Do Betta Fish Fight

Betta fish are known to be real fighters but does this mean that they actually fight each other? If so, what are the conditions under which they fight and what are their reasons for doing so? Are there any fights to the death? In this article I am going to answer these questions.

Firstly, it is indeed true that Betta fish fight each other and this occurs both in the wild and in captivity. They are highly aggressive and territorial which explains why they seek to defend their area of control, usually a few square feet in size.

Once challenged, they will seek to defend their territory and will often fight until one of them concedes and back away. Their fighting consists of fin-nipping and can often result in infection and death for either or both of the fish. In captivity Betta fighting is considered a sport. This mostly occurs in the native country Thailand where large amounts of money are placed on the outcome of a fight. This is considered a cruel sport by many foreign onlookers, even if they are not forced to fight to the death.

You can buy Bettas in Thailand from stored that almost resemble traditional sweet shops with Betta fish in jars filling every shelf. It seems they are less interested in keeping them as pets as we are. Very few pet shops are likely to sell a Betta fish to you if they think you are going to be using it for this purpose,tropical fish, many stores are unwilling to sell more than one male Betta to any customer at one time.

It is important not to keep more than one male Betta fish in the same aquarium tank in order to avoid this phenomenon. If kept together, male Betta fish will become very aggressive to each other and eventually one of them will most probably wind up dead. In order to avoid this it is essential to understand the compatibility of this tropical fish species with other aquarium fish before finding out the hard way. Betta fish have a significant propensity to attacking large and colourful fins which means keeping them in the same aquarium as guppies or angelfish for example a very bad idea.

In conclusion, it is true that Betta fish fight and for this reason are to be kept apart if ever you decide to keep more than one in the same aquarium tank.