HELP! Male and Female fighting.

[wasklywabbit]

I've had my male (swish) and female (saffy) betta in the same 160l tank for about 4 months where they have co-existed quite happily. I got up this morning to find the two of them smacking each other around. Saffy came out on the winner with a good portion of Swish's tail in her mouth! I'm at a loss what to do or why this would be happening after such a long time of peaceful living. Can anyone help??

[Specialty]

You're not really supposed to put a male and female together. You're gonna' want to separate them probably :scry:

[Lady Hobbs]

Males and females can only be together when it's time to mate and then separated again. Males will kill a female. It's really a shame that such a pretty fish is so anti-social and such a loner.

[wasklywabbit]

Thanks guys I'll have to decide what to do now.

[wasklywabbit]

Thanks! I was misinformed by the aquarium shop guy that I could keep them both together. They were quite happy until now - Saffy just kept her distance. Maybe I should change her name to Xena warrior princess because she seems to be doing a good job fighting back!

[sergo]

yes unfortunately that happens all of the time. i had 4 bettas is my 55 at one time and they live happily for a cople of months and then all hell broke loose. i guess someone wanted more territory.

[Lady Hobbs]

Pet shop people kill me. Why are all betta's kept separate if they get along so well do they think? If they were social they would keep males in one tank and females in another. Females can be kept together but not the males nor males and females. Even in a mixed tank, betta's will also go after other brightly colored fish.

To me, a perfect betta tank would not be a cube but a 20 gallon long with a sand bottom with sand piled up high on one end making that area shallow. This is how they live in nature....in rice paddies that are only puddles of water a couple inches deep. I've never heard of anyone keeping their betta like this but "to me" that would be the most natural way to keep them.

And that was my 2 cents worth. LOL

[sergo]

hobbs, females fight just like males do. i had to find out the hard way on that one. that's why there is only one betta now in my 55.

[Lady Hobbs]

Don't fish know they are just supposed to swim around and be pretty for us to watch? The females I have seen were together in a tank at pet stores but then, they were young so that always makes a difference, doesn't it? I'm about ready to give my angels a nice Red Terror to play with.

[wasklywabbit]

This is great! Thanks everyone for all your help! So can more than one female be kept together? My sister has a female in her tank and has agreed to adopt Saffy. I've done a bit of research and they say that several females are okay together but I'm learning that experience is often different to what we are told.

[sergo]

you can try it but don't be surprised if you flip on the light one morning and they are locked up in a death fight. they may be fine for a while but it will happen at some point.

[SkarloeysMom]

My only experience with female betta is that they did not get along well. My friend was told by the PetSmart people that they'd be fine and she got 3 and a few white clouds to put in a 10g tank in her preschool classroom. They tore each other up and she ended up taking them back.

[Betta_noob]

With females it's a slipperly slope.
You want AT LEAST 4-6 females, this is because they will work out their own pack mentality and someone has to be alpha female. Just the two of them together there won't be enough room to spread out the agression.
The tank needs to be heavily decorated so that they will all have places to run to/their own territories.
Even then you can never be sure that it will work out, because they all have their own personalities.