Add Marine Betta or not?

[GSMclowns]

Hello Everyone,

Someone gave me a beautiful 6 inches Marine Betta and I have been QT it in a BioCube for 2 months now. Trained it to eat frozen shrimps. I have a 120 gallons reef tank with the following fishes: 2 True Percula clowns, 2 yellowtail damsels, 2 Lyretail anthias, 1 medium size Royal Gramma, and 1 Yellow Tang. This is a very peaceful tank actually. All the fishes have their spots and tolerate each other. I have 2 islands of rocks in the tank now. There is no shrimp so I don't worry about them being eaten. I really like the Royal Gramma that swim in and out of the rocks all over the tank. Each of the 2 yellow tail damsels control half of the tank.

With all that said, I am just worrying that when I add the Marine Betta it will take over one of the island and kick out the Yellow Tail Damsel?. Will it bully the Royal Gramma and prevent him from swimming all over the tank? What do you guys think? Will they become aggressive after awhile and start chasing smaller fishes?

Thanks

 

[eatbreakfast]

Marine bettas are extremely peaceful fish and only have issues with each other and even then aggression is limited. Definitely add the marine betta.

 

[Neebles]

I have been wanting to add one to my tank as well. I have heard however that they can be very reclusive and hide out a lot. Hopefully you have enough rocks/caves for it to hide in. Apparently they like it a little darker too so during your prime lighting hours you may not see it much. On a final note, even though you have it trained on frozen, I wouldn't assume that it won't go after your smaller fish such as the gramma. The fish is still a fish and a natural predator after all, trained or not. Other than those possibilities, they are beautiful, hardy fish, and I would love to add one to my tank someday, but the risks have to be considered.

 

[GSMclowns]

Thanks for all the replies.
The Marine Betta's mouth is big but I don't think it can swallow the Royal Gramma. I guess I am more worry that it would take over half of the tank and prevent other small fishes like Royal Gramma and the Yellowtail damsels from entering that part of the tank. That would really be bad because my want all of my fishes to move about freely the whole tank.

 

[eatbreakfast]

I ave kept full grown marine bettas with fish as small as firefish without issue. I currently have 2 in my tank, tbey allow other fish in their hiding place as long as its not a close relative.

 

[Moort82]

I've had my Betta for around a year now and its slightly smaller than yours but not by much. In that time I think I have got a good indication of how it is and I would say mellow is the word. To begin with my clowns were nervous of it but not because it was aggressive in any way, it simply intimidated them due to its size. They now don't even reach to one another although the healthy respect is still displayed at feeding time. I simply shut the pumps off and hand feed it.
It is very bold but I made sure the tank was scaped with plenty of overhangs and caves, I also have LED's so its not super bright. This makes it feel secure but it moves around the tank all day and comes to great me when I go up to the tank.
I have similar tankmates to youdarwin clowns, indigo dotty, starcki damsel as well as a algae blenny, mandarin and orangespot goby (was tiny and easily a mouthful when added but didn't even tempt it) and I also have two cleaner shrimps. The shrimps are the only thing I have seen it lunge for but that I think was because they annoyed it and it was a "sod off", rather than a "you look tasty" lunge.

I couldn't imagine the tank without it now and definitely wouldn't hesitate to add it to any tank except with super small fish. Also not seen a bristleworm since adding it and don't miss being stung, so happy days.

 

[hotelbravo]

I recently added a small 1 inch marine betta to my tank and he is the best! He seems to claim the middle of the tank in the water column as his hangout spot of course there is absoluetly no hint of agression from him not even to the ghost shrimp I put in the tank. Very peaceful very active(if you consider hovering out in the open and not hiding being active). He has been eating frozen mysis well and I saw him eating a pellets today

 

[lhm nole]

Awesome fish mine is close to 6 inches comes out alll the time have him with yt blue damsels royal grammas clowns with no issues .. Going to try and pair it with a smaller 3 inch one soon

 

[nonimmigrant]

I have been wanting to add one to my tank as well. I have heard however that they can be very reclusive and hide out a lot. Hopefully you have enough rocks/caves for it to hide in. Apparently they like it a little darker too so during your prime lighting hours you may not see it much. On a final note, even though you have it trained on frozen, I wouldn't assume that it won't go after your smaller fish such as the gramma. The fish is still a fish and a natural predator after all, trained or not. Other than those possibilities, they are beautiful, hardy fish, and I would love to add one to my tank someday, but the risks have to be considered.

