siamese fighters

[ian deuchar]

I have kept female bettas successfuly for 2 years plus with no problems but if i introduce a male it dies within two or three months,Are they very mature when i buy them from an lfs?

 

[Aqua360]

I have kept female bettas successfuly for 2 years plus with no problems but if i introduce a male it dies within two or three months,Are they very mature when i buy them from an lfs?

Most likely, or lfs has treated poorly beforehand. I always run a course of anti parasites on all fish, could just be bad luck

 

[Lindy]

Are you putting it in a community tank? Are there females bettas in there too?

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[Alex J]

Could be for any number of reasons. are they dying with no apparent reason or are there any signs of the fish being attacked? I only ask as there are short finned male fighters that appear to be female at first glance. One sure way to tell the sex of female fish is to look for a small white area just under the pectoral fins. Some times you will get a rogue female fish that is overly aggressive and will attack other betta's, that have been newly introduced into its environment I have had experience of this , two female fish lived happily together but when i introduced a male it was attacked and had its fins shredded. One other possibility is that almost all male fighters that are available are full grown adult's and they don't have a very long life span anyway so it's possible they are near to the end of their natural life span when you have bought them . regards Alex

 

[Lindy]

Females and males shouldn't be kept together as 9 out of 10 times the females will gang up on the male and kill him. Sometimes people get away with mixing the sexes but this is exception rather than the rule. Males often don't do well in large tanks if they have very long fins as it is a lot of work swimming and other fish tend to pick at their fins too. It is also very stressful for them as it is instinct for them to guard a small territory and in a busy community tank he is going to be exhausted . Males should really be kept in separate tanks preferably 20 -30 litres for long fins.
If you do have a separate tank Ian I have a lovely dumbo boy looking for a home! As I've not got my fish room any more I've had to cut back on tanks and stop breeding so all my fighters have been sold or rehomed. I have this boy in my 200l blackwater community tank at the mo but this is no good long term. He has a fault in his tail so has never been bred. Lovely character though and massive dumbo pectoral fins.
If you would rather a young male I would find a UK breeder on betta splendens UK Facebook page.

Alex J , females are best kept in groups of 5 + to spread aggression on when introducing new females to a group it is advisable to add at least 3 minimum to again spread aggression towards the newbies. I've tried keeping a betta sorority but they argue and fight so much I found it too stressful! Some females are chilled, most are mean to a degree and some are completely homicidal!
I had a beautiful spawn but the last of the fry went a few week ago. For stunning imported males available locally Colin Dunlop gets some crackers in at "the fishhut" in Carluke.

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[Lindy]

Oh and a white egg spot behinds the pectorals is not a guarantee of a female as some males have what looks like an egg spot.

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[Alex J]

Hi Lindy, Keeping and sexing B .Splendens can be a confusing and frustrating experience at times,and misconceptions and contradictions abound. As you say occasionally a male fish will display what looks like an ovipositor this can occur in any of the varieties available but i think that most confusion regarding sexing bettas is with the short finned plakat variety, where young fish can sometimes be awkward to sex as they outwardly look very similar, It becomes really interesting if you have a male plakat displaying what looks to be an ovipositor but as we know males generally have longer, fuller looking ventral fins and display a larger "beard" when flaring,females have visible stripes when in breeding condition this should help people new to keeping bettas in sexing larger fish. With regard to keeping males and females together on a long term basis i would agree that its generally not the norm,they are solitary by nature and don't form bond pairs , having said that many years ago i kept a pair together in a heavily planted tank with several harlequin rasboras and dwarf corys. I had this pair together for three years in which time they produced several viable spawnings .As you say this is the exception rather than the rule,but then fish don't read the rule book! One other misconception is that only male fish build bubble nests, the two females i kept together would periodically build nests and deposit eggs, this was my rational for introducing a male , unfortunately they didn't share my reasoning and shredded his fins .this was done through the night when the lights were off, i call that sneaky!!. I too have tried a female only group a number of years ago consisting of seven fish bought at the same time from a dealer who'd had them for several weeks in the same tank. On introduction into a heavily planted tank all was well for a number of weeks until a pecking order had obviously been established this consisted of one particular female attacking the others over the space of three nights, again this aggression was only metered out after lights out! once i had established which fish was responsible , the one with intact finnage! she was rehomed and harmony returned to the group. hopefully Ian will read these posts and give a bit more information as to just how he has been keeping his bettas as he doesn't state if the males are being introduced to females or just being kept individually .Regards Alex

 

[zozo]

I recently saw one of these in the lfs

I felt like going home get my rifle and shoot the wabbit..

 

[ian deuchar]

Thanks to all for some fascinating insights. My females however seem to live together very peacefully,so I wont introduce any more males,as otherwise I have a very peaceful tank.Cheers Ian.

 

[rebel]

Could it be that there is too much flow for the males? ITs hard for them with their flamboyant fins and the rest...