kythe42s-fanfiction, i wasnât going to respond, i really wasnât, because i didnât read all of what you said, but what i could see in the preview on my notes got me fucking pissed.
first off, how the hell do you think bettas have survived all these years were the male to literally kill the female during reproduction? the females would die, the babies would get eaten by their fathers, and there would be no fish. period.
second, what kind of pet mother do you think i am that i would bring any animal into my home without doing more than the required reading? a three-page pamphlet from petsmart, Bettas by Marshall Osterow, The Betta Handbook by Robert J. Goldstein, PhD., and sections on Bettas in Freshwater Aquariums for Dummies and a book on Tropical Freshwater Aquariums that I cannot find a link to at the moment.
third, the one which i cannot link right now clearly states that the only bad betta combination in a tank is two males.  that one male can, in fact, be kept with females quite peaceably.  Osterowâs stance is somewhat different - males and females should only be introduced for the purpose of breeding, and multiple females will fight but not as aggressively as their male counterparts.  but ALL of the books state that torn fins/missing scales are normal and to be expected should breeding happen, and the males will be hella aggressive about it, but guess what? i, and two other responsible adults, are watching these fish like hawks.  she is still in the same completely intact condition as she was when i bought her.
fourth, i am actively petitioning for a) larger tanks, b) the separation of the Bettas to different tanks at least on trial basis, c) more people in my house to do the fucking required reading. my mother wants Betta babies, badly, but as things look? she wonât be getting them.
(by the way, The Betta Handbook specifically makes a point of saying that if the fish donât spawn right away, they probably never will and look for a different female. well, iâm not looking to breed fish myself, and the fact that they havenât spawned and can chill out in a tank together nicely - which they are doing - is something that i am quite happy with.)
and if you were wondering, the sections on breeding in Bettas and The Betta Handbook both are quite descriptive of Betta spawning.  and the bit of how you described it that i saw, about the male squeezing the female to death getting the eggs out?  yeah, wrong.  it looks like heâs squeezing her, yes, but thatâs not how the eggs come out.  he ejects sperm and she ejects eggs and they do this simultaneously.  and afterwards, the female is temporarily paralyzed, at which time she should be removed from the tank, to a different tank, so that the male doesnât kill her for being a threat to his children.
