Battling Bettas

[Kiko]

I am new to freshwater, have some questions about Bettas:

I bought a female betta for my male on Friday, and I had to separate them today. He was beating the crap out of her! I thought she was gone until I spotted her this morning. I put the male in a large jar (1 gallon). I'll keep him there until I can set up the 10 gallon I have in the works.

Is this aggressive behavior normal? She is busy chasing baby swordtails around the densely planted 20 gal I have her in, and I hope her injuries will heal soon.

When she is better, would it be a good idea to put her in with my other male Betta?

Lastly, I was told at the LFS that this was a female fish, and it looks like the pictures of female Bettas I have seen, is there the possibility that I bought a male by mistake?

 

[William]

You should never keep males and females together.


The only time they should be placed together is when their both ready to breed, any other time they will kill eachother.


The only bettas that can bekept together are females, and even then you have to be cautious.


Definately keep them seperated, they can not live together in a small tank like a 10 or 20, IMHO I wouldn't keep a male and females together in anything smaller than a 55, and only if it had ALOT of hiding places. even then its probably not a good idea.

 

[PlatyLady]

While there are many people on this forum who have successfully kept bettas with other fish, I've yet to accomplish that myself. I seem to end up with extra-aggressive boys!

As for the female, I guess it's possible that it might be a male. Look at lots of pics. Females are supposed to have less/shorter finnage, and usually not as colourful as males. Regarding her wounds - if they are torn fins, maybe some Melafix would help. It worked quickly on my platies and barbs, but I've never tried it for a betta. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure!

 

[freshwatergal]

It most likely is a female if it looks like pics of females you have seen. I have some fems that are very colorful. The easiest way to tell is look and see if she has a little white string type thing peeking out from underneath. If so, then it is a fem. HTH