LetDiceFly

Hi, I have 1 male, 2 female platies in a 10 gal aquarium, would they get along with a male betta?

cherryrose

Hello, LetDiceFly, and welcome to fishlore. The answer to your question begins with: It depends. It depends on the betta and on the platys. I have had a male betta in my tank with one male and one female platy and everything was fine. Others have had to separate the betta either because he was aggressive and tried to kill the platys, or because the platys were fin nippers and caused the male bettas fins to be injured and to develop finrot.

If you put the betta in after the platys have been established in the tank, the odds of it working go up. It sounds like that would be the case with you. The thing is you need to be prepared to remove the Betta if there are problems.

There are two articles that you need to read before you get the betta. One of them is: Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle Article - Read First. It is in the beginning of the freshwater beginners forum. The other one is: Welcome and Betta Care Guide - Please Read First!!! It is at the beginning of the betta forum.

CherryRose

lisa987

I had a betta in a 12 gallon and soon added 3 platys, but the betta was too aggressive toward the platys and I had to quick take the betta out and buy him his own 5 gallon, which of course I didn't have time to cycle... Then my betta got finrot possibly due to his uncycled tank and I ended up getting Biospira in the end. But in the meantime, it was a stressful experience for the platys, my betta, and me!

But who knows, maybe the outcome would have been different had I added the platys before the betta. If you try it, I wish you luck and I hope it works out better for you than it did for me!

LetDiceFly

The platies have been in the tank for about 4 months. I also have quite a lot of plants, enough that 3 fry survived without any help from me. The fry were given away to a friend.

0morrokh

Well, I can't add much to Cherryrose's advice. If you decide to try it, make sure you have a separate tank ready in case it doesn't work. If you do not want to possibly set up another tank, then I wouldn't try it in case they don't get along.
Oh also, since you just have Platys in there I'm guessing the tank won't be warm enough for a Betta. If you do get one I'd recommend raising the temp to 78-79 F. This is a little cooler than optimal for Bettas but I doubt the Platys would appreciate temps in the 80s.

LetDiceFly

Well I did it, we'll see how it goes. I introduced a new betta with 2 platies, about an hour ago. The betta seems to be curious about the platies and at times is following them around. The rest of the time he has been hiding behind the filter. The platies are a little nervous, but not too bad. I guess I'll see how the get along once betta is more settled in.

inuyasha_lover_21

I have my female Betta in a community tank. No one every bothers her which is good. She stays up on the surface scoping out the area. At times she will venture to the deep and go in the driftwood.

poefox

The one thing you need to be careful of is if you notice platies vaguely resemble female bettas. I would just suggest being ready to separate if there is a problem. It really depends on the temperament of the betta on the other hand.

COBettaCouple

How has your community tank gone? We started out with a Betta, then introduced 3 Platy females. It pretty much worked.. unfortunately (for them) the Platys were very curious about the Betta and all 3 would keep trying to check him out at the same time - led to a couple platys losing a fin or 2. After the 1st day though, they got along fine.. I think if we had done it in the order you did, things would have worked out better. In the end, we put the Betta in his own tank - simply because he seemed more playful and explored his tank more before having tankmates.

LetDiceFly

Unfortunately, I had to pull the platies out, they were scared of the betta, and he chased them, and one got lost a bit of tail. I have a cory in there now and the betta and the cory get along great.

poefox

Sorry, but I had a feeling that would happen.

COBettaCouple

Sorry it didn't work out.. I love platys, they're little characters (just not the level Bettas are) and very peaceful so they seem a perfect tankmate. I think their tendancy to roam all over gets them into trouble with a Betta. Hope your little platy grows that tail fin back nicely.. the platy who lost her top & a side fin and the platy who lost a side fin grew them back nicely after they got their own tank. No chance any of your platys were pregnant when you added the Betta, is there?

LetDiceFly

I had 2 of them in there, one was a female, and wasn't obviously pregnant, but they seem to be pregnant most of the time so I'm not sure. But it was the male who had the worst time of it, and lost a bit of tail fin

0morrokh

Sorry that happened.
May I suggest getting another Cory or two? They are social fish and get lonely if you only have one of them. How big is the tank?