Introducing Alfie!

[Chad]

That's too bad, it's not really somethign to argue about. Obviously they live in pods together so maybe the answer to my question is a pond or an 8 foot tank or whatever. With time and money it could be done.
This isn't a betta tank but I wonder if something this dense would do the trick. It would for small puffers.

 

[MBOU]

It will depend completely on the fighters! I kept a very placid white male in 260L VERY heavily planted tank with 3 females!

Ironically, the male fighter kicked the female kribensis out and he and the male krib slept in the cave together Casper always was a weird fighter! Bit scared of the ladies tbh!

 

[Flute]

I kept a male and 6 females in a heavily planted 60 ltr for a number of months without any problems. (They were bought as a group of female juveniles, one of which was obviously a male in disguise!) In the end I had to divide the tank as the male reached maturity and started to get too stroppy with the ladies. So as MBOU said, it depends on their personalities

OP, you've really got yourself a stunner there!!

 

[Chad]

So a 60 liter is clearly not large enough but that's quite a small tank (15 US gallons). How do you think they would have done in a 475 liter tank?

I agree, the OP's betta is unique and very attractive. I haven't seen one quite like it ever.

 

[Flute]

Aye, but it's made me think that it can be done in a big enough tank I have heard people keeping a male with females in 125 ltr without problems, but I think the bigger the better. If you got a laid back male then it might work long term, and lots of females to spread his aggression out. Or, buy a huge batch of juveniles and let them grow up together, but e-home any surplus males and keep the most placid. I have heard from a couple of breeders that it can work well

And of course, have the tank very heavily planted will always help.

 

[Chad]

The OP's betta is so nice that it made me think about breeding and the change that this color morph could get carried on, that got me to thinking about harems of fish and betta and that lead to...well...that's how I got there in my mind...I for one would love to see how a SUCCESSFUL tank of this sort would look. I think it would be a beauty to behold.

 

[372xp]

I also ended up with a couple of cross-dressing males amongst my females. All was well until quite recently when I had a bit of trouble. What did help was having a lot of plants and a current caused by the internal filter, this prevented any nest building and perhaps kept the males less aggresive. I think if you want to mix males and females it is perhaps best to introduce them all togeather as juveniles, and try to avoid to flashy males. Males who masquerade as females will be much happier living with females just make sure they are outnumbered like 2 to 6 or 7. I am no expert mind just a keen observer of bettas. Good luck with that tcamos.

 

[Chad]

Good luck with that tcamos.

With what?

 

[372xp]

Sorry, I thought you wanted to set up a "rice paddy" sort of tank to house males and females. They look good Emporer Tropicals have one as there show tank in Plymouth, that is planted with bamboo. Mine has always died after a couple of months.

 

[Chad]

Nooooo...I got enough on my hands with my 210gallon tank to mess with a tank large enough to pull something like this off.

It was just a fantasy.

 

[372xp]

When you stop dreaming you die. Now if only my wife would let me have another tank...........

 

[Chad]

I had 9 tanks at one time and my wife "let" get rid of them all in exchange for a 210 US gallon reef tank and she just allowed me to have a 6 gallon planted tank.

 

[RichardA]

Nice little male.

I have kept pairs together now problem. Will be doing it again here real soon.