Questions For A 55 Gallon Tank?

[Betta_Shark5678]

Okay, so I might be getting a 55 Gallon tank from a friend, and it has a male gold Gourami with it. I have a few questions on stocking.

Can I put a female betta with him? My friend has had male bettas with him before and they got along fine according to her.

Is this stocking okay:
6 Guppies
6 Platies
5 Ghost catfish (or 6 Cory cats)
the Male gourami
and one female betta

I have read that male bettas can't live with guppies, is this the same with females?

I already have the female betta, but I'm trying to have as few tanks running as possible. This betta lived with two other bettas for a short period of time, but when I bought one of her tankmates it was sick. Another friend picked it out so I didn't get a chance to look at it before buying it (which was a really bad idea I now know). One of the two died a few weeks later, so there were only two left. I didn't find out that the sick one had ick, as well as fin rot, until it was too late (she liked to hide, and I didn't see her much). I managed to save my current betta, who is now recovering from the fin rot and ick. Basically what I'm trying to say with that story is that this betta has lived with other fish and was the least aggressive of the three until the others were too sick to fight back.

I have had bettas for almost two years now, and have expirence with fin rot, dropsy (lost a male crowntail to that!), ick, and velvet. All of my bettas have been petstore bettas, two of them were birthday presents, so I'm going to say that it wasn't all me for most of those illnesses! Now I am very careful about choosing my bettas! Though for my three females I was going by the inch per gallon rule, and I had three fish in a 3.5 gallon tank, now I know that was way too small!

So the Gourami, and Betta have both lived peacefully with other fish.

Is that overstocked? I know that guppies and platies breed often (I have another friend with seven guppies, and some mollies in a five, or so, gallon tank), so I was thinking about getting only males of each of those.

If you can answer all of those questions it would be great! Thanks

 

[DrewMuayThai]

Okay, so I might be getting a 55 Gallon tank from a friend, and it has a male gold Gourami with it. I have a few questions on stocking.

Can I put a female betta with him? My friend has had male bettas with him before and they got along fine according to her.

Is this stocking okay:
6 Guppies
6 Platies
5 Ghost catfish (or 6 Cory cats)
the Male gourami
and one female betta

I have read that male bettas can't live with guppies, is this the same with females?

I already have the female betta, but I'm trying to have as few tanks running as possible. This betta lived with two other bettas for a short period of time, but when I bought one of her tankmates it was sick. Another friend picked it out so I didn't get a chance to look at it before buying it (which was a really bad idea I now know). One of the two died a few weeks later, so there were only two left. I didn't find out that the sick one had ick, as well as fin rot, until it was too late (she liked to hide, and I didn't see her much). I managed to save my current betta, who is now recovering from the fin rot and ick. Basically what I'm trying to say with that story is that this betta has lived with other fish and was the least aggressive of the three until the others were too sick to fight back.

I have had bettas for almost two years now, and have expirence with fin rot, dropsy (lost a male crowntail to that!), ick, and velvet. All of my bettas have been petstore bettas, two of them were birthday presents, so I'm going to say that it wasn't all me for most of those illnesses! Now I am very careful about choosing my bettas! Though for my three females I was going by the inch per gallon rule, and I had three fish in a 3.5 gallon tank, now I know that was way too small!

So the Gourami, and Betta have both lived peacefully with other fish.

Is that overstocked? I know that guppies and platies breed often (I have another friend with seven guppies, and some mollies in a five, or so, gallon tank), so I was thinking about getting only males of each of those.

If you can answer all of those questions it would be great! Thanks

No, It wouldn't be over stocking. A 55 gallon is plenty of room for all those fish. You can get more than one betta. I've heard others say that they have housed more than one male betta in a tank, except the tank was big. Like the one that you are getting. You can have a male, if you want, instead of a female. What kind of gourami is it? Just curious....

 

[Betta_Shark5678]

Thanks! I was thinking about getting more bettas with my current female, I just want to make sure they aren't any bigger, her life is pretty much top priority with this tank if
one kind of fish might hurt her I won't be putting her in the tank. I was very concerned with overstocking because I know I overstocked my betta tank before. The gourami is a golden gourami, 5 years old, 3 1/2 inches long.

 

[DrewMuayThai]

Ok, the gourami shouldn't bother the betta or any other fish. There's plenty of room for them all.
Your welcome.

 

[fluttermoth]

^ I'm afraid I'm going to disagree. Golden gouramis are a colour morph of the three spot, and they can be very aggressive.

 

[samorkel]

I second emo kid I had some goldens once and they were a terror I would never advise anyone to get Golden Gourami's.

 

[DrewMuayThai]

I second emo kid I had some goldens once and they were a terror I would never advise anyone to get Golden Gourami's.

Yeah, but how big was your tank, though?

 

[Betta_Shark5678]

The gourami comes with the tank, my friend has had this gourami for years now, and is very attached to it. The other golden gourami, and the one I'm getting used to chase each other around, but they never hurt each other. What would you suggest that I take out, or change for my stocking plan? I'm not going to get it for a few weeks, so I have a while!

 

[DrewMuayThai]

Are you SURE they're not hurting each other?? My fish do that too... it's quite odd, I have to say.

P.S. OFF TOPIC: Nice name for your female betta. I have a cat named Zoey!

 

[DrewMuayThai]

Does it look like they're nipping each other?

 

[IdahoAquariumKid]

Females will get along fine with guppies. I have 4 female bettas, 3 cory cats, and 4-5 little guppies in my 30gallon.

I don't know a lot about gourami. They might compete with the betta at the top of the tank for air because both breath air from the surface.

If you want to keep gourami, I suggest doing mostly gourami, a few mid level fish like tetras, feeder guppies, and maybe rasboras, and a bottom dwelling fish like cory cats or a small pleco.

Like I said, don't know a lot about gourami.

As far as your betta, you can set up a smal sorority in a heavily planted 15-20gallon, or a community tank with the female betta, a few feeder guppies, and a few cory cats.
Hope this helped!
~Sydnie

 

[Betta_Shark5678]

Well the second gourami died recently, so I really don't know about nipping, as far as I know they didn't nip each other, the smaller one is the living one, so I doubt the other died because he was beat up. I actually named my betta after my favorite character in a book

Sydnie, I wasn't sure if I was going to be putting my betta in the tank anyways, I was just thinking about it so I don't have as many tanks. I'm very busy, and cleaning my tanks is often hard to fit into my schedule! I only get to clean them out well once a month, other than that I take out a few cups of water, and add that much back. So I'll probably just leave my female betta in her tank, and have the gourami, the guppies, the platies, and the ghost (or cory, currently leaning towards ghost) catfish!

Thanks for all of your answers!

 

[OldMan47]

Betta with endlers, which some people insist are guppies because they are close relatives. What do you think? How about the fry he is ignoring in that picture?