Male Betta Problem

[anthonyt20]

Hello all :)

I have bought 3 bettas 2 male and a female, i put one female named robin and 1 male named frank in a container inside my tank while i let the other male named barney free roam the whole tank. the thing is barney is still really young while frank is full grown, from what i can tell frank broke barney to the extent that he doesn't flare at all not even with a female in the tank. i kinda can see how i can do this to have more than one male in the tank but i wanted to breed him, is there another way of making him tough as he was before? he was really aggressive when i got him.

thanks in advance and i do love this forum :)

[aemaki09]

What do you mean he broke barney?
like he broke barneys will? or he literally hurt barney?

have you read about how to properly condition bettas to breed?

If this is just a mental thing then I suggest putting him in his own seperate tank, where he cant see any other bettas for a couple of weeks, and condition him at the same time with some awesome foods. After the first couple of weeks do a week straight of him still being by himself, but have about 15-30 minutes a day where you put the female in a container next to his and let him see her.

[sainthogan]

Why would you try to put 2 males in a tank together? They are called fighting fish for a reason - they are highly territorial and will kill each other. There are very very rare circumstances where this can actually work.

[Myates]

The only thing I can think of is if you are trying to use the "bait" male trick for breeding.. but since you just purchased them, and you haven't tried breeding them yet.. unsure why you are doing what you are doing.

Take a couple weeks to condition them, set up the breeding tank (separate from the home tanks), grow out tanks, etc.. after conditioning them properly then try to breed the pair you want - no need to add in a secondary male unless the male you want to breed shows no interest during the courting process..

To make him more aggressive, separate him from the other two, usually isolation will get them more aggressive in time.

Definitely don't house them all together unless the tank is divided properly.

[anthonyt20]

thanks for the advice guys i just meant that he somehow scared him to the extent that he wouldnt flare to any other betta. i never put them together where they could fight i put him in divided space but they could still see each other.
what i did was put him in a seperate tank and put the female in a small vase in the middle of the tank, when i woke up he had made a huge bubble nest and was flaring so i guess that worked :)
thank you guys again for the advice.