i went to a garden centre today to have a look at the selection of tropical fish.there tanks were very clean but i had only one problem with them,they had a delivery of fighting fish which were great.we got half way round only to find a tank full of about 20 or more gouramis and only one fighten fish in the same tank and every gourami was attacking the poor betta.we had to tell the member of staff what was going on and it took him aleast 2 mins to come over to rescue the poor little bugger.by the time we got round to the actual tank were he had been transfered to he was vertually dead.i think that its disgusting that people who work in these places should know what fish to put with what fish,im no expert but i know not to put a betta with that many gourmai's.it makes me sick.
Bettas are gouramies themselves and will often provoke other species to attack them even if the other gouramies don't attack first. Their impressive finnage is no use to them in a fight so they almost inevitably suffer the worse damage.
It's a great shame that most LFS workers haven't got a clue about fish but what can you do? I have often taken them aside and lectured them, tried to reason with them, begged them, sucked up to them lol - everything - it realy makes no difference in the end.
But maybe you saved that one betta's life
