possible betta solution

[Full3R]

a friend of mine has a 20 gal tank, in this tank he has 5 female bettas and 3 males, the tank is heavyily plants, dont ask me wheather this is true or not but he claims the way he got his males to coexist is he bought them all at the same time and kept them in the 20 gal with alot of golds that were larger then the betteas the constant swimming arounf of the golds made the betta males see each other but by the time they came close to each other they were knocked out of the way by te golds he removed the golds after 2 weeks and claims that he hasnt had a problem since he then added the 5 females and still no problems

This is what i was told i am not sure if it works and dont plan to find out for myself but letting everyone know

[Setsuna]

Sounds interesting. I got my males to coexist by putting them both in the tank at the same time when it was dark. (the only light was torchlight so i could see what I was doing).

[kimmers318]

And how long have these situations been working? I am curious since all I have ever read is that males will kill each other eventually if kept together.

[William]

All males won't kill eachother. That is a myth. It is however best to only keep one betta male per tank.

I have personally kept two males bettas in the same 25 gallon tank untill they died of high age. I would however lie if I said they didn't fight. They sometimes ripped eachother to shreeds but the tank offered enough hidding places for the looser to hide and heal.

I think the plants played a larger role than the golds in the story above.

[Setsuna]

I had two males living together in a tank with elodea and no other fish. This was when I first started out with Bettas and the guy at the petshop sold me two males and told me one was a female...

Neither fought and both lived to be 4 years old, eventually dying of old age. The tank was about 1.5' long x 1'wide x 1'high.

Keeping two males together wont always work. Each fish has its own personality. I once had a male who went everything, his reflection, the catfish, he even flared and tryed to attack a plant.

Its risky, unless you know for certain the personality of your fish

[Full3R]

well i know what u mean william but he said he put them plants in a week after removing the golds but yes i beleive your right

[MagickFish]

The temper of the fish wary whit the induvidual fish so two little agressive males can live together and no more than fight now and then, but one run a risk when putting two male bettas together of them dying messily. I have also heard they they get more agressive if you put a female in the mix as then the males have somthing to fight over.

[William]

The golds can have helped as well during the first time. Before the plants. If they disturbed the Bettas to much and kept them from fighting. That would however mean that the bettas wsa under a lot of stress which could (would) kill them over a period of time.