Betta And Gouramis

[neilw_uk]

Hi,

Quick question…

I have a small tank in which I have a Betta and various other community fish... All living fine together, apart form the white spot currently being treated.

I now have a much larger tank (180L) and have 2 kissing, 1 red dwarf and 2 blue Gouramis (can't remember the names)

I have just read that the Betta that I want to transfer into the new tank (once the white spot is treated) might get picked on. However i saw a tank at the pet shop with several Gouramis and a Betta and they seemed to be fine.

Can anyone confirm this myth?


Thanks,


Neil

 

[Bloo]

Generally they don't do well together and Bettas will almost always prefer their own tank.

If you only have the one Betta, it would be a lot happier on it's own.

It's not a myth but there are exceptions. You can certainly try it and for some people it seemed to have worked for a few months - only to wake up one morning and find fish with shredded fins. At the end of the day it will remain an uncertainty and risk....

 

[lb05]

Hi

I'm only a beginner myself but from recent experience I had a male betta with gouramis, along with mollies, tetra's and danios.....

To come home from work one morning to find my betta 'scooby' with hardly any fins, still alive...barely!!!

He died yestrday R.I.P

My advice would not to take the risk and keep him on his own.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, I too tried it and my betta ended up dead with shreaded fins shortly thereafter...

 

[neilw_uk]

Bugger!

Not too sure what to do now!

 

[Bloo]

Bugger!

Not too sure what to do now!

Buy a 2 gallon for the Betta or rehome it if you can't.

 

[basia]

Leave the Betta in the small tank.

 

[neilw_uk]

Well its all going belly up at the moment as i just found 4 fish and a frog dead!!!

I have a case of white spot in this tank, although my Betta is fine...

Been treating with the blue stuff you put in the tank (cant remember the name)... so i will see how things go.

 

[basia]

If you have carbon or one of those crystal things in the filter make sure you take it out if you are medicating the fish or it will just remove the medicine from the water.
Good luck.

 

[neilw_uk]

Cheers, No carbon... Just a normal filter. I will see how it goes...

 

[dwarfgourami]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. Hope things soon get better for you.

I just wanted to add a general reflection here, as this is something that often comes up in threads. Right folks (pay attention to this):

What you see in the lfs is no, I repeat NO guide to what you can get away with doing in your home tank. The fish in the shop are in transit, they are there for a few days, having just been shipped halfway across the world, too stunned to really start living, establishing territories etc.

It's like seeing commuters in a heavily packed commuter train and believing that human beings could live like that for years without murdering each other.

Also remember that, unless the lfs is totally relaxed about clearing away the bodies (like a certain shop I could mention), you have no means of knowing how many of their fish die due to overcrowding/wrong tankmates. The shop can afford to lose a few that way- still cheaper than buying new tanks. But for us, who regard the fish as pets, every loss is an upsetting experience. So always follow advice, not what you see in the shop.

Also, fish struggling with territorial issues are much more likely to come down with infectious diseases such as finrot or whitespot, which they can then pass on to the whole tank. A happy community is more likely to be a healthy community.

 

[beta 1991]

The betta would do best in a small tank. However, if you still want to try it, than the best choice would be a dwarf gourami, for they are one of the least aggressive of the gouramis.