[kai]

Hello im returning to the fun and peacefulness world of aquarium's after sadly losing my 300lt gouramis community to a malfunction in 2009 with the heater while i was away the tank was planted with most comment plants to aquariums had a large bog-wood and a beautiful flowering Lilly .. the fish where mixed dwarf gouramis and 4 pink kissing gouramis of about 7-8 yrs there was also some smaller shoaling fish and a large common plec ...
SO this time round im goin to have a go at the much mis understood beta
(tho id love to combine both gouramis and beta in a 600lt tank if any 1 has ideas on how to achieve harmony) ..
currently i have a small hexagon tank 27lt's planted with 6females and 1 male beta but im hoping sometime after xmas to start work on a much larger tank taking time to plant it up and establish it b4 moving the current beta's over and adding more .
Ideally ide love to make the habitat with a rice paddy field in the first quarter of the tank and fill the back with more substantial and covering plants ive read some bits about growing organic brown rice in aquariums but most of this is done in shallow tanks say 1 ft in height and uncover'd which is not best for beta's so i may have to use aquatic rice crass .

anyway i hope to learn more about beta's and making there ideal habitat's and share info and pic's as i go .

[Olympia]

Welcome to TFK!

Are these Betta splendens?
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[kai]

Hi and Thank's mine are the common Betta splendens u get from pets @ home the females are a purple/blue and redtiped fins the male is 90% blue but sometimes flashes red's in the tips of his tail and fin's ill add better pic's when i sort the lighting out currently its a little dim till my new arc pod arrives

[Tikibirds]

you have 6 females with one male in the same tank??

[Olympia]

It's really not the best idea. The females are fine, but the male should be removed. It will end badly, most likely the male will be killed in that group. The tank itself is a little small for the females, you should have at least 40 liters for them as well.
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[ashley9333]

welcome ;)

[kai]

im looking at a 48lt in the nxt few weeks and using the hexagon as the secondary tank and yes there is 6 female's to 1 male iv read online and talked to my lfs and both say its fine aslong as there is plent of plant cover for them , ive watched them closely over the last week and all seem's fine he's found his little spot under the Java Moss he come's out to swim round take air and do some showing of and the female's have clearly defined there area's only of a night dose the odd out break betwen female's happen other wise the plant to free water ratio looks ok and there all showing signs of happyness always in full colour and no stresss lines (bar 1 wich had nip'd tail when bought but its improving daily )

[eaturbyfill]

It really is best for the male to be removed. Bettas are called "fighting fish" for a reason. (: They are best kept apart unless doing a sorority tank, and even that is very risky.

[kai]

ill keep a close eye on them which is prity much all the time im not a big tv fan so there my viewing 90% of the time and up to now hes just floating round in the open space at the surface 3-4inch deep above the plants and in the front quarter of the tank displaying then retreats under the moss, iv seen very little chacing around the tank and when it dose it's promptly stopped by the time the female's make it to the heavily planted areas but there far from reclusive and tend to be back out in 2-3mins, also i noticed today 3 female's appear to have egg spots and are larger in the belly they also show him more attention and have first choice over the blood worm when its added to the tank ( i have a Guppy breading bath at hand for if things get bad )

[Laki]

I think females will get their egg spots in the presence of a male but that's not always a good sign. Especially if you're not breeding them. I would remove the male, put him in a nice planted 2g :)
The rice paddy idea sounds good but you'll require a much larger tank. Good luck!