I've raised a pair for 10 years. It will not touch the gramma. Good luck with it.

 

[GSMclowns]

Okay everyone, I guess I will be adding that Marine Betta to the big tank. I will try to catch the fish this weekend. I saw a video on youtube where some guy trained his Betta to come out and he hand fed the fish. Pretty cool. Hopefully I can report back the good news after few months to a year.

 

[nonimmigrant]

I saw a video on youtube where some guy trained his Betta to come out and he hand fed the fish. Pretty cool. Hopefully I can report back the good news after few months to a year.

My female regularly does that ... It's neat. Good luck.

 

[Moort82]

Getting them to feed from your hand is pretty easy. They seem to be fairly intelligent and quickly recognise the hand that feeds. As soon as the powerheads go off or I stand near the tank, out he comes begging.

 

[ThRoewer]

The Marine betta or Comet is one of my favorite fish. They in general never cause problems with other fish and are fairly easy to pair up (at some point I had 3 pairs).

Their only downsides are that they get fairly big and will eat all your shrimp.
If you have no shrimp - then you have no problem with them.

I just got a tiny baby comet - couldn't resist

 

[Moort82]

The Marine betta or Comet is one of my favorite fish. They in general never cause problems with other fish and are fairly easy to pair up (at some point I had 3 pairs).

Their only downsides are that they get fairly big and will eat all your shrimp.
If you have no shrimp - then you have no problem with them.

I just got a tiny baby comet - couldn't resist

Can I ask how you paired them up? as a quick look at breeding sites and it isn't straight forward. I loved to pair mine up eventually.

 

[ThRoewer]

The male has a rounder head, a bullish neck and significantly longer pelvic fins.

Male:

Female:

The best way is of course to check their genitals: the male's is thin and pointy while the females is thick and rounded like a well worn pencil tip:

The male above was one of my first tank raised Marine Bettas, born in 1992. He was only 10 years old at the time I took the pictures, still quite young. The older they get the clearer the difference gets.

If you can't find enough to pick a pair you can also go another route:
Get one small to medium sized wild fish and one or more tank raised tiny one(s) (I think Sustainable Aquatics is breeding them - at least that's where one of the stores here gets them from).
For this attempt you need a tank with lots of hiding places. The largest will become the male and the smaller ones will be the females. If your tank is big enough you can keep them in a harem.
I had an adult pair in a tank where a 3 month old tiny baby (~12mm) escaped to (through the overflow and an aptasia infested several meters long drain pipe). I had that little guy chalked off as either swallowed by the aptaisia or gulped up by the full sized clarkii pair that had their anemone right where the drain pipe ended.
About two years later I found to my surprise that I had actually 3 marine bettas in that tank

 

[Moort82]

Many thanks for the advice. I'll try and sex my betta and see which route that takes me.

Thanks again.

 

[HPark]

The male has a rounder head, a bullish neck and significantly longer pelvic fins.

Male:

Female:

The best way is of course to check their genitals: the male's is thin and pointy while the females is thick and rounded like a well worn pencil tip:

The male above was one of my first tank raised Marine Bettas, born in 1992. He was only 10 years old at the time I took the pictures, still quite young. The older they get the clearer the difference gets.

