Betta splendens

The Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta Splendens) is a beautiful and hardy fish, which is becoming ever more popular as the correct and much better choice than the poor Goldfish (Kingyo) to be kept in small home aquariums. Contrary to Goldfish - which would grow to 25+ cm and live over 20 years if they weren't massacred by the thousands still as juveniles, due to being put in those totally inappropriate little bowls - the Betta grows to only 5-6 cm and lives only about 3-4 years, so even beginners and "casual aquarists" can easily keep one very well and for all of its natural lifespan.

However, Bettas suffer from a very common misconception about them, even among aquarium hobbyists: they're reputed (as the common name suggests) for being incredibly aggressive and must be kept isolated. This is NOT true! In general, females are quite peaceful, and males are only aggressive towards other males of the same species (they may even fight to death) and sometimes to fish that look like them, such as dwarf gouramies and paradise fish. Because of this aggression between males, and the fact that Bettas can breath directly from the air, they are kept in those tiny pots in pet shops. But just because they can survive in those pots doesn't mean they enjoy it. Like any other fish, Bettas will be much happier and healthier if they live in a tank which at least allows them to swim around a little. Breeders say that 2 liters is enough, after all, for those who own a lot of male Bettas it gets complicated to keep all of them separated in larger tanks. But for those who own just one Betta at home as a pet, it's a very small extra investment to give him a more comfortable life than his "breeding" cousins, and keep him in a decent tank (20+ liters).

In fact, they make excellent fish for peaceful community tanks, as long as it's well planted, good-sized tank and you keep just one male and/or any number of females. In the community tank, it's the Betta who usually suffers from the harassment of other more active species, such as tiger barbs, zebra danios, serpae tetras and others, who can tear off his long fins and force him to cower in a corner, even kill him. He also becomes an easy snack for fish large enough to gulp him into their mouths, since he's a slow swimmer, so I emphasize that he's good only for very peaceful communities. I've personally kept them in 200-300 L planted community tanks, where they lived for years and even made bubble nests and bred in there. Obviously, the fry didn't survive and ended up as live food for the other fish, despite the valiant effort of the male to try defending them.