I own a betta and currently he is living in a small one gallon, room temperature tank. I found an old 30 gallon aquarium in my garage and cleaned it out properly, making sure I didn't use soap or anything. I want to start it back up again, and I plan on buying a filter and a heater, gravel, plants etc, but before I do, I want confirmation on something. A friend told me that Mollies, Guppies, and Swordtails all get along with Bettas, but I am not sure if this is true. Also, can you determine the genders of mollies, guppies and swordtails? I do not want them to breed. Thanks!
Will these fish get along with my Betta?
- Thread starter OrkyBetta
- Start date
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My recommendation is to not keep bettas with anything besides a snail or in the case of a 30 gal some white clouds and corys or ottos others might have different opinions. But the ones you mention can live happily together with no betta.
I can't really explain it but if you look under the livebearers section under the pinned topics it shows pics that would be of great help to you.
I can't really explain it but if you look under the livebearers section under the pinned topics it shows pics that would be of great help to you.
Raechal
Fish Gatherer
Never put your male betta in with a guppy. Especially males. He will think of them as a rival and will kill them for sure. I've kept male bettas with dalmation mollies successfully. You can tell the gender of a molly by the female will generally be larger than the male and the male will have a gonopodium.
You can read a little about sailfin mollies and determining the sexes here:
http
/images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...hl%3Den%26lr%3D
I am not sure if all males would be aggressive towards each other, but if you get females from a LFS that keep males and females together, chances are you will end up with a pregnant female already.
I would just go ahead and get some mollies that don't have very fancy tailfins. Like a regular dalmation molly or a black or white molly. I would be scared to put anything too bright in the tank because of the betta. I would get males and females, if they do have babies they will probably have them while you aren't there and by the time you find one or two, the rest will be eaten by the other fish in the tank. especially the male betta. bettas love to eat fry.
I have a 30 gallon with a rainbow shark, a few platies and a few guppies and cories. My guppy gave birth to some fry and there were only 2 survivors I found in the tank.
If things don't work out with your betta, you can always put him back in his old tank. Make sure the current isn't too strong. If you can adjust the filter current I'd adjust it to the lowest setting. If not, you could try putting a pantyhose around the filter intake to slow the current for the betta's sake.
Just monitor their behavior for a few days and make sure everything seems okay. This does NOT mean your betta will never harm the other fish in the tank, but they should be okay if he doesn't see them as a rival or threat in "his" tank.
Make sure your tank is cycled before you put any fish in. Well you can do a fishless cycle with ammonia, or you can pick 2 or 3 hardy fish like guppies or mollies or platties are pretty hardy. I'd pick maybe 2 or 3 mollies to cycle the tank with if you want to cycle with fish, and then after 3 or 4 weeks your tank should be cycled. You can bring your tank down to your LFS and they should be able to test your water for you for either free or fairly cheap. Then after your tank has cycled, I would introduce your betta to the tank. Then maybe add another fish or two every week until you are fully stocked.
Or you can just buy like 2 female mollies and one male molly and then have the betta in there and see if you have an surviving fry then you can watch them grow up in your tank.
You can read a little about sailfin mollies and determining the sexes here:
http
/images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...hl%3Den%26lr%3DI am not sure if all males would be aggressive towards each other, but if you get females from a LFS that keep males and females together, chances are you will end up with a pregnant female already.
I would just go ahead and get some mollies that don't have very fancy tailfins. Like a regular dalmation molly or a black or white molly. I would be scared to put anything too bright in the tank because of the betta. I would get males and females, if they do have babies they will probably have them while you aren't there and by the time you find one or two, the rest will be eaten by the other fish in the tank. especially the male betta. bettas love to eat fry.
I have a 30 gallon with a rainbow shark, a few platies and a few guppies and cories. My guppy gave birth to some fry and there were only 2 survivors I found in the tank.
If things don't work out with your betta, you can always put him back in his old tank. Make sure the current isn't too strong. If you can adjust the filter current I'd adjust it to the lowest setting. If not, you could try putting a pantyhose around the filter intake to slow the current for the betta's sake.
Just monitor their behavior for a few days and make sure everything seems okay. This does NOT mean your betta will never harm the other fish in the tank, but they should be okay if he doesn't see them as a rival or threat in "his" tank.
Make sure your tank is cycled before you put any fish in. Well you can do a fishless cycle with ammonia, or you can pick 2 or 3 hardy fish like guppies or mollies or platties are pretty hardy. I'd pick maybe 2 or 3 mollies to cycle the tank with if you want to cycle with fish, and then after 3 or 4 weeks your tank should be cycled. You can bring your tank down to your LFS and they should be able to test your water for you for either free or fairly cheap.
Then after your tank has cycled, I would introduce your betta to the tank. Then maybe add another fish or two every week until you are fully stocked. Or you can just buy like 2 female mollies and one male molly and then have the betta in there and see if you have an surviving fry then you can watch them grow up in your tank.
pica_nuttalli
don't be a twit
actually, those aren't very good choices to go with a betta at all. mollies and swordtails are nippy little fish and might ruin your betta's fins. bettas are prone to attack and kill guppies. instead of livebearers, i'd go with a school of peaceful tetras and a school of bottom dwellers (like loaches or cory cats).
Raechal
Fish Gatherer
Molly's aren't that nippy. As soon as they realize it isn't food, they'll swim away and bother something else.pica_nuttalli said:
I had a male betta in with my molly and they actually swam together all the time. 
Maybe I just had a weird molly. 
I would agree on the school of tetras and the cories or something.
NinjaSmurf
Devils Advocate
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Call me the party pooper, but I beg to differ.
1. Had a male betta, and a thirty gallon tank. Betta proceeded to terrorize everything in the tank. He got put back in his temple of solitude.
2. Had a female mollie, who killed a female guppy and harrassed a platy that I had to take out and put it in with my guppies. It died soon after from being stressed out. She even scared the male molly I had in there, and she killed him too!
My experience has been that bettas are particular, and it depends on the betta whether you can have him with other fish, and that mollies can be real pains, bossy, and total food hogs. But hey, if you can take the betta out if anything bad happens then it doesn't really matter what you put in the thirty (you know what I mean, no oscars lol) Good luck!
1. Had a male betta, and a thirty gallon tank. Betta proceeded to terrorize everything in the tank. He got put back in his temple of solitude.
2. Had a female mollie, who killed a female guppy and harrassed a platy that I had to take out and put it in with my guppies. It died soon after from being stressed out. She even scared the male molly I had in there, and she killed him too!
My experience has been that bettas are particular, and it depends on the betta whether you can have him with other fish, and that mollies can be real pains, bossy, and total food hogs. But hey, if you can take the betta out if anything bad happens then it doesn't really matter what you put in the thirty (you know what I mean, no oscars lol) Good luck!
LoachLover
Snails Beware
Corys work very well with bettas
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