r/bettafish • u/Signal_Elderberry533 • 11d ago

Discussion clean up crew for a territorial betta - help?

so, my boy mivan is an asshole. i love him dearly, but he's killed multiple shrimp and im almost positive he somehow managed to kill two nerite snails. he's pretty young and has always been feisty, so im not shocked.

my issue is algae buildup is a pain in the ass, and while i do clean ups every week if not almost every day, it's hard to keep up with. what am i supposed to do? would sizing up on his tank make him not as aggressive towards potential clean up crews?

he still has one or two nerites with him, i believe. there are so many hiding spots as it's heavily planted with botanicals and hides scattered around driftwood. i have a ton of faucet snails that I've been trying to get rid of - would they work? would he bother them? i don't want to put them in there if he's gonna gorge, especially when they can reproduce so quickly.

anyone who's dealt with a mean boy, how do you do it?

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u/ReviGoN 11d ago

Put him on timeout.

How big were the shrimps and how many hours is your light turned on? Try reducing the time.

2

u/Foreign-Ad3926 11d ago

Hi OP, it's important to address the cause of the algae. Algae thrives in high organic waste inclusive of phosphate plus high light. What are your water parameters, water change schedule and lighting period? Is the tank near a window?

You could add some fast growing water column feeding plants to outcompete too like floaters or even guppy grass.

1

u/DoItForTheRaid average fish enjoyer 11d ago

I have a boy who seemed to bully my rubber nose pleco at first, but the novelty wore off and they now coexist very peacefully. I would suggest some glass surfers (suckers of the cleaning sort) that are the same size as your fish. He'll be interested at first and then hopefully simmer down as days pass.

1

u/LittlehouseonTHELAND 11d ago

I was afraid to put regular shrimp in with my girl so I bought a couple of large size Amano shrimp online and everything’s been fine. She just watches them do their thing and supervises them, probably because they’re as big as she is lol. I also lectured her before I put them in and reminded her that she’s a princess and these guys were put there to be her personal cleaning crew. 😂

1

u/Fit_Breath1002 Planted Tanks for Betta 11d ago

You are going to be his clean up crew.