Callatya Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 OK, I'll admit it. I've had two adult males in a container together. It was purely accidental. I was a scatterbrain andpoured a second jar in ontop of the contents of the first and then went off to clean the jar. I came back with clean jar in hand to watch two PK males (blade and Jaffa) circling each other and displaying. It was utterly fascinating. both boys seemed to have no interest in immediately tearing each other fin from fin, just to say "oi, i'm prettier and heaps bigger". I sat and watched them for about 10 minutes, sitting there ready to separate, but that was it, then they both got bored and went to eat some blackworms, and came back together for the occasional circle dance. Now, I AM NOT RECOMMENDING ANYONE TRY THIS, i'm just investingating a bit further. I know that sticking two boys together is generally taboo, but i'm curious about anyone elses experiences with this. Now, when i'm cleaning my boys, i'll sometimes pop two in together, or a boy and a girl or a mix etc just to give them some out-time. I cover the base of my bucket in blackworms and keep a watch on anyone with a personality that i don't yet know fully and jar them up within 15 mins. So far, i've only had one boy try to spar (rocky), and he was quickly removed and not allowed any playtime ever again (also turned out to be a violent breeder) I also have a 3' tank. In this tank i have 2 paradise, 4 barbs, some SAE, 2 BN, some platies, some swords, a few danios and WCMMs and i think 2 mosquitofish, On top of that I have a few bettas in barracks, a bunch of the smaragdina girls, a few random cambos and 2 male betas that just roam around loose. It was not the original plan. Originally i thought one was a female(from Squash x Gabriel), but he turned out to be a mediumish-tail male. And the other was *supposed* to be in the little barracks but he swam out (note to all:barracks are useless in 3' tanks with centre brace) Now these two have distinct teritories, and neither hassle the females or juvies very much at all. Ordinarily I'd be worried and not leave them alone, but the young male is a complete wimp and the older plakat (Blade, in case anyone is wondering, one of the best pet fishies I've had ) is bordering on TDTB, so I'm not that concerned. They have been like that for about a month now, and things seem ok. I've not met that many people that will admit to this, let alone have any good news coming out of it, so i'm really interested about how you guys go about it. ever just let that little one who morphed into a man stay in the growout? did a harem work out for you? I'm not suggesting we go and tell the world to try it, but I'd be very interested to know *lol* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loongfu Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 were those 2 PKs siblings? a fight normally happens instantly but can take about 10 minutes to start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splendidbetta Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 I have tried it with females-females and males-males. At the beginning of my hobby, when I only had 3 females and one male, when cleaning time came, I would pour one betta into the jar of the other while I went to rinse the jar out. Sometimes I would come back to see them circling eachother and doing that tail-bashing move against eachother, but occasionally, the females especially, jaw-locked and death rolled eachother, as well as nipping eachother This is how I learnt that females can be bitchy as much as males can be So I didnt do it again. Later on, when I had jarred fry, I would pour as many males as I can into a bucket, run to clean and refill the jars as fast as I could, tap the bucket between jar cleans to break up any fights, then come and net them and retern them to their bottles. And I have tried leaving the best male from each spawn in the growout tank, but usually his developement becomes stunted or he really picks on the other fry or they picked on him, so I ended up having to jar those males. And because I only have one large tank at home, I need it for spawning and raising the fry, so it can't really be a community tank unless I have it set up between spawns When trying to get my females to flare, or sometimes a male, I might add them directly together in a tank, and let them flare their heads off while taking photos Of course I made sure they never shredded eachother Most Plakats like to circle eachother for a while before they start killing eachother, while the long flowing fins of a fancy seem to act like those flag/blankets at the bule fights...very attractive to a fighting opponent So they get right into shredding eachother, and will usually only circle eachother for no more than 5 minutes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VickiPS Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 I've mentioned my she-male tank before (including in the 'Disasters' thread). 4 male PKs together, with one genuine girlie. They chomped each other occasionally, and did a lot of jumping and playing tag, but for the most part were no worse than a group of feisty females. The only exception was 'Sandra', later known as Ming the Merciless. S/he was removed very quickly, after seriously belting up one of the others. S/he subsequently jumpedthe divider in a duo tank and came close to killing my lovely turq CT. someone inherited this monster. From his looks and colour, I think he was probably a straight-out fighting plakat. Eat your heart out, Costya Tzu! I've had a number of late-blooming males who continued quite happily (well, relatively happily) in the growout tank: I've found they're more likely to be picked on by the dominant females than to be aggressors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbies Betta Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 Interesting Abbey, and here I was