Does Flaring Indicate Personality?

[LionMom]

I have four male bettas - each in his own tank, of course.

I periodically put a mirror up to each of the tanks. Two of my boys flare at the mirror as long as they can see it, one boy flairs for a time even AFTER I take the mirror away and the fourth boy just makes a couple passes & flares then just goes to the other side of the tank and that's it.

My question is, would the flaring of the last boy - or lack of - indicate that he is on the passive side? Would he be the best candidate to have a "room mate" or two?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Aussie_Dog]

I don't know, but I do know that my Leroy, the one who I can't even get flaring if I put a mirror up, gets nasty when I put another critter in there. Nowadays, I can only get him to flare if I put him in a cup and put that cup in another Betta tank, and even then he's not what I'd call flare-happy. Only flares if the Betta is smack dab right at the cup's side. But give him a tankmate, and he'll try to kill it. And even though he hardly flares, he's a little spitfire, literally flicks around rather than, say, meandering around.

On the other hand, Sweeney was flare-happy. It didn't take much to get a flare out of him, and he had the companionship of an Oto once, and was a lengthy dorm mate of African Dwarf Frogs (two at first, then one died and it was just Ichabod for a few months, till I moved Ichabod to a bigger tank and turned that into an ADF tank).

So I don't think flaring is an indication of personality, really. It's a part of personality, but it doesn't define it.