male and female bettas

[bettaamatuer]

i'm sure i'm sounding stupid , but can you keep a male and female together all the time or just at a 'breeding' time? What about a female and a female? just wondering because i am thinking about getting 1 or 2 more bettas.

[wallflwrxx]

Keeping a male and a female together will most likely result in a fight. You can only do so when you are intending to breed them, and even then, you have to be careful.

If you want to keep female bettas, it is either 1 by herself, or 4. Female bettas must have some kind of pecking order so they can "spread" their aggression...also, if you keep female bettas together, they can still be just as aggressive as males, so make sure you watch them and provide lots of plants/hiding spaces.

Reading some of the older threads about female bettas will give you more information.

[starlight]

Actually it's odd numbers that seem to work out better than even numbers. Otherwise I agree with what you said.

bettaamatuer...remember one thing, they are called fighting fish for a reason. Even the females like to fight. The females are way faster than the long finned males. Some are much smarter too. I've had a few lay low in the spawning tank and take their lumps from the much stronger male. They'll observe the male and learn all his moves. After a day or so when he's a bit tired from chasing her, they'll lure him into a situation (under the java moss when he can't move around so well) or in the dark and pick him apart.

Sometimes I think the females are crazier than the males.
When I've put females together, sometimes the smallest one becomes the most aggressive and attacks the larger ones. If the larger ones are tougher, eventually the little one will take her place at the bottom of the order. This process might take several days. Some females seem to like the company of others and never fight. Some people report several females ganging up and killing one of the females. It's all about pecking order. They aren't being mean. They're just being bettas.