Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta splendens)

yoink

I currently have 4 male and 4 female Bettas, The males are all in their own tanks now cause my females are all in the community tanks...The females I have are in seperate tanks cause they all were aggressive when I tried to put them together...If you want to have females together either but them all at the same time from the same tank or get them from the same fry and then they will be fine cause the hierarchy will be set in stone then...

Jamie

I have a male betta in a 3 gallon tank with 2 african dwarf frogs and a amano shrimp, and i have found this to be a hardy, beautiful fish. Just don't keep more than 2 males in one tank.

joe

Correction to the post above, made by "Joe". You shouldn't keep more than *one* male in a single tank. Siamese Fighting Fish got their name for a reason: the males will fight to the death with each other.

Ali

Actually, 2 males can be together in one tank, but it has to be a big one, and it all depends how tempermental your male betta fish is.

Andie

I agree with Andie's post. I work at a pet store and we put some male betta's in one of those suction cupped betta barracks thing and in the morning it had come off from the glass and the betta's were free in the tank, all 4 were in their own corners and none had injuries.Although this is probably just luck. Fish all have their own personalities, My females were the kind raised in cups all their lives and when I put them together they were fine, although they ganged up on the male (go girls!) Just be cautious when you do this, they are fighting fish and in most cases will fight, even with other fancy finned fish, or his own reflection *laugh*

Dawn

I have three male bettas. They are each in their own one gallon bowl. One is recovering from septicemia. But he is doing better now. They are so relaxing to watch after all of my tests in college. They are amazing fish and are great. I love them.

Charis

Mine is super-tame, swims to my hand whenever I plant things, literally swims loops between my fingers. He is slower than the other fish so I feed him with my fingers. I never taught him to eat this way, he just seemed to know that hands mean food. He's a real pet, and stands out even though he is in a 47 gallon tank.

Greg

I have a 'sorority' tank which consisted of 3 long-finned female bettas in a 10 gallon planted tank, along with 4 guppies (both male & female). While the males are definitely splendid in their finnage, females can be quite lovely and just as strikingly colored as some of the males. While the 'long finned' female variety certainly can't compare to the flowing finnage of the males, they definitely aren't boring or dull. I have one female who is colored a pearly white on the front half of her body - with the rear half being dark/bright purple and the finnage turning bright crimson toward the tips. Another is dark green/blue with red lines in the tail radii and a dark black stripe across her body. The 3rd betta was brown/dark orange with crimson finnage and a dark black stripe across the body horizontally. Unfortunately, the orange/brown fish swelled up in the abdomen and I was unable to save her. I later learned this was probably bloating due to consipation, which apparently, bettas are prone to due to overeating. All 3 fish got along great after establishing that the largest was dominant. It is important to have adequate hiding spaces (plants, rocks, etc) for the smaller bettas to hide from the larger ones, as even the females can fin-nip when establishing domininance. I've found that whenever adding new fish, be it another betta (female) or guppy, etc, it is best to move around the rocks/plants, etc when you add the new fish so that they can re-establish their dominance based on the new inhabitants. They tend to be less stressed this way. I also shut off the light for a couple of hours after adding new fish.

JK

Johnny Relentless

Male Bettas are hard-wired to fight each other. In nature, it rarely results in death, because one will always flee the other. In a tank, no matter how big, there is no place to run and even if one manages to evade/hide from the other, living with such stress can never be good and will usually shorten the fish's life. Bettas usually make good community fish as long as there are not other male Bettas, and you should also avoid their relatives, such as Gouramis, and other long-finned fish, such as fancy-tailed guppies.

Fluff

We have a Siamese fighter, and his name is Paint, he is my 4th Siamese fighter, and I am still having issues with him. Like all of your fish, he has personality too, and loves to hear his name, strange, water and all, but if you call him, he will come out from his car, and wave his body at you. We love him alot but he is dealing with Bloat, and has been floating for a week now, he is starting to get tired of not being able to get to the bottom of the tank, and for all the research and pet store visits here, we have no real answer to what is wrong with him. We have changed the water as you are supposed to, and now have him on antibiotics in hopes that will cure him. we have changed his food to less protein and all that stops that you can take(alot to list) but I am looking for more suggestions and more information on this so that we might save him from a fate unspeakable. there has been alot of issue of high ammonia levels, and the ph will shoot up in hours, a limestone rock is now in the tank to help stabilize that, and it seems to be working, but the bloating and floating are really getting to Paint, and we fear ,.. Well ya know, anyone able to help with more information that we may have missed?

