Help Wild Betta With Regular

[Aqua Girl]

Help I need to know soon if I can put a female smaragadina with my two regular female bettas I'm getting a new tank and I need to know soon

 

[babystarz]

No - you need at least 6 females if you're going to house them together. If you satisfy that condition they should be ok together.

 

[Aqua Girl]

Ok thanks but I thought the rule was three

 

[Chad]

I am not sure 6 is the magic number but I agree with the idea behind it. The idea being you need to have enough fish to allow for the creation of the pecking order and the alpha female. The reason I say I'm not sure six is the magic number is because I think tank size and aquascaping also play a role. I've kept as few as three females in one tank but the tank was 30 gallons and planted with tall plants. The line of site was totally broken up. In a smaller tank or a tank without all the plants I also feel three is not enough to ameliorate aggression.

 

[Fishy friend2]

6 is a good number but 4-5 is the minimum IMO in a heavily planted tank. This tank should be a minimum of 10 gallons. I have a sorority right now with about 10 females. Its a larger tank.....
BUT. Back to the original question. No you should not mix species. The requirements are different amongst B. Splendens and other species. For example. B. smaragdina usually only accepts live foods or is better with them. But B. Splndens cannot survive or atleast thrive off of the diet that B. smaragdina requires. Also. B. smaragdina shouldn't be housed with other species of fish as they will outcompete eachother for food

 

[Aqua Girl]

K thanks what kind of live food

 

[Fishy friend2]

Are you strictly going to keep The wild species?

 

[Aqua Girl]

No this will be the only wild one I have

 

[Llegmore]

The amount of females is irrelevant, don't mix the two betta types.

As for foods, brine shrimp and bloodworm are popular although a friend of mine says they enjoy the occasional wax-worm. I'm not sure if the wild betta experts would agree with that though.

 

[babystarz]

The reason I recommend at least 6 fish is twofold. 1) You may have to remove at least one fish if sorority living turns out to be impossible (some fish are just too aggressive for it). 2) Bettas are territorial. Having too few fish allows for individual rivalries to develop, and this could result in one fishing picking on another all the time. With more fish, there is more distraction so as to prevent any one fish from getting too focused on another.

 

[Chad]

Sort of like how we deal with barbs!