# Two Bettas in one tank



## Saftie (Feb 24, 2017)

Hi,
I am new to forum and betta fish.originally, we bought two betta fish for the kids as a first "pet" to get them used to caring for a living creature. Didn't work out and I am now in charge. I like them a lot but know not much about what kind of fish I have. 

Anyway, we have 4 fish in total and I just upgraded them to two 10 gallon tanks with a divider in between. So basically two fish in each tank.

Recently, one of the bettas made it a habit to get into the others part of the tank. Not sure how, maybe jump. But that divider is at least half an inch above the water. No other way to get through.
Anyway, the two fish seem to get along, one of them always hides or swims away when the other is around. No aggressive behavior. I separate them again of course, but wanted to know if there are actual cases where two fish befriend?

My fish:









The kid's fish. The red one always gets into the others tank.


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## DangerousAngel (Mar 26, 2015)

I've read of a few rare successful cases of two males living together, but it is NEVER suggested, the one that is hiding, is hiding because he's probably stressed, and even if they were to live without a divider, eventually a fight would break out, and that wouldn't be good, if you need to, lower the water lever a little more, you can also add more plants (I highly recommend), or if those don't help put the jumper into his own 5 gal if you can. Divided life isn't for all Bettas. Welcome to the froum, and to Betta keeping!


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

No. Can we have a picture of the actual divider? Don't want the kids waking up to a dead fish (or two). Even if they don't mind each other short-term, they will eventually fight.

(Nice fish, BTW. )


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## Saftie (Feb 24, 2017)

Pic of divider


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## Saftie (Feb 24, 2017)

Here fish number 4 









Had to put him back in small tank for now, he didn't seem happy in big tank. Possibly bc of water, which is a bit milky.

Yesterday, I realized that the filter didn't filter because it overflew and bypassed the actual filter pad. Fixed now. Let's see how the water cleans up


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## KodaPlusMore (Jul 14, 2016)

I feel like the divider is too short. One of my bettas was absolutley fine with a short divider until I gave him more space (divided the tank by two instead of by three) then he started jumping it. What I have done is put a peice of mesh on the divider to act as a second lid, making like a T shape.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

You can use a piece of 3"-4" craft mesh or stainless steel mesh and run it along the top edge to for a "T." You can also make the "T" wider. KodaPlusMore is correct, the divider is too short; it should go to just under the small lip on the black rim. Or, you need to lower the water another inch or so.


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## bluebutterfly123 (Feb 23, 2017)

I have used that exact divider and our fish are almost identical.. Lol.. My Blue one is a bit different https://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/58b20fac32945/20170222_212109.mp4
I found the mesh part warps very easily.. So I replaced it with those cafting meshes. Fits right in (in case u also want to replace it in the future).. I never had my fish jump.. But they seemed friendly so I thought I'd try removing the divider... The blue one would "hunt" down the red one every where he hid.. And kept at it... So I put the divider right back up.. Rouge(red guy) is happy again







that's the new mesh I replaced it with.. Also I raised it to the top of the cover.. So no chance of jumping 

Sent from my SM-N920W8 using Tapatalk


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## CollegeBettas (Feb 23, 2016)

The divider looks good to me (it looks like it is just under the lip), but a T is always a good idea to use. What I did with my 10 gallon 4-way divided tank was to make the dividers go all the way to the lid and silicone them onto the sides so they couldn't move. It worked for me for the month my boys were in there. The only successful tank I saw with two males was over 200 gallons and was very heavily planted. But, as mentioned before, divided life isn't for every betta.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

If the divider goes up to the lip where a canopy would rest the Betta can't jump over once the lid or canopy is in place. Removes the need to keep the water so low and take away gallons. As CollegeBettas noted it adds to the success of a divided tank.

Another tip: Instead of gluing, you can use these suction cups to anchor the divider below the substrate:


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