Community Betas

[Anonymous]

Has anyone else ever kept fish there said wont work together, first of all for all those who plan to post a message about poor fish husbandry, i dont care. Anyhow i have multiple betas (males) in together wich is pretty col with all there ling tales its like the ultimate colorful setup. And not a single fight has ever broke out. Its 400 gallons and there are some very large cychlids in tehre who doint eat anyone and betas and yes feederfish that have yet to be harmed in anyway. I think my success rely on room and the fact that its a bit less than 4 feet deep and everyone likes to hang out at different depths, anyone else ever do something like this:?:

[William]

Yes it is possible to keep most fishes togheter if you can offer the right setup and/or enough space. (just as it works in nature)

It ight even be possible to keep predators togheter with prey if they are wellfeed or if they have grown up toghter since they then sometimes don't se the fish they grown up with as prey. ( dont trust that since that may change at any time and they eat fish they don't consider food upto that point)

regarding bettas. yes it is possible to keep to betta males togheter in an aquarium. even aquariums as small as 100 gallon with out they killing eachother but in that case one betta is dominant and the other hiding at any given point and it requires hiding places.

your succeswith bettas is due to the size which allows for several territories to be formed.

[RiverStar]

Yes, I agree that your primary source of success is the tank space. William is right about the dominant male. I learned that yesterday, very coincidental.

I cut a divider so it would fit in my five gallon acrylic hex tank. On one side was a betta that had been in there for two weeks or so and on the other side I added one of my other bettas. Both young male veiltails who I had purchased on the same day. For a majority of the time their tanks were right next to each other and I wiuld catch them flaring every once in a while.

Well I went to get something and I came back and Randy (red VT) was on the same side as Niko (marbled VT). I realized that Randy had swam between the slight gap between the divider and tank wall. I was curious to see what would happen. Randy just swam a little bit and a minute later Niko noticed him. Niko turned around and flared. His body bent and fins open in display to what he saw as a rival. Randy just turned around and swam in the opposite direction. Niko follow and inched so closely with his display that his body was practically on Randy's head.

Randy just kept swimming away but Niko would follow with his display of dominance. Maybe it was because Niko was in the tank before Randy, but maybe not. I removed Niko for the night and I will add him again today and see what happens. If he continues then I will ahve to move Randy to another tank.


Still, bettas are different in personality. Larger bettas may bully because of their size and be generally more aggressive. Younger bettas may be more enthused in fighting their rival for the position of dominant male. Some are just passive enough to swim away. It all depends on the bettas and the tank size IMO. (although keeping them in two gallons or less is certainly picking a promised fight)