Can I keep a male and female betta together?
Yes and no. In a small (under 10 gallon) tank it is not advised to have 1 male and 1 female betta. They will generally fight, perhaps not to the death, however it isn’t pretty. I have one visitor that, after an initial show of Who’s the Boss, her male and female co-exist happily in a 2.5 gallon tank. However her male has the fin damage to show who is the boss!! She is very fortunate that both have survived! Generally, if you want to keep a male with a female, it is more advisable to house 1 male with several females in a 10+ gallon tank with plenty of vegetation. This allows for a pecking order to be established between the females, plenty of hiding places and the male will have plenty of gals to keep his attention spread out.
