Putting 2 Males Together?

[sparklefuzz]

So, I have a bad track record with bettas over the recent weeks, due to (I think) a couple of disease ridden bettas who died pretty quickly, but not before passing on their ailments through a divided / shared tank.

I now have one betta who I've had for nearly 4 weeks, and he is thriving (woohoo!) and a new boy who I bought from Joby last week. They are both in seperate tanks and they both seem happy and healthy. (woohoo!)

I have a divided 12ukg, which at the moment is being used as an emergency "oh my goodness save the gourami from the angelfish!" tank, but once he is out of there, I'd like to have the 2 bettas in the divided tank. For one thing, I can run a decent filter on it, and the second thing is it will double their living space from 2g to 4g each.

So, my question....If they both appear healthy in about 6 weeks, would it be safe to put them together without any risk of passing on illness or disease?

Thanks in advance!

 

[furryrabbit]

I don't see why not . Maybe google common betta illness' and give them a spotcheck for all of them before putting them together , just to be safe .

 

[fishluva06]

Sounds like good advice to me.

 

[sparklefuzz]

I don't see why not . Maybe google common betta illness' and give them a spotcheck for all of them before putting them together , just to be safe .

The probelm with that is that Swizzles, a betta I had for one week before he died, he looked perfect in the lfs. When he died, he left Kamiko, my other betta, infected with whatever it was, and he also died shortly after. I didn't spot a thing wrong with him when I bought him, or for the first week. Then one day he was fluffy so I bought meds and by early evening he was dead. I am just hoping that keeping them 'quarantined' for 6 weeks will being out any underlying illness and I can assume if they look healthy at that point, I can risk it.


Thanks for your advice.

 

[RandomWiktor]

I have several divided betta tanks, and the fish usually thrive in them, as seeing other fish without the harm of directly interacting gives them exersize and mental stimulation. Some boys are too agressive and will damage gills or blow fins, and some are too shy and will stress out, but most seem to get used to looking at another male through the divider pretty quickly. I had an incident before I tossed the store bought dividers and built my own when quite literally ALL of my fish in divided tanks got in with one another (it was very warm, maybe they were looking to spawn). The pair with the most minimal damage were the two boys; they swam over together to beg for food while I scrambled around catching everyone in cups they were so used to each other! ((Please, newbies, do not take this cute story as a sign that males are OK together; they are not under any circumstances to be kept in the same tank without a well-secured divider that touches the lid, floor, and sides of the tank with no possible way to go border-hopping))
So, as long as your boys are healthy, and not overly agressive or overly stress-prone, and you have a good, safe, functional divider, it should be just fine.