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On the subject of Betta's, let's first clear up the pronounciation of the word Betta. They are not Beta's like the predecessor to the VHS tape. It is pronounced like BET and UH. Betta, can you say it? It just grates on my like nails on a chalkboard when people calls this fish a beta like a letter in the Greek alphabet.

Furthermore, they are not Chinese Fighting Fish, they are Siamese Fighting Fish. If you put two male bettas together in a confined area, with no place for the weaker fish to retreat to, you will generally have a fight to the death on your hands.

It is a misconception however to think it impossible to put more than one male in a tank without a divider. I had a 40 gallon show tank that was made from the rounded rear window of a 1954 Chevy that had one male betta per gallon of water. That is to say, I had forty male bettas together in one aquarium. The tank was loaded with aquatic plants and decorative shale and petrified wood and obsidian and some waterlogged driftwood. There were a lot of hideouts for the less dominant males to hide. I had a large variety of floating plants (like water sprite and hornwort), so the fish had access to the surface where they like to be.

Of course, a few fights broke out from time to time in the open center of the tank. But as in the wild, the less capable fish would generally back off and hide, with perhaps a nipped fin and a bruise ego.

Anyone who tells you that you cannot have males together, just doesn't think about the fact that they don't have dividers in the wild. You just have to recreate the natural setting. Nature allows the stronger males to be the ones who get to reproduce their own kind.

I didn't set up this tank in some kind of sick twisted way to provide cock fight type entertainment. I wanted my fish to segregate themselves to find the most dominant fish as my breeding stock. Mustn't weaken the strain by going on looks alone.

Bettas are able to stay under water for quite some time, but eventually, they must come to the surface for air. The key to getting your bettas to survive in a community is to allow them hiding places near the surface of the water. Plants or decorations that come all the way to the top of the tank make it possible for bettas to breathe the air that they need.

Unlike most tropical fish breeds, bettas must breath air from the surface. Bettas are from the family antibantidae, just as gouramis are as well. Fish in the family antibantidae have labyrinths in their head for breathing

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