Help! I'm looking for a bit of advice. I recently upgraded from a 40l tank to a 120l tank, and the choice to add a few more aggressive natured fish to the new 120l community left me with the decision to leave my male betta in the 40l with an old plec who was just being harassed by a newly adopted angel fish.

However, he was starting to look a bit depressed (as I've seen happen to bettas in the past - not eating much, sitting on bottom, not making bubble nests) so I thought I'd be a mate and give him a couple of girls to play with. Well, only 5 days later after the girls constantly flaring at him and chasing him around, i found him dead at the bottom of the tank with the girls beginning to appreciate his nutritional value!!

So, not to be discouraged, i go out and get Bettaman Mk II - an almost identical looking male - as I'm keen to move on to trying breeding. All has seemed fine for the last two weeks - he integrated well and was making a large bubble nest in a corner of the tank - but I woke up today to find him sitting on the bottom with almost no fins at all! He's not able to swim well at all, and is looking just as depressed as the last guy, so I've isolated him for now but am not holding my hopes out for him!

So what do I do? Get rid of my obviously aggresive females? Get a different coloured male for them? Re-introduce him into the tank and hope they can work out their differences?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

get rid of the females you have now and buy a different two. hope your male survives!!!!!!

How confident are you that the females are females? There have been threads on here where a 'female' betta turned out to be a male. There is a variety of betta where the male has smaller finnage - a Plakat. Have a look at this thread:

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/boy-or-girl-vt7715.html

MCT

How confident are you that the females are females?

Very - the ovipositor tube is clearly visible on both. Females also have slightly wider bodies compared to the males, who have a more elongated body shape. If I was in any doubt though, my male's behavior towards them up until now has not been one of challenge as would be expected if either of the girls were actually male - he's definitely been trying to impress them.

I'm not a newb to keeping fish - just never encountered this particular situation before. I suspect that one of my females (a Cambodian) is the more aggressive one, so I've put her in a tank on her own and reintroduced my male to the 40l to see how he gets on with the other one for now.

Hi jaymanson

Dont be alarmed too much.

What has happened to you hasnt happened in my breeding Betta's, but I have read that it is a common occurance with some males that they do not wish to breed at that time.

Consequently, the females who are ready to breed drive the poor male to distraction, to the point that you will never be able to breed from that male after that happening.

He will just cower in a corner and keep being bullied till he finally succumbs.

The only use he is after that is to leave him on his own in a community tank devoid of females who will keep picking on him.