Need info for my gouramis and betta

So a couple days ago i traded two African Cichlids for some various fish. Some of the fish included 4 dwarf gouramis, a 3 spot gourami and an opaline gourami. Well the night I got them I stuck the 4 dwarfs in my 55gal tetra tank. Everything has seemed fine, no bickering between the dwarfs and the rest of the tank mates. Now I have a male crowntail betta that also lives in this tank, he's so mellow and he's never flared at any fish or anything.

So here's my question... Is it impossible for gouramis and a betta to live happily together? That's what I gathered from all the posts on the Anabantoid section(they've been together for two days now). Or is it possible you just have to have the right personalities? My betta hasn't had any change in his personality or his "daily activities"(except last night when I put in a bubble maker and boy does he like it:grinyes But really he ignores the dwarfs, sits in his plant waiting for food to pass over his head so he doesn't have to move and the dwarfs mingle at the bottom of the tank in all the plants. I've been watching them closely and they havn't batted an eye at each other.

The other thing I need help on is...

I stuck the Opaline and three spot gourami in the new tank I got that has my gold gourami in it. Now for the longest time my gold gourami has been so shy but as soon as she saw the opaline(he went in first) she darted out from the plants and chased him a little bit. Then they had what looked to be a sword fight with their feeler things:lol2:. And the gold has been doing circles and loopy loops around the the opaline. So then I stick in the tree spot and the gold is chasing him a bit too. There's no definite "nipping" or fighting but it's enough to make an inexperienced gourami mommy feel uneasy about the three of them being together. Nobody is cowering in the corner. Any advice on what this behavior means? I'm hoping things will cool down as these guys are beautiful fish and I don't want to part with any of them.:1zhelp:

Thanks for all the help.

Jessaminevine said:

As you probably know, all of these are color morphs (opaline, gold, three-spot) of the same species (so they can potentially breed). In my experience, they tend to be rather obsessed with establishing the social hierarchy - although individuals vary considerably in this respect. If you have a couple males they will very likely get somewhat aggressive toward each other. They check each other out with their "feeler things" quite often (particularly when they are thinking about breeding). Watch for a bubblenest....

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I knew the gold and three spot were the same species but I thought the opaline was different species due to a slightly different body shape. All the gouramis look like females to me but I could be wrong.

weird, the opalines look so much different as far as thier body goes.

2brown347 said:

I've always heard it was a bad idea but I've kept 2 dwarf gourami with a male betta in a 55 (put them in there before I heard it was a bad idea). Not only were they not aggresive toward eachother but they even school together, which as quite strange... I think they thought they were danios or something...

either way they're seperated now.

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Why did you separate the betta and dwarfs if they were fine with each other?

The three spot, opaline and gold have settled down a little bit. The gold is still real pushy but I'm hoping with time they'll work it out. I'll put up a video(keep in mind the quality won't be that great) once i get my computer working again. I'm just glad I didn't wake up to any dead fish that following morning as my gold is bigger then both of them.