Mixing Females And Male Bettas In The Same Tank

[moomoo]

Hello,
I have a Male betta who lives peacefully with 4 glass catfish, 4 neon tetra's, 4 glowlight tetra's, 4 xtra tera's, 3 little brazillian sucker fish and 6 shrimp. I did have some clown catfish and a few more tetra;s b ut I lost them to white spot.
The fighter loves to lord it up around the tank but is no trouble, my question is: Numerous petshops have said he can be kept in a tank with 2 or more other female Betta's ( but never 1 on 1)and there should be no fatalities. I have searched this forum and everyone says they will kill each other is this true?

I am new to the fish keeping hobby but I am interested in getting him a few girlfriends.

thanks

moomoo

 

[Jaded12]

Hey there! Welcome to the forum! Yes if males and females are put together you will wind up with dead fish. Either the male will kill the females, or the girls will gang up on the male and kill him. Females can be kept together in groups of 5 or more, but males cannot be kept with other bettas, male or female.

 

[mommyof2bettas]

no other bettas with male bettas, like Jaded said, you'd probably end up with dead fish

 

[moomoo]

I have another tank with 5 dwarf puffer fish, would a female or male betta get on ok with these?

 

[K.J.]

If I know my stuff, dwarf puffers are extremely aggressive and prefer a species only tank.

 

[mommyof2bettas]

If I know my stuff, dwarf puffers are extremely aggressive and prefer a species only tank

 

[Jaded12]

no way could you put a betta with puffers, they'd destroy his fins, they're aggressive little buggers.

 

[stang1]

Dwarf Puffers are incredibly cute but also incredibly aggressive.
I brought some for my community tank after being told that they would be fine with other fish. They were ok for a couple of months and then I noticed pieces missing out of my Tetras, Minnows and Harlequins tails! Needless to say but I had to take them back to the lfs.
I do miss them as they are wonderful fish but if I was to buy some again, I'd keep them in a tank on their own.

 

[zippa]

this has got to make you feel sorry for the male bettas. not aloud girlfriends to move in and no male flatmates to keep him company

 

[zoekin8yg]

Not really they are solitary fish and don't live in groups.

 

[Maxsmom]

The only time you can have a male and female together is for mating. They'll fight otherwise... and there's a bit of a process to introduce them to each other for mating so they don't kill each other first! As for loneliness... although I understand it's not a problem with bettas - just us - you can always divide up a large tank or put smaller ones next to each other so they can still see each other without hurting each other. It's also good to put plants in the area of the tank where they see each other so they can have some peace too.

 

[wendywc]

this has got to make you feel sorry for the male bettas. not aloud girlfriends to move in and no male flatmates to keep him company

I'm sorry, but it's wrong to equate fish (or any animal) with human characteristics. Please heed the above info and keep male bettas solitary.

 

[zippa]

it was a joke. lol. i wouldnt mix males just to give them company. ill buy him a mobile and he can ring them up instead

 

[Bert]

I wish you could keep betas together! that would be awesome. But, you can't so just get 5 girls and have them together

 

[zippa]

would be great to keep a lot of males in the same tank. it would look very nice. but i think soon it would look quite bad and i dont suppose they would be very happy fish either. so females it is