnt a problem. Perhaps because so many people keep them in tiny aquaria the perception is that they cant cope with large bodies of water, which is of course plainly untrue. Ive put bettas in 125 gals before, and they suffer no ill effects whatsoever. They enjoy the space just as much as any other fish, as long as the choice of cagemates is suitable. A krib might be on the very limit of that suitability.

Recently a post cast some doubt on the suitability of baby angels and kribs being together because of the fears of communication difficulties, but to be honest for adult angels that was a worry too far because angels and kribs dont really communicate at all,the physionomical differences and territorial preferences mean they dont really come into conflict, and usually ignore each other, but kribs and bettas in combo are confrontational.

Only the distance will stop male bettas and kribs from fighting. The day a betta fails to realise they are up against a much tougher animal, which, lets face it bettas are e to do, one could end up dead.

Im thinking I might not risk it, because its a kind of gamble. I know they will fight if contact becomes close, and the outcome of that fight depends on the betta realising it has to back off or be killed. Female kribs are much calmer than males though, and they might be worth taking a risk on.

"Only the distance will stop male bettas and kribs from fighting."

Ferox said it's female bettas though. Will that make enough of a difference?

The pottery that growls!

The situation is it looks like my 4 new 'female' bettas are actually 3 girls and a plakat male(I think). At the moment they're all in a 2ft tank. I'm hoping a breeding pair of kribs in a 4ft tank is going to be less dangerous to them than a young plakat male in a 2ft tank.

There actually is a piece of driftwood in the middle. It's just so havily planted than you can barely see it.

I'm not breaking up my breeding pair of kribs. They mostly live in one third of the tank anyway. The right third with the pots. They've spawned about 5 times but I don't put any effort intoi protecting the young - so only 8 have made it to any decent size (traded 6 away).

I know the tank is anything but fully stocked- so there should be heaps of space right?

Here's what the tank looks like, left, centre and right thirds.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/ferox_thyla/left.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/ferox_thyla/center.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/ferox_thyla/right.jpg

<Vet in Training>
Blog under development: http://www.nearlydrferox.blogging4life.com/

If they are standard females it should be tolerable, they are more into occasional posturing and pecking than a full on confrontation, but if they are longfins they seem to have some crossed wires (and then some IMO) that make them a bit more aggressive and likely to fight it out.

If there are longfinned females, treat as if they were cranky males. In fact, I'd probably put them above males in terms of aggression, I don't think their bodies handle the mutation well at all.


EDIT: From the betta side of things I LOVE that setup! Toss some hornwort in and you'd be cooking with gas! How is the suspected plakat handling things? Is he grumpy or just going with the flow? Any chance of a piccie?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

The plakat patrols the front of ht tank chasing anything that comes near the surface. Then at feeding time he steal's the cory's shrimp pellets and puts them onto a piece of driftwood where they can't find them.

The females look very normal to me. I'll try to post pictures of them and the male if I can ever get one in focus.

Hormwort, elodea and water sprite disintergrate in my tank. Even duckweed dies in my tank. I have some Australian water fern which floats, but only the cryptocorne really grows at all in this tank.

<Vet in Training>
Blog under development: http://www.nearlydrferox.blogging4life.com/

LMAO @ the plakat. Yup, that sounds like a boy! they are suck turkeys! Mine go in and take the pellets out from under the crayfish, and then spend 40 minutes swimming around like some African tribesperson until the thing softens enough to chew! It isn't like they don't have their own food, they just want *that* stuff. Of course, it ends in the inevitable full-of-sinking-pellet swimming, very attractive.
Ahh well, at least he's sorted out his space.

Disintergrate, really? I mean, I believe you because I can't even get java moss to grow in most of mine and managed to kill pennywort with some serious regularity, but hornwort tends to grow in almost anything. What lighting do you have?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I can't remember exactly, but there's two tubes and it's decent lighting. I have hornwort growing in the pont- in my tanks it just sheds its leave and falls appart. I think it's the temperature- I couldn't get it to stay in one piece in spawning tanks either.

Adn yeah- they do love to play soccer with shrimp pellets don't they. My girls even steal them from each other.

<Vet in Training>
Blog under development: http://www.nearlydrferox.blogging4life.com/