Siamese Fighting Fish Compatability...

[geordieelvis]

Hey all, at the moment I have a 90ltr tank that houses 5 Panda Corys, 5 Danios and 4 Guppies. What I am after is a Siamese Fighter but I am worried about the compatability with the Guppys as they have the fancy, bright tails and the fact sheets say to avoid putting the Fighter in with such fish. Anybody got any advice or had the same situation??

 

[Livewire88]

Well to tell the truth people will say that Betta's and Guppy's can't be kept together because the Betta might mistake the male Guppy's as other Betta's. I would agree with this 99% of the time.
 
However IME it all depends on the Betta's temperment, because I have a friend with a tank wich has around 10 guppy's and also a Betta and they swim round together without problems, and this has been the case for more than a year.
 
So what I am trying to say is that it is not advisable to mix the two but it can be done with fish with the right temperment.

 

[leighton_87]

It might work - it might not. Personally I wouldn't take the risk.

It will depend very much on the temperament of all the fish. I've seen some people do this without any issues but others have had no end of problems.

 

[geordieelvis]

Cool, well thanks for the advice. I certainly don't want to put one in if there is a chance it could end badly! What else would you recommend as a 'centre piece' fish? I wanted to put a red tail shark but can't really due to size of tank.

 

[Daveo026]

I personally believe fighters are a community fish just avoid fin nippers rams gourami (unless honey gourami) most people say guppy but iv never had that problem but avoid for safety and fast fish that will annoy/scare the fighter. Other centre piece fish could be honey gourami dwarf or male dwarf gourami maybe rams.

 

[Amunet]

Do not put a betta in with the fish you listed. Cories would be ok if the betta tolerates them, but danios and guppies would probably find long flowing betta fins too tempting to resist nipping.
 
A different centerpiece fish..... maybe a small gourami or a nice german blue ram.

 

[geordieelvis]

Well, I now have an altogether different situation, as I came in from work tonight and found 13 baby Guppys in my tank! I have managed to catch 5 of them and have them in a nursery net, the others are hiding in various spots around my tank. They haven't been eaten yet but do you guys think any of them will survive or are they all doomed unless I can rescue them??