# Has anyone ever kept gouramis and a male betta together successfully?



## Superedwin (Jan 19, 2009)

I haven't kept them in that group together.. But i did keep my betta with a lot of platies, tetras, corys, catfishes, and more, they all got along very well. I guess it really depends on the bettas personality, also since its planted it would work out even better. A good method is to have a floating plant or a plant that is big that reaches the surface,so then the betta can have his own territory and wont really bother anybody.


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## xiaxia (Mar 11, 2008)

I've kept a betta with a pearl and they did not get along well...at all. But my tank was a 14 gallon so not very much space so I don't know, but I think in a 75 gallon would work because there is so much space.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

At my work at a LFS, we have a 40 Breeder we sell plants out of. There is 1 male betta, 3 females, 3 Leeri gouramis, and 1 Powder Blue Dwarf gourami. They get along fine, but there is TONS of cover and visual barriers. And lots and lots of floaters, so there's enough territory for everyone.


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## Rex (Mar 5, 2009)

I have a male crowntail betta with honey and red honey gouramis (dwarf), a pair of each, and they get along fine. I have a planted 75 gallon as well. I wouldn't know about the larger type of gourami's though.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

i keep one with my chocolate gouramis, and a pair of chanoides bettas. all pretty much keep to themselves. its only a 10g, but pretty heavily planted. it really depends on the gourami species. betta splendens is only really aggressive towards it's own species. The smaller gouramis (honey, chocolate, sparkling, etc.) are mostly peacefull. IME, blues and pearls can get nippy and semi-aggresive as they get older, with any other tankmates. the betta would just get picked on.


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

I'll say first that I've never tried keeping them together, so I can't say whether it's workable or not

but I have kept gouramis in community tanks as well as bettas in community tanks and I just wanted to mention that in my experience, what *dhavoc* is saying is certainly true, male bettas don't tend to be the problem in community set ups, it's the other fish picking on them, in most cases male bettas are quite docile and don't really even fight back, unless dealing with another betta. The only acception to this that I've seen is with male fancy guppies, i think the male bettas see the long flowy tails and think the guppies are other bettas. The gourami I had was a bit rambunctious but did more chasing than nipping i think, i have heard they can get quite aggressive as they get older though.

HOWEVER with all that swimming space and heavy plant cover, it might just be doable. I'd say just keep a really close eye on the betta for signs he's been picked on and be prepared to have to remove and house him separately.


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## mynameisjonah (Jan 22, 2008)

personally i think you have enough large gouramis in that 75. bettas and gouramis are closely related and usually don't get along very well at all because of it. this can be alleviated with TONS of plant cover and breaks in their line of sight but its still taking a chance. also most of the larger gouramis although mostly originating from areas of low flow can handle fairly high water flow, unlike most splendens and crowntails. have a backup tank ready for the betta.


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

i have 4 opaline gouramies and 1 male beta together in a 29g tank and they do great. they dont pick on each other and ive never seen any aggression between the two groups.
the only thing about keeping gouramies is to make sure to have 1 male to 3 or 4 females, this disperses the aggression and you wont have a runt in the group. 
opaline gourmies really compliment my blue betta, it looks really nice.


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## ER9 (Aug 2, 2008)

this is all good news as i was thinking of getting a beta but just how much flow can they handle? is outflow from a canister and a koralia nano to much?


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