How long...

[Sassy]

I wanted to see how mellow my Freddy was (Betta in a 10 gallon) so I took my 8 immature fancy guppies (11 weeks, 1 male and 7 female) and put them in with him. I had the scooper armed and ready for action just in case, and there was a big fat anti-climax.
Freddy didn't even flair once. He looked, shrugged, and went back to pacing in his bubble wand.
It's been over 24 hours and we have 8 currious guppies and one non-chalant beta.

The guppies sneak up to get a look and Fred chases them away. He chases until they leave then he changes directions. No one is hiding, no is stressed, one is strutting or flairing, no nipped fins, no knife wounds or teeth marks

Everyone seems cool enough, so how long before I can be sure someone isn't going to turn on the tank?

My actual desire is to put Fred in the 50 gallon and dismantal the 10. I just can't keep it stable because I live in the dessert. The 50 has 6 cherry barbs, 6 checkerboard barbs, 6 jumbo neon tetras, and two cory cats. I plan on adding 4 more cories and 6 black neons...and of course the 8 fancy guppies.
I don't have any current aggression and not one nipped fin in the house.

 

[Grams]

why would you even risks killing your guppies to test you fishes aggresion. put a mirror outside his tank and he doesnt need to be in a 50 because even a 1g id good enough for a betta

 

[Sassy]

Ummm...Ok
That was nice helpful advice.
Thanks alot!

 

[eja0913]

just because your betta doesn't show aggression now, doesn't mean he won't in the future. i thought my betta Omega got along great with his new ghost shrimp buddy, but 5 days later, ghost shrimp buddy was dinner.

 

[Sassy]

Pffffttttt!!!
So much for something helpful.

So basically I should take my betta out of his 10 gallons and stick him in one tiny gallon because...I don't even know why. The general rule is one inch of fish per gallon of water and a betta is generally 2 inches, so why would anyone in their half way right mind suggest I stick him in one gallon, especially when he's used to 10 gallons.
And if I can't keep 10 gallons stable, there's no way I could keep one gallon stable. My current outside temperature in 117 and I don't have air conditioning. The 10 gallon jumps from 76 to 86 every day. That can't be good for him. At least the 50 gallon only hovers between 78 and 81.
And as for the guppies...they're horribly inbreed so I'm kind of hoping to stop them from breeding. They came out of the loaner cycling guppies I had and don't even start with grinding me over cycling with guppies.

And back to 1 gallon being 'good enough' for a betta...I thought one f the goals of keeping fish was to give them the best conditions as possible. 'Good enough' is another term for 'not gonna try any harder'. Perhaps I should offer my betta a scuba tank and spot on my couch...after all, it's not like he's a real fish...he's just a betta.

Yeah...I'm being sarcastic!

 

[cutecotton]

sorry if you're getting the wrong impression sassy, we're only trying to offer what we can

i'm glad to hear that your betta isn't showing any aggression towards the guppies, you COULD have a very mellow betta, but from ur stock list in the 50G, it deonst sound like he'll do too well becuase there are fin nippers in there. Those fish are usually too fast and will chase the betta around and bully him, the betta is usually defencesless becuase he's not as fast them them unfournately.

Betta in community tanks are always hard to predict and tell what will happen,t hey just seem to switch moods suddenly out of nowhere. If you do decide to go and try it, i suggest you keep a VERY close eye on him, i'd be worried about HIM gettinb uillied rather than him bullying theo ther fish. Also, lots of caves, plants and hiding places would be highly recommended if you do igve it a shot.

 

[Grams]

you really cant tell when he will become aggresive on the other fish because first every fish is different and i take out all the other fish with the betta to be safe.

 

[nibbles]

the only way sassy would find out if her betta would be aggressive to her guppies was to put him in there and find out.

 

[Sassy]

I couple of points I'd like to expand on in my original post...
First. None of the fish in the 50 gallon tank have nipped fins. This would lead me to believe that...though some other fish of these breeds are fin nippers...these paticular fish are not.
I really don't understand why generalization is perfectly exceptable in the fish community when it's perfectly unexceptable in every other area of life. It's like saying that because my dog is brown, all dogs ARE brown. Or because my cat likes carrots, cats eat carrots. Last night a fly dropped into the tank threw the filter hole and one of the cherry barbs started eating it. Does this mean I should feed my fish dead flies?

And for the record, I did not choose to use the guppies as guinea pigs because I think they're less valuble (I'm not talking about money) then the other fish. I chose them because they're hardier then the other fish.

I honestly feel like I came for friendly advice and got reamed for not being you, or having your fish.

 

[shadow]

If you put your betta in the bigger tank, you could get a divider as to keep the others from bothering him and vice versa.

 

[wuvmybetta]

I couple of points I'd like to expand on in my original post...
First. None of the fish in the 50 gallon tank have nipped fins. This would lead me to believe that...though some other fish of these breeds are fin nippers...these paticular fish are not.

Sorry wires are getting a little crossed in here.Sassy

Do you have any long flowing finned fish in the tank? I don't see any listed so that could be why you see no nipping. Now Freddy is slow and as you've learned, he's a pretty easy going guy. But in my experience and from what I've heard others say...barbs and tetras will shred him up. They're in the piranha family you know He obviously doesn't have enough bad attitude to defend himself or declare any sort of alpha dominance so personally...I'd leave him in the 10 gallon. Maybe remove the other occupants and move them as planned,then divide it up for another betta so each has 5