Has Anyone Kept A Male Betta With 2 Females?

[alysonpeaches]

Up to just recently I just kept a couple of 100 litre community tanks with quite predictable fish, mainly livebearers, catfish etc. Some of the livebearers had reproduced and I had raised the fry successfully. I was ready for something else I thought.

I bought myself a 50 litre Rena BioCube to go at the side of my fave armchair, and asked people in my local aquatic society to suggest what to keep. Several suggested bettas, but they seemed at odds whether just to keep one male or whether a male and several females would be OK. One member was emphatic that he had kept a male and two females successfully together. I went to my LFS and kept seeing this tank with a male betta in, and several females. He wasnt tearing the females to bits, but bubbling quite happily. I bought the male, and decided to take two females as well, making it clear they were going together, and the comment was, shouldnt be a problem.

Ive had them for a week now, and there isnt a problem, they are getting along fine, the male is blowing a few bubbles, sometimes he appears to get close to the female as if he is going to embrace her, but then swims off. Since I got them I have read so many articles which say DONT KEEP MALES AND FEMALES TOGETHER. This has made me somewhat nervous. I thought if they spawned I could probably take the females out and leave the male to it. I have got a tank divider at the side of the tank just in case I have to act fast! But I also have quarantine tanks. The male is a lovely fish, and in just a week seems to have become very friendly and always swims up to me when I sit in my chair.

But I would really like to know is, has anyone with experience kept a male and two females together, and what was the secret of your success? Would it help if I got more females?

 

[tibby25731]

I know it has been done but the thing is, you never know when one of them will turn. And chances are you are gonna end up with dead fish. i suggest you get some more femlaes and move them all together to a larger tank as a sorority. keep your male by himself.

 

[azulfire24]

most people wont keep them togather i dont for example only when breeding

but iv only heard of one situation where a male was kept with his female peremently and that was a breeder who used a greenhouse to spawn with giant koi ponds as tanks, in 100 or more gal he have them raise babys togather and just move the parents out to a new tank when the fry were bout a month old leaving the fry to grow,

but most people cant keep truly large tanks and i think the amt of space might just be the problem, i dunno maby somthing 55 or bigger but not many people would bother with that as a 55 could house much more interesting fish, many older fish store people seem to have kept them togather in the past but weather that was just due to space issued or not who knows???

 

[devon_charm]

It's very unfortunate that people like to boast about keeping male and female bettas together and i have had many an argument with my partner because he used to keep two males together in a comunity tank (before we met) with apparently no problem, until one was found dead and shredded. Any way the fact of the matter is that you have to be extreamly luky to get away with keeping a male betta with another betta be it male or female, which is a rarety, or you are just going to be waiting for "that day" when he decides he's had enough.

When i very first started out with bettas i was told by the LFS that i should buy 2 females to go with my male, the females he picked out were really stripy and pale, he told me that they were ready to spawn. Well for the first few days all was well, he bubbled and danced with them a little bit and they stayed stripy all the while. I think it was about 2 weeks later he killed them both for no reason at all. I later went on to find out that what he had told me was utter rubbish not only that but the "breeding stripes" were actually stress stripes.

If you really do want to carry on as you are and risk it them please please keep a very close eye on them for any sign of nipped fins or stress lines as these are tell tale signs