Guppies and Betta

[Craiglufc]

I've recently lost my 6 guppies from my tank so I decided to replace them with 6 more. I have a siamese fighter fish in my tank that is ridiculously chilled. Never had any issues with him before. My guppies/Corys/Betta and pleco all got along brilliant without any troubles at all. So yesterday I introduced 6 new guppies into my tank, 2 male, 4 female. They are petrified of the Betta. They literally stay at the surface (not gasping for air) and when he goes near them, they frantically swim away. As I said, the Betta isnt aggressive at all, its purely the size of him which is scaring them. Will they eventually settle and realise hes not a threat, or is there any way I can help them adjust to the tank? Its worth pointing out, that my original guppies were in my tank before the betta. Whether this makes a difference or not, I'm not sure?

 

[Sgooosh]

assuming the betta wont hurt anything,
1. the guppies are just scared of his size and will always keep distance from him.
my guppies also keep their distance by like a few cm when near the massive pearl gouramis or swordtails
2. it may be that the fishes are stressed, it's never good to add more than the current stock of a tank at one time id usually add 2 guppies each time
also, watch your betta, he may also be stressed and get a little territorial if there are so many random strangers popping up in his tank

 

[Byron]

Male bettas (Siamese Fighting Fish) are not community fish and should only be housed alone. You cannot always "see" aggression. Fish release pheromones which are "read" by others in that species, and allomones which are "read" by fish in other species. This is one way fish communicate; these biological substances cannot be seen, but they are there. The betta may have had all he intends tolerating from the other guppies...he may well be part of the reason they died...and he is now making it known. Forcing fish in with a betta is frankly inhumane. Theree are many members here who can attest to "peaceful" co-habitation suddenly turning the opposite over night. We cannot change how a fish species has evolved, but we are wisest to understand the species' behaviours and not hope the fish we have will for some reason be abnormal and not adhere to the norm.