anyone try community tank w/male and female bettas?

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boothbrave

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 23, 2003
Messages
36
Location
Mississauga,Ontario
I picked up a betta book and it stated you could keep one male betta and up to several female bettas in a tank- provided it is heavily planted with lots of hiding places.

Is this possible? Anyone try this yet?


thanks.
 
May I suggest doing a search for betta or postings from Christmasfish here in AA. There seems to have been lots of betta talk recently about bettas and communities and female/male betta compatibility.
I'm sure someone has tried this and will get back to you.
 
I personally wouldn't try it. Not to say it isn't possible though. At one time, I had four females together, and I've seen even more than that at the lfs. The only time you should really try it is if you're attempting to breed. Sure, it's probably possible that all can co-exist with plenty of hiding places, but will they be able to freely roam the tank/be happy? Not to mention stress. There's no real way to research this either because of all the differing personalities with these guys. It's hard to establish a general rule of thumb. I've heard of males being the bully, as well as females. If you're worried about how the fish will turn out, then make sure you have the extra tanks to separate them if things go bad (or at least be willing to go shopping) :) HTH
 
I wouldn't advise it. I have seen it done by my grandfather...including multiple males. But he had custom made tanks that were very large. They were likely a shallow (12") 100 gallons. And heavily planted means HEAVY with peekholes to see your subjects doing their daily business like a biotope species tank. 8)
Also he wild caught his specimens personally all from the same areas.
Most don't have the space or like labyrinth fish THAT much. And large groups of bettas that hang out in nature or at a breeders are normally spawn siblings that missed the aggression boat.
And.. a female is MORE likely to shred up your male than the other way araound. They also are faster than fancy males and can strike hard as well as bite. A really large or aggressive female can permanently damage your male. Females will flare and fight each other too. 8O :?
Most don't have that kind of floor space or like bettas and labyrinth fish (imagine that times the number you wanted the harem to contain...)
Add to that that most bettas bought are unrelated and jar raised (which raises aggression as well as saves beauty).......? Nope...nope!
The theory is there but the execution is usally fatal.. :roll:
There are many gourami betta species that are more socialable, but if you want more than 1; avoid splendens and coccina most of all. Avoid imbellis too, pure wild form are hard to find. most have been crossed to coccina and splendens as fighters and released back into the paddies or sales jars after they win/lose. If the experiment fails you have to figure out how to seperately house several bellicose fish. Or (like the 3 free import girls my daughter has almost became) the can be...oscar snacks.
 
You're right. On paper it looks good but most likely I'd end up pretty disappointed.


Thanks folks ! You've saved me a lot of time and effort on that project ! :)




Menagerie said:
May I suggest doing a search for betta or postings from Christmasfish here in AA. There seems to have been lots of betta talk recently about bettas and communities and female/male betta compatibility. I'm sure someone has tried this and will get back to you.


Sorry if this question was posted before but I went through the search options and among the many, many betta q's, there was nothing directly (and obvious) related to my specific query.
 
Naw don't feel bad if your question was similar to some others...
You had a different intention and communty in mind than the other posts.
And now your know..yes, it has been done with sucess :)
..no, that doesn't happen often :?
And you could decide if it was worth the chance of having minitanks full of betta everywhere.. :lol:
I myself kiknda want to keep a pond styled tank like my grandpa's. As MTS and fish fever attack my immune system. The idea appeals to me greatly. but I want to help specie preservation. And I like oddballs like Betta pugnax(semi-social mouth brooder) and croaking gourami . I don't trust the most popular stock to be predictable according to older species profiles. Another reason to like oddballs. :wink:
 
Ya I would strongly suggest you don't put female and male bettas together after seeing what my female did to my male. He looks like his tail got caught in a wood chipper, but it appears to be healing--just a lot shorter now. Not a scratch on the female!
 
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