Since they are territorial by nature, betta fish shouldn’t be kept together because they will fight and harm each other, frequently resulting in death.
Male bettas are not likely to feel lonely in their aquarium, but if it is small, they might get bored. Many male bettas will nip at each other rather than engage in actual fighting.
Unless they were specifically bred for violence or shared a limited space with other male bettas. Male bettas do not always kill other male bettas to death. But it is true that male bettas cannot coexist. They prefer to stay in a solitary tank by themselves.
Tank Size For Male Bettas
The typical size of a fighting fish at full maturity is 2.25 inches (5.7 cm).
A betta can occasionally reach a length of 3 inches (or 7.6 cm) when the right conditions are present.
For one male betta, a tank should be at least 5 gallons in size. You should think about using a 5-gallon minimum capacity for a number of reasons.
Why Are Larger Tanks More Beneficial Than Smaller Tanks?
To believe that larger tanks are superior to smaller tanks appears strange. It’s possible that you think it will require more time to maintain them. But the less labor you have to perform, the bigger your tank will be. Some arguments in favor of larger tanks include the following:
Large Aquariums Have Greater Stability
The bioload can accumulate much more quickly in smaller aquariums than in bigger ones. There will also be a significant buildup of ammonia once the bioload is too high. Betta fish are poisoned by ammonia; therefore, if the quantity in your aquarium stays high for an extended period of time, your betta fish and any other fish will perish.
Ammonia and any other chemical will be more diluted in your tank’s water when there is more of it. This implies that it will take much longer for your tank to reach a harmful buildup.
Additionally, you won’t need to perform water changes as regularly or forcefully. A larger tank allows you to get away with changing the water less often, but a smaller tank requires you to change the majority of the water every week.
You Can Keep More Other Fishes
Because they can’t support as many fish as larger tanks, smaller tanks also have this issue. To overstock a 10-gallon tank, for instance, a few fish will be plenty, and you might not even be aware of it. But with a larger tank, you won’t experience this issue. More fish can be kept safely in tanks of increasing size.
Furthermore, even if you might first be particular about keeping only your betta fish, you might subsequently have second thoughts.
The Temperature Doesn’t Fluctuate As Much
The variations in temperature in smaller tanks are another issue. A smaller tank will be impacted by the outside temperature much more noticeably than a larger tank. A tank as small as 5 gallons will see a quick drop in temperature if your room’s temperature drops suddenly. Even if you simply left your window open.
It will take a larger tank a lot longer for the temperature to climb and fall. Your betta fish won’t notice the variation as much in a larger tank because it won’t be as extreme.
Your Betta Won’t Be As Aggressive
The likelihood of your betta being hostile to other fish decreases with the size of the aquarium. The reason is that they will have more land to claim as their own. You’ll be able to have another semi-aggressive fish in addition to your betta, which will make housing your tank easier.
Behavior Of Male Betta Fish
Each male betta fish has its own personality and is a gorgeous little creature. They recognize their caregivers and are amiable and inquisitive.
When a male betta fish perceives that his area is in danger, an outburst, which is an expression of its aggression, happens. Additionally, as they age, bettas have a tendency to grow more aggressive.
Particularly, male betta fish are notorious for being aggressive fish. Betta fish prefers hiding spots like swaying living plants.
They favor brine shrimp, daphnia pulex, larvae, and special bettas pellets among the live foods they eat. They are carnivores and prefer to eat a lot of proteins in their diets, therefore do not offer them conventional food.
If you don’t provide your bettas with the aforementioned items, aggression will develop, and if two bettas are placed together in such a situation, they will inevitably kill each other.
Male bettas don’t always fight until one of them is dead, and most of the time, they won’t even get close to it unless they’ve been selectively selected to be aggressive or are kept in a small tank where the weaker bettas have nowhere to hide.
