Female Betta and Feeder Guppies?

[Janine]

I recently got two female bettas, & I should have checked this before buying but one is bigger than the other & constantly chases the smaller one, so I got six feeder guppies to distract the bigger betta's attention away from the smaller betta to the feeder guppies.
If that makes sense.
I expected the betta to eat the feeder guppies which they have already cleared three of them,
my QUESTION is:
I keep reading about people with female betta and feeder guppies in their tank and they don't mention anything about the feeder guppies getting eaten.
Are mine only getting eaten because the tank is too small?
Also, do the betta actually get nutrition from eating the guppies or do they just go after anything smaller than them?

My tank is an average size, typical round goldfish bowl.
Just a little "fyi" but if possible I'd prefer answers that don't just tell me to separate the female bettas because I already know thats an option, I wanted to hear some other ways I could solve this
& to add the female betta are really really small for betta, I picked the two smallest ones.
but i understand i need a bigger tank now,
i have lots to learn but you gotta start somewhere! thanks for the answers.

if anyone else could answer for me that knows about raising fish-whats best for female betta? lots of plants? warm water? what about feeder guppies? & i decided to move the feeder guppies into a big tank and add more so they can breed, what would be the best set up for them?
thank you

[Core]

A "typical round goldfish bowl" is WAYYYYYY too small, even for just one betta. Your fish are killing each other because they're depressed, angry and over crowded. You'll need at least 15 gallons with plants and hiding places to make things work.

[Lolo]

Um ok. You need to lose the bowl and get a real tank for the betta's. That bowl isn't even proper for 1 betta let alone 2 + feeder guppies. At the VERY LEAST you need 5 gallons. They are fighting over the tiny amount of territory available to them and adding the guppies only made the problem way worse...especially if you aren't doing daily water changes. Here is a perfect setup for them: A 10 gallon tank with a heater and filter, with gravel and several live plants to provide good hiding places. If the poor smaller female had a place to hide, you wouldn't be having these problems. If you don't take care of the space issue soon, the bigger female could end up killing the smaller one.

As far as the guppies go, I have 2 female guppies that are constantly pregnant, and they spit out babies at least once a month each, so we put all the babies in a breeder net and then give each betta 1 every other day as a treat. They like to chase them around and "hunt".
It gives them a little exercise, and a healthy snack.

Yes they do provide nutrition for the betta, but they still need a betta pellet as their main diet. I highly recommend Hikari betta food. It makes their color pop! Also blood worms are another treat that betta's love. Again I've found Hikari brand frozen blood worms to be the best.
You can email me with any other questions you may have. Good Luck and please please please get them a proper set up.

[pipman23]

Goldfish bowls are only like a gallon, 2 bettas and feeder guppies is way to crowded. A single betta needs at least a 2.5 gallon with a heater and a slow flowing filter.

[glitter bug *?*]

id say its too small of a bowl. usually they do not eat guppies (at least i thought). you should at least have a 2.5 gal tank and get some mirrored background to go around the tank...maybe that will do a better job of distracting. but if its a bigger tank i dont think you will have many problems since they are females