Agressive females

[Interfecus]

My female siamese fighters have gone ballistic, killing two guppies. They've just become ready to breed and hormones must be making them extra agressive. The previously rarely challenged boss is now skirmishing with another female. I just separated them, with one in a breeding trap. Any suggestions for decreasing violence in females if possible?

I find it interesting to note that the females fight like this where in most species females have no need to compete for males. It seems to have evolved this way due to the fact that the males are in almost as much demand as females becuase they tend the spawn. It's interesting to look at.

[TerminalAddict]

I find it interesting to note that the females fight like

{sexist comments follow)

gee all the females I know fight alot :lol:

[Delta]

It is common for them to bash up anything with long fins when they are in breeding condition and best to condition them away from other types of fish, but you can condition a bunch of betta girls together.

I keep my females all together in slightly cooler water than normal 22C, when not conditioning, they slow down a bit and aren't so agressive, but there is always a dominant one, but with plenty of weed and an open ended tunnel they can hide and sort out a pecking order. But sometimes if you separate them (even into a breeding trap) get very agressive and cannot be returned to the girls dorm they are so stroppy. I have one in an unheated golfish tank doing because she cant go back with the others, she gets so cranky she has killed 2 male bettas while trying to spawn with her(seperate attempts, they never recovered from their injuries)

But if you are conditioning them for breeding then raise the temp slowly to 28C. Otherwise keep them a bit cooler like I mentioned. Keeping them in condition for breeding(that means full of eggs with white spot showing) but not breeding them can put them at risk of becomming egg bound and/or the eggs not being viable and they will eat them. You can spot these type of eggs as they are flattened and not a nice round shape.

Another thing, are you sure they are females? Are they showing the white spot ovipositor(? spelling) that is really the only way to be really sure that you don't have a short finned male. And then you only see the spot if they are in breeding condition.

Sorry if you know all this but I'm not up with who keeps what and what they do or don't know. And it's late/or early? and I'm in whaffle mode :lol:

Hope that helps anyway,

Dianna

[Interfecus]

Thanks, I'll try to separate other fish from them where possible.