Male and female Bettas in a community tank?

[MarkC]

I would love to keep two female Bettas and one male in a 180l (50 US gallon) community tank. Other occupants would be clown loaches and angel fish.

I am not particularly interested in breeding the bettas but I think the females are attractive fishes in their own right except they are overshadowed by the males.

Would keeping two girls and one boy (!) keep them happier, or would they be constantly battling / courting / displaying which may be a bad thing.

 

[tkos]

If you like the females I would just stick with them in that tank. Constant attempts at courting might not be a great thing, especially with other fish that are just waiting to eat the outcome. The parents might get all crazy if their babies are always eaten.

If you do put the male in there as well make sure that you have tons of plants so that the females can go an dhide easy enough.

 

[Sinuhe]

Based on what I've studied about Bettas (don't have personal experience) it's not recommended to keep a male and female betta in the same tank for anything else but breeding purposes. They can attack each other, too, not just 2 male Bettas. This site http://www.bettatalk.com/ has a lot of information about the fish, including the recommended and not recommended ways of keeping your Bettas.

 

[bettacove]

If you are to keep females and males together in a tank, then get more then just 2. With a tank that size you could get a lot more.
When you have a bunch of females and a male in a tank, its not the females you have to worry about, its the male. The females may gang up and beat the crap out of him! lol
If you still want to do that then just keep the male seperated for a while (in the tank) untill the females have everything sorted out then release him.

Bettatalk, IMO is not the best site to go to. Try www.bettastarz.com or www.bettasrus.com

ashley