The Signs Of Happy Male Betta Fish
Male bettas are bright, charming little gems that exude personality. If your male Betta is content, you can easily tell. There are obvious indications that your betta is content, healthy, and enjoying life. If your betta is displaying these behaviors, you’re on the correct track.
Eating Well
Betta males who are content and healthy eat well. Due to their carnivorous nature, bettas need a diet high in protein to flourish. It is never a good idea to keep a betta in a vase with a plant on top in the hopes that he will get by on the plant’s roots.
Your male betta fish will be satisfied with a varied diet. Your betta fish is happy and healthy if he is eating, which is a solid sign.
Nevertheless, watch out for overeating. Bettas don’t know where their next meal will come from in the wild, so they’ll devour all you offer them at once. As a result, the conventional wisdom that says you shouldn’t feed your fish more than they can consume in five minutes does not apply to bettas.
Avoid overfeeding bettas because their stomachs are the size of their eyes. If you do, you’ll have to deal with a variety of medical issues in addition to an unsatisfied male betta.
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Engaging
Betta males are highly social and enjoy interacting with people. Your betta fish is content if he is swimming around the tank, watching you as you walk about the room, rising to the surface of the tank when you approach, and generally spending very little time hiding.
Due to their intelligence, bettas require enrichment and variety in their tank to prevent them from becoming sad and bored. Plants, furnishings that let him hide, toys like betta hammocks, and floating mirrors are all good ways to keep your male betta content.
Some male bettas may be trained to do skills, including eating off your finger, jumping out of the water, and flaring in response to signals.
Bubble Nests
This is a major issue. Male bettas who are content and healthy want to find a lover and start a family, so they construct bubble nests in an effort to entice a female into the nest to mate.
For your betta fish to blow a bubble nest, a female betta fish does not actually need to be present in the tank.
Male bettas can blow their nests on a weekly, daily, or only once or twice a year basis. If your male betta fish isn’t creating a nest, don’t lose hope. Not all male bettas blow bubble nests.
But if your betta fish is creating a bubble nest, consider the bubble nest as a gift from him and give him the highest praise for his work ethic and sense of design.
How Does Male Betta Fish Show Aggression?
There can be various ways through which a male betta fish will show its aggression in the tank. You can see it flaring its gill, trying to nip fins, and much more.
Gill Flaring Behavior Of Male Betta Fish
A betta fish will flare when it is displaying territorial aggression and is intended to frighten its enemy into fleeing.
It won’t hurt your betta fish to have a little bit of glare, and it might even be good for it since it gives it stimulus and activity.
The threat that something poses to them in their area causes male bettas to flare up in an effort to get rid of it as quickly as possible.
It can be a different Betta fish, a tank mate who is uncomfortable, or even their own image in the mirror. They become extremely anxious and may even stop eating when their territory is threatened.
Territories being invaded is the most frequent reason for male betta gill enlargement. A battling fish can scare off an invader by expanding its gills widely so that it seems to be twice as big.
An angry fish in the aquarium, a passerby, or a reflection in the glass are all potential causes of the flaring.
Fin Nipping Behavior Of Male Betta Fish
In several different ways, male bettas can harm their own fins. Other fish may bite the betta’s fins, injuring them, and extreme water circumstances, including cold or dirty water, can lead to aggressive fin rot, which can harm the betta fish’s fins.
These risks include harm from transportation to a new tank and from other fish biting the betta’s fins.
Why Do Male Betta Fish Fight Each Other?
Because they are so aggressively territorial, male betta fish battle one another. When it’s not drought season, there are kilometers of rivers and paddies for bettas to swim across in the wild. The two male betta fish may act aggressively when one enters the area of the other, but since there is space to flee, a battle may not break out.
When engaged in combat, the two male bettas will flare their gills and fan out their fins to appear twice as large. This action is designed to frighten and intimidate the opponent. If that fails, they will nip at one another until one of them retreats.
It’s cruel to leave them in a tank together without any vegetation or other places to hide. If there isn’t a barrier separating two male betta fish from one another’s visibility, NEVER pair them up.
