Male betta in my aquarium?

Question

I asked this question last night and I got quite a few mixed answers, Im going to ask again with more info on my tank and fish and such.

I want to know if a male betta would be okay in my tank. The fish I have are

4 guppies (None are fancy but they are kinda bright in color)

6 Zebra danios (3 are long finned)

1 full grown dwarf gourami

1 3-4 inch blue 3 spotted gourami

1 4-5 inch pleco

2 oto. catfish

and a zillion baby guppies (like 20-ish)

2 mystery snails

Stats of my tank

55 gallon

65 pounds black gravel

10 flake plants of different sizes and types

large 2 piece castle in the middle

fluval filstar xp2 filter

stock lights

Now most people said "Watch out for that big blue three spotted gourami! He might hurt the betta!"...but he is scared of his own shadow, he hides all day in a castle and comes out when I am not in the room, and when he does so he searches for food and then hides again, he is not aggressive at all. The other dwarf gourami is not aggressive, he does "own" one secton of the tank but other than that he isn't territorial, and he doesn't even chase any one away, he just likes it there most and enoys the plants and hunting baby guppies....of which he never catches.

All of the guppies are very calm, I first thought the only male guppy was a girl because of how calm he is, if it wasn't for the fin that only males have I would have said he was a really pretty girl, he barely even dances for the girls...so he would not bother the betta. The danios are crazy, but they are danios, they have never hurt any other fish and usually only bicker with themselves, they chase a guppy once and a while, but there has been no fin damage.

so what I'm afraid of is the betta hurting my calm fish, I dont want my guppies to die, I like them way too much for that. The betta will be fine, but will my other fish be fine?

And as for food I feed them Omega One flake food with Omega One blood worms and frozen brine shrimp. (Not all at once, I don't over feed I promise, I feed once every other day)

So the protien content is pretty good for the betta, but would I still need a betta food?

Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

bettas have to live alone they will fight with any kind of fish

Answer 2

Filter might suck him up.

Otherwise, go for it.

Answer 3

It sounds like the fish you have would probably be fine with the betta in their tank, so the only question is would the betta be fine with them?  This depends on the betta you have.  All bettas are different and have unique personalities.  It doesn't sound like you have any fish that should appear to him as a rival.  No fish that would look like another betta to him or challenge him for territory, so that's good.  Some bettas are fierce hunters and just prefer to be alone.  Provided he's a fairly peaceful betta, I doubt there would be a problem there.  The only thing is that he might want to eat your guppy fry.  Some betta breeders feed their bettas guppy fry as a source of extra protein.  If you betta has been fed guppy fry before, he will see the fry in your tank as food and go after them.  

My suggestion is that you go ahead and put him in the tank and watch him for an hour or two.  Let him swim around and explore.  If you see any signs of him flaring up at the other fish and looking aggressive, give him a "time out" in a seperate container or back in his own tank again.  Same thing if you see any of the danios trying to nip at his fins or him chasing any of the fry.  Then try again tomorrow.  If you don't have any luck with him fitting in peacably after three days, you'll have to keep him seperated.  Good luck with him!

Oh, and the food you have should be fine for a betta.  I feed my bettas the same food as I feed my guppies and they do perfectly well with it.  Just make sure that betta gets his share and the guppies don't hog it all.  Guppies tend to eat faster than bettas do.  I have my betta in my guppy tank and I have taught him how to jump up out of the water and take food off of my finger so that he can get away from the greedy guppies and be sure to get his share of the bloodworms.

Answer 4

yes you can have a male Betta fish in your tank. you just cant put Betta's with aggressive fish. and you cant put a male and female betta together because the female will fight the male.  

Answer 5

ok - so in my 5 gal i have one male betta, 1 long fin danio and one regular danio. They get along fine.

My mom has a male betta, a kory, platys, guppies, ghost shrimp, olive nerite snails, neons and danios in her tank and everyone gets along fine..

I'd still be worried about the gouramis. I've had several that didn't appear to be aggressive but when the lights were out, they became agressive... sometimes korys will be the same way.

i'd be hesitant simply because of the gouramis.  

Answer 6

Majority of people will have mixed reviews, it mainly has to do with the temperament of the fish, and the luck you have. I would steer away from keeping the betta with the guppies, as the long flowing fins and color are known to provoke the betta (though I just noticed you said they aren't fancy). Hm, here is some of the information I picked up from the site ultimatebettas.com (which I reference a bunch as it is very informative when you have betta questions).

Zebra Danios are considered potential tankmates:

"Zebra Danios: While some keepers have had success with this small, peaceful species, they are not suggested tank mates for male bettas due to their propensity to nip fins (females probably "ok"). The zebra danio is very hardy and stands up better to harassment that some topical fish. However, they are a schooling species preferring lower temperatures and larger living conditions than is ideal for bettas."

As for Gouramis they are put in the "unacceptable tankmate" category:

"Gouramis (all sp.): One might think that two top-dwelling, bubble nesting, labyrinth species like bettas and gouramis would be a match made in heaven - but do not be mislead. Gouramis, like bettas, are highly territorial. They are also notorious fin nippers, a combination that often makes for injured or dead bettas. NO fin nipping species should ever be housed with bettas, but the betta/gourami combination is an especially lethal one"

And finally a Pleco is also in the unacceptable category:

"Common Pleco: This species requires a tank size far too large with too much filtration to possibly maintain a healthy betta. They grow to 12-20", prefer temperatures in the 60's to low 70's, and may be territorial at maturity. Overall, utterly incompatible with bettas."

I will post the link below so you can read on which are compatible and acceptable:

http://www.ultimatebettas.com/index.php?...

Note: Do not be fooled by amateur betta owners, who say that they are aggressive fish, that kill anything in its way

Answer 7

Bettas Are Very slow fish they can be fast when really important but anthing that could harm him is not worth the chance

Answer 8

I tried putting my male in with my fish, he went right for the guppies. But mine were fancy with brightly colored fins.

He will think they are other male betta's and try to kill them.

You can try it to see how the betta acts, you'll know within 15 minutes if it's not going to work cause he will start chasing the guppies.

But try it, you wont know for sure with your type of not so fancy guppies until you float him and then release him in the tank. Unless your tanks are all the same temp/salt content then you can just throw him in there.

I would suggest that you give the betta, betta food, that was a concern for me, but you can always feed the betta separately they like to hang out in the corners of the tank, near the top so feeding them separate food is not too difficult.

Answer 9

I have a 75 gallon tank with all sorts of mollies, tetras, anglefish, and a large tire track eel. they MASSACRED the beta i put in there, nipping off all of his fins. these are all more agressive then the fish you have in your tank but...they might end up doing the same thing.

i knew i wanted a beta fish but didn't like the small containers they came in i felt like they were to inhumane, horrible water quality. so i went to my pet store and looked around and found...

the "beta condo" it's a smaller tank with three sides with suction cups that stick to the side of the tank.

http://www.pennplax.com/Pages/Aqua.pages...

now this condo can hold up to four betas, but the walls that separate them are removable. i left the center one and have two betas. because they do enjoy the smaller space but this way you don't have to get a whole new bowel.

good luck!