Betta in community tank

DSR

AC Members
Apr 10, 2009
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Tulsa, OK
I have seen several posts around here with people putting bettas in community tanks. I had always understood that this was a bad idea because the bettas would beat up on everything... I now know this to be untrue.

My oldest daughter fell in love with a white and pink betta the other day. However, she neglected to do her chores so no new fish tank. I was thinking of getting her the betta as a compromise (assuming her room is clean when I get home from the office).

My tank is 29 gallons and has the following:
10 zebra
2 fire belly gourami
2 blue gourami
6 platys
2 kribs
1 johanni (don't get me started on that fish... big mistake by me and LFS)
3 black skirted tetra
4 emerald cory

assuming that some of these fish will be relocated soon to another tank for my youngest daughters room (40gal hex). Which ones would be compatible with a beta, if any? Thanks again. I am really starting to enjoy bettas more and more. Such pretty fish and the one we have now (in 5 gal. is such a funny fish with a big attitude).
 
Your tank is not compatable to a betta. Please dont try.
 
10 zebra
2 fire belly gourami
2 blue gourami
6 platys
2 kribs
1 johanni (don't get me started on that fish... big mistake by me and LFS)
3 black skirted tetra
4 emerald cory
wow , wow , wow ...
that will be a disaster with betta !
gouramis and betta are WRONG , plz don try , gouramis will nip the betta , and if the betta is a angry boy , he will beat the hell outta them too if not the gouramis will eventually kill the pour guy , and i heard black skirt tetras aren t compatible too ... platies will nip too ..
in my exprience i think only the zebras will not bother him and they r too fast for bettas too , so he cant bother them either .
and again , if ur betta is an angry boy he will killl corys too , he will kill anything he can catch ...
good luck :)
 
Well, I think the question was about which ones are compatible. That really does depend on the Betta, but I think the cories and the platies might be ok.
 
I had a betta in a community set up with cories and platies. He and the other fish got along fine. (He stayed happy and fat on platie fry). Of course, temperments vary fish to fish, so what worked for me might not work with others. I wouldn't suggest one with your community set up because of the gouramis. I am surprised you aren't having problems with them amongst themselves. I tried a trio (2f/1m) of dwarf gourami in one of my tanks and they wouldn't quit harrassing one another.
 
Thank you all very much. I will not give it a try. I had read somewhere about the gourami thing but had no idea that they could possibly pick on cories as well. Who could pick on such a cute little fish..
 
Luvbugs, so far teh only problems we have had with the gouramis is the two blue gouramis will chase each other around a bit. No biting or anything, more like they are just playing. But I will keep an eye out for any aggression issues.

Sadly one of the dwarf gouramis isn't doing too well. We had an incident this weekend, where he was on his side on the bottom. Checked the water and the nitrite level was up so i did a quick water change. He was fine within few minutes. This AM he was sitting in the hornwort gasping for breath and the surface. Did another water change and he seemed ok when I left. Checked on him a hour or so later and he was still doing fine. Not sure what was going on nitrite was present but not high (can't recall value). All of the other fish were doing just fine. he is such a pretty fish and I really enjoy watching him with the other fish (very peaceful). I hope nothign is wrong with him.
 
Please obtain Cycle or Prime, and use according to directions for a tank. When did you set up this tank? When and how did you add all the fish to it?
 
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