The same is true for male bettas in a food fight. When kept in a tank, betta fish usually consume all the food you can give them. But to survive in the wild, they must either locate their food or go hunting for it. In those situations, two male betta fish joining forces is motivated only by the desire to survive rather than by a pack mentality.
In order to defend their nests and eggs, male betta fish will also engage in combat. A male betta fish will blow a lot of bubbles onto the surface of the water to signal that it is ready for a mate, forming what is known as a bubble nest. He’ll hold off till a female betta fish passes by and notices when his creation is finished. The male betta fish’s desire for protection will be sparked by any danger to its prospects of reproduction.
How Long Do Male Betta Fish Fight?
In order to appear as enormous as possible, two male bettas will spread out their fins and puff up their gills if they come across each other in the wild. The two will nip at each other until one decides to flee if that doesn’t scare one of them away. A betta fish fight often lasts a few minutes or is over quickly.
Selectively bred for aggression, betta fish will fight for a considerably longer period of time, and most fights end with one betta fish being seriously hurt or killed. Remind everyone that doing this to captive animals constitutes animal cruelty and should never be done.
Fighting Myth
There are times when betta fish will not fight to the end. The majority of the time, they won’t even come close to it, unless they have been specifically bred to be aggressive or are confined in a small tank with nowhere for the weaker betta to hide. This is particularly true for betta splendens, the most popular variety of betta fish offered as pets.
Bettas frequently nip and flail around in an effort to injure their opponents’ scales, gills, and tails. However, following a fight, a betta could die from those wounds in addition to diseases brought on by stress. It’s cruel to intentionally cause betta fish to fight.
Tank Divider For Keeping Male Betta Fish Together
If their tanks are too tiny, and they can’t see each other, male bettas won’t be content. The dominant and violent male betta is fiercely territorial.
When both male bettas are crowded into a small space, they are designed to kill the other male. They typically have the ability to flee. Therefore, in the wild, this is not a concern.
In order to avoid a fight to the death, two male bettas should never be kept together in an aquarium.
They may be tranquil for a time, but eventually, they will start fighting until only one is left.
The aquarium can be divided into parts with aquarium dividers while maintaining a free flow of water.
This is helpful if you have to keep the fish away for security, breeding, or other reasons. To save money and have dividers that are unique to your aquarium, you can make your own aquarium dividers.
Spacers for the Aqua One Betta Duo are not translucent black; they are fixed permanently with silicone. Male bettas are opposed to other bettas and tense when they see them. Therefore, this is a benefit.
There are 5.3 gallons for the duo and 8.4 gallons for the triple, leaving a little over 2.5 gallons for each betta.
What To Consider When Installing Dividers For Betta Fish Tanks?
There are some factors that you should consider, such as Betta jailbreaks, tank selection, and fish health, while you’re attempting to make enough room for one fish or more without choosing a second tank.
Tank Selection
Use a 20-gallon tank or shallow tanks when you’re ready to divide your tank. This is due to the fact that betta fish like to spend the majority of their time near the water’s surface.
Due to the absence of surface area in relation to the volume of water in the tank, it is advised against using a tall tank. Additionally, make an effort to make sure that each Betta fish has access to roughly 5 gallons of water.
For instance, if you’re using a 10-gallon tank, you’ll only have two sections and one Betta fish tank divider, and if you’re using a 20-gallon tank, you may make out four pieces and three dividers from it.
Betta Jailbreaks
To prevent coming loose and dispersing bacteria into the tank, it’s critical to ensure that your Betta fish tank divider is firmly in place. The fish can leap over the barrier and move to the other side, which is another important fact to be aware of.
Therefore, make sure that there is some room between your Betta tank divider and the tank lid.
Fish Health
You put your fish at risk of illness if you constantly add fresh Bettas to your divided tank without quarantining them beforehand.
When a fish becomes diseased, the entire tank and the other fish are likely to become affected as well.
