Gouramis and bettas

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wataugachicken

The Dancing Banana
Jul 14, 2005
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Charlotte, NC
I was reading the other thread about labyrinth fish, and want to know more about whether or not gouramis and bettas get along. most likely, it depends on the individual fish(es), but what advice do you have?

i'm working on a stock list for my soon-to-be-delivered 50 gal. long. (48x18x13) everything in my 10 (below) is moving into it, as well as a fair amount of plants. I'd like some mid/top level fish, and gouramis are pretty. i <3 my female betta though - she comes before any new additions.
any recommendations for peaceful gouramis?
 

Aqualung

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Jan 31, 2004
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I wouldn't recommend any type of gourami with the betta, actually. Any gourami peaceful enough to not pick on the betta would probably get bullied itself. If you are set on trying it though, a honey gourami would be the best bet IMO. Platies would be a colorful alternative, or if they don't appeal to you there are countless other choices as well.
 

wataugachicken

The Dancing Banana
Jul 14, 2005
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Charlotte, NC
I'm not set on it, just trying to research my options. i don't want to have to deal with fighting and injured fish, so i'll find something else.
 

jjanoch

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Mar 6, 2005
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I understand the desire to have a Betta and *other* fish, but anything that can grow as large (or close to) the same size as a Betta can be considered a threat. If you want to build a tank around a focal Betta, then stick with smaller fish...and not anything with flowing tails (ie guppies)

so corries for the bottom are cool, and platties, swordtails, danios are all acceptable choices.
 

reignman40

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Jun 15, 2005
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As you said initially, it pretty much all depends on the specific fish. However, general behavior dictates that Betta's and Gourami's "generally" won't get along. But IME female bettas can be a lot less aggressive then males. I have 3 female bettas in my 20 gallon and they have yet to even flare at any of the other fish or even the Ghost Shrimp. They like to snack on the baby snails but that's cool by me because they were starting to get out of hand. In fact, I just like telling people this, because I work in the tank so much, replanting plants, etc, they are very comfortable with my hand in the tank. In fact over the weekend I found that they let me pet them.

If you have a peaceful female betta I think that is best case scenerio of it working. But if you don't have a means to move one of them into a different tank provided it does not work, I would lean against it.

Hope this helps,
Curtis
 

Kissofthegorami

Broke College Student
Feb 24, 2005
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Boston,MA
You can try it. There are two bad scenerios that are very likely.. if you get a dwarf gourami (red, powder blue, sunset, neon) or a three spot gourami (gold, blue, opaline, platinum) they will probably harass the betta. If you get a moonlight, honey, or pearl gourami the betta may harass them. I'm thinking pearl gouramis are large enough that they would hold their own. They are subtly beautiful fish and very peaceful. A male and female are easy to indentify.
 
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