D.I.Y Challenge for all you Fish People

Question

Well, you know how they say "when it rains it pours"...yesterday I come home from work, check on my tanks. One of my favorite tanks is my sorority tank, which is home to six female bettas. My sorority has been up and running for about a year and a half now, and has been fairly peaceful thusfar. Unfortunately my girls wanted to play politics: my alpha female (dead) was torn to peaces and my beta female (the new alpha) was missing her tail.

...and by "missing her tail" I mean that the entire thing was ripped off. I have a lot of experience with bettas, and while I have seen some impressive re-growth (one of my boys had his entire caudal fin ripped off in a failed spawning attempt and it grew back...) I am pretty sure that this girls tail will not grow back--you can see bone.

Despite her injuries she is doing perfectly fine...but because keeping any sort of injuried or sick betta in a sorority tank is a bad idea (they will pick on sick or weakened members of the group), I wanted to run to the petstore and pick up a breeder trap to seperate her from the others.

That's when I realized that my car had leaked coolant all over the driveway...and would be undrivable.

So, here is my question: what is the best D.I.Y way for me to seperate my tailless female betta from my other female bettas. I have a 0.5g plastic container, and a CVS within walking distance.

Answer 1

Got any extra screening laying around?  Drain the tank water into a large bucket, put the Bettas into the bucket with the water, heater, and filter, and start.  Spray the screen down with a hose, dry the glass where you want the dividers to go, have the screen cut to about half an inch longer than the tank is wide on each side, lay a bead of hot glue down the line you want the divider, and put the extra half inch on that on both sides of the tank.  There will still be water flow, but they won't be able to get at each other.

Answer 2

the half-gallon should do as a temporary hospital tank, just float the whole thing in your tank to maintain the temperature. in case you are going to medicate the fish, smaller tank means saving on the meds. just be prepared to do a lot of massive water changes. you could just dump the water in the plastic container and get aged water fromthe tank and top off the tank with fresh treated water.

Answer 3

well, cut several holes and slits in the plastic bowl, and hang it in the tank. it's the same concept as a breeder net. you'll just have to figure out how to hang it. hole punch and paper clips? heck i don't know what you have in your house/apt.