Your Opinions Of Fighting Bettas

[starrynightxxi]

there are supposedly scientific studies that bettas who win a fight are happy when they win, but a better way to handle that is to let them fight with their reflection for a few minutes and then take the mirror away. if a betta knows when it wins, which of course it must as most confrontations in the wild between any animals end when one animal shows submission to the other (which is usually BEFORE it turns physical anyway), then they also know when they have lost and there you have a valid point. there's more to animals than their physical needs. it's another vote against fighting that the loser is going to be dejected and in this case, that dejection could kill as easily as the wounds.

but then, if i happened to be in thailand and there was a fight, i would probably stop to see.

 

[Synirr]

Let's get one thing straight -- anything our bettas do is not what they do "in the wild". Why? Because our domestic splendens don't exist in the wild. All these colourful fish, all the fancy tailtypes and all the fighters... none of these are natural. We made them the way they are today through generation upon generation of selective breeding. There is no wild form of our splendens similar enough to the ones we own to even compare to. Wild splendens are nothing like what we have today. Look at imbellis, the closest relative to splendens, for example; they don't really fight. They will defend their territory, but they don't take it to anywhere near the extreme splendens do. A serious fight between imbellis males might last about 5-10 minutes at the most, but splendens from fighting lines will gladly go at it for literally hours before one comes out the victor.

I'm going to throw this out here so those of you who have never seen a betta fight will know what a fight between two born and bred fighters is really like. They're not "trapped" in their container, if they had a place to hide they would still seek one-another out. That doesn't necessarily make it right, of course, that's down to personal opinion. Personally, I find it mesmerizing to watch.
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=UllioKcQKTY...h=betta%20fight

 

[starrynightxxi]

yow, that "kiss" move is pretty killer. it almost seems as though they pause a moment when one goes up for air, like that's some sort of below the belt move. Can you imagine having to fight someone under water

 

[Oddlilninjaboy]

The only bettas I would fight are plakats. I would just feel horrible to fight any betta with long fins. Even when I decide to fight my plakats, I am not planning on them fighting to the death. You know my LFS sells "champion bettas" and "5 star bettas" for 12-29 dollars a betta, all plakats. Would these be ideal to purchase? Just because I want to fight one of my bettas doesn't mean i dont love them!

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

no! no! no! you dont fight splendens they are specificaly bred fighting bettas you buy plakets are for display

 

[OohFeeshy]

Question- Why do you actually want to? If it's more of the 'out of interest', ''natural' behaviour' etc, you might find it better (and more worthwhile ) to invest in some wild bettas. Many of the wild species have absolutely fantastic 'mock fights', and even if it does come down to real fights, they are nowhere near as aggressive (usually) as splendens. You can usually keep several of each sex in a tank, and besides, if they breed, you have little baby wild bettas to sell.

But evidently if it's the 'for fun', 'because I'd enjoy it', then perhaps you should go away and find a forum full of bloodthirsty Chavs.

 

[wuvmybetta]

locking this by popular demand. If you're only interested in opinions, please feel free to do a search.