I understand that almost inevitably during the maturing process, male Betta fry will need to be separated, as they will start to show aggression, (although interestingly enough the guy at my LFS claims he knows a breeder who has a batch of home-bred fully matured Betta siblings in a 4ft tank, none of whom show aggression towards each other). However how do breeders, particularly those who live in colder climates like the UK, keep individual jars at a steady and warm temperature? I've heard that some people just put cups in the tanks, and thusly are warmed by the single heater in the tank... is this true?
Thanks!
Behaviorally speaking, I tend to think of Bettas like the "fish version" of fightingcocks. Here in HI we have a sting Asian influence community and that is still widely practiced... I breed ornamental roosters, and while they are not of "sport" bloodlines, the breeds I keep (Modern Games and Sumatras) originally started out as fighting birds. I am making the comparison because the "management" of the two is not dissimilar AND because I know for a fact that (with the birds at least) a large part of their aggression issues stems from their management.
A cockfighting program, separates the males but keeps them close to eachother. Basically when you are not in the city and you see a bunch of barrels lined up in regularly spaced rows, you know what that guy is doing! The barrels are the shelters for his roosters that are all on leg leashes attached to their barrel, their leashes prevent them from being able to reach eachother. Buy the roosters grow up with a strong territorial instinct and a complete inability to establish a pecking order, so he has his patch that IS HIS but he can't ever interact and establish his dominance (or submissiveness) to any other bird... He basically develops king syndrome, since he always rules HIS spot unchallenged. When they Fight them, or breed them, is the ONLY time he ever gets to interact with his peers.
Now here is where this tangent is going: I have a photograph of 7 roosters, all mature adults in full breeding condition and all harem masters, laying in the sun together peacefully as can be! They almost Never fight... They only really chase or display aggression at each other when one rooster is stealing another's hen... Then it's a quick chase and that's all it ever amounts to.
My theory is that the boys grew up together and interact with eachother NATURALLY! They establish and maintain their relationships and boundaries... And once their dominance is determined, the pecking order sort of keeps things peaceful.
Now that relates to Bettas in that they are more or less managed the same way, for very similar reasons (territorial natures) and I have heard of situations (in tanks LARGE enough) where multiple males have been peacefully housed together FOR YEARS. And you also have to figure that in the wild, they aren't hunting eachother down to slay eachother, each male stakes out his patch and defends it from "intruders"... As long as no one "trespasses" in "his yard" he is pretty much peaceful. I am not saying it's advisable to try, but theoretically in a 55g tank you could set it up so that two males never had to see eachother. (when my male was in my 30 gallon Long tank, he never really left the corner, he claimed his plants and rock below them, and he just hung out by them all the time.)
Anyway, I'm just saying there are probably good reasons that is CAN work to keep a tank of males without them destroying eachother... I'm not planning on trying it, but I think PART of the aggression tendencies they have are AMPLIFIED by the way we manage them (in social isolation, unable to develop a pecking order) so if they were allowed to behave and develop more naturally they probably would not develop the full "destroy my rival" territorial thing if they never get an opportunity to
ESTABLISH territory to begin with (whether it be from competition with others or just not being able to secure "a home of their very own") kind of like how an awful lot of pet stores keep male Plakats in groups labeled as "females" without them all killing eachother...
It's just a thought, and what leads me to form it...
