Failure :(

[nshepler]

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I think if you are gonna pull it off, that tank would be the best bet. At least try and limit the amount of aggression that goes on. I hope it does work out since I've never heard of it being done. It would blow my mind. So good luck.


May the force be with you.

 

[LCieParagon]

Thanks. I'll try to update periodically. I'm a teacher so I rarely have time to myself. I was honestly so excited to try this project. That is only half of the amount of plants I want to have. Once my plants get too big in my other aquariums, I'll keep adding more in. I have a ton of rotala indica in back of all that driftwood. I use peat moss as filtration media in both my filters. It's kinda cool and keeps the pH down.

But to say I didn't do my research would be crazy. I probably should have done it with wild bettas. I've been on betta forum sites and people there get it to work. So we'll see. My LFS has done it with veil tails. I have 2 veil tails and one crown tail. The crown tail is surprisingly the least aggressive and the least torn. The other two are in ok shape, but they are all minding their own business now it seems.


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[Mebbid]

Wild or captive bettas makes no difference. Its all in the individual bettas personality. And having them grow up together is key.

Ive only heard of one person pulling off multiple males in a single tank and thats rivercats. However, her tank is 210g and packed to the absolute brim with plants to break up sight which keeps the bettas from seeing each other or running into each other.

 

[LCieParagon]

I put my bettas in about 4 hours ago. The first hour was pretty aggressive, but after that, things have settled down tremendously. No nipping since then. I'm getting much more plants for this tank, so I hope they can all recover.


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[Andy Sager]

The saving grace to all this is that by nature, Bettas use very small areas to claim as "their territory". Once they get past this stage and can be out of sight of the other fish, you may have a chance. They fight for territory and that's just about it.

No offense intended on my previous comment about your research but you have to admit, being surprised that your Siamese Fighting Fish didn't get along really sounds like not enough research was done. Having them NOT fight is more of a shock quite frankly.
The internet is an amazing place full of info and MISINFORMATION so you need to take all that into consideration. Even this forum has more opinions than facts (IMO ) regarding Bettas. The variety of tail doesn't change that they are all Betta splendens. They all have the ability to fight. If you look up the wild fish's behavior, then look up the origination of the domestication of this fish, you'll better understand the points I was bringing out.
Hopefully, it will all settle down for you but you can't be surprised if you come home one day and find only 1 live Betta in that tank. That's the chance you are taking by mixing more then 1 Betta in a tank.
I sell my Bettas in a friend's Pet Shop and have watched my females beat the snot out of the existing females in the sales tank within the first 5 minutes of being in there. I've had shippers sedate the females so they don;t beat each other up on the trip over from Asia. They are just NOT designed to be kept together. BUT, sometimes, the fish don;t read their owner's manual and do crazy stuff. Maybe you will get lucky
Keep us posted

 

[cfosgate]

The only time that I have seen bettas not fight with each other is if they are brothers and sisters and were raised together. I have three females and three males like this together in one tank.

 

[Andy Sager]

The only time that I have seen bettas not fight with each other is if they are brothers and sisters and were raised together. I have three females and three males like this together in one tank.

Agreed. And if you do separate them for even a short amount of time, the chances go way up that their natural instincts kick in and they don't mix back together.

 

[LCieParagon]

They were all alive this morning. They ate their Omega One betta flakes well.


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[Fishdude3233]

Wild or captive bettas makes no difference. Its all in the individual bettas personality. And having them grow up together is key.

Ive only heard of one person pulling off multiple males in a single tank and thats rivercats. However, her tank is 210g and packed to the absolute brim with plants to break up sight which keeps the bettas from seeing each other or running into each other.

From what i see I the web (font claim to be a beta expert) wild caught a betas are less aggressive then their tank bred counterparts. Partly because people breed betas for their fighting traits. This is something I don't know personally, but read it in the web.


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[Luananeko]

From what i see I the web (font claim to be a beta expert) wild caught a betas are less aggressive then their tank bred counterparts. Partly because people breed betas for their fighting traits. This is something I don't know personally, but read it in the web.

