Hypothetical...

[Phitz]

OK, this is all completely hypothetical. I understand that a male betta can not be kept with another male betta, but I am day dreaming and I'm curious.

Would it be possible to keep two male bettas in a 10 gallon? If I had 4 females and 2 males, would they be less agressive? If it is heavily planted, will they stick to half of the tank each as thier territory?

Once again, I am NOT going to do this. I already have my 10 gallon stocked and all of my fish are happy, and I'm happy with them, I am only wondering.

[gm72]

The males would fight to the death, no question.

[tropfish]

It's not possible in even the biggest of tank, they would find eachother and fight until one dies. the loser doesn't run away they just keep going at it. You can't keep a male and female together either unless its a VEYRY docile male and female (99% chance they won't be) or your breeding, but you take the female out after spawning (she'd only be in there for a few days then they breed and then you take her out.)

[Nautilus29]

They would definatly kill each other. Expecially in a 10g tank. territorial fish will not just say ok you can have that half of the tank. They are going to want the whole tank to themselves and end up killing each other for it.

[blu]

The only possible way to keep males together would be if they were brothers...but even most related males will not tolerate eachother...its very VERY uncommon for a person to be able to do this and very risky...but it has been done (not in a 10 gal though).I wouldnt reccomend doing this at all though its way to dangerous for the bettas.

[squirt_12]

you could keep like 3-4 females together.

[Phitz]

Thanks for the quick replies. I was just wondering, since bettas are one of the most territorial fish I've ever encountered, I wondered how they respond in sharing territories. Once again, I would NEVER do this. I hate seeing fish fight. Having a semi-aggresive 10g is hard enough, had to way overplant so my tiger barbs would get along and the rainbow shark would leave them alone. My next tank is definetly going to be a community tank, mabye some live bearers...

Too bad though, male bettas are amazingly beautiful FW fish.

[gm72]

Please tell me that you are going to quickly be moving the rainbow shark to a bigger tank? NO way it will every do well in a 10 gallon tank.

[tropfish]

Im the wild the have natural floating plant mops where thye build bubble nests and that's there territoires, but wild bettas are idfferent because you'd never find a fancy betta with huge fins out there, they were bred like that.

[Phitz]

Please tell me that you are going to quickly be moving the rainbow shark to a bigger tank? NO way it will every do well in a 10 gallon tank.

Haha yes. I always do my research before going in to something, and with this I went in to great detail because it involves living things. The rainbow shark is for my friend who is cycling a 50 gallon right now. He wanted a rainbow shark, and was at Petsmart with me when I was stocking. I also sort of wanted one, but knew it wouln't last, but he bought it for now and it will be moved in to his when it is done cycling.

[gm72]

GREAT response. Thank you for calming me down! Great job researching!