# Bettas and Gouramis?



## sewingalot

No, no and no. They are not compatible. They will fight for territory. Actually, don't consider housing them with any other anabantids. One of two things will happen 99% of the time. One of the fish will become timid and stressed out to the point it hides a lot or there will be lots of fighting and eventually one will die from stress or wounds.


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## smcbaranek

That is want I thought, thanks for confirming this.


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## Ariel301

Usually it won't work. Sometimes it will. I had two male bettas that cohabited a 2.5 gallon tank for over a year peacefully. I discovered that by accident; they had a glass divider between them and I came home one day to find that it had either fallen over or one of the cats had pushed it over (probably that option!) and the bettas were just hanging out together! They were an exception though. I've kept bettas and gouramis together with mixed success. It works best in a very long tank, 4 feet or more. I have also kept multiple gouramis together with varying success...sometimes those guys get along fine, other times they beat each other to death. I wouldn't suggest trying it unless you have another tank set up for one of them. 

If you're wanting a betta, you could always set up another small tank for it. You can get 5 gallon tanks pretty cheaply (try craigslist for used small tanks, they're always around).


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## mistergreen

The betta will be dead if you put them in the tank with the gouramis. This is a guarantee.

2 bettas together is pretty far fetched in a 2.5 gallon. Maybe this is an extremely rare occurrence where they are still very young and are related, brothers. Some strain of bettas had their aggression bred out as well but there's no way to tell visually.


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## Ariel301

It was indeed an unusual occurrence. I am surprised it worked. They were not young, or brothers though. Both were over a year old, and I kept them in separate compartments in this tank in between trips to a breeding tank...until they got in together and apparently were friends ever after. Neither were aggressive at all, the females alway tore them to pieces and these two never fought back. They were just strange ones. This isn't something that happens often, obviously! I would not recommend trying it at all. I just had to get rid of a gourami because I had two of them in a 55 and one constantly chased the other. (both were male...I got them thinking I had a male and female but the 'female' turned out to be another male)


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## urbguy

I've had a betta in a 10 gallon tank with 20 guppies that died later because of "AlgaeFix". The betta was fine, the guppies were fine, no signs of stress or whatnot. Betta loved to rest on the leaves of the wisteria plant. When I placed them into a 55 gallon tank, everything was even better as they now had alot of room to do their business. Because all 20 guppies had died to a AlgaeFix treatment, my loved ones went out and bought me replacement fishes. I got another betta from my brother, and a gift from my girlfriend, 2 dwarf gourami and 2 oplaine gourami (btw, she had checked with petsmart to make sure that they were peaceful and were kept in the same bag...lies...), whom all got along pretty well. However, it really didn't last. Like what Ariel301 said, they usually don't get along but there are occasions where they will. 3 months later, my male betta, whom i named "Betta Bob Fancy Pants" because of his nice crown tail, had no tail because of the inevitable violence that occurred the night before. The next day, both dwarf gouramis were dead...finally, the day after the next, the other betta had died leaving me the opaline gourami, the peaceful fish that petsmart had advertised. i had 3 peaceful months with no violence, who knew that the end would have been so bloody? so yeah moral of the story, you can keep them together but take it from me, it's going to end with alot of toilet flushing.


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## edithhung

*Gourami is quite territorial; if not, I am sure betta will be!*

I have two opaline gouramis, one male and one female, plus two dwarf gouramis in a 55G. The male opaline gourami is developing his aggression as time goes. He will chase the female most of the time (depending on his mood, sometimes he lets her swim with him). Recently he will push dwarf ones from time to time (usually during feeding). The tank is heavy planted, so none of them got too stressed so far as the chasing couldn't last long, and they all soon get distracted by nipping plants. Pets Smart has also advised them as community fishes that will get alone. If my tank wasn't heavy planted, I am sure they won't even last till now.Lessons learned, we are observing them everyday to make sure they are still under a certain kind of balance and everyone gets to have a resting area still. We are ready when the male opaline gets too big to a point that he will need to be removed to another tank. After observing all these with the gourami, I will not trust putting a male betta in the same tank with them.


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## kebl0155

Yes, so long as you are mindful. We have a male betta and a male Dwarf gourami in the same 20 gallon tank. They haven’t exchanged so much as an angry glance. We did pick one of the shyer looking bettas in the shop, and when we later bought the gourami we did put him in the birthing tank we use for the guppies for a few hours to allow the betta to get used to his smell and check for reaction in a safe way. Our tank is fully planted with plenty of spots for a fishy time out, and there are no females of either species, which we think all probably helps. It probably also helps that the gourami is slightly bigger than the betta, who just swims away if he gets too close, just as he does with the rest of the fish. We did read that Dwarfs are the least aggressive, which is why we chose this variety of gourami.


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