Male Bettas

Betta Splendens is the scientific name of the Siamese fighting Fish, or Betta, which means Beautiful Warrior. Bettas are very easy to care for and make wonderful displays. There are two schools on keeping Bettas, those who want to give them nice big tanks to swim around in and stretch their fins and those who give them the space they actually need and keep them in BettaHex's. I subscribe to the latter school of thought. Bettas are from South East Asia and live their whole lives in rice patties. There have also been some reports of Bettas living in rain-filled Ox hoof prints. But the water these fish are native to is stagnant, dirty and often little more than very small puddles.

My Bettas seem to love flaring at each other since they are next to each other and they are doing much better than what I had them in before. I used to keep my lavender male in the Critter Keeper. It's a 1 gallon tank, you figure he'd love it in there. Well all he did was sit on the bottom. Since moving him to the BettaHex he has become much more active and he's eating more now. It really makes no difference what you keep Bettas in and it should be more of a personal preference. But don't let anyone tell you that they are miserable because they don't know for sure, no one does. You must make more water changes too, less water gets dirtier quicker.

I will also recommend getting Hexes instead of round containers, they are more expensive but the round containers distort the Bettas and never give you a clear view of them. Lee’s and Top Fin make them, they come with a plant, which I don’t bother using, some food and some water clarifier. They run about $4. There are also double Hexes that I am thinking about getting for my next pair of Bettas.

Some of you may know that you can only keep males by themselves, which really makes Hexes economical if you keep several male Bettas. But Females can be put together with little problem as long as you have at least 3 of them in a tank. In a 6 gallon tank you could have up to 9 females. Females can be almost as beautiful as the males and these tanks require low maintenance.