Betta Testing

Last weekend, we decided to put an urban myth to the test. For years now, even seasoned fish collectors have warned us against the dangers posed by betta splendens, the legendary Siamese Fighting Fish.

Heeding these warnings and not wanting to have our other fish torn to shreds, we have kept our daughter’s betta isolated in one of those little plastic boxes they sell for bettas at Petsmart.  He lead a solitary existence that grew increasingly more isolated as our cat, Riley, grew more and more interested in his long, flowing fins (they taunted him so). It got to the point that his little plastic box was shoved on the top shelf of our armoire where neither the stupid cat nor sunlight could get to him.

Then we picked up The Aquarium Fish Handbook by Mills & Lambert at Big Al’s in Scarborough to do some research on a new aquarium project (the 100 gallon tank at our daughter’s school - more to come on this in future posts). Anyway, on page 111 (good old eleventy-one) I learned that everything I knew about bettas was essentially wrong. Here’s a brief rundown of what I learned:

1. Betta males only fight other betta males or fish that are the same size/shape/colour.
2. Bettas prefer warm water.  They should be in a heated tank, not a cold bowl like a goldfish. They’re originally from Thailand after all.
3. They do just fine in many community environments.

So we took the plunge, as it were, and dropped our betta into our community tank, and after almost a week there hasn’t been a single incident. Sometimes he doesn’t look too happy about the 3 red-tail sharks we have, but if it ever came to blows there’s no way he could ever out-swim them (they’re wicked fast).

Here are some other links to review if you’d like more information about integrating bettas into community tanks:

• Bettas in the Community Tank
• Aqua Hobby - Betta (Siamese Fighting Fish)
• Building a Betta Friendly Community Tank