How Many Betta's In A Tank

[killudead]

I have googled this so many times and read so many different articles that i could forsee if you have a big enough tank that you could possibly place up to 2 male bettas and 3 or 4 females all in the same tank. I would think that a 55+ gallon would suffice for such a feat.
with proper cover and planting they could seek shelter as needed.
i know that 9.9 out 10 people will say NO. you cannot have multiple males in one tank. But i believe the tank size has much to say about that.


thoughts?

 

[x0x.love.you.x0x]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
DO YOUR PROPER RESEARCH
1 MALE PER TANK
or you will just get dead fish

 

[LauraFrog]

55 gals - not a chance. It MIGHT be possible to keep A male with several females in there, provided the females had plenty of cover so that he did not constantly harass them to mate, and there were several (I vote eight absolute minimum) so he would spread his attention out. It still seems a bit silly to me - buy the 55 gallon tank, put some females in there, and then have a nice peaceful community. It's not hard to find a corner to tuck away a 5 gal somewhere for the male/s.

As to keeping two males - I seriously doubt that you would pull this off. The whole thing about bettas living in puddles is crap. It's propaganda designed to make the public accept keeping them in drinking cups. It IS possible for them to survive in buffalo footprints or whatever, and it does occur in the wild, but it isn't as common as people are told. Generally bettas live on rice paddies or other large swamps. There ARE many males in these areas. So it WOULD be possible to keep multiple males in the same tank without dividers - but the tank's surface area would need to be at least that of a small room IMO. It woudln't necessarily have to be deep.

The most important thing to remember is that by putting these fish in a tank that is smaller than their natural habitat - a big shallow marsh - you are preventing, to some degree, their natural behavior. In the wild if a male encountered another male and did not wish to fight for territory he would simply leave. By keeping him in a relatively small tank - even a 55 gallon tank - you would be denying him that option. The other betta will take his presence to indicate aggression, and they will proceed to beat the living crap out of each other.

The males in the wild do not seek shelter from another male, because to remain in his territory - even cowering behind an object - is still a challenge... it implies "I'm gonna wait till your back is turned."

Now I did assume that by '55 gallon tank' you mean 'roughly rectangular glass box with capacity of 55 gallons'. 55 gallons would PROBABLY be enough space - if the water was only a few cms deep and the 'tank' had a vast surface area to provide the two males with separate and adequate territories so they would have no need to fight. If you did manage to pull off the incredible feat of having them not fight at all, adding females would be very stupid indeed, as you are then giving them a motive to prove their superiority over the other betta (namely reproduction).

 

[wilsonnw8]

If you want more than one betta then get a sorrority of females. If you really want boys you will need tank dividers to keep them absolutely seperate. It is not worth mixing male with females as it rarely works. putting males together is a death sentence. I know a post said 'do your reseach' you probably have but the info on the web is rather distorted, stick to this forum and you should be fine!

 

[jonny_dw]

One male per tank Im afraid, or as said get a divider. Theres a reason their called fighter fish.

 

[newfishy]

for two males not to maul each other I was told by a reputable breeder that "tanks" are never good enough. this little old man breed bettas in a heated green house and each "pond" for his bettas was a 3 foot deep 8 foot long 8 foot wide. and totally packed and filled with aquatic plants-he also grew and sold plants.

into each of these ponds he would place one adult male and one adult female and just let them be natural. his bettas would spawn under some floating plants every few weeks. then after about 3-4 months, he would drain the ponds low take out all the 3-4 month old bettas, and leave in the original 2 adults and all the younger offspring.

the 3-4 months old were then individually jarred if he was keeping them for breeding or jarred, feed well and then sold. Any of his show bettas were kept in separate large jars...think 2 or 3 gallon jugs.

it is pretty much impossible for the at home betta owner to replicate these conditions. I have males that cant even handle being in divided tanks with each other after a few months, they get so stressed just seeing another male in such close quarters they ate the crap out of their fins.

 

[killudead]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
DO YOUR PROPER RESEARCH
1 MALE PER TANK
or you will just get dead fish

Hence the 9.9 out of 10.
I have done my research and I am still doing more.
Why do u think i asked the question..
I am gonna find the article i read for you all to read.
but thanks for the long posts, that is more the stuff i was looking for.

otherwise, I know all the other stuff already.

 

[carrera]

9.9 out 10 people will say NO

I'd have thought that would answer the question

 

[killudead]

9.9 out 10 people will say NO

I'd have thought that would answer the question

i guess that would depend on if it is a myth that is carried on over time or an actual reality.

 

[newfishy]

its not a myth, it can be done, it has been done. to varying degrees of sucess. two males in a 10 gallon kill each other, two males in a 55, probebly kill each other, but just maybe the weaker one is smart enough to hide and lives in fear all his days. several males in a pond like natural setting with hundreds and hurdreds of gallons to get away from each other and have their own space, works out fine.

 

[bronzecat]

Whether someone, somewhere, has or has not been successful with 2 males in what ever size tank, is not the point

The point is WHY WHY WHY do people still want to put 2 fish in a tank, when they are 99.999999% sure that they will fight? At the very least one of them will become highly stressed.

I have photos of the damage that can be caused when 2 males accidently end up in the same tank.

IMHO, it is not short of cruelty As already been written in many many threads.........BIG clue Siamese "Fighting" fish

 

[Nik00117]

When I started this hubby when I was like 13 I put two males together in 10 gallon tank I never made the same mistake again.

However if you had a HUGE tank WITH A LOT OF VEGGIES and COVER and when i say huge lets say 1000 gallons, maybe... But still not practical so answer is no.

Treat a betta in a community tank as the gewl of the tank. They are the pretty one you only need one and leave it at that.

I used to keep bettas I had a setup for a 2.5 gallon tank one betta one snail worked out great I had about 4 of those easy to clean. I had a divider in my primary tank that I would use to toss the Beta in when I needed to do a big water change. But still 1 tank 1 betta.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Since I was overstocked with Bettas, & was not really interested in my last brood of about 120, I never bothered to seperate them.....

They are now about 1 year old, and some beautiful males in there, (along with some beautiful females) I guess they've learnt to tollerate each other.... No arguements, & they go along their normal daily routines....... (this is maybe an unique situation, so do not try it at home.... There were vigourous fights in the beginning, but no fatal severities).... They are in a 3 ft tank.

 

[bronzecat]

Since I was overstocked with Bettas, & was not really interested in my last brood of about 120, I never bothered to seperate them.....
There were vigourous fights in the beginning, but no fatal severities).... They are in a 3 ft tank.

Even if there were no fatalities, there would have been many under severe stress from overstocking and aggression.

If you weren't "really interested" in your last brood, why spawn? Not the best advertisment really.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

When I say overstocked, I merely mean that I had more than my current market could handle and did not mean that they were overcrowded (stressed)..... and that last brood.... the FISH spawned spontaneously.