Can Plakat Bettas Live Together?
In my early stage of keeping Plakat bettas as a beginner, I committed a disaster in my aquarium tank by keeping Plakat bettas together. Being flattered by the beautiful color and shape of Plakat bettas, I forgot to calculate the consequence of keeping multiple Plakat bettas in a tank. After that, I’ve researched for a while in betta forums whether Plakat bettas live together.
Due to their highly territorial temperament and loner personality, Plakat bettas can not live together in a tank for cohabitation. Keeping multiple male Plakat bettas together can cause injury and fight to death. But, female Plakat bettas can cohabit together by making a sorority.
In this article, I’ve penned down about keeping a single male Plakat betta with multiple female Plakat betta, a sorority of female Plakat bettas, multiple male Plakat bettas, and ways of introducing different Plakat bettas in a tank. If you have a plan to keep Plakat bettas in a shared tank, you should delve into this article.
Since behavior and temperament is a vital considerations for keeping Plakat bettas together, let’s take a look at the personality of male and female Plakat bettas first.
Key Takeaways
- The experts highly recommend not to keep Plakat bettas together except for breeding purposes.
- The highly territorial temperament of Plakat bettas does not allow them to share a tank peacefully.
- Female Plakat bettas can cohabit together by establishing a sorority or 5-6 bettas.
Personality Of Male and Female Plakat Betta
Before wondering about the cohabitation of Plakat bettas, you must take the aggression and personality of Plakat betta fish into account. It’ll be surprising if you still haven’t heard of Plakat betta fish being the most aggressive betta species. But, the temperament of male and female Plakat bettas may differ a bit from each other.
A high-quality genome assembly and resequencing of 727 individuals representing diverse morphotypes of the Betta fish has been reported.
Male Plakat Betta Temperament
Male Plakat bettas can be considered the epitome of aggression in the betta kingdom. These male Plakat betta fish remain too aggressive and competitive, especially towards other male betta fish. Due to their solidarity nature, male Plakat bettas do not tolerate the presence of other betta fish in their domain.
The aggression of male Plakat bettas sparks more when they notice any similar-looking fish in their habitat. These male Plakat bettas love to rule their boundary solitarily. That’s why these bettas start bullying and pinching their tank mates when they share a similar tank. Sometimes, the fighting may lead to serious injuries and death.
Female Plakat Betta Temperament
Although female Plakat bettas show a bit less aggression than male Plakat bettas, these female bettas aren’t suitable to keep in a community tank. But, you can keep female Plakat bettas ahead of male Plakat bettas. After all, female Plakat bettas can cohabit in a tank by making a sorority.
Can Plakat Bettas Cohabit Together In A Tank?
When it comes to the discussion of cohabiting Plakat bettas, it’s a big no. You should not let Plakat bettas cohabit together in a tank.
In the case of male Plakat bettas, you should not allow same-sex pairings in a tank.
Their territorial nature increases the risk of potential disasters. The same thing goes for keeping male and female Plakat betta fish together.
But, you can consider keeping a group of female Plakat betta fish in a tank. Female Plakat bettas tend to cohabit together by making a sorority of 5-6 bettas. However, these female Plakat bettas can get feisty towards each other.
Can Male And Female Plakat Bettas Live Together?
Because of being notorious, you can not keep male and female Plakat bettas together. If you keep male and female Plakat bettas together outside of breeding purposes, there will be higher risks of losing the lives of weak Plakat betta fish. You can only keep male and female Plakat bettas together for breeding purposes under special guidelines.
Native to Southeast Asia, betta fish have been selectively bred for their fighting ability for hundreds of years, which has resulted in the species’ characteristic aggressive behavior.
Single Male Plakat Betta With Single Female Plakat Bettas
Pairing a male Plakate betta and a female Plakat betta may not work always. The male Plakat betta has the likelihood of starting a fight with the female Plakat betta. Sometimes, a singular male Plakat betta can tolerate a singular female Plakat betta for a few hours of their mating session.
After the spawning session, the male Plakat betta may drive away the female Plakat betta. You can see the male Plakat betta taking full responsibility for their bubble nest. When a male Plakat betta can not drive away the female betta in the tank, he might kill the female betta. For this reason, you must separate the bettas after their mating session.
Single Male Plakat Betta With Many Female Plakat Bettas
If keeping a pair of male and female Plakat betta doesn’t work, you can try to keep a singular male betta with a sorority of female Plakat betta.
The single betta may feel superior around the group of female Plakat bettas. If you plan to keep a male Plakat betta with a sorority of female Plakat bettas, you should take some time to establish the sorority of bettas.
After establishing a sorority, you can introduce the male Plakat betta into the tank. But, I can’t give you the guarantee of no fighting in such a cohabited tank.