You would need to treat the entire tank if this were to occur. In other words, when an infection is present, treat a separated tank as a community tank.
In case a fish becomes ill, it’s also crucial to have a quarantine tank available.
How Many Male Betta Fish Can Be Kept Together in the Same Fish Tank?
Their common name, Siamese fighting fish, refers to the fact that because males fight among themselves, only one male betta fish may be kept in a solitary aquarium.
One will hide in the wild, but in an aquarium, that is not possible. Both or one of them perishes as the struggle proceeds. Betta females tolerate one another to some extent.
Can Male Betta Fish Survive in Public Aquariums?
Many people are under the impression that betta fish must be kept in aquariums by themselves. Female Bettas can coexist peacefully with other fish in the community, but male Bettas can engage in combat with other male Bettas.
It is best to never keep male bettas, neither with female bettas nor with other male bettas or communal fish.
Female betta fish should only be introduced for breeding purposes.
Can Two Male Betta Fish Live Together If They Are Raised Together?
Male baby betta fish can only stay together when they are young; as they get older, they become aggressive, start to nibble at each other’s fins, and use their fins as weapons to mark their territory, claim food, and for a variety of other reasons.
The simple solution is to keep them separate in separate fish tanks after they reach adulthood. They can only coexist when they are young.
Even tank dividers are unable to keep them confined together. To prevent confrontations and disputes, it is advisable to keep them apart. Your male betta fish may become stressed out and may live shorter lives if they fight.
How Can Two Male Bettas Be Kept Together Without Fighting?
Maintaining only one male betta fish per aquarium is the best approach to prevent the battle.
In order to prevent the male betta fish from seeing each other, if you want to keep bettas in separate aquariums, make sure there is a visual barrier between the two aquariums.
As efficient visual obstacles to break up their battles, you can use cardboard or simple aquarium backgrounds.
Can Male Bettas Coexist in the Same Tank as Other Tank Mates?
Male betta fish are extremely violent and will kill other male betta fish to death. When maintaining male betta in the same tank as another fish, it’s vital to use caution.
Male Betta fish should be kept in aquariums by themselves for beginners. Because of their aggressive behavior, male bettas are neither suitable for keeping with other male betta fish nor with female betta fish. They are also not thought to be suitable for keeping in communal tanks.
Frequently Asked Question-FAQ
Can two male betta fish be kept in a 10-gallon tank?
Answer: In any size aquarium, it is impossible to keep two male bettas together without the use of a separator.
Is Betta fish good for a divided tank?
Answer: Yes, a divided tank is appropriate for keeping Bettas as long as a dark-colored divider keeps them from being able to see one another.
What can I use as a tank divider?
Answer: If you want to construct a tank divider, you can use plastic craft mesh, but before you put it in the tank, make sure the suction cups are linked to it.
What causes male betta fish to become aggressive all of a sudden?
Answer: Male bettas usually show unexpected aggression as a result of harm or illness.
Conclusion
Male and female betta fish cannot coexist peacefully in the same tank because, given the opportunity, males will battle each other to the death. Betta enthusiasts should keep the male and female betta fish separate. The nickname “fighting fish” was given to them as a result.
The primary method of conflict resolution used by male betta fish is flaring or becoming enraged.
A male betta fish will do this by pushing both of his operculum, or gill coverings, forward to show that he is a larger fish.
Fish may engage physically through biting, finning, swimming into one another, striking, or other means.
When they are kept in close proximity in a single tank, this frequently occurs.
Male Betta fish should never be kept together to prevent this type of behavior. They are incapable of coexisting in a single tank with other male bettas because they are bred for aggression and fighting behavior.
They don’t like sharing their food, space, or other resources with others since they are very specific.
To ensure that male betta fish are happy and healthy, it is preferable to maintain them in solitary tanks by themselves, which should have ideal water conditions, plenty of hiding places, dense vegetation, and floating covers.
