- Joined
- Oct 7, 2019
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- The mountains of Southern California
So there is a little talk on the safety of small fish with marine betta. I have a small bone to pick with this. Let me preface by saying I have no way to prove this to anyone, so take it for what you feel it’s worth. My husband and I had what may have been a full size adult male in our 300 gallon fowl years ago in Florida. The tank was chock full of angels large and small, hinds, tangs, and wrasses. We wanted to see if a cleaner wrasse would exhibit its namesake with our hinds. After a short acclimation box stint where almost every fish swam to the box to investigate and to our surprise the hinds asking to have their mouths cleaned just like we had hoped we released the wrasse extremely nervously. Within minutes we were seeing the exact behavior we had hoped to see!!! It was amazing!!! A few days had passes and everything was going great! Then out of nowhere we couldn’t find the cleaner wrasse that was out and among the fish more than some of the angels and tangs where. To bring everyone out and see who may have had a full belly we fed the tank. The only fish that’s didn’t come out.... the betta! No way!!!! Upon flashlight investigation of his secluded hide, there he was! Caught red mouthed!!! Well more like blue mouthed, with the cleaners tail still partly out of his mouth! Now! This could be chalked up to under feeding. But I HIGHLY doubt that! This was a fish that would readily swim out into the tank during feeding(which was twice daily! And a LOT of food) to eat anything he saw to include large pellets a plenty! The other cause could have just been his size. He was easily every bit of 7+ inches nose to tip of tail. And the last potential cause may have been his level of defensiveness of his tucked away hide. At any rate we did try again, this time with a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse that lived harmoniously with everyone until the tank was broken down a couple years later. Just my 2 cents take it or leave it. I just felt it would be good to share our experience with one of the largest we have ever seen. @ThRoewer I’ll be watching this tread intently!!! I can’t wait to see you succeed!!! I’ll need to be added to this list as well please and thank you! Hehe