Betta Compatibility

[stevey87]

Can male and female betta be in the same tank with thses fish?
Those of you who are betta experts tell me yes or no for each one?

Fancy Goldfish
Angelfish
Dwarf Gouramis
Cory Cats
Cardinal Tetras
Oto Cats
Harlequin Rasboras
Ram Cichlids
Snails

 

[Cdarmychi]

* male bettas cannot be kept with male or female bettas. If you want more then on betta, then females can be kept in groups of 4-5.
* Bettas NEED a heater. So Goldfish are out of the question.
* Personally, I would not put battas with angels. In my experience, my own angels are too nippy for a betta.
* Gouramis ....in a large tank maybe. Nothing under 30 gallons.
* I have cory cats in almost all of my betta tanks.
* The tanks that dont have corys have otos.
* I find that rasboras are too flighty to be a good match for bettas. And rasboras need to be in large schools, which needs a large tank.
* Cichlids can ONLY be kept with other Cichlids. Bettas are NOT a good idea in a cichlid tank. They will be killed.
* Snails can be in almost any tank. I Have a snail in every single one of my tanks.

 

[stevey87]

You mentioned angelfish being nippy. I just got silver angels yesterday and one of them seems to love nipping fins of any fish. I made the mistake of picking the most agressive one yesterday mistakening the behaviour for healthy specimen. Anyways, would increasing # of angelfish fix this nipping behaviour or more plants and wood?

 

[LauraFrog]

More hiding places in a tank with an aggressive fish is a good thing. I don't know whether more angels would worsen the problem or not. It's hard to know. It is impossible to sex angelfish until they are fully grown and in breeding condition. When they are adults and pair off and try to breed, they will give you hell.

I personally wouldn't risk putting bettas with gouramis at all, as they are in the same family and may be enough to trigger the aggression. Maybe a big and differently shaped one like a leeri gourami, but not a dwarf, which is a similar size and brightly coloured.

 

[Cdarmychi]

Lets just say if you get more....that means they get the chance to gang up on everything. And Lord help your other fish if they spawn...LOL

Yeah that was my thought about the gouramis...but I wasnt positive on it.

The more hiding places and plants you have the better.

 

[stevey87]

Is it possible to make good hiding places with just plants and driftwood? I'm so over these hollow ornaments that create dirty stale water. Even tho I spent some money on em, now to mention the gravels.... Anyways I ordered a lot of plants online and I'm waiting for them. I already have java fern, hornwort, some sort of small to no root sword, amazon sword, anubias, green crypt wendtii. Is it better if I attack the java fern to more sporish wood instead of smooth long ones? How about Anubias? I'll try to use normal rubber band for that.