Help, guys, beginner to having a betta, help.

Male Bettas are the most common. They are the ones with the long flowing fins. Females have no fins and are less common. You'll be able to tell the difference, but if I have time tonight I will find some pics for ya.

While they do have fins, the fins on a female betta are smaller than on a fancy male. Color is usually a little more subdued as well. Females are usually sold as females, if it just says "betta" its probably a male.

Male


Female


Bettas, like most anabantids (labyrinth fish), can be very territorially aggressive. Two males in too small an area will fight and may kill each other. The territoriality thing is related to the spawning thing and the aggressiveness comes along with it. Betta spawning behavior can be violent and the male may wind up killing the female if she doesn't have a place to run and a place to hide. Space, plants, decor (rocks, driftwood) are essential if you're thinking of breeding these guys. A pair of females with one male can help spread the aggression out.

In spite of all of that they get along fine with other fish (just as long as the other fish don't sort of resemble bettas). Skip the 5, skip the 10, get at least a 20 and include your bettas in a small community. Or at least thats what I'd do. (Be warned: this is how it starts . And welcome to AqC ).

I wouldn't recommend keeping bettas together, even a male and a female. You can generally get by with keeping females together, but even then you can have some serious problems with over aggressive females. Even the professional breeders don't keep their males and females together all the time, they are seperated up until the point they are ready to spawn, then they are only left together for the amount of time it takes to complete the spawning (few hours to maybe a day). After spawning the female is removed and usually medicated to recover from the experience.

When humans "spawn" like bettas do, it's called rape

Also don't forget, when you do spawn bettas, you have to jar up the males into individual jars at around 6-8 weeks of age. It can easily turn into a full time job cleaning 30-80 individual jars daily for a couple months.

It seems like trying to breed bettas is not really a bigginner activity, honestly.

I agree with the others. I wouldn't have just male and female in the tank together. To spread the aggression out enough so that the females are not overstressed you will need at least 3 females. On top of that, the females will constantly try to establish dominance over one another while the male will chase all of them and flare his gills out at all of them. However, if you want to keep on the anabantid side, dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia) are an excellant choice, especially for a beginner along with the honey gourami (Colisa chuna)...that one I think is actually a hybrid..but I think its also much more common that the original Honey Gourami, Colisa sota. All are quite beautiful fish and they are not nearly as aggressive as Bettas (i.e. you can keep to males together and not worry about them killing each other...although they will fight from time to time). Anyway, until your a little more experienced with fish keeping, I would recommend waiting on Bettas, thier more of an intermediate fish. But, ultimately, the choice is up to you, and of course, there are inumeral tropical fish that would suit the beginner if you decide to go the community fish route. Good luck with whatever you choose!

I guess the first question that comes to my mind is why do you want to breed them? You should realize that they produce tons of offspring. In the wild the survival rate is quite low so that is why many fish produce so many babies. But in captivity the survival rate can be much higher.

If you are planning on seeling the offspring for profit then you will need a much bigger setup and many more bettas. The petstores are already flooded with these guys so I can't imagine the for sale profit margin is very high.

If you are just planning on breeding these to see if you can do it, well I have to say that is silly because it is the fish that are really doing it. You are just the feeding hand that put them together.

With some fish it is hard to stop them from breeding - guppies, platies, swordtails etc... and the choice really isn't yours. But bettas are easy to "not" breed.

10-15 fish are a lot for a 10g tank.

I keep 22 mostly small (2 inch or less) fish in a 30g and consider it to be crowded, second tank in (long drawn out) planning stages. It'll depend on what sorts of fish you're looking at, but pretty much 10 of anything will be a lot for a 10g. A 20g is only a little bit bigger, will give you more options, and will be easier to maintain and keep healthy.

Colisa lalia, or dwarf gourami, are related to bettas but maybe aren't quite as violent. They are still anabantids, so you can count on violence -- especially in too small of a tank. They're also very pretty and stay small. Due to bad breeding practices at fish farms, they can be a sickly fish that I'd approach with caution. You can get the whole story at the SkepticalAquarist, under Fishes >> Labyrinth Fish. Good info on the whole group.

There is a color morph of the lalia thats often called a Honey Dwarf Gourami or just a Honey Gourami. Its usually Dwarf, a lalia, and not a true Honey. There is a different species, somewhat harder to find, thats also called Honey Gourami. It started out as Colisa soto, was changed to Colisa chuna and then more recently to Trichogaster chuna. Also stays small.