Are Male Bettas Naturally Aggressive Or Have Been Bred To Be So?

[beginner]

Are male bettas naturally aggressive or have they been bred to be aggressive? Has keeping them in isolation lead to their aggressive behavior?

 

[catxx]

bred to be so. the majority of fancy bettas have been line-bred down from selectively bred thai fighting plakats, not the more peaceful wild varieties, hence their aggressive behaviour. wild betta splendens are less aggressive, but still territorial.

 

[azulfire24]

i think the now common way of breeding to serperate babies as soon as possible to get better feedings and faster growth has a hand in it too.. i think that the isolation and lack of for a better word, < family time > makes lone bettas meaner...

males i bought were all nasty and even beat on the females bad, but babies that i kept from my own spawns ,, are all much gentler? while still seperated by jars the males were never out of sight of their brothers and rarely flare or cause a fuss. the females that have been togather sience hatching are well actually very sweet to each other, but do have huge terrortorie issues with my other adult females,, kinda funny to watch 6 small babies chase off a very large ct female who took a peck at their sister.

and the one male whom i took to work to be the bank pet has seem to be very lonely....act all crazy as soon as he sees anything and dose the crazy happy dance all the time.... then goes back and sulks in his plant....

 

[modaz]

definately has a lot to do with their upbringing more than their genetics and placid parents ive found have produced calmer juvis

 

[ReMz]

Well, their fighting behavior is instinctual. So, by nature they are absolutely aggressive fish.

Selective breeding in Thailand has certainly made betta splendens more aggressive than they are by nature though. As catxx said, bettas were bred as plakat fighters. This was and is still their culture and betta fighting is very common there.

So the answer is yes and no. It's like you could bread of line of Cichlids to be extra aggressive, although they are already aggressive by nature. Or just think of dogs such as Pitbulls or Rotwielers. They were naturally aggressive dogs, so they were chosen to breed lines of attack dogs.

Many different species wild bettas are much more docile.

 

[Netty]

Something I've noticed recently in the 2 spawns that we currently have, is that there seems to be much less aggression in the larger spawn. The smaller spawn we have already started to separate.

Picking up on what Modaz said......the dad (Draco) of the larger spawn was very laid back and gentle and at times a bit of a wimp lol

The spawn we had with our Plakat male were the most aggressive of all and had to be separated at 4 weeks old.

 

[snowflake311]

They are naturally aggressive. You can pick a wild betta from the rice patties put it with another wild betta in a little tank and watch the fight go down. Were Oscars bred to be aggressive? Some fish just are this way. If anything with all the breeding focused on finnage and color the temperament is the last thing on breeders minds. These fish have been bred for looks more so then fighting. The Plakats are the ones that were originally bred to fight in there home land of Thailand.

The fancy ones of today are aggressive because that's just who they are.

Let me clean something up they are only aggressive toward other bettas and other fish that look like bettas. In proper community tanks they are very good fish.