bettas and goldfish?

[wrs]

i have a friend with a 20 gallon goldfish tank, just two black mores, and she wants to get a betta for it as well. I told her I did keep mine with goldfish when I first got him and my first tank, but wasnt sure if your supposed to do that or not. She will get a heater if its needed, but i told her mine dont have heaters, so it might be okay.

 

[endparenthesis]

Too hot for a goldfish is almost too cold for a betta. It's one of those matches that's just doomed from the start.

 

[GuppyDude]

i dunno they might do ok, but i think keeping tropicals with cold water fish is a bad idea.

 

[coconutman39]

faith from bettatalk adressed this, they are almost 2 completly diffrent fish. goldfish are big, lumbering, slow, and prefer cold water. bettas are smaller, faster, and more showy and prefer warm water. i dont think it would be a great idea.

 

[wrs]

ill tell her that.

 

[purple_drazi]

You have to read the comparison between goldfish & bettas from bettatalk.com, for anyone who hasn't read Faith's opinions on this already, it's priceless!

Goldfish: dumb as a post, swims a lot all the time, eats a LOT and (yes) Pooooops a LOOOOOOT (hence polluting its own tank at lightning speed). Pretty harmless, big toothless mouth pointing down, silly looking. In short, your retarded cousin type .

Betta: Cunning, elegant, majestic, smart, temperamental, likes his space, likes his peace. Moves slow, likes napping a lot. Does not want to be disturbed, especially not by retarded cousins . Small mouth pointing upward, ideal to pick on above mentioned retarded cousins crowding the water space above him hehehe.

For more info on keeping goldfish & betta together:
http/www.bettatalk.com/answer140.htm

I especially like the "cunning, elegant" and "retarded cousins" bits.

 

[wrs]

edited wrong post,

 

[purple_drazi]

My bettas as dumb as a post, while my brothers goldfish, who used to be very dumb, is now much smarter than he is.

I'm going to read that the way I know you intended it!

Why would you say

but from what I get from that its okay to have them together as long as certain things are correct.

when 4 people have suggested that because of the cold water/warm water conflict it wasn't such a good idea? If you try and keep the water cool enough for the goldfish yet warm enough for the betta neither fish is going to be comfortable, both will be constantly stressed and when fish are stressed like that it leaves them more vunerable to infections and the like which spells trouble down the road.

(Also, I didn't mean to offend you or your friend's goldfish! The only fish I've ever had (so far) are goldfish and bettas and I like them both! Just not in the same tank!)

 

[wrs]

not from them, the sitei skipped a part at the site, i went right to the

make sure to keep water temps in medium range: 70F should work for both species involved. Do not let water get too hot and most importantly too COLD. At 55F, bettas will die from hypothermia (while goldfish will thrive).
keep a close eye on all parties involved: The goldfish are more at risk then the betta, but a hurt betta unable to swim away (sick etc) can be picked on thoroughly by a goldfish.
give it a 2 week try: if after 2 weeks, betta is still nipping at the goldfish, then chances are, he always will. The cohabitation will then most certainly end in a blood bath of some sort.
make sure to keep tank clean: Goldfish are very dirty fish and can withstand more harmful levels and bacteria attack then bettas. Bettas are more fragile than goldfish. Hence if the goldfish poopoocaca your tank and seem to be A-OK, your betta however will pay the price and get sick. So you will have to clean up a lot more to compensate for this discrepancy.
make sure goldfish do not eat your betta's food. Remember they swim faster than him and seem to never stop eating. They are likely to eat everything you toss in there and not give Mr. Betta a chance to get to his food (GRRRRR). Although betta food will not hurt them per say, the lack of food will hurt and weaken Mr. Betta. This problem will become more and more critical as the goldfish get bigger and bigger!

and missed the

As I said above, each betta is different, and some individuals may associate with goldfish while others would not be caught dead socializing with one . What I would recommend, is that you do not put goldfish with your betta (yep, I was working my way to this one hehehehe). But if you MUST ab-so-lu-te-ly try this mismatch, then I would recommend the following: