Male and Female betta together.. :O

[RattleSnake]

Two days ago me and my friend went to a pet store called PJ Pets. We were looking at the bettas and there was a small tank which had 2 bettas, one female and one male. It had a lot of plants inside and the female betta was like half the size of the male betta. The male betta kept chasing the female one so all the female could do was hide under the plants. Are pet shops allowed to put female and male bettas together since there are plants for the them to hide in?

 

[afireinside]

it should be, i see males and females housed together all of the time.

 

[Mariah]

rattlesnake which PJs was this? Because a PJs I went into had 2 females together in a 2 gallon tank... One of which was getting beat up really bad... The store I was in was the one in Yorkdale in Toronto.

 

[RattleSnake]

Yeah the one in Yorkdale was the one I went too.

 

[Mariah]

I see I see. That Pjs if you look through all the bettas guaranteed you will find dead bettas. I dont live in that area so Im not there often but when I went in there I picked up every single cup to look at all the bettas and I found abunch of them rotting away dead in there cups.....
Did you buy any bettas from there? I bought a female from there whom I thought was a female who than I thought was a male because I saw no egg spot and was very agressive towards my other females so how'it' is by itself...

 

[RattleSnake]

I don't buy bettas from PJ's..
They always look like there dying.

 

[SRC]

You really shouldn't keep a male and female together...no. (unless it is imbellis or other mouth brooders..from what I hear)

Can they legally do it..of course. There is no "law" that says "hey you can't keep a male and female betta together". Doesn't mean they shoudl though.

You could, however mention to your LFS oooooor even better print out some info on bettas and drop it off to them. LFS don't knwo everything about every single fish that they carry..that would be next to impossible if you stop and think about it...they pay minimum wage to people who are usually in highschool and only work there becasue they thought it would be an "easy" job. Or wanted a discount on supplies. (not saying thats how it is 100% of the time..but you know that happens alot).

I have seen this a few limited times at stores (probably no more then 3..as most stores around here don't sell female bettas) and have suggested they take them out..they usually act very surprised at the information and immediantly take them out.

 

[Elise]

My LFS has a fish manager who doesn't care about the fish . Terrible, I know. Thankfully the other people working there do! I came in the other day to hold the snake I want (they let me carry him around the shopping center and stuff), they had a male and female in a 8 gal with two discus. Luckily, the female, being bright blue and yellow (sooooooo gorgeous) was bought later that day so no fighting occured.

 

[Greener]

I've seen a male in with a lot of females at the local Pet's mart but they were in at least a 20-30 G tank. They seemed to get along nicely and so I bought 2 females. And then they were sold out of females within 2-3 days, very popular fish and I haven't seen any female bettas there since and I go in all the time and hum and hah over whether or not I should buy another tank or betta.