Can Bettas live with other fish???

[Shimano]

Hi I was just wondering if bettas will get along with other fish I bought a fish tank from a friend and it comes with fish. I'm not sure what type they are but I would like to put my betta in with them. All I can think of doing is putting him in a bag to see how he reacts.

Thank for any info

[twoluvcats]

how big of a tank? And you really need to find out what kind of fish. There are more fish that DON'T get along with bettas than do.

Bettas really don't need or want "company"...fast moving fish can bother them, and since bettas are slow with long fins, they are often nipped and picked on by smaller fish. They will fight with gouramis and guppies, and any other longish finned fish that they could mistake for competition.

All I can think of doing is putting him in a bag to see how he reacts.

This won't give you any indication of how things will really go. I mistakenly housed a betta and a gourami together in a 29 gallon tank...everything was fine as could be for months, then over one night they fought and I woke up to a half-dead, beat up betta.

Really, bettas do best with non-swimming tankmates...snails, frogs, shrimp. Otos are good non-aggressive alge eaters that work as well.

Here are a couple other threads where we talked about tankmates for bettas:
healthybetta.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=bettadiscussion&action=display&thread=1100193016
healthybetta.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=generalcare&action=display&thread=1098372971

[Shimano]

Thank you so much for the info.

[Bettaman]

Bettas do great with Cory Catfish as well. They say Mollies and Tetras and swordfish and Neons are ok but I have found none of them are good tankmates for a Betta. The only fish I have neverhad trouble mixing with Bettas is the Cory Catfish. Plus if you get a male and a female cory cat they will mate and lay eggs on the glass walls of the tanks and the Betta with absolutely love those Cory Catfish eggs.