| Hello
Michelle :), thank you for wanting to help the little gal recover
from her boy heartbreak :)... I guess boys are trouble
regardless of the specie LOL. Well you did not mention how this
accident happened: Was your daughter trying to spawn her bettas?
Or did you guys think that the male needed company and just added
a female to his display? Since I am not sure, I am going to play
it safe and lecture you (even though you might not need it, others
reading this column might LOL):
NEVER EVER PUT A FEMALE AND A
MALE BETTA TOGETHER.
Wait. Hold on. Be quiet
for a moment... Let the words sink in... Let the notion soak. Let
the words become part of your memory bank. Meditate upon them....
Ommmmmmmm... Ommmmmmmm... Now repeat after me:
"I shall never ever put a
male and a female betta together ever never and under ANY
circumstances, regardless of how nice the male seems, how much he
seems to like the female, how pretty they look together, how large
the tank is and how many hiding place the female might have at her
disposal to escape his tyranny."
One might ask: well, if you can
never put them together, then how do you spawn them? Very promptly,
very cautiously and only if you know what you are doing. Want to
learn more about spawning bettas? Read my breeding
bettas section.
Anytime you put two bettas
together, you are asking for trouble:
- two males together:
this is absolute madness. Have you EVER wondered why bettas
are called Siamese FIGHTING
FISH? What part of "fighting fish" did you guys exactly
not get? Just today I got a submission for this column from
someone who had put two males together. Needless to say one of
the two is now in trouble. People are so stubborn they always
think that thousands of betta hobbyists are wrong, and
that their specific two males can peaceful coexists. They
could, if they were amebas or snails. But NOT of they are
Siamese FIGHTING
FISH. Get a clue! There is a reason why bettas made it to #2
on the countdown of most fearsome fighters of the animal
kingdom (Animal Planet series).
- a male and a female: This
is just as bad, except that the male may take a couple day
before he decides to shred his mate to pieces. So at
first there might be a deceitful illusion of "it's
working OK". The new comer to the hobby may think:
"Ah, they are getting along just fine". Only to
return home to find a dead female, or even on occasion, a dead
male (girl power heheheheh!!). Even if the two decided to
spawn, the male will then viciously attack the female to keep
her away from the nest, so same results. So male and females
can never be kept together EVER.
- two females: I wish I
could say the damsels are more civilized, but I would be lying
LOL. On occasion, female bettas may be kept together (notice I
said OCCASION). Usually if they are sisters and were raised
together since they were little squirts. Or if the tank is
large and the females are gentle. Bettas, like people, are all
a bit different (notice I said BIT). While some females are
real dragons, shredding everything in sight (including males),
others may be more gentle and may accept cohabitation. It will
be necessary to always watch the females carefully, even if
they seem to get along. As the dominant female in the tank
keeps everyone else in line, should she be removed or die, the
rest of the harem will promptly proceed to pull their hair out
LOL. (probably arguing who gets the mohair sweater LOL). So
there you go.
OK, so now let us address your
current problem: The harm has already been done and the female is
now hurt. I am actually working on an E-Magazine article about
betta accidents and how to handle them properly, but it is not
done yet (sorry :( ) so let me try to help you as much as I
can:
- remove female (which
you have done) and put her in a clean, bare 1 gal jar. Take
some of the tank water with her to avoid stressing her more
than she is already is. This way she will not have to
acclimate to new water (just yet). Well, you already removed
her and I am not sure if you put her in new water, if so
disregard this last advice.
- Treat for infection:
the wound will probably not kill her, but the stress and a
possible infection might. Now your female's immune system is
low, and now is when she needs it most (cause of the open
wound). Nasty bacteria of all sorts thrive in water and all
they need is an opportunity (like an open wound for example)
to flourish. What we want to do is make it hard for them to
attack the wound. For superficial wounds, bettamax will do the
trick just fine. However, for deeper wounds, we may have to
use stronger antibiotic. I would recommend Spectrogram (by
Aquatronics).
- keep the water clean
while the female is in the hospital jar. Every third day, do a
full water change (see my water page)
and add a new dose of Spectrogram. And so on and so forth
until the female is looking much better. Once wound is closed,
and fins show signs of regrowth, you can switch her to
bettamax. I would recommend doing a full water change, waiting
3 days (no medication added) and then adding bettamax on day 4
(for a smooth switch between two medications). Once the wound
is closed you can do water changes every 7 days.
It is possible your female might
not make it. However if she is still alive 3 days after the
initial attack, she has a good chance of full recovery, providing
you proceed as above and prevent an infection. Liquid vitamins
(for fish) will also help the recovery. She might stop eating, and
if so do not overfeed and make sure to not LEAVE UNEATEN FOOD TO
ROT in the jar. This would be the worst thing you could do (cause
it makes bacteria bloom and then the bacteria will attack the
wound even more aggressively!!).
Well, I wish you both the best
of luck and hope you will get this valuable info in time. :). (PS:
Don't hate the male: he is not a bad fish, he just can't help it,
it is in his nature to fight). |