If you can't find enough to pick a pair you can also go another route:
Get one small to medium sized wild fish and one or more tank raised tiny one(s) (I think Sustainable Aquatics is breeding them - at least that's where one of the stores here gets them from).
For this attempt you need a tank with lots of hiding places. The largest will become the male and the smaller ones will be the females. If your tank is big enough you can keep them in a harem.
I had an adult pair in a tank where a 3 month old tiny baby (~12mm) escaped to (through the overflow and an aptasia infested several meters long drain pipe). I had that little guy chalked off as either swallowed by the aptaisia or gulped up by the full sized clarkii pair that had their anemone right where the drain pipe ended.
About two years later I found to my surprise that I had actually 3 marine bettas in that tank

Wow - great read, thanks for the info. I have a marine betta from Sustainable Aquatics. Had it maybe 12-18 months - probably 3-4 inches now. Have wanted to pair it but didn't really know what to look for. Maybe the next time DD offers a tiny one, I'll scoop it up and give it a go.

I've kept mine in busier tanks but since isolating it in a temp 20g holding tank for the last 2-3 months (I moved) - it certainly has gotten much bolder. I'm considering setting up a tank with a pair of bettas and maybe some dartfish and small gobies - do you think these would unsettle the bettas and make them recluse? What tankmates have you found to work well?

 

[ThRoewer]

I had all of my pairs with pairs of clownfish (ocellaris, percula, clarkii). Other fish in the tanks were sixline wrasses, a pair of regal angels, dottybacks, mandarins,... in general either smaller or rather calm fish.
The regal angels got into little scuffles with the male sometimes when he was breeding and they intruded into his cave, but it never let to injury.
Assessors or Grammas should be ideal companions if you have lots of caves and overhangs.

I feel that more important than the other fish is the decoration of the tank. Marine bettas need caves, gorges and overhangs, lots of them in various sizes.
They also prefer dimmer lights so you will likely see them mostly in the morning or evening if you dim or stagger your lights.
In general
I found the females to be much less reclusive than the males. If you only have one adult you likely will have a male, which may account for the generally observed reclusiveness.
When you have a pair you will definitely see more of them.

I also feel that tank raised Calloplesiops are less reclusive. My little guy is always out while the 3 Grammas he is in quarantine with are much more reclusive and shy. I made the same observations with the ones I bred myself.

Don't be concerned if the female has sometimes ripped fins or missing scales - their sex is quite rough and the torn fins will heal within a day or two. I used that as an indicator to look for a new clutch of eggs.

If you put an adult pair together and you feed them well it may take as little as 4 weeks until the first spawn.

 

[bacon5]

Being a freshwater guy I had to check this out! That fish looks sick! I find it funny that these fish are considered peaceful and the freshwater ones are not.

 

[lhm nole]

I had all of my pairs with pairs of clownfish (ocellaris, percula, clarkii). Other fish in the tanks were sixline wrasses, a pair of regal angels, dottybacks, mandarins,... in general either smaller or rather calm fish.
The regal angels got into little scuffles with the male sometimes when he was breeding and they intruded into his cave, but it never let to injury.
Assessors or Grammas should be ideal companions if you have lots of caves and overhangs.

I feel that more important than the other fish is the decoration of the tank. Marine bettas need caves, gorges and overhangs, lots of them in various sizes.
They also prefer dimmer lights so you will likely see them mostly in the morning or evening if you dim or stagger your lights.
In general
I found the females to be much less reclusive than the males. If you only have one adult you likely will have a male, which may account for the generally observed reclusiveness.
When you have a pair you will definitely see more of them.

I also feel that tank raised Calloplesiops are less reclusive. My little guy is always out while the 3 Grammas he is in quarantine with are much more reclusive and shy. I made the same observations with the ones I bred myself.

Don't be concerned if the female has sometimes ripped fins or missing scales - their sex is quite rough and the torn fins will heal within a day or two. I used that as an indicator to look for a new clutch of eggs.

If you put an adult pair together and you feed them well it may take as little as 4 weeks until the first spawn.

So what happens if they are both the same sex I have a 300 reef and impossible to catch one.. Currently have a 5 inch male using your description and have 2 inch tr I bought from DD which i would like to try to pair.. So will the bigger male kill the smaller one if its also a male tank is loaded with rocks caves and crevices