Compatability

[FishQueen]

My friend just got a 10 gallon aquarium. He wants to have a communoty tank with a male and female betta in there. If there are enough hiding spots, will this work? I thought that male and females could only be kept together when mating. Should he just try it out and be prepared to move one if something goes wrong?

[Jenny]

I don't think it's a good idea to keep a male and female together. If they are not ready to mate, they will fight almost as badly as two males, and could severely injure each other. There's also a possibility that they could end up mating. Is he ready to take care of potentially hundreds of babies?

[Megan]

Definitly not a good idea! A ten gallon is far to small to successfully keep a male and female together in. In my opinion they should never be kept together at all, no matter how big the tank is, as it is far to stressful to both of them. In the wild they come together only to spawn, they are not schooling fish, and do not like or need each others company.

[FishQueen]

That's what I thought. It seems that he read up on it and the book or website only said that males couldn't be kept together, but females could. And it described the mating process. Buuuuut, he still seems to think that its okay. Maybe I can just convince him to get some females.... I hope so. I did warn him that he better be prepared for babies. He was totally suprised that he could end up with that many. He will be a new betta owner, so hopefully he'll live and learn. Unfortunately, I can't be there to help him out cuz he lives out of state. I did refer him to the site tho... so I hope he joins and learns something!

[Betta MVP]

I agree that this wouldn't work out, especially in that small of a tank. Maybe in a 100 gallon heavily planted tank where they would rarely run into each other, but there could still be problems, LOL!

If he does put them together and they do successfully breed, the babies would all get eaten in a community tank, so that would take care of that problem.

If he insists on doing this, tell him to get more than one female so that the male won't pick on one exclusively.

[ana]

if he insists on doing it have him read up on the subject and watch them carefully, we dont want the babies that might be born to be hurt

i have seen it done, and the male was close to dead, the female was nipping his fins so badly he'd lost his colouring and was close to death, hiding, not even looking like a male, skulked in a corner, and the person doing it said he would be fine, he was gone a couple of days later

[FishQueen]

Okay. I'll be sure to tell him to get a couple more females when he gets them. I guess I should also tell him to get his other fish first? So that the bettas won't be as territorial?

[Megan]

About the bettas being territorial, this could work in two ways. One, the betta(s) could be territorial towards their other tanks mates, or Two, the other tank mates could be territorial towards the betta. Your friend needs to really make sure to research what kinds of fish he puts in this tank, not all fish get along with bettas, and bettas do not get along with all fish. For example, some small tetras and other fish are very "nippy" and will shred the fins of a male betta in no time. Many male bettas do not get along well with other fish with long, flowing fins (male guppies, veil tail tetras, etc...), apparently the long fins remind them of other male bettas and they feel the need to fight.

[FishQueen]

Yeah, I know all this... I just want to make sure HE knows it. I haven't seen him online yet, but hopefully I will soon!!

[FishQueen]

Alright theres some good news! He only got a male betta. He has in the tank the male, a few female guppies, a few corys and I think something else... don't remember what. But all the fish should be compatable with his new betta! He didn't say whether he still planned on getting females or not...

[Betta MVP]

If he just set up his tank and added all of those fish at once, please tell him that he needs to watch the ammonia levels (and later on nitrite) and do frequent partial water changes while the tank cycles. The best thing to have done was a fishless cycle. The second best way would have been to add the fish gradually so the biological filter could catch up with the ammonia load.

If he is not diligent about checking the water and doing partial water changes, I fear all of these fish will die.

[FishQueen]

I don't think he did... I'll ask tho. I'm pretty sure he cycled it.

[ana]

i think at least 5 is usually the magic number for females in a tank, so no one gets nipped to death. lots of plants and places to hide too