This is from a video taken on Nov. 9, 2018. The orange guy is Apricot and the yellow guy is Honey. The video shows them swimming in tandem in the betta rainbow.
In keeping my betta rainbow, I’ve found that bettas can be quite variable in their life spans, behaviors and temperaments. Through trial and error I’ve refined not only the tank setup but plants, filtration, lighting, and increased variability in their diet. I’ve also learned about their behavior, the importance of their social fabric and bonds with one another. I have learned how to prevent lengthy vacancies in the betta rainbow. It isn’t about maintaining a particular “look” or stocking in spite of the fish’s needs. And it isn’t about them being interchangeable, because they’re not. It’s about preventing a healthy fish from going into a depressed funk because he lost his best friend. I’ve seen this happen. A depressed fish will stop eating, hide or face the back of the tank and within a week or two he dies.
A Facebook post showing Flame and Waffles in the betta rainbow.
If a particular fish is elderly or in failing health, I will get a same color betta, quarantine him, and keep him in in a separate setup so he’s ready when his predecessor passes. I’ve ordered bettas on eBay, which can enable me to get a betta in a specific color (especially a rare color) more expediently than going from pet store to pet store. Aquabid.com is also another online source for buying fish, but I’ve found those fish tend to be pricier and typically imported from Asia, whereas on eBay they’re more reasonably priced and I can more easily find US based vendors.
Now, would I keep several bettas in an undivided community setup? No. The reason why is they can vary considerably in their temperament, agility and swimming speed. Older bettas are also more sedate than younger ones. The dividers ensure everyone has equal territory and equal access to food. It prevents anyone from bullying or being bullied. So even if a betta comes in with real alpha male tendencies, if he starts flaring and trying to chase his neighbors, they can safely ignore him. And they do. Before too long he realizes that his attempts at showing dominance gain him nothing, so the behavior stops. Behaviorism 101 is that behavior that’s rewarded is repeated. Behavior that’s not rewarded is eventually extinguished. This is precisely how we train any animals including other humans.
When I get a new betta I put him in a 1-2 gallon quarantine tank and I position it next to another tank. When I had the betta rainbow on my kitchen counter I placed the quarantine tank next to it. Now I have a 4 gallon single betta tank and a 10 gallon with Monterrey platies and guppies, so the quarantine tank goes there. They’re usually quarantined for 7-10 days and if they showed any dominance behaviors before those behaviors are usually gone before they join the betta rainbow. In fact the way most retail pet stores keep bettas also serves to extinguish alpha male behavior. They are kept in clear plastic same size cups in sight of one another. If they show alpha male behavior it gains them nothing in terms of food or territory. So the behavior is extinguished.
Contrary to the “Siamese fighting fish” mythology, bettas are not mindless killing machines. In southeast Asia they were bred and conditioned to fight. They were kept in complete isolation in clay jars and only saw another betta in a fight situation. They were treated in a comparable manner to fighting dogs and fighting roosters. Dog fighting and rooster fighting are outlawed in all 50 US states and are seen and treated as the atrocities that they are.
I am a therapist, and years ago a co-worker of mine said to me: “I hate it when parents cause a particular problem in a child and then blame the child for having the problem that they themselves caused.” Think of an obese child whose parents scorn him for his obesity but feed him nothing but lots of high calorie junk food. Or the parents who resent their child’s asthma and frequent respiratory infections when they both chain smoke in the house and around the child. Let’s not blame bettas for a problem that humans caused.
In the red section of the betta rainbow is Scarlet. He joined us Oct. 6, 2019.
In the orange section is Mandarin II. He joined us Sept. 1, 2019.
In the yellow section is Topaz, to the left. He joined us on Nov. 2, 2018. To the right is White Forest.
In the green section is White Forest. He joined us Sept. 1, 2019.
In the blue section is Royal II. He joined us Nov. 1, 2019.
And last but not least, in the purple section is Prince. He joined us Nov. 1, 2018. We have had him the longest.
The Accidental Aquarist 