A Mahachai question...

[JessicaCB650]

Concerning the breeding of my Mahachai... I have 20 of them (geez! soooo many of them!) in my 55, should I separate them into pairs into smaller tanks (I have a couple of spare 10s and 20s)?

Erma? I'm guessing you'll have the best answer for this... :)

[onehomegrownsoul]

I like the mahachai. Very interested in hearing what you decide to do with em. The reading I've done on em suggests they breed well in groups. So maybe trios or quartets? Some breeders have said they leave 10 or more in a 20 gallon long until they pair off and then they remove the rest. This seems like it would be fine unless you want a more selective breeding program.

[DownSouthBettas]

Unless you can see figh.ting I would leave them in together but give lots of floating leaves, and plants to make nests under. Lots of plants and hiding places and low light levels..... medium to slow filtration. If you see very intense fight.ing then I woulds start separating out your males but yes they can live together and breed together.......

With 20 I would sell off a couple of pairs and keep your known, proven pairs comfortable in the 55.

[JessicaCB650]

I was thinking about separating out the smaller ones, alot of them still have horizontal bars or at least they do when I'm in the fish room. Some of the bigger ones seem to be coloring up. I'll have to check my records and figure out the age on them, I think they are still fairly young (under 6 months for most??). I've seen no fighting as of yet, some of the smaller ones have nipped fins but nothing I'm too worried about. I'd say I'm more worried about my 20g female tank, those PK females are ruthless with each other (this weekend, everyone's getting jar up and taking down that tank for a super good cleaning and then...?)

[DownSouthBettas]

if you feel like the smaller ones arent thriving like the bigger boys and girls then separate them but remember Maha's are jumpers so lids will need to be used.

[JessicaCB650]

I've seen the jumping in action. The first time I saw one jump out of the water I couldn't believe it. The fish jumped about 4 inches out of the water!

I'll probably separate the smallers ones this week.