mcecil5

I have had two Male betta's in a small tank with a clear plastic wall in the middle. At first, they would act aggressive toward eachother. They have been in the divided tank for about 4 months. I thought that the way that they had been acting, that they maybe had gotten use to eachother being there. So I decided to put them together. They have been acting fine together. They swim together, and they rest beside eachother. I have seen them puff up only right when I first put them together, and now I have not seen any sign that they are unhappy being together. Is this possible? Can I keep them together, or will they kill eachother all of a sudden, without any sign?

dahly

Welcome to Fishlore! I know little or nothing about Betta's, having never kept them. However, many member have and currently do and will share their insights with you. Check the website and you may find your answer too. Glad to have you aboard!

Gunnie

Welcome to FishLore! Male bettas will not do well together in that tank. Even being able to see each other when you had a divider in the tank was stressful. I would not recommend keeping them together like they are now. I have never heard of them being okay together like that, and more than likely, you will come home one day with one of them dead on the floor because he jumped out of the tank, or badly beaten and near death. I believe the only species of bettas which would be okay to keep this way would be the imbellis (not sure of the spelling) species, and you would not have gotten those normally from a pet store. I'm going to move this thread to the species specific forum though, so you can get more opinions on the subject!

Miss Mouse

Hey wow! thats pretty amazing if they are good friends! The lady on bettatalk website has kept some together before successfully. I think it totally depends on the fish and his personality but you just never know when the hormones might kick in and they fight... I would keep a close eye on them and make sure there are enough hiding spaces in the tank if they do start fighting.

chickadee

Just from having my 2 in seperate tanks about 5" apart, I know they will eventually hurt themselves or kill each other if they aren't seperated ( and cannot even see each other at least most of the time ). It is very unhealthy for a male Betta to be exposed to the stress of having another around within eyesight for more than 10 minutes or so. They are very vulnerable to disease when they are stressed in this way and even if they would survive a fight could pick up a disease that would kill them. When they are called "Siamese Fighting Fish", it is because they are just that. They will kill each other, that is their nature.

Rose