Betta Behavior Explained
Posted: Friday, August 07, 2009
by Lucy Rudnicka
http://www.financialsforyou.com/financial-templates.php
Betta behavior always amazes me and is quite extraordinary to witness. Bettas are often aggressive towards each other, earning for themselves the designation betta splendens or splendid warrior. But what's interesting, bettas are only aggressive towards other bettas but not towards other fish. Therefore, they are pretty good candidates for community tanks. Even though they regularly display aggression, bettas are very gentle and are commonly attacked by other aggressive fish like tiger barbs. Aggressive betta behavior plays a part in the betta's mating rituals.
Whenever one male betta encounters another, they start to engage in the typical betta behavior. They extend their fins and open up their gills, attempting to appear as large as they possible and pretending to pose a threat. They want to be perceived as strong and ready to do battle. This betta behavior is called displaying or flaring. If one of the Bettas is much larger, then you can expect the smaller one to give up and back off. But when their size is about the same, they will go at each other. They can fight until they inflict injury or even kill their opponent, so two male bettas should never be put together with the exception of very large tanks where there is enough room for them to feel comfortable.
At one point people discovered that bettas can't actually tell the difference between an real betta and a reflection. It can be quite entertaining to watch a betta fight by putting a mirror in front of him. It's safe, because he can't hurt himself, but you shouldn't do it for too long, or he will get too stressed. Some amount of excitement is good for him, though. Even when you place two bettas in separate jars next to each other, they will start flaring, because they see each other. Apparently it's the sight that is the trigger. Eventually they get bored and stop. If you replaced one of the bettas with another, the behavior would start all over again, because a new pecking order would have to get established.
When kept in a community tank, bettas will also establish a pecking order. When you put them together in an aquarium, they start their aggressive behavior toward each other. After some time the dominant fish will emerge and will boss everyone else. As long as the dominant fish remains in the tank, all the other fights are minor. But when he is removed, a new pecking order has to be established and so the fighting begins seriously anew. Even baby bettas exhibit aggressive behavior as soon as they grow some fin. Then they start flaring and biting each other's fins. Betta breeders have to put male bettas in separate jars until only female baby bettas are left in the breeding tank.
Copyright 2009 by betta-fish-care.net
This Article has been viewed 1,007 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Thanks for a good explanation of betta behavior, Mischa. Welcome to SearchWarp.
Yeah I would have to agree with Lorrie. But I like what you said about Betta's can't distinguish a Betta or their reflection.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.