Guppy or Betta???

Which tropical fish should I purchase? Guppy or Betta.
I have read that Guppies are easy to take care of but I have also heard that bettas are easy to breed.

If you have an answer to my problem could you please reply to this statment :
thank you for your time

 

you heard wrong about bettas being easy to breed. They not only are difficult to breed on general, but be prepared to have a great deal of room involved because you will need at least a 55 gallon tank to use as an intermediate tank for your fry until they start to show sex characteristics. Then you are going to need to have room to separate all the little males from each other in jars and still keep the big tank for the growing females. And you also have to take into consideration that while the males are not in the big tank, each of those jars are going to need the daily water changes and the care that the big tank does. NO, bettas take a lot to breed. There is also the very real chance that one or both of your breeding pair may end up damaged due to the after-the-mating arguments if you don't get them seperated fast enough. I have even heard of more than one female killed by the male. You will also need another completely separate tank of 5 gallons or so for the female to go to after spawning to recover and to prevent any chance of her getting infection. That means not back to the community tank. That is a lot of tanks and jars and work.

Hope this has been helpful. I like to see bettas find good homes, but don't buy one just because they are "easy to breed". You will be very disappointed and the fish will be unhappy.

Welcome to Fishlore.com. It has been my pleasure to post to you. I have had a great experience on this forum and with these wonderful people. I am hoping your experience will be the same.

Rose

 

WHEW! Rose! That got me dizzy!! A great read though....I found it very interesting and realized that bettas were difficult to breed, but until you really sit down and read about the work that would be involved you really don't see the big picture.

 

LOL I guess I do get bit wordy --- but I do a LOT of reading about BETTAS and OTOS and their lives and habits and what it takes to make them happy and healthy and when I got Misty I had a few moments thought of breeding them myself. Well, needless to say, I am not up to the task and don't have the room even if I were. While I do love them, I don't believe I could do it justice and I do not know how people do it who work and breed bettas too. It seems to me to be a 24/7 job.

Anyway, I just don't want anyone else to walk into a situation that they are NOT ready for. Guppies are much easier to breed.

Rose

 

Given the tasks that would go with breeding bettas, I'd opt for guppies too!!

 

thanks for the info I will not breed the bettas and I will breed the guppies. thanks

 

I once read somewhere that to breed guppies you just add water I know that's not entirely true - but you get the picture on how easily they breed

 

yeah its basically true though fI you have female and male guppies in one tank you WILL get fry ^,^... make sure you can house the fry though cuz they don't stay like lil small fries forever ^,^

 

Is it possible to have more than one female betta in a five gallon tank? Will they get along?

 

Well, from the looks of things, you're pretty well stocked and maybe even overstocked on your 5 gallon right now. But with that said, two bettas in a 5 g may be a little cramped. They need some room to swim. I'm not sure how they'd get along either.

 

Bettas are not as compatible with other fish, including their own, as guppies are, so you should decide how many fish you want before you choose

 

when it comes to FEMALE BETTAS and FEMALES alone, they should be kept in groups of three or more ideally. They need to establish a primary "queen" betta in a group who leads the others. It is recommended that the entire group be added to the tank together so they are able to establish their "pecking order" from the start.

They should not be put in the same tank that a MALE betta already resides in. Both sexes should never be placed together except to mate and unless you have all the equipment and are able to do it almost professionally you do not want that.

Rose