Male bettas live together...

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Jekkil

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Feb 19, 2013
Messages
4
I have a well established 10 gallon planted tank. I keep 3 females ans 1 male peacefully. The male is about 1 year old and the females are wthin 6 months of him. I recently got a second male and about a week after getting him my tank setup quit working. I had to put him in a large jar and set that in my community tank with the other 4 bettas. My first male never flared and seemed not to care about the new male. After 5 days I decided to cautiously introduce the second male to the tank. I was ready to separate them at the first sign of aggression. The new male swam around with the females rubbing against him for about 10 minutes. My first male watched him but again didn't seem to care. Then the new male saw him and slowly swam over to the plant he was relaxing in. The two brushed bodies twice with no flaring and then the new male swam away. Now it's been almost 4 days with no sign of aggression yet. Neither male has nipped fins or missing scales. They even pass each other on their way to the surface. My fish are all trained to feed in different corners to minimize aggression, so maybe this helped my male accept another male in his territory. I provided dozens of hiding places, including a cave under the gravel that's too smallfor the males so the females can hide if need to. I understand the history of bettas and have read several books. I've spent years raising them and am experienced with their handling and care. I have not heard of anyone else achieving this level of betta community tank and was hoping there has been some exploration into it.
 
Hey all, sorry about the late reply. I tap-typed that first post on my tablet and haven't been able to get to a computer until today. Anyway, I've taken some videos of the tank and the behavior of the fish. Here is a bit of info about the tank:

Inhabitants:
1 fire belly newt
1 fiddler crab
1 Ramshorn snail
2 Japanese algae shrimp
2 male betta fish
3 female betta fish

Decor:
1 bag white sand
1 bag tan gravel
1 bag cream pebbles
1 buried castle (body of cave)
1 sunken log
1 glass-mounted stretch of wood
10 assorted river rocks (5 buried as cave reinforcement)
7 assorted varieties of plants
- Important Note: Plants of all shapes and sizes were chosen for this tank to allow for a greater number of hiding places. In my experience with this particular tank, each plant wider than 4 inches can hide a minimum of 2 fish from each other.

Since completing the setup, I've noticed a change in the behavior of my females. They are much more relaxed since the introduction of the largest plant and the glass-mounted wood. Two of them will even "beach" themselves on the mounted wood, halfway submerged, and lay for between 30 minutes to a couple hours. The first time I saw this I was terrified because the two females were overlapped and laying halfway out of the water. They were not gasping and all it took them was one flip of their tail and they were swimming free again. I've talked to a professional source and after researching it, they told me that I apparently have very lazy fish and that I shouldn't be concerned. Since then I've tried not to let it worry me, but I find myself sliding them back into the water anyway. They are not in any pain and do not seem to be trying to hide from something when they do this (at first I blamed the addition of the fiddler crab could be spooking them and making them lay low but this is not the case). The males enjoy simply basking in the plants. My newest male will swim himself onto leaves that break the water's surface and bask like the females.


Okay, so I am going to post a couple videos that will hopefully help you all see my setup and the antics of the fish. I'm sorry ahead of time for the shakiness of the camera and blurriness when it happens.

Fish IDs:

Male #1
Name: Midas
Color: Green/Turquoise Iridescent
Tail Type: Ruffletail/Halfmoon (tail configuration changed as he aged)

Male #2
Name: Castiel
Color: Metallic Blue plus White and translucent fin roots
Tail Type: Halfmoon

Females:
#1: Areli
Color: Dark Blue/Black
Tail Type: Crowntail

#2: Lady
Color: Semi-Opaque White with red fins
Tail Type: Crowntail

#3: Sushi (rescued from a Petco store as a "baby")
Color: Turquoise/Wild Type with horizontal striping
Tail Type: Roundtail
 
Very interested to see the videos! I've always wanted to attempt housing males but never had the guts to. I don't see a link to the video. Have you posted it yet?
 
There are two videos on Youtube that I just now finished uploading. Betta Fish Live Together, and Betta Fish Live Together 2. I tried to upload the first video in the last message but it never came through. I'll try again and if that doesn't work, I'll just post the links to the videos.
 
Here's the links to the two best videos so far. The first video is a closeup of the two males together at feeding time this morning. The males seem to not want to interact at all. The most aggression is amongst the females. The tail bite marks on the females are from recent breeding attempts to preserve Midas's solid iridescent coloring.
Male Bettas Live Together - YouTube
The second video shows the entire tank, but the males don't get near each other until towards the end. Castiel is the male who hovers at the surface in the front of the tank while Midas is swimming more actively and passes him.

Male Bettas Live Together 2 - YouTube
 
Well my only suggestion is a higher output light because the a couple plants look a little bad. But the fish seem amazing and beautiful. I love the setup of the tank. Hopefully you succeed!
 
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