Horny Male?

[tqfan]

a bit of background, we had many tanks years ago, maybe getting rid about 8, or so, years ago. my dad was breeding all sorts of fish back then. now we've finally got a new tank, it's trying to remember things! it's coming back, just slowly!! that and the fact i've never seen this, below, before...

having recently set up our tank, we wanted a male siamese fighter to complete the tank.

so out shopping for another fish, we found a nice blue male (had to be blue!) and we took him home.

he's settled in fine, except he keeps flirting with the dwarf gouramis... (both female, we asked for a pair, and the silly woman gave us two females )

i was watching him the day after we got him, and i noticed he was flaring at the female gourami so i said to my dad what he was doing, and he said he could be flaring in an aggressive way. (i forgot they did this, just thought they flared when courting, silly me!)

so i went back to the tank and sat and watched him for a while, and he definitely was not trying to attack her.

it's only been a few days since we got him, but he really won't leave the gouramis alone (he started flirting with the neon blue female, but is mainly sticking with the neon red female)

is this unusual behaviour? or is he mistaking her for a female fighter? and will he ever stop? it's not something we've ever seen before!!

last night i noticed that the gourami he's interested in, has gotten fatter, i mentioned to my dad, he said she's produced eggs. is this right?

and would they ever actually breed?

 

[stang1]

I doubt that they would breed. Bettas and Gouramis should not be kept together as they will likely end up attacking each other. They may be fine together now but it's not worth the risk.

 

[tqfan]

going on our own experience, we've always had a fighter in our tanks, we've had no problems keeping the two together.

 

[stang1]

going on our own experience, we've always had a fighter in our tanks, we've had no problems keeping the two together.

I know it works for some people and for others it doesn't. Bettas are a solitary fish and don't particularly like sharing their space with other fish.
All I can suggest is keeping an eye on them and if things go wrong make sure you have another tank to put the Betta in.

 

[15761718]

of course its normal behavior hes a male!!!!

 

[tqfan]

of course its normal behavior hes a male!!!!

true true!!

just have to keep an eye on him, the gourami isn't bothering about him at the moment.

 

[zoekin8yg]

he's more likely to attack the gouramis as the female ones are less likely to fight. Keep an eye on him.

 

[MarleyBetta]

it might be territorial. male bettas often flare at others while not actually attacking them,