Male and Female in same community?

[Tikibirds]

I have a male living with 5 female bettas in a 20G long. Granted it was not intentional. I picked up 4 very young females one one just happened to of been mislabeled by petco. he tends to get a little more nippy after I trim back my plants since it creates more open space but nothing out of the ordinary. They have been together for about a year now.

He looked female to me


When I first put them together in a 10G - they were all pretty young.


when I first started to suspect he wasn't a female - his fins kept growing




I waited for 20 minutes one day to get a pic of them together. It looks like the white one is ready to smack him, the red one caught him with his mistress and the baby is like "are you my daddy?" I don't know where the other 2 were hiding
They don't LOOK stressed, do they?? it does look like he is about to be tail smacked though

[ChoclateBetta]

http://bettysplendens.com/articles/p...articleid=1406 This explains why it happened.

[LadyVictorian]

Choc, that was a very interesting article. It really made me think about how a lot of breeders operate. I almost think the father left to rearing their young is cool even if he does cut down the fry to a small number. But in the end it seems the fry though few are very successful spawners and I bet females can be kept in sororities without an issue arising. I wonder if two males from a situation like that could be kept together with little issue as well. Seeing as they do spend most of their fry life with their father.

[ChoclateBetta]

The way I see it if they were socialized young had a really large tank and hiding spots it could work but hey thats like owning half a mansion you would prefer the whole house.

[bryanacute]

Thats possibly the worst thing you can do as the fish might breed, or worse kill each other. Best thing to do is have a male and tankmates, a female and tankmates, or have a sorority group. for the sorority group, try to find sisters

[ChoclateBetta]

Dwarf Cories are great I have heard of males being kept together if the male is blind or if the tank is 50 gallons.

[bryanacute]

Haha! Blind male or 50 gallon! U could just split the tank in half with a divider

[ChoclateBetta]

Why is that funny? Members here have talked about there blind bettas working well with females. I have heard of two males being kept together in 50 gallon tanks.

[bryanacute]

U said blind male with male and 50 gal would b like natural habitat

[ChoclateBetta]

Bettas are native to bodies of water way bigger than 50 gallons and blind bettas http://www.google.com/search?q=blind...IabvygGq2YHYDA.