Advice Little Too Late for a Beautiful Betta

Ziggy: 2005-2006Anyone who tells you that bettas won’t fight to the death is wrong. I know this now first hand. I recently divided my tank with my beautiful pink and purple crowntail male on one side a female on the other. I thought that it would be less stressful having a male in view of a female instead of two competing males in addition to the tank being heavily planted.

Today I returned home from an overnight business trip to find my female on the wrong side of the tank divider and quickly checked her body for any signs of an altercation. Her fins were all intact and no scales were missing. I sighed with relief. Then I realized my male wasn’t coming up to greet me and smiled as I thought what a coward he is, afraid of a little girl fish. Then I saw him… faced down in the gravel. My gorgeous male was dead with absolutely no fins left. I felt sickened at the site and completely responsible for this senseless murder. I never should have divided the tank. I will never divide a betta tank again. It’s not worth it. I have always known they are crafty and have heard story after story from people who write in about their bettas jumping the divider or slipping under it. I just wrote a blog article myself about bettas jumping the tank.

People ask me all the time if you can keep males and females together and I always tell them it’s possible depending on their personalities, the type of set up and the ability to be an experienced and observant keeper. Having lost my most precious male in less then a day I will now respond resolutely with strong words of warning. If you allow your bettas to share a take, intentionally or not, you may jeopardize the lives of one or both of your fish. If you divide your aquarium, be willing to accept death if it comes. Something I unknowingly wasn’t prepared to do.

I’m sorry Ziggy.