One of the most common questions about Betta Fish I used to get while working at the pet store was if you could keep male and female Bettas together, which would make complete sense. If Bettas want to reproduce, they must be able to live with other Bettas, right?
SHORT ANSWER
While it is possible for male and female bettas to live together in harmony, you will probably only want to do this temporarily for breeding purposes. If you are not interested in breeding bettas and want to make sure that your little one has friends, you may want to wait until you have a good amount of experience keeping bettas or you may want to look into having other types of fish/water creatures with your betta instead.
IT’S EASIER TO KEEP MULTIPLE FEMALE BETTAS TOGETHER, RATHER THAN MALE & FEMALE
Many experienced Betta keepers like to keep “sororities.” A sorority is a group of female Bettas that live in harmony with each other. It is easier for female bettas to live with each other due to the fact that they are less aggressive than male Betta fish. That being the case, female bettas tend to need a bit less space than male bettas and pet stores will commonly sell female bettas in premade sororities, making it a lot easier for you to start.
If you want to start a sorority on your own, I would highly recommend trying out your skills with one Betta at a time. Do some extra research to make sure that a sorority is a right fit for you as they take a lot of work and need lots of space.
It is usually recommended that you have 10 gallons of water for the first Betta and 5 gallons more per each extra Betta fish. Multiple betta fish are able to thrive in smaller spaces than 15 gallons, however, the smaller space the more of an eye you need to keep on your Bettas. Your Bettas will really appreciate extra space to make sure they don’t bump into each other while swimming!
CAN ONE MALE BETTA LIVE IN A SORORITY?
Absolutely, but you’re still going to want to make sure there is a lot of space and plenty of places to hide. Sororities will need to be well established before a male Bettas can and should be introduced.
That being said, male bettas can also be introduced to other fish.
OKAY, I DON’T WANT A SORORITY, BUT I DO WANT TO KNOW HOW TO BREED MY BETTAS, HOW DO I TELL THEY ARE READY?
I’m not going to go in a whole lot of detail on this topic since I’m not a Betta breeder, but a key way to tell that your male betta is ready to breed is if he builds a bubble nest. Male Bettas will blow bubbles at the top of their tanks, and you will have to leave your female Betta in long enough for her to fertilize these bubbles with their eggs.
Female Bettas, on the other hand, will have spots on them when they are ready to mate.
HAS ANYONE BEEN ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY HAVE TWO MALE BETTAS IN A TANK?
Yup! It’s possible, but again you will need plenty of space. Ideally, you will want 10 gallons for each male Betta and loads, and loads of places to hide.
ARE THERE ANY TANKS THAT CAN SUPPORT HAVING TWO BETTAS?
Yes, there are! Minibow actually has one with a divider that you may be interested in buying. The only thing is, because of the divider your fish won’t have a whole lot of space to move around, but there are plenty of ways to create dividers for your tanks, or ways to get custom dividers.
I’ve compiled a list of my favourite tanks for multiple betta fish, check them out here!
CONCLUSION
While it is completely possible to house both male and female betta fish together, it’s definitely a job for a more experienced betta fish owner.
As mentioned before, you’re going to want to make sure you have a bunch of display objects for your bettas to hide behind or inside of as well as lots of space. If you’re looking for some great decor, one of my favourite aquarium decor companies is Penn Plax. They are affordable and quite stylish and I’m sure you’ll find something both you and your Betta love!
So I’m curious, after reading this article how many of you are going to try keeping multiple bettas for the first time? Let me know in the comments below!