The question I received on email today:
I had someone ask me the other day about Siamese Fighting Fish, and the best way that they should be housed. It basically stemmed from the fact that this person had seen at a local petshop a fishtank filled with different kinds of fish, also containing 3 very small transparent boxes each with a Fighting fish in it. She was concerned that this was poor animal welfare for the fish. So, I was just wondering what sized tanks Fighting Fish need, whether they need to be housed alone/just away from other Fighting Fish/ or can be housed in sight of other Fighting Fish.
My response:
Siamese fighters are adapted to surviving in small puddles seasonally (when the water bodies dry up) and would prefer larger bodies of water to live in. As their name suggests, they are from the tropics (Siam is old for Thailand) and so they ought to be kept in water at a temperature of around 24degC. This can be maintained either with a heater in the water, a heated pad beneath the tank or by warming up the room.
