Betta Fish General Care and Territorial Behavior
Brightly colored long veil-tail betta fish
About Betta Splendens
Betta splendens or better known as Siamese fighting fish is famed for their aggressive trait and is a symbol, rev among the Thai fishkeepers’ community. In Asia, they are reared for the sole purpose of entertainment which often turns into a betting match. Usually huge bets were placed and a pair of the fish will pit against each other in a fight to determine the outcome which leads to one winning and the other, death. Although the practice has long since been banned by the Thai government as it is against humanitarian values and social concerns, somehow the fighting fish match still widely goes on. This special quality is what set the Betta apart and unique compared with the other labyrinth fish family.
The Fight and Display of Dominance
Betta splendens by nature itself does not necessarily means that they will fight and display the same aggressive behavior. In the wild, if two male fish encounters each other, they will try to establish territorial dominance, challenging each other and depending on the prevalent mood, most of the time one party will leave and thus prevent the encounter from developing into a conflict. Fights do happen sometimes but in most instances, it is actually very rare. In many cases, both fish will try to bite each other and it will result in one party fleeing after few second later. In confined environment where these fighting fish were kept in small jam jars, such condition actually stirs up the aggressive mood and sends a signal of provocation. With tight living space creating such harsh condition, it is actually meant to target on psychological aspect to stir the negative emotional stress and induce them to fight. If you put two jars each containing Betta splendens in its individual enclosure, you will observe that they will start to fan their tails, spread their fins, gills and then performing a war dance that indicate display of dominance. Putting two male betta fish together in a larger tank and let them fight clearly ignores and defies the law of nature as the loser often does not have an outlet to flee or escape the conflict and thus the only way things are going to end is that the loser will get bitten until death. While this is the most likely scenario, usually the losing party will often die of exhaustion rather than from the wounds and injuries sustained.
Care and Maintenance
Bettas can actually make perfect friendly pets because of their undemanding traits. Most betta are reared in small nano or biocube fish tanks and as long as the environment is maintained clean all the time with lots of nutritious foods supplied at evenly spaced interval, they will adapt and take care of themselves pretty well. They rarely die or fall sick and if it does happen, it is mostly related to bloated stomach disease caused by bacterial infection affecting the swim bladder, a terminal condition called swim bladder disorder. However, do not get worried or discouraged because most of the time, the fish will breed to produce next generation and chances for you to lose your pet betta before this happen is very much unlikely. In fact, I have met a few successful fellow hobbyists maintaining an array of different hybrids of betta fish in a specially allocated room or even underground basement. The whole setup is designed to cater for his fanatic hobby with the objective to cross breed and develop a champion fighting fish. These days, selective breeding carried out has managed to create the veiled type characterized by it long trailing fins coupled with attractive bright coloration. Betta fighting fish can be found with mixed blue, black or purple, mostly combination of these colors or they can either exist alongside with either red or green. There is also the albino type with the red eyes but this type is quite expensive as they are considered unique and rare. If you are into the labyrinth fish collection as family pets, my advice is that you should start with the Siamese fighting fish.
Other labyrinth family that you should consider as pets: Climbing Perch and Kissing Gourami
Betta splendens or better known as Siamese fighting fish is famed for their aggressive trait and is a symbol, rev among the Thai fishkeepers’ community. In Asia, they are reared for the sole purpose of entertainment which often turns into a betting match. Usually huge bets were placed and a pair of the fish will pit against each other in a fight to determine the outcome which leads to one winning and the other, death. Although the practice has long since been banned by the Thai government as it is against humanitarian values and social concerns, somehow the fighting fish match still widely goes on. This special quality is what set the Betta apart and unique compared with the other labyrinth fish family.
The Fight and Display of Dominance
Betta splendens by nature itself does not necessarily means that they will fight and display the same aggressive behavior. In the wild, if two male fish encounters each other, they will try to establish territorial dominance, challenging each other and depending on the prevalent mood, most of the time one party will leave and thus prevent the encounter from developing into a conflict. Fights do happen sometimes but in most instances, it is actually very rare. In many cases, both fish will try to bite each other and it will result in one party fleeing after few second later. In confined environment where these fighting fish were kept in small jam jars, such condition actually stirs up the aggressive mood and sends a signal of provocation. With tight living space creating such harsh condition, it is actually meant to target on psychological aspect to stir the negative emotional stress and induce them to fight. If you put two jars each containing Betta splendens in its individual enclosure, you will observe that they will start to fan their tails, spread their fins, gills and then performing a war dance that indicate display of dominance. Putting two male betta fish together in a larger tank and let them fight clearly ignores and defies the law of nature as the loser often does not have an outlet to flee or escape the conflict and thus the only way things are going to end is that the loser will get bitten until death. While this is the most likely scenario, usually the losing party will often die of exhaustion rather than from the wounds and injuries sustained.
Care and Maintenance
Bettas can actually make perfect friendly pets because of their undemanding traits. Most betta are reared in small nano or biocube fish tanks and as long as the environment is maintained clean all the time with lots of nutritious foods supplied at evenly spaced interval, they will adapt and take care of themselves pretty well. They rarely die or fall sick and if it does happen, it is mostly related to bloated stomach disease caused by bacterial infection affecting the swim bladder, a terminal condition called swim bladder disorder. However, do not get worried or discouraged because most of the time, the fish will breed to produce next generation and chances for you to lose your pet betta before this happen is very much unlikely. In fact, I have met a few successful fellow hobbyists maintaining an array of different hybrids of betta fish in a specially allocated room or even underground basement. The whole setup is designed to cater for his fanatic hobby with the objective to cross breed and develop a champion fighting fish. These days, selective breeding carried out has managed to create the veiled type characterized by it long trailing fins coupled with attractive bright coloration. Betta fighting fish can be found with mixed blue, black or purple, mostly combination of these colors or they can either exist alongside with either red or green. There is also the albino type with the red eyes but this type is quite expensive as they are considered unique and rare. If you are into the labyrinth fish collection as family pets, my advice is that you should start with the Siamese fighting fish.
Other labyrinth family that you should consider as pets: Climbing Perch and Kissing Gourami