Siamese Fighting Fish Behaviour

[sausage dog]

Hi there, I am new to owning fish so please be patient.

I have a couple of lovely Siamese Fighting Fish, one male and one female. Although they seem to be able to co-exist in the tank I have noticed that the male keeps chasing the female around with his Gills open. I guess I need to know if this type of behaviour is normal, or whether they need to be seperated?

I am also curious as to what conditions the male builds the bubble nest? Do they need something in the tank to build it around?

Thanks

 

[Lateral Line]

Found this on mod queue in the fish index. Moved.

 

[babybell911]

as a general rule females and males shouldn't be kept together as it's likely they will fight and one or both will be seriously injured or die. They should only be kept together when you want to breed and even then only after lots of conditioning. You should seperate immediately.

 

[aquagirl]

Yes.

Seperate them now.

 

[hakisuma_chan]

One of the fist things people should know about bettas is their aggressive behaviour. Betta fish are nutorious for their fighting, hence the name Siamese Fighting Fish. Males definetly cannot be kept together, and males and females should only be kept together for the brief period of spawning. You should separate them as soon as possible, if you have not already done so.

The male builds a bubble nest when he feels ready to spawn, which is pretty much the whole year. Mine builds his bubble nest just along the edge where the bowl meets the water. If you want to encourage your betta to spawn, you can place a clean leaf, a styrofoam cup cut in half and placed on the water, the cut part on the water and making a dead end tunnel (tapes to the edge of the glass), and he should build his bubble nest there. However, mine builds one without any encouragement and I was slightly hesitant to clean his bowl the first few weeks. XD

If you want to stimulate him to build his bubble nest, I heard you can raise the temperature of the water or keep the female in sight (though not in the same tank/bowl as him)

If you are going to (or looking into) breeding him, and the betta you have are veiltails, do not mention it at this forum as you will feel uncomfortable reading the replies. Many people highly discourage the breeding of veiltails because it points to 'betta in a cup' and many homeless veiltails. If you wish to breed, many will insist for you to purchase the more expensive but better bettas, for their genes and looks, and they're easier to sell or give away once they have grown because of their prettiness. I have four veiltails, and mentioned breeding, and I can assure you that you would do well to not to do so - maybe at aquaticcommunity.com There are more 'noobs' there. I am one.

I hope this helped....and I hope you take the advice if you were considering breeding. If you weren't even considering breeding, and just wondered about bubble nests... well, there's 10 minutes of my life that I will never get back. It's all good, though~

 

[andyw823]

My mum use to have a male and female in her community tank, they actually bred in there but not long after the female died i she couldnt understand why. The male lasted quite along time before that died, all this happened before i found this forum, what people say about keeping them seprate is true, my mum was told by an LFS that putting them in a community tank is fine and its best to have one male and two females....... i dont think so! My males are in there own tanks but i do have 2 females in a communtiy tank that are a good few years old and are perfectly fine!

 

[leddy]

I was given pretty similar advice as Andy. 1 male and two females...though the females were bought on an impulse of pity.
Luckily, my male's a pretty chilled out dude. He will chase and flare IF the females venture onto his "turf" in the vallis, but otherwise he just ignores them.
But rest assured, either the girls (or my boy) shall be soon moved! Another tank is in the process of being set up.

 

[insanityseeker]

hey, yous lot shouted at me when i told you my male and female were together...

 

[pica_nuttalli]

hey, yous lot shouted at me when i told you my male and female were together...

and we have since matured from that period

if you are interested in breeding bettas, please read this pinned topid. its quite comprehensive and explains in detail things which were only alluded to here. however, if you are not attempting to breed your bettas and just happen to own a female, might i suggest attempting a "sorority tank"? thats a tank of at least 10g with 5+ female bettas. its a popular type of set-up around here.