All Male Tank?

[blue_betta]

hmm, thinking about it though, if you breed them to be docile, will they even breed at all? aggression seem to play an important part in breeding and courtship

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Oh good grief. I can't believe this discussion is even happening. I breed bettas. And when the males....and some females, reach a certain age they turn on their siblings. Yes, they really do. It is very rare for any male betta to even think of putting up with another in his territory, especially in such a confined space. The reason they are aggressive is for breeding rights in their natural enviroment and living space when water levels become very low. Remember these are air breathing fish that can and will travel across short areas of land to find a new watering hole if necessary. So long as they remain wet on their skin surface they can stay out of water indefinitely.
To try and breed out their aggression you are always going to fail. Even if you breed an especially docile male to an especially docile female. You will get agressive young in the spawn. It's nature, it's their genetics and to take that away you'll end up with something not even close to a betta. After all a passive betta wouldn't try to flare and therefore wouldn't need those fins or colouration to show off, so eventually you'd lose them too.
Please, please do not put this to the test. I have seen the outcome of someones bettas that they did this to. The fins were a mess, they were stressed and far from top condition. Hardly a fair way to expect them to live. If you want fish that'll live together packed in like sardines then get Malawis, only not in a 10g or they'll be dead within the month.
P.

 

[channing]

Oh good grief. I can't believe this discussion is even happening. I breed bettas. And when the males....and some females, reach a certain age they turn on their siblings. Yes, they really do. It is very rare for any male betta to even think of putting up with another in his territory, especially in such a confined space. The reason they are aggressive is for breeding rights in their natural enviroment and living space when water levels become very low. Remember these are air breathing fish that can and will travel across short areas of land to find a new watering hole if necessary. So long as they remain wet on their skin surface they can stay out of water indefinitely.
To try and breed out their aggression you are always going to fail. Even if you breed an especially docile male to an especially docile female. You will get agressive young in the spawn. It's nature, it's their genetics and to take that away you'll end up with something not even close to a betta. After all a passive betta wouldn't try to flare and therefore wouldn't need those fins or colouration to show off, so eventually you'd lose them too.
Please, please do not put this to the test. I have seen the outcome of someones bettas that they did this to. The fins were a mess, they were stressed and far from top condition. Hardly a fair way to expect them to live. If you want fish that'll live together packed in like sardines then get Malawis, only not in a 10g or they'll be dead within the month.
P.

dont worry not wanting to try it. just curious. could it be done? if it could want would be the pros the cons? and why? that sort of thing. plus it would mean the end of the five billion one gallons floating around my house

 

[GuppyDude]

Na dont go there. Its been thought about and tried many times before, in several differant way, all it ever results in is injured fish. Unlike cichlids (who are agressive, but dont usualy fight to the death), bettas will not stop untill the other is dead. And being trapped in a tank of any size does not provide a loseing fish(s) the opertunity to escape. If you want an all female community, that can be done. Just keep males in their own little space.

 

[jourdy288]

Males can be bred to be more docile without fin damage if you do not allow inbreeding. Remember, you want a group of different males and females, none of which aggressive. Simply keep the genes a little mixed up from time to time, and allow other docile males, and you should be fine. Still, a major lack of aggression could prevent the male from protecting the nest...

 

[blue_betta]

After all a passive betta wouldn't try to flare and therefore wouldn't need those fins or colouration to show off, so eventually you'd lose them too.

natural evolution would take them that way but selective breeding would not breed out colourful gaudy fins. the real question is WOULD they breed? as you breed beta yourself you will be all too aware that the females sometimes need to be beaten half to death befre they will spawn. some females do die as a result of their spawning injuries. the girls i bred from were lucky. one has no signs of being bred from 7 weeks ago, the another was left with a permenant notch in her tail.

if you breed out the aggression, you breed out the abbility to breed i would think.

 

[monica]

Yeah. I agree with post 16. I had a gentle male. He did not breed. He just seemed un-interested in putting up a fight for the female. Didn't really feel in the mood to impress her. Too gentle.

 

[girl4God81]

what Ms. Dib said! It is NOT ever a good idea. Chances are huge that they will find each other and kill each other (yes, even in a 10 or 40 gallon). A 10 gallon would be a horrible way to test it out, as would anything even as large as a 40 IMO.

You can heavily plant it but they are far too territorial and would most likely eventually find each other and fight. Do you have any female bettas? You may already know, but in large quantities, it knock out the aggression or reduces it most often (you may have already said that, sorry if I missed it).

If you are looking to reduce water cahnges and all that, combining them wouldn't be helpful unless you put more than 2 together, and you would have to get such a huge tank and it would still be a huge risk, and a huge tank the size you may need wouldn't be any easier to do water changes. I do understand though, it's a hassle sometimes to have to mess with all those water changes and do them all individually. If they ever get to be an overlod you may be able to give them away under the buy/sell/trade section on here.

 

[channing]

have females but they kinda bore me. no one is thinking of really doing this just wondering about it. if you could breed the fight out of both the male and female so that they would breed plus keep enough that the colors and the flaring would still be there. hmm... females docile and still breed plus males that the fighting only goes as far as flaring.. now thats a thought

 

[Dorkhedeos]

You seem to be forgetting that bettas have been bred for centuries to be as aggressive as possible, isolated from a young age from any other fish for generations. You can't make a comparison with cichlids- bettas do not know when to stop attacking and retreat. They'll keep at it until they're both dead.

that is like half true, if you have ever seen betta fighting, you will know that the other betta will retreat as soon as it has had enough.

 

[stang1]

It would be a shame to change the nature of Bettas, their personality is one of the things we love about them!
I know it would be great to keep males in the same tank but then they'd probably become just another fish and not the ones we all fell in love with.

 

[jourdy288]

What about the wild-type betta? These have very little fighting instinct, yet when breeders got their hands on them, accelerated the aggression of the fish. If we could reduce it somehow...even if the females get beaten badly as usual, the males will not be as aggressive, you could probably have a male-female mixed tank.

 

[Dan-25]

surely bettas, who have lived for god knows how many thousands of years still keep their teretorial instinct and it could never be removed, dont like the idea one bit.

im sure on here ages and ages ago a guy put up a picture of one of his tanks which contained about ten males - god knows how that turned out.

 

[starrynightxxi]

as others have said in similar threads, if you want to breed the aggression out of males so you can keep them in an all male tank, just go buy guppies. Bettas are pretty but so are thousands of other fish. it's their personality that interests me.

 

[blue_betta]

What about the wild-type betta? These have very little fighting instinct, yet when breeders got their hands on them, accelerated the aggression of the fish.

i have a wild type male, hes just as aggresive as any other!