odd male betta behavior

mwood322

mwood322

AC Members
Nov 12, 2000
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Massachusetts, USA
www.petresources.net
Well, I went and bought another betta. Since I didn't have a tank he could iso in, and I wasn't keeping him in a bowl due to my house temperature I changed the water in his cup and floated him in another tank. It occured to me later that there was another male betta in this tank.

Apparently it hasn't mattered though. They completely ignore each other. My original betta is a short tail plakat male, natural coloration, whereas the newcomer is a red and white cellophane betta. The newwcomer is still in his cup floating around with frequent water changes, but they act like they are different species. I have seen no flaring, though at the store the cellophane flared at other veiltails, and the plakat often flared at his own reflection. I know they can see one another, as the plakat has tried to get frozen bloodworms out of the cup.

Just thought it seemed weird. The cellophane isn't even acting like the plakat could be female, no bubblenest or anything.

Another weird thing. Many places it says don't keep bettas in current, but the plakat barely seems to notice the current in this tank. He works a little harder in it, but doesn't act like it has stressed him out.

--Mia
 
Where did you get your plakat? I would like one, but haven't committed myself to spending $35 just on shipping for one yet.

As for ignoring each other--bettas have varying degreees of aggression, especially to something that doesn't look very similar. Could be they are both just really mellow. Other option would be age--could be one isn't mature enough, so they are triggering each other yet. Don't think I would risk it long term...
 
Wasn't planning on keeping them together, just thought it was odd.

I picked up my plakat at a little betta stand at a mall. He was 12 dollars. Very pretty though, almost black body with blue and red in all his fin margins. Most of the time LFS can order them, they just don't. I've seen some at LFS, but they are always assorted colors, he was the first natural color I had ever found. I haven't even seen any wild colors at fish auctions.

I really would like to find some females for him, but the mall place disappeared, and never sold females as anything but assorted.

Recently I also saw a full veiltail female. It looked exactly like a male betta, but was acting like a female, and was being sold as a female, quite odd.

--Mia
 
Have you looked at Aquabid? They have tons of different bettas, mostly wild caught. Most of them are imported from Thailand. This is what makes them pricy--shipping internationally, overnight. A few have Stateside agents to help with customs and such, but it's still a costly way to get a $20 fish. Sigh.

I haven't seen too many places that will order females as anything other than assorted either--kind of a shame.
 
I haven't seen too many places that will order females period.

I've seen Aquabid, but can't get my brain to accept shipping charges that high for only a few fish. I'd probably want at least 1 other male as well.

--Mia
 
Too bad we don't live closer together--we could split an order!

Darn. Well, if I see anywhere with female plakats that don't want an arm and a leg, I'll post it here.

Goldfries...It could be a number of things. Water conditions, water changes, and age all factor in. Also, if he doesn't see any females around, there isn't much point in being aggressive. Try having females in their own containers near by, and see if this gets a reaction.
 
I think you might be surprised by my betta story.
Ok
First I had my betta,Sparky, in Eclipse 6 gallon system with feeder guppies! (for my oscars.)He could have easy eaten the biggest female in that tank!!But he didn't even act as he noticed them. I thought he would like demolish the guppy population in that tank. (That's why I bought him, to eat the babies, well some of the babies, because I didn't want to feed 17 guppies to my oscars in one day.)
Then, when i saw that wasn't working, I moved him downstairs to a 30 gallon with 4 full grown congo tetras,an angel fish(10 inchs from top to bottom fins)2 clown plecos, 1 bristle nose pleco, and a clown loach(5 inchs). Again he didn't attack anyoff the other fish. But the weird thing was that he didn't get attacked ether. He just saw a long in the crowd of congos and even bumped into my angel.
I just think that is a amazing story for a betta that is "agressive" and "territorial".


He's still alive 2 years later but has shorter fin because they get cut by the plastic plants in the tank.
 
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