Hmm?

[K.J.]

I was wondering this morning what would happen if you put a male and a femal together. Of course, not permenantly. I had thought about this because I think someone here said they put plakat fighters in a sorority tank for a little while to incourage him under close supervision, of course. But could you put, for example, a female (if she was used to the male) in the males tank (which would I suppose be 10 gallons or larger) under close supervision for maybe ten minutes? I had thought of this because while my girl was in a cup floating in the boys tank she was desperately trying to break out. I put her back into her own tank then because I wasn't sure if I should let her ram the plastic like that.

 

[Kame-San]

I think that would probably be best if only done in a sorority of females, so the male can't single out one female. If you throw a male into a sorority tank, he's going to be so crazed with being in there, that he's not going to be able to pick out just one female to pick on.

 

[K.J.]

Yeah, that's true. At the moment I think my boy is so preoccupied with his bubblenest he wouldn't notice a giant steak.

 

[Kame-San]

If he doesn't notice I'll happily take that steak off your hands

 

[K.J.]

-hands-

Take it, we're having roast chicken tonight.

 

[Kame-San]

Thanks! xD 1/2 to the cats and 1/3 for me and 1/3 for the bettas!

 

[K.J.]

They'll like it, it's been soaking in nice fishy water.

 

[starrynightxxi]

out of curiousity, why would you even be interested in putting a female in with a male "just for ten minutes"? what would be the point?

 

[RandomWiktor]

Male and female bettas should only be placed together when breeding, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There have been people who have done betta community tanks, usually in something extroadinarily large and well planted with especially placid specimins, but I personally would not advocate this as there is a strong potential for injury and death to the fish. Bettas are NOT a social species, and there is no good reason to keep them together. The only result I can see from putting males and females together in a non-mating situation is injured, stressed, and potentially dead fish.

What's up with people lately looking for ways to bend the rules of proper betta keeping? Females in undersized tanks, males and females mixed, males with fin nippers and colorful fish... seriously guys, the guidelines for caring for this species exist for a REASON. We're talking about a highly agressive, highly territorial, naturally solitary species that is happiest and healthiest in a warm, low/no current, solitary environment. Why anyone would want to keep an animal in any way that is completely contrary to its specifications? It boggles my mind...[/off topic]

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

RandomWiktor maybe you should be alittle nicer and alittle less rude. if you do this maybe some people will lisen to your information alot closer... sorry off topic but just felt i had to say it...

 

[RandomWiktor]

I am simply growing very exasperated by the vast number of people I see every day improperly caring for fish because they either did not do their research, or researched but elected to experiment - thus playing russian roulette with the lives of their animals - regardless. There are so many resources on this site on proper betta care, yet on a daily basis, we have people completely disregarding the good, sound advice of many knowledgeable fishkeepers... it is hard to stay perfectly polite in situations like that. And frankly, polite doesn't always work; when we're talking life or death issues, it stands to reason that a sternly delivered message might make it through better than some wishy-washy attempt to give advice but not risk hurting someone's feelings.
Also, stating the facts bluntly is a far cry from rude. It is absolutely unreasonable that people are insisting upon trying to bend the rules of fishkeeping just to see what happens. Rude would have been coming onto this thread and saying "wtf are you stupid don't do that!" Instead, I said why it shouldn't be done, then questioned the seemingly endless stream of posts where people express interest in doing something that is extremely risky to the health of the animals who rely entirely on them for safety - something that was not specifically directed to the origional poster. Is it a bad thing to call attention to the fact that animals should be cared for according to the specifications of their species? I should surely hope not, but apparently it is.
Now, this poster is just curious, and thankfully didn't go ahead and try it without asking first - I greatly respect that. The latter comment in that post about people trying to stretch the standards was more general, a mere observation of recent activity on this board and others. I have put a space between my response to the origional poster and the second comment to make this more obvious, as I did not intend to be insulting the person who started this thread.

 

[K.J.]

Don't worry guys, I wasn't considering it, but simply wanted to know.

 

[RandomWiktor]

::nods:: I had that impression, and I apologize if my origional post seemed to be a rant at you - I was more like blowing off steam.

 

[K.J.]

It's fine, I tend to do that as well.