Bettas are effectively the "pitbulls" of the fish world. Wild bettas are the baseline level of aggression. From that baseline, breeders have focused their breeding efforts towards different goals. If they're breeding them for their fighting prowess, the aggression tendency goes up (like dogfighters who focus on making them as nasty as they can be), if they're bred for looks for fish shows, their aggression tendencies remain roughly the same (like your regular competing pitbull breeder). If they're bred specifically for pet purposes, their agression tendencies become lower than the wild bettas (like pitbull breeders who focus on making their pits happy, friendly, chill family pets that will lick you to death and not hurt a fly).

As someone buying the betta from the fish store, there's no way for you to know which line they come from. That's what makes this tank concept so hard to make work. Your best bet would have been with siblings and to float them all in clear breeder boxes with each other prior to letting them loose in the tank. Since there's no going back and redoing the introduction, the best thing you can do is leave them be to sort out the pecking order and cross your fingers no one gets too badly hurt. The current arrangement may last a month, a year, or maybe even their full lifespans. It's impossible to guess due to the unpredictable nature of bettas. If it fails and you want to try again, make sure you take what you learned into account for the introductions and purchase choices next time.

 

[LCieParagon]

Just an update. It's been a day now and all 3 bettas are still alive. They are no longer fighting and flaring even after crossing each other's paths in swimming. I hope it continues and the bettas re grow their fins.


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[Masha]

Just a thought... Is it possible that it's the fin damage that's inhibiting aggression? Don't want to be negative, and hope I'm wrong, but maybe long fins are what triggers their fight response?

Or are the fins not that damaged.

I doubt that I'm right because I had to remove my cories from my betta tank, because he was flaring at them. And I often catch him flaring at the oblivious apple snail.

Am hoping this works out, what a special tank.

 

[LCieParagon]

All 3 are alive, one has very long finnage that are in tact pretty well. The other two have their fins a little beat up but are still quite long.


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[Lucasraap]

Never never never put male betas in the same tank


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[FallenAngel]

All 3 are alive, one has very long finnage that are in tact pretty well. The other two have their fins a little beat up but are still quite long.


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I'm glad everything's working out!


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[Andy Sager]

Just a thought... Is it possible that it's the fin damage that's inhibiting aggression? Don't want to be negative, and hope I'm wrong, but maybe long fins are what triggers their fight response?

Or are the fins not that damaged.

I doubt that I'm right because I had to remove my cories from my betta tank, because he was flaring at them. And I often catch him flaring at the oblivious apple snail.

Am hoping this works out, what a special tank.

Long finnage is not what gets them fighting as really long fins were not found in the wild fish yet the fighting instinct was. Here's a pic of wild Bettas to better show this: wild betta splendens - Bing Images

 

[Masha]

Long finnage is not what gets them fighting as really long fins were not found in the wild fish yet the fighting instinct was. Here's a pic of wild Bettas to better show this: wild betta splendens - Bing Images

Ah - that makes perfect sense.

 

[Luananeko]

It is possible for aggression to be inhibited if the primary aggressor is damaged enough that it doesn't feel confident of winning. I had 2 dwarf crayfish in a 36g bowfront (which should have been more than enough space since people keep pairs in 10g tanks). There was some initial bickering when they were introduced, and the female lost a claw in the tussles. Then they seemed to ignore each other for a while... Fast forward 3 months and I find the male dead while the female is strutting around with freshly regrown claw, looking very proud of herself.

It doesn't sound like the bettas are that badly damaged that this should be the case, but it's something to be aware of and watch for.

 

[Mebbid]

How old are these bettas? Generally, the adults are quite a bit more aggressive than the younger ones.

 

[LCieParagon]

So some great news. I just got home from work and fed my fish. All 3 bettas swam to the surface together to eat. They seemed fine together and the two with damaged fins look like they are actually regrowing their fins already!


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