siamese fight fish husbandry

CyberJuice

looking for some info on these fish,gonna start keeping 1 male next year and might try breeding them after a year or 2 if i do a good job at keeping the male alive and thriving..

I would be very bored with just 1 fish in a tank so i would rather have 7 or 8 fish,i understand people can successfully keep them with tetras and some kind of algae eating fish or 1 or 2 type of shrimp or crab but thats the extent of my knowledge,i would consider a 30- 50 liter tank if i can put a few fish into it but im not sure if that would be big enough.

anyone keeping siam fighters with other fish and can tell me what fish house well with them and a size of tank i might need id really appreciate it,ive sene many youtube videos but theres so much contradiction on the comments thats it hard to believe anyone on youtube

LawlessBoy

I have a fighter in one of my tanks.. its a 100l but from my experience they attack the shrimp i lost 4 to him before i noticed it and moved them into their own nano tank which was cycling.

CyberJuice

what other fish is in your 100 liter with ur fighter?is ur fighter a male of female

diverdad

I found the fighters themselves to be fairly placid and non-aggressive towards other species of fish. The problem is that their fins are so attractive to fin nippers.

I bred them successfully myself. I had a small breeding tank just for that purpose.
When I chose to breed them I conditioned the pair leading up to the event and transported them into tank as a pair on their own.

********Lots of hiding places for the female.********

I adjusted to ph and heating levels slowly to bring the pair 'on' and it worked. Male built the bubble nest and enticed the female in. The actual breeding is very rough sex

As soon as they are done, it takes a while as the eggs are squeezed from the female a few/singulary at a time, you must remove the female. If you have to; keep her isolated back in the main tank (I used a live breeder trap), until she recovers. Keeping her in the tank with the mail will result in him attacking her to the point of killing her.

********Lots of hiding places for the female.********

Take the usual precautions while transporting the female. use a plastic bag, float in main tank, mix the water slowly again and release into the trap.

There is a chance that she could become stressed during the move so make as smooth as possible but the chances are that she will already be too knackered to fight it.

Feeding and survival are your main concerns when the eggs hatch. The male guards the eggs but not the fry. Have plenty of dense plants (moss type floaters) for the fry to duck away into. When all are hatched, remove the male fighter.

Survival rate isn't high as they are difficult to feed.

I used an undergravel filter in the breeding tank (18" x 18" x 9" aprox). Less chance of babies going into a filter system.

Good Luck

CyberJuice

thanks for the reply

what kind of fish did you have in your main tank,was it only 2 fighters or did you have other types of fish

kylith

Bettas can be a bit hit-and-miss when it comes to personalities; some won't be bothered about other fish, some can be agressive. Some people have told me that their betta lived happily with other fish for years, then one day got agressive.

Mine is much more of a lover than a fighter. He wasn't bothered about tetras in his tank, but I eventually had to get him his own tank because the tetras were making bits of his tail.

Good look with keeping them, I'd love to see photos.

diverdad

CyberJuice wrote: »

thanks for the reply

what kind of fish did you have in your main tank,was it only 2 fighters or did you have other types of fish

Can't remember correctly what I was keeping in the tanks at the time;
Swordtails
Tetras - Glowlight
Zebras
Gouramis - Three spot
Kuli Loach
Corydoras
Sucker Loach
Cherry barbs


I moved the Bettas away from a tank containing;
Angels
Tigerbarbs
Kribenis
Others

The Gouramis are from the same family and build the same type bubble nest. They are more robust and can look after themselves a bit better. I loved watching them float about and touching with their modified fins. I always found them to be good community tank fish. I liked my gouramis.

Bebo stunnah

I bought my little sister a purple Fighting fish a few months ago, as I myself have only coldwater fish. She started off with a bunch of tetras in the tank, I found them quite boring on their own, so I bought her it, along with a Pakistani (Yoyo) Loach.
After the following weeks, i noticed there was 6 tetras left (originally there was 10) so i asked them what had happened, she reckoned that the tetras had gotten bloated, then died, and then witnessed the loach and betta eating it!

I bought her another yoyo and a few guppies since then, the yoys are great together.. one of the guppies was a beutiful black bodied one, with long orange finnage, but one day i came in to find him with his fins shredded he was dead the next day, my only guess is that the fighting fish got at it as they seem to be aggressive against other fine finned fish!

As regards the breeding, the guy in the place I got the fish recommended on keeping around 3 females to a male, as it could tire out the females otherwise