|
- I like bettas and i just found this site. I am currently conditioning my breeding pair for mating. The last set iwas going to breed had bad luck. the females died for no reason and the male jumped out and dried up:( I had my 3 females in a dual betta hex on one side and my 1 male in teh other with a seperator between the females and male. They were perfectly fine the whole time. Just watch for overly agressive femals and seperate them if they are. it is safe to keep a male and female in a large tank with hiding places and vegetation. At least 20 gallons to be safe
- Jun 16, 2002
|
|
betta5 - That sibling thing sometimes works with males too. I use a 25 gallon tank for raising juvenille fry. I kept a royal blue male and pastel white male together for 4-5 months before selling them. I'm sure it helped that there were at leat 10 females in the tank. I never saw them flare at eachother though and the blue male was clearly dominant and chased the females. The white male would flare at them but that was it.
As far as females go, if you introduce even 4-5 of them in a big tank (say 50 gallons) they will find each other immediately and pair off to fight. Older females are pretty viscious and I've seen them actually roll and lock jaws for several minutes. They too mellow out once social order is established but they can cause more dammage.
- Jan 22, 2001
|
|
betta5 - Females rarely fight to the death. They will however, fight until one fish submits and a heirarchy is established. With only two female bettas in the tank, the dominant female is likely to harrass the submissive female. I would suggest that if you want to keep female bettas together, I would suggest at least 5 of them so that the aggression is diffused rather than directed at one fish all the time. If possible, select females that are the same size. You could even keep one male with such a group as long as thre are sufficient hiding places for the females. As for males fighting to the death, that is not always true either. Usually the loser will do his best to get away. In a confined space, the winner possibly would kill the loser. It is more likely that the loser would die from infected wounds. If treated properly, torn fins and wouds do heal. No, I do not fight my bettas, but occasionally one jumps a divider or into another bettas container. Every time I've found this, the loser was not dead. The bettas were ignoring each other. Occasionally the winner would flare at the loser and the loser would swim away but that is usually the extent of it.
- Jan 22, 2001
|
|
jack - yeeaaahs
- Sep 18, 2001
|
|
Matthew J. - Female bettas are SOMEWHAT terrotorial. It's find to put females in the same tank if it's at least a 10-gallon and if you have at least four females. Otherwise, they'll nip each other -- certainly not to the death, but enough to be annoying and possibly open them up to infection. On top of this, if you're doing it with fish from a pet store that have been kept separately, they might never really "socialize" completely because they're already used to having their own territories.
- Jan 22, 2001
|
|
Michelle M. - It pretty much depends on the individual female, just as it does with males. Some girls simply cannot be kept together with other bettas. I've four at the moment, 2 being crowntails, that are going to remain solitary for the rest of their lives. Two of them have been tried with other girls more than once, and the results were disastrous.
When you move female bettas from one tank to another, the new surroundings and territory can be enough to make them forget (or not care) that they're related to each other. Siblings are more likely to get along, but every situation should be closely monitored at first. I've 4 female community tanks. The females in the 29g are all territorial and pretty well keep each other in line. Those in the 20g are fairly peaceful and get along, but those in the 28g are trouble. Females can be just as crabby as males.
- Jan 22, 2001
|
|
Kevin Barry - I currently have one male betta. I am considering getting a female. Would one female be content living alone, without any other fish? Thank you.
- Aug 28, 2001
|
|
|
