# A Male And Female In The Same Tank



## Amour (Jun 26, 2010)

I bought a beautiful halfmoon male yesterday, and put him in my ten gallon with my female. Divider is between them of course.

Maggie, my female, has always been a very dominate girl. She doesn't take anything from anybody and I've had to take out tank mates because she picks on them. As well as other males.

But when I put my halfmoon in with her something strange happened. She turned really pale and seemed submissive of the male. She's always been curious so she'd go near the divider, and instead of flaring like she usually does, she'd just look at him. He'd flare at her instead.

He's also started religiously building a bubble nest around his whole side of the tank. It's huge!

I did some reading and found out that likely the problem is is that my female has eggs. (I also noticed the little white spot under her belly.) And that both of my bettas want to spawn.

Question is, is it okay that they're in the same tank?

I don't plan on breeding them. I don't have the room for 100 baby bettas nor do I have enough knowledge on that sort of thing to feel comfortable breeding them.

But is it bad that they're in the same tank? How long will it be before my female will stop having eggs or whatever?


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

Females always have eggs, its not because a male is present that they show up. With the male there she may be preparing to release the eggs.

I would actually remove her. I've heard that having a female next to a male is bad for the female because males release hormones (maybe pheromones) into the water to suggest its time to breed. So the female will constantly be egging up and releasing eggs without a break. It would probably stress her out and lower her immune system.


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## Amour (Jun 26, 2010)

Okay I moved her to my five gallon and my male in that one to my ten gallon with my halfmoon.

I have a question though. Is she still going to lay her eggs? She's still pale. Do you know how long it will take her to go back to normal color?


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

Females will have un-ripe eggs all her adult life, her eggs ripen in the present of the male. 
She will either absorb them or drop and eat them on a regular basis, usually this will not cause any problems, rarely do they get egg bound.


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