female bettas

penguinpimp1990 · May 28, 2005

do you think that female bettas could be housed with silver hatchets and apple snails? also could they be housed with dwarf gouramis?

OohFeeshy · May 28, 2005

Mmm... possibly. Some people say not to keep bettas and gouramis together (I don't know why), but as long as you keep enough so that they are too busy bickering amongst themselves to notice the other fish you should be fine.

rayjay999 · May 28, 2005

One reason that people suggest not putting Bettas with Gouramis is that they occupy the same place in the tank (top) and they might fight over that territory.

WILDER · May 28, 2005

rayjay999 said:
One reason that people suggest not putting Bettas with Gouramis is that they occupy the same place in the tank (top) and they might fight over that territory.

I agree.

Synirr · May 28, 2005

Another problem with keeping bettas and gouramis together is that they are closely related and sometimes mistake one-another for the same species and fight with because they're trying to establish a pecking order. I'd say that if you want to keep them together it's worth a try, but just have a backup plan for if things turn nasty.

xanthianacid · May 28, 2005

IME gouramis and bettas, male or female bettas are totally cool with each other. I don't know where this idea came from about gouramis/bettas being territorial. That's just not what I have observed. They get all over the tank, and get air from wherever they happen to be at the time. They don't fight with each other and totally ignore each other most of the time. Exception: I had one female betta and one dwarf gourami who really got along so well I was thinking they'd end up trying to mate! At least they seemed very close and 'danced' regularly. I am not saying they'd of been compatible but if the dwarf lived who knows... and he died to unrelated to betta reasons. He had a genetic problem/weakness which killed him off in the end. I have gourami and bettas in every single community tank I own/my family own, and that makes a total of 5 tanks of successfully keeping bettas and gouramis, BTW, of these males occupy 3, and are happy little community fishes all the way.

Gouramis who are in the communities with bettas include: Chocolate Gourami, versions of the 3 spot/blue/platinum gourami varieties, Sparkling Gourami, Pearls gouramis and soon to have moonlight gourami, and searching for some other varieties but not the giant!!!

So main point is that if experience is anything to go by then I stick by my guns and state that bettas and gouramis are happy to be housed together.

wrs · May 28, 2005

honey gouramis and bettas are okay together. But all others are a fight waiting to happen.

CathyG · May 28, 2005

I have successfully kept honey gouramis and bettas in the same tank.

OIJ · May 28, 2005

I have to second what xanthianacid said. No problems at all with these two togeather. I have 2 female betta, 1 male (possibly two) in a tank with 2 female, 1 male red robin gourami and 1 male pearl gourami, 1 male, 1 female opaline gourami and no problems at all with them. They get along great.

One of the female bettas is always getting fancier and fancier. I think she is a he!!! :fun: