Simeone Swims

This is a bit of a ramble. So I’ve been thinking for a while about justifying pet betta’s behaviours with their wild counterparts, especifically about keeping female bettas together, and something seems off to me.

First of all, as I understand, originally pet bettas were indeed bred to fight, so the most aggressive individuals were chosen to mate. These traits are passed on to both males and females, not only males. Wild betta are not the same animal as Splendens, morphology aside, especially in their behaviours.

When you see female betta in the wild on documentaries and such, they’re more peaceful and give the impression that females would want to have company also in aquariums. But, but most of the times wild bettas are kept in PAIRS because Momma and Papa Wild Betta won’t kill each other after sex like Splendens do. And we’re also ignoring seasonal behaviours, like fish who seek each other only when it’s time to mate, and then will separate. We can’t do that in our tanks, they’re not big enough.

Soriorities are a complicated subject. I get that they can work because they reportedly do, but I’ve also read accounts where everything was peaceful for some time and suddenly the females started to attach each other. But when I read people saying “But wild female bettas live together in the wild” it seems to me as a really invalid argument.

This is a bit of a ramble. So I’ve been thinking for a while about justifying pet betta’s behaviours with their wild counterparts, especifically about keeping female bettas together, and something seems off to me.

First of all, as I understand, originally pet bettas were indeed bred to fight, so the most aggressive individuals were chosen to mate. These traits are passed on to both males and females, not only males. Wild betta are not the same animal as Splendens, morphology aside, especially in their behaviours.

When you see female betta in the wild on documentaries and such, they’re more peaceful and give the impression that females would want to have company also in aquariums. But, but most of the times wild bettas are kept in PAIRS because Momma and Papa Wild Betta won’t kill each other after sex like Splendens do. And we’re also ignoring seasonal behaviours, like fish who seek each other only when it’s time to mate, and then will separate. We can’t do that in our tanks, they’re not big enough.

Soriorities are a complicated subject. I get that they can work because they reportedly do, but I’ve also read accounts where everything was peaceful for some time and suddenly the females started to attach each other. But when I read people saying “But wild female bettas live together in the wild” it seems to me as a really invalid argument.

and here’s a bunch of other cool studies i found!!

http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4488&context=rtd

http://publications.lakeforest.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=seniortheses

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0031938488901187

http://m.beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/6/1139.short

Progress on the 40 gallon breeder set up. Tank has been set up for a little over four months. Just added fish and the plants are starting to fill out nicely. Looking forward to seeing how this tank develops!

Current inhabitants: 15 shrimp 10 rummy nose tetra 1 pearl gourami

This is a bit of a ramble. So I’ve been thinking for a while about justifying pet betta’s behaviours with their wild counterparts, especifically about keeping female bettas together, and something seems off to me.

First of all, as I understand, originally pet bettas were indeed bred to fight, so the most aggressive individuals were chosen to mate. These traits are passed on to both males and females, not only males. Wild betta are not the same animal as Splendens, morphology aside, especially in their behaviours.

When you see female betta in the wild on documentaries and such, they’re more peaceful and give the impression that females would want to have company also in aquariums. But, but most of the times wild bettas are kept in PAIRS because Momma and Papa Wild Betta won’t kill each other after sex like Splendens do. And we’re also ignoring seasonal behaviours, like fish who seek each other only when it’s time to mate, and then will separate. We can’t do that in our tanks, they’re not big enough.

Soriorities are a complicated subject. I get that they can work because they reportedly do, but I’ve also read accounts where everything was peaceful for some time and suddenly the females started to attach each other. But when I read people saying “But wild female bettas live together in the wild” it seems to me as a really invalid argument.

50-gallon Planted Riparium. Found on hydrophytesblog.com

Got Tequila a new light. The Pothos kept biting itself on the old one and it glared into the TV a lot.

Does his body condition look ok? Little booger begs for food non-stop…

okay I feel like an idiot for asking this, and I’ve seen pictures of this fish a lot on my dash. how can you tell that this is a female? Because to me, what I always look for is that slightly different shaped body, that bulgy egg region, and shorter fins. maybe her dumbo ears are blocking her egg region and I just can’t see it? idk man. pardon my idiocy

Hey, there. :) Aw, no, don’t feel like an idiot! Sexing bettas can be very tricky. <3

Honeymilk’s dumbo ears cover it but she does have an egg spot. While the rounder body is common for females, it’s not necessarily always really prominent either. I’ve noticed a lot of females that are much more round typically are more eggy and just better for breeding.

And large-finned variety females can have long fins (including ventrals) that rival males (and usually disqualify them from competitions because they consider that to be a fault). Halfmoon and delta females can have impressive finnage. Below are examples of other dumbos (both females and males) to show how they look (and how they can be trickier to sex than other types):

(Male on the left; female on right – this female looks a lot like Honeymilk)

(Male on left; female on right)

(Eggy female on left; male on right)

Got Tequila a new light. The Pothos kept biting itself on the old one and it glared into the TV a lot.

Does his body condition look ok? Little booger begs for food non-stop…