male behaviour

Question
I have just bought 2 siamese fighting fish. The are both in a reasonable size tank with a divider down the middle.  In the first few days, the blue one had always had his tail splayed out and flared his gill covers when the red one swam near the divider.  The blue one would swim around violently and was quite aggressive which i gathered was normal behaviour. However the red one was rather disinterested and acted as if the blue one wasn't there, he did not retaliate the behaviour.  He did not once open out his tail and never flared his gills, but he was still quite active by himself and didn't look sick.  Just today, he has started to become quite aggressive and is now showing the same behaviour signs as the blue one.  I wanted to know if males go through agressive phases where they are quite fiesty and then become disinterested.  Is it part of the mating cycle?

Answer
Hi Jessica,

Bettas go through 'moods' just like people - when they are new to a place and not quite sure of themselves there they may act a little bit timid, but when they settle in they can be quite feisty!

It is not part of the mating cycle, it is just showing you have a normal betta. :)

Hope this helps,

Prue