thinking this was gonna be a Controversial topic Have you tried long finned males in the bucket? I think it's a good idea under "constant vigilance" as it excercises the boys and girls, and if they don't fight, it should build up an "immunity" against fighting, and who know, some day we might just have to call them Siamese fish :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted November 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2005 No, they weren't siblings loongfu, but they were both over 18 months old, and both are quite docile fish. I would have expected there t be some sort of 'sussing out' period before a fight, but they seemed completely disinterested. I must have spent at least 15 minutes cleaning the jar before I found them (I'm easily distracted ) I think for that length of time, with any other fish I probably would have had nips at least. I've not tried longtils in the bucket, but while figuring out barracks one (Fogg) did escape into the 3' tank. I couldn't get to him without draging half the decor out so i just left him for a day til he was hungry and lured him out. Now he had some tail nips on him, but was in one piece. At the time Blade was not in the tank. I do think that longtails would be far more risky, and I'd not feel so comfy about leaving them alone together, but I know a few who have. I think a lot is reliant on the fish being dumb as an ox when it comes to longtails though, and probably the same for plakats, but to a lesser extent. They don't have to worry about if they can get away I guess. I really like giving them the opportunity to strutt their stuff. Its nice to see boys acting like boys. (and not tearing each other limb from limb ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puggle Posted December 1, 2005 Report Share Posted December 1, 2005 I had two boys and a few girls in my 4ft community tank. It was when I first started keeping bettas. They were sold as females and I wasn't experienced enough to tell the difference. There were a few nips here and there but nothing major. I've seen much more damage done during spawning. They were in there for a month or two before the first one sprouted enough that I couldn't mistake him for a girl. Once I took him out then the other one started growing too. But then he got an infection. I don't know if it was from injuries he got when they were together. It was horrible to watch him die like that. I really wouldn't recommend keeping boys together, no matter how big the tank is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gutter_glitter Posted December 4, 2005 Report Share Posted December 4, 2005 I've just found out today that one of my females could make bubble nests. No wonder she was so aggressive. Haha. I can't believe I still can't pick these things out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted December 4, 2005 Report Share Posted December 4, 2005 It's not unusual for females to build bubble nests, Chloe. If only it were so simple to tell the males and females apart! The egg spot, the bubble nest - none of it is foolproof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gutter_glitter Posted December 5, 2005 Report Share Posted December 5, 2005 Yes, and it's mighty annoying when you've been trying to breed two males after a a couple of months haha. I think I'll just be happy that I didn't pay very much for 'her'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted December 6, 2005 Report Share Posted December 6, 2005 My Lfs has about 30 'female' bettas and they all were getting on fine over the 45mins i was there today about 20 were wild splendens males and the other 10 were wild females. I think there were 2 domestic splendens in the tank, one was male one was female. Apart from the odd flare if they got too close, they were all happy :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quokka Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I know this a bit of an older thread,,,hasnt had attention for a lil while... The Daddy of my current fry was bought for 5 bucks as a sweet lil gal 12 months ago...and did spend the first few months at my house in the girls tank! dont ask me how or when I figured out she was a he,,but somewhere between the day I bought her and the day he spawned I must have figured it out cos s/he spent the majority of his life separated from the others and lived most his life as a boy...talk about tranny-fish......think the longer ventrals may have been a bit of a hint... One of my easter 2005 baby girls decided it would like a sex-change recently too. Almost overnight s/HE grew longer fins and a mean attitude!... No wonder I dont want to even try sex this latest spawn... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canfeleq Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 One of the pet stores that I often go to to get supplies for the dogs has fish as a sideline, they don't really know a lot about them and you can often find short finned males in the same tank because they think they are females. In almost every case one male is dominant and the rest hide in the corners, which is surprising considering they are usually in a 12" tank on the countertop with no plants for cover. I don't think they beleived me until I purchased 3 of them, seperated them and then took photos a month later after their fins had grown back, to show the staff that they were truly males. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Em Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I bought two fish who were in a 2ft female tank... I knew better as they were both flaring at one another and the others in the tank, sure enough the next day after I got them home they both had big bubblenests. I'm amazed they hadn't tried to kill one another in that tank, there was NO weeds to hide in or anything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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