# tank mates for a betta



## gary007 (Apr 3, 2011)

oddly enough i have seen the simease fighting fish with guppies, swordtails, gouramis and silver dollars at the petshop and the betta is taking any notice but if i go to google and read yahoo answers they say no no no! quite a bit lol so its like theres hardly a tankmate for the fighter. i thought they only battle own kind and chase the lady betta. see at petshop the betta is'nt bothered, so maybe it just depends on the fish.


----------



## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

I'm sure i will be corrected if i am wrong but i have heard of people keeping them with lots of community fish, even guppy but i have also heard they don't like guppy, as far as i know they don't like fish that are prettier than them. and yes it can depend on the Betta demeanor. hope that helps Cheers


----------



## spit.fire (Jan 3, 2011)

The generally do fine with any community fish as long as they went to brightly colored


----------



## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

IME they do well with pretty much any community fish that isn't a known fin nipper


----------



## gary007 (Apr 3, 2011)

so say i get the betta and it goes with my swordtails and guppys, 2 of them have bright yellow on tails and other 2 are red and blue colour, would the betta attack here, might be risky lol i notice u can get a square net box thing for betta it goes in corner of tank and betta can still air breathe.


----------



## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Bettas will attack anything that even remotely resembles themselves, which is why they've been known to attack things like guppies. However, people have kept them with livebearers and other anabantoids before, although it's risky. If you're looking for some tankmates for your betta (assuming he's in at least a 10 gallon tank), a small school of rasboras (harlequin, porkchop, etc), or some streamlined tetras (glolite, rummynose, cardinal, neon, etc) should be ok. And of course there are bottom feeders like Corydoras or Otocinclus. Also, provided that your tank is at least a 20gallon (long is prefered), you could probably get away with a dwarf cichlid (Apistogramma, Mikrogeophagus, Laetacara); Most of the dwarf cichlids prefer the bottom to mid-bottom of the tank, so it should be ok. And even if there are any issues, neither fish would usually do very much besides flare and lunge forward slightly.


----------



## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

I would not recommend mixing a betta with dwarf cichlids(apistogramma,rams etc) especially if you have or gonna keep pairs.Once they start breeding,these little guys can be down right fiesty towards their own or others in the tank.Keep in mind bettas like a spot or two where theres no crazy water movement, a quiet spot to rest sort of speak.A spot of their own to have cover is a must as well(some sort of floating plant,driftwood,or stone/rock).


----------



## harrow (Aug 23, 2011)

It really depends on the betta, I had 2 bettas and only one was able to live in my community tanks with guppy, cory, neons, balloon molly and otos. They do have personalities but one things you cannot do is have two male bettas in one tank.


----------



## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

My son's betta lives with two female swordtails and a female endler, with no problems at all. I've kept them with all sorts of fish without issues, but admittedly never with male guppies...I guess it all depends on the fish


----------



## BCAquaria (Apr 24, 2010)

I've never had much success keeping Bettas in a community tank, mainly because most of the faster fish tend to get to all the food before he can.

I've had much more success keeping them in smaller tanks. But generally their temperment isn't too bad w community fish like neons and what not. Really depends on the fish I think. I've had some aggressive ones, and had quite a few "laid back" ones.


----------



## spit.fire (Jan 3, 2011)

BCAquaria said:


> I've never had much success keeping Bettas in a community tank, mainly because most of the faster fish tend to get to all the food before he can.
> 
> I've had much more success keeping them in smaller tanks. But generally their temperment isn't too bad w community fish like neons and what not. Really depends on the fish I think. I've had some aggressive ones, and had quite a few "laid back" ones.


i never had any problems with them not getting food, all my bettas have always come right to my hand for food and would even jump out of the water to grab food from my hand


----------



## Ladayen (Aug 21, 2011)

It depends on the betta really. You can try it but you should have a backup plan, preferably it's own 5g+ tank


----------



## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Ladayen said:


> It depends on the betta really. You can try it but you should have a backup plan, preferably it's own 5g+ tank


Agreed. I find that bettas are a lot like dwarf cichlids; they have quite varying personalities.


----------



## BCAquaria (Apr 24, 2010)

spit.fire said:


> i never had any problems with them not getting food, all my bettas have always come right to my hand for food and would even jump out of the water to grab food from my hand


Really? I had mine in a 55g tank with things like Angels/Neons/Etc.

It didn't do too well, it died within a few weeks. This was early in my aquarium keeping days


----------



## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Had a betta in a 20g community once with tetras, livebearers, and a dwarf gourami; he did fine, untill he caught fishlice which led to finrot which led to the other fish picking on him because he couldnt really swim. I put him in a half gallon cylinder and he did MUCH better though...


----------