@marko@

these fish are hardy and beautiful. they can also be bred easily. place 2 together, wait for a few days, remove the female, when fry can swim: remove the male and feed infusoria or microworms or vinegar eels or atison's betta starter. they will grow and the young fry are peaceful and home-bred fish often outlive fish that were bred in fish farms and shipped all over the world.

cody♪

i have a blue male siamese fighting fish named Larry. he was my first fish, and has been alive for about two and a half years. in the past month i added him to my community tank consisting of one molly, a rubber lip pleco, a pea puffer, and an african dwarf frog. i have heard that these fish are good community fish, as long as they are the only male betta in the tank, but he was really mean to the molly, tried to eat the puffer (still a baby though), and was unsure wether he wanted to try and eat the frog or not. i dont think he knew the pleco existed. i decided to remove him because he was being a neusance.

cody♪

the siamese fighting fish is the best fish ever. they are pretty, they are tolerant in a community tank. they are EXTREMELY hardy, able to handle rises and declines in temperature, ph, toxins, and cloudy water. i believe they are the best fish for a beginner who does not want to make a hobby of raising fish. i suggest though, that you only add them to a community tank if you have some experience and/or you DO intend to make a hobby of owning pet fish.

Gezza

These are beautiful fish, especially the purple coloured ones. I bred with 2 males and 5 females in a 60gal tank, which went *swimmingly*. I find they are easier to keep in groups than on thier own, and when I moved one of the females into a separate tank, it seemed to hae died of loneliness. They also seemed to enjoy snacking on lettuce, which I found strange.

HatchetHaven

Walking_Target

Betta Splendens can make wonderful additions to a planted tank, they love hiding in plants and get along well with many other community fish.

Betta Splendens require a PH between 6.5 and 7 to achieve the best possible finnage and the most natural behavior, They prefer the water fairly soft, but are adaptable to moderately hard water. They do not do well in environments suited towards South African Cichlids or Mollies.

Notable exceptions are fish like Guppies and Gouramies. Both these species tend to be aggressive towards a Betta or vice versa. Any species of semi-aggressive fish, such as barbs, Serpae Tetras or Swords are also out.

Platties and Mollies are both out as well, due to the drastically different water requirements; Mollies especially require an alkaline (7-8 PH) environment, prefer a bit of salt and like water fairly hard. Both are also more aggressive and tend to nip fins.

Good tankmates include Corydoras and Otocinclus Catfishes as well as schools of Neons, Danios and White Mountain Minnows (no less than 5 for a school).
African Dwarf Frogs, most snails and shrimp (unless the Betta figures out shrimp are tasty) all make good tankmates.

Currently have a 10 Gallon moderately planted tank, 1 Male Veil Tail Betta, 5 Black Neon Tetras, 2 Otocinclus Cats and a Ghost Shrimp. Looks Awesome.

@marko@

just wanted to comment on the mention of danios as good tank mates:
most danios tend to be nippy, so they will chew and eat the bettas tail until it gets fin rot. fin rot (wether fungal or bacterial) is hard to treat, and the only way i succeded was to amputate the infected tissue (meaning pinch of an infected ray on my crowntail). also, any damaged tissue in the tail wont grow back completely, and sometimes will grow back clear. large damage may grow back only 50% or less and the rays may grow back bent.
i reccomend against danios (especially zebra danios) and other fish that like to nip fins.

connordude27

one of the best fish ever IMO very hardy with a great personality...

if you keep them in a 10g minimum they will really start to show off (i have a HM betta and since moving him into a bigger tank he shows off a lot more)

beginerplanted

First off the LFS i get my fish from keep all their bettas seperate from the other tanks in 1/2 gallon bowls sitting on a 3 layer shelf and the manager told me that if they dont keep peices of cardboard between them the bettas will get use to the other bettas around them and wouldnt fight against eachother or flare up at eachother cause theyre hierarchy even the males would be set.
I bought my betta Al Capone from them and he seems to love chasing a drum stick around the tank

Ms. Ava

I have a heavily planted 15 gallon with 1 female betta, 5 white clouds, 3 ottos and 3 rednose shrimp. My girl "evil jungle princess" killed her 2 sisters and now lives quite happily skulking around the riccia and crypts hunting for things-she never seems bored or scared-I love watching her. I can't imagine having one of these fish in a small boring bowl after observing how neat they are with room and plenty of hiding places-even my friend who was going to go the "bowl route" decided against after seeing my tank.

doggyhog

Betta fish are WONDERFUL!!!! I have 9. :-P I love mine dearly.

They are great fish and very spunky. Very active fish when in the right conditions.