You might see the Plakat bettas engaging in fighting one day while the male Plakat betta may remain cooperative with the sorority. To keep a single male Plakat betta with a sorority, you must keep the aquarium full of plants and hideout options.
One Male Plakat Betta And 3 Female Plakat Betta
Technically, it is possible to keep one male Plakat betta with 3 female Plakat bettas. In some magical exceptions, one male Plakat betta can cohabit well with a 3-female Plakat betta. There is still some likelihood of showing aggression among the male and female Plakat bettas. However, the experts strictly forbid mixing male and female Plakat bettas without breeding purposes.
Despite their reputation for aggression, not all Siamese fighters are aggressive. They are hardy, full of character, and can be quite interactive.
Can Two Plakat Bettas Live Together?
You should not gamble the lives of two Plakat bettas by keeping them together in a tank. Since Plakat bettas are known as the most aggressive betta species, keeping two Plakat bettas can be risky. These two Plakat bettas can consider each other competitors. As a result, it may lead to killing each other through aggressive fighting.
Can Female Plakat Bettas Live Together?
The aggression of female betta can be considered a bit less than their male counterparts.
You might have heard about betta harems or sororities, which can be combined with 5-6 female Plakat bettas.
If food, hideouts, and space are abundant, multiple female Plakat bettas can live together. You must ensure not to overcrowd the tank with lots of female Plakat bettas.
How To Keep Plakat Bettas Together In A Tank?
You might have already understood that it’s almost impossible to keep Plakat bettas together. By applying some techniques, you can try to cohabit Plakat bettas in a tank.
But, you shouldn’t dare to keep multiple Plakat bettas together unless you’re an expert. I’ve jotted down a few things below that you need to keep in your consideration.
1. Choose A Large Tank
You might know that overcrowding can cause stress to your Plakat bettas. When you decide to keep more than one Plakat betta in a tank, you should choose a larger tank. It’ll reduce the chance of encountering each other of Plakat bettas.
Also, the female Plakat betta may hide from male Plakat betta in hostile situations. These Siamese fighting fish require a huge space to roam around in captivity. Otherwise, overcrowding in a small tank can put stress on Plakat bettas which increases the aggression of these fish.
2. Add A Tank Divider
Another trick to keep multiple numbers of super-territorial fighting fish within a tank is to add a tank divider in the tank. To divide the tank, you need to choose a wider tank first. Then, you can split the tank area into 2 or more divisions with tank dividers.
When you keep multiple Plakat bettas in separate parts of a divided tank, there will be fewer face-to-face encounters among the bettas. As a result, there will be fewer disputes of these territorial bettas in the shared tank. A small reminder is to keep the larger part of the tank for female Plakat bettas.
According to the experienced owners, female Plakat betta fish love to have wider swimming space than male Plakat betta fish. While choosing a tank barrier, you should consider safe materials and aquarium-friendly design.
3. Keep Lots Of Plants And Hideouts
You must’ve understood the basic trick to keep multiple Plakat bettas together. That is to reduce the lines of sight among Plakat bettas in the tank. To apply this strategy, you can make the tank heavily planted.
Along with plants, you should add lots of hideouts and décor items that help Plakat bettas hide in the tank. You can include driftwood, caves, fake plants, and other hideouts. These will create safe corners for your Plakat bettas.
4. Maintain Good Water Quality
To keep this work, you need to remove all stress factors from the tank. One of the greatest stress factors for Plakat bettas is poor water quality. If you put multiple Plakat bettas in a tank, you should maintain good water quality.
Also, Plakat bettas may feel stressed when the water temperature doesn’t remain ideal. Hence, you must not forget to add a heater to the shared tank. In addition, a good filtration system will keep an optimal range of ammonia, nitrate, and other components.
When the water parameters remain ideal, the aggression of Plakat bettas may stay within limits. To ensure the highest quality, you can vacuum the tank floor every 1-2 weeks.
5. Provide An Abundance Of Food
The root cause behind the aggression of Plakat bettas lies within the concept of food competition. When another fish comes into the territory of a Plakat betta, the betta may consider it a competitor. To ensure the meal, the Plakat betta shows aggression towards other tank mates.
Hence, you must provide plenty of food for all Plakat bettas of the combined tank. If you do not fulfill the hunger of your Plakat bettas, they may be involved in fighting to death.
Before You Go…
I hope this article gave you a detailed overview of whether it is possible to keep Plakat bettas together. You might have understood that the key reason for forbidding the cohabitation of Plakat bettas is their aggression. If you are keen to know more about their temperament, you should take a look at the following article.
About Author
Hello, I’m Muntaseer Rahman, the owner of AcuarioPets.com. I’m passionate about aquarium pets like shrimps, snails, crabs, and crayfish. I’ve created this website to share my expertise and help you provide better care for these amazing pets.
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