How to keep Splendens Complex Pairs

Hello! This is short article about my experience keeping splendens complex bettas as pairs, and how you can maybe replicate this. Please note that I have never kept siamorientalis or wild splendens so they will not appear in this guide.

To start, here's my tiers of how well splendens complex bettas do in pairs.

1. Near impossible
Smaragdinas and domestic Splendens.
You really need to have a good pair and a spacious tank to keep these as a pair. I don't recommend housing these in pairs.

2. Do well in pairs
Mahachaiensis, Imbellis, and Stiktos
Sometimes they will not do well but it depends on the pair. Do well in pairs most of the time.

Here's how to keep them:

1. Monitor for aggression. I cannot stress this enough. If you see any signs of biting or discolouration, remove one of them.

2. Always have a backup plan. Also very important, so you have somewhere to put one of them if it doesn't work out.

3. Have some dither fish. I like peaceful barbs, rasboras, or tetras. Make sure they don't nip the betta or outcompete it.

4. Spacious tank with lots of hiding spots. So they can get away if they need to.

5. Destroy the male's bubblenest. I know you want to see him being a natural male and doing his thing, but if you want to keep them together long-term you need to break the nest every day. If not, the male will constantly try to get the female to breed and lay eggs.

I have kept all of these in pairs before and I currently have a Mahachai pair. This is based on my experience so be careful and always have a backup/

I hope this helped!

Some more info I forgot to include:

Sometimes the male will build bubblenests faster than you can make them. Even if they do breed on a regular basis just make sure the female is showing no signs of stress and that she eats well so she doesn't get too thin.