Male in a Sorority?

[lastbook87]

Okay, now, before you all freak out based on the topic--I know. Sounds like madness.

However, today I introduced Patrick, my white marble DT, into my sorority of four girls. This was not a random decision; I've long harbored the suspicion that Patrick is as asexual as a male betta can get. I had him in a 2 gallon for a brief period of time, and he never even blinked when I added a girl into the tank right next to him. For the last two months, he's been in a divided ten-gallon with two other boys, and still, I've never seen him react to anything. I mean this in the most extreme sense--I've never seen him blow a bubblenest or flare at anything, ever, even though he's very healthy and active.

I've been watching the sorority pretty much non-stop since I added Patrick today, and there've been no problems whatsoever. I haven't even seen anyone posture at anyone else, let alone flare or chase. The girls do seem to be treating him with a bit more respect than they usually give to a new girl, but that's the only difference I've seen.

So, has anyone else ever attempted this and had it succeed? And just for clarification, I don't plan on leaving him free-swimming in the tank tonight; I was going to take a little 1 gallon plastic tank, rig it to where it's attached inside the 10 gallon, and then leave him there while I'm not around to keep an eye on him.

[Adastra]

It's a bad idea, and you know why it's a bad idea.

I don't mean to seem rude or abrasive, but I'm really getting tired of people unnecessarily experimenting with their fish with the hope that their fish will be an amazing breakthrough into betta behavior. There is no reason why you would need to put your male in this situation, you and everyone else that chooses to go against logic just to amuse yourselves will not be welcomed by the betta community with your casual experimenting. That's just how it is, I don't know why you would post this in a forum about promoting betta welfare and somehow expect not to get dogpiled by people.

[lastbook87]

Sorry if I offended you, but this wasn't mean to "amuse" me--it was because I genuinely thought that this would provide him a better living situation than a divided 10-gallon. Anyways, given your violent reaction (and I don't mean that you're attacking me, just that you're horrified by the thought of it), I'm going to be pulling him out.

Also, I would like to stress that I've been sitting by my sorority on my laptop since I put him in there, except for, y'know, bathroom breaks. It wasn't my intention to just dump a fish in, observe for ten minutes, and then decide that everything was fine and dandy and leave them to be. This was not meant to be an experiment, it was something that I was taking seriously.

I'd appreciate it if the mods would lock/delete this topic so as to squelch any further discussion on the matter. Thanks.

[CodeRed]

To be honest, it's not just the male you have to worry about, you know. Even if your male is incredibly docile, your females might NOT be. Sometimes people forget that females can be just as, if not more, aggressive than some males. Things can seem well for days, weeks, months even, but eventually something will break. I advise you to rethink this.

[doggyhog]

I will lock it after being said, this is not a good idea. IMO it doesn't matter whether the male is docile or not, as CR stated the females might not be! I've had a female almost KILL a male during a spawning tank. She would have had I not removed her quickly.

I hate to say it, but if you don't remove him your going to find this out the hard way....