Dwarf Gouramis With Betta And Three Spot Gouramis

[montyII]

As the title sugests, would it be OK to put a pair of dwarf gouramis in with a mature pair of 3 spot gouramis and a betta? The tank is a 4ft, heavily planted, and also contains neons, clown loaches, glass catfish and panda corys.

Cheers.

 

[montyII]

Anyone?

 

[Queen Bee]

I have had female betta with dwarf gourami no problem. My dwarf gourami are harassed by the opaline and the gold varieties though. They come out to feed and then hide a lot. Of all the dwarf varieties I have the dwarf fire seems to hold his ground more then the others.

 

[reeeedfish]

I believe that would be okay. Unless it is a gold gourami. Mine killed 3 fish and harrassed many more. I believe it's the same with a few other three spot gouramis.

 

[llamalord305]

You are taking a chance with the Betta. Some are aggressive and some are docile.

 

[Reesy1989]

It can be done, As long as it is heavily planted, as that'll break up the line of sight of the mature gouramis.

 

[malakye]

Male fighters should never be put in a tank with dwarf gourami or any gourami.

 

[Reesy1989]

I've kept them before, it depends on the temperment of the fish?

 

[Joe97]

Bettas shouldn't be kept with gouramis
Joe

 

[Thecloud]

Bettas shouldn't be kept with gouramis
Joe

Why? Surely it depends on the individual fish, size of tank, setup ect?

 

[LongS]

Lots of people have done it before, but alot of people would never risk it.

I suppose it is just a case of watching very carefully and making sure things stay peacefull. If not, move one.

A four foot heavily planted tank will most probably be fine in my opinion. I wouldn't have any problem in trying this myself.

 

[Inchworm]

As the title sugests, would it be OK to put a pair of dwarf gouramis in with a mature pair of 3 spot gouramis and a betta? The tank is a 4ft, heavily planted, and also contains neons, clown loaches, glass catfish and panda corys.

Cheers.

I would have to say that it is a bad combination. A male betta, with all its fancy finnage, is no match for an aggressive male gourami. The three spots are several times larger and much faster swimmers. Even the dwarf gouramis are faster and have larger bodies than a male betta.

Let me illustrate this with a picture of a 20 gallon tank I have now. You can see the betta and one of the gouramis near the bottom.

This tank has one male betta, three honey gouramis, and a number of dwarf corys in it. The betta is in there because I had to move it out of a specimen container that needed daily water changes, when I went away on vacation. The honey gouramis were very timid and would half bury themselves in the substrate when disturbed, so I put those tall plastic plants in there to create places for them to hide in and hoped they would be OK.

One day I was watching then from across the room and all of a sudden this little gourami darted out of the plants and attacked the betta. When the betta turned, he swam away again. This has continued with the betta occasionally being the aggressor. For whatever reason, the gouramis are no longer timid and regularly spend time swimming in the open water.

While they appear to be evenly matched, with no actual damage done to either of them, I am going to have to move the betta once I find another heated tank for him to live in. This kind of stress will do none of them any good in the long run.