Siamese Fighters

[blondiefella]

Hi was wondering what the general rule was to do with siamese fighters, regarding what you can have in a tank. have looked it up on net and asked pet stores but am getting slightly different answers. What I wanted to know was how many females can I put with a Male. also i happened to read on a forum that if you have over a 20 gallon tank you may be able to get away with having two males in a tank with some females. (of course that would depend on the character of each fish)

The 20 gallon rule was based on space for each male to have its own territory as what they would do in the wild, Gues it would depend on surface water size too due to the bubble nest breeding habits etc.

Any imput or comments would be great thanks

[alanmin4304]

They are called siamese fighting fish for a reason. There is a chance that you might get away with it but I would not risk it. There is a chance that a pirahna wouild not eat your finger as well. I think males are better on their own as they can get agro with females as well.

[ally07]

They are called siamese fighting fish for a reason. There is a chance that you might get away with it but I would not risk it. There is a chance that a pirahna wouild not eat your finger as well. I think males are better on their own as they can get agro with females as well.

+1 If you did want to attempt having one male and multiple females (I would put in no less than 5, to spread the aggression), then you'd need to have lots of hiding spaces. Don't even consider two males, death is imminent. Just remember that before anybody breeds fighting fish, they need to pump the females for a couple of weeks with good food and then let them recover for a couple of weeks after simply because it is a stressful encounter for them. Having a male constantly in the tank would only serve to stress your females out and shorten their lifespans.

[blondiefella]

cool thanks heaps thats cleared it up.

[Joshlikesfish]

Don't even consider two males, death is imminent.

I've kept multiple males in a 4ftr before. They didn't bother each other.

[burrowssj]

get a batch of babies is your best bet,much less likely to fight and you get to watch them grow :smln:

[Trilobite]

All fighters are naturally solitary and highly territorial, even females.

Males and females together is not a good idea. so many risks.

1.If a male sets up a territory he will defend it aggressively, if females that arent readdy to breed enter his territory he will act as aggressively to the female as he would to a male.

2.If a ripe female enters and they breed his aggression will be even higher because he will be caring for eggs.

3.you also run the risk of your females becoming egg bound because they are continuously in the presence of a male, females can die from this.

You can keep an all female tank, however this also needs to be carefully managed.

If the females are unrelated they will need to sort out a pecking order which means a fight is inevitable. If the females have been prevented from seeing other fighters, their territorial behaviour is increased and the fighting will be much worse to the point of potential deaths.

Sometimes a dominant female will kill the submissive females.

Sometimes there will be 2 dominant females who dont want to submit, these will fight in a simlar way to males (mine locked jaws with each other)

Your tank will need to be big enough and have enough spaces for the submissive females to hide.

getting related females would be safest, as they have grown up together and already sorted out the heireachy

Oh and do not put two males together, it has been done but one male was most likely to be submissive and too afraid to threaten the dominant male. He would most likely have been very stressed being in the territory of a stronger male.

If however you have a huge, heavily planted tank with enough room for each male to happily set out their territory you may get away with it.

:smln: :sage: :smln:

[Ismart120]

I've had two males in a planted three footer (one of them was young and look like a female ok?) and were actually quite good together but I dont recommend it, I've found it much easier on all the fish in the tank if there is as little aggression as possible and I think it only worked because the tank was so big in comparison to the fish; I had a slightly smaller 29 gallon and there was aggression all over the show with one male and three females. Even just females are right pains to deal with in many respects.

I'd stick to just one male if possible, with a smaller tank just for a female? See, an excuse to get more tanks :slfg:

[Vervo]

I have found males with females can be bad, some females might nip the male or vise versa.

Even some females get agro at other females, but its not common. We've had tanks with lots of females together.

Female fighters have a great personality, awesome fish.

Males to, but i find them to difficult to keep.