So... Bettas.

A couple of days ago the misconception that Bettas will fight any and all other fish in the tank with them was corrected for me. I don't think one would be a good fit for the 50 gallon community, as I'd like schools of guppies/endlers & tetras, tank I'm setting up but I'd like to know what sort of fish they generally won't fight with.
On the subject though are there any look-a-likes to bettas that're more community friendly?

 

Bettas vary greatly in personality, so it’s hard to ever guess what they’ll be fine with. Mine have been fine with gouramis in the past, and people say gouramis are a big no with bettas. I think some safe bets would be corydora catfish, smaller loaches, snails, and shrimp. They’re not going to cause the betta problems and the betta probably won’t spend enough time around them to cause them problems.

I don’t think there’s anything that looks like a betta and can work in a community tank. I say that because there’s a fish called paradise fish that looks a lot like a betta, but they’re known to be even more aggressive than bettas. There are sparkling gouramis that look sort of like bettas, but they’re quite small.

If you want a personality similar to a betta’s, look into dwarf cichlids like Bolivian rams!

 

Gourami would be the closest thing to a Betta given they are also Anibantiformes and typically do better in community type aquariums. I guess some Killifish are kind of like Betta but I don't know anything about them so whether the would work or not I have no idea.

 

Some fancy tail guppies are as pretty as a betta in community tanks and much safer. IMO, bettas belong alone and are not community fish. I do have one betta in my shrimp tank and he keeps them on their toes. Can’t catch them but loves to chase them.

 

I have a betta with fancy guppies and they pretty much ignore each other.

I’ve also kept bettas with all types of other fish and I’ve never have had any issues with them in community tanks.
The only times I had some issues were with cherry shrimp actually ( they ate them).

 

Yea mine ate my ghost shrimp. Took them a few months. I have my bettas (19 of them) with glowlight tetras and emerald cories.

 

It depends on the personality of the betta. I have 2 male bettas that lived in community tanks as juveniles. Now they are agressive. I used to have a passive betta that was perfect for a community. But sadly I had to return him to the owner ( I was taking care of it)

 

Microctnopama ansorgiis look similar and act similar to bettas. They do pretty well with any gentle species, so as long as the temp and parameter requirements overlap they’re fine in a well thought out community.

 

Does anyone know where to obtain the fancy betta varieties?

 

Does anyone know where to obtain the fancy betta varieties?

You mean in the splendens species? EBay and Aquabid have a lot of show quality splendens.

I do suggest creating a thread for this though. That way you can get more responses and will not clutter up this thread.

 

Microctnopama ansorgiis look similar and act similar to bettas. They do pretty well with any gentle species, so as long as the temp and parameter requirements overlap they’re fine in a well thought out community.

They are quite beautiful. I'll have to do some more research but they do look quite nice. I'm mostly looking into Tetras, Guppies and other small schooling fish and a few shrimp and snails.

It depends on the personality of the betta. I have 2 male bettas that lived in community tanks as juveniles. Now they are agressive. I used to have a passive betta that was perfect for a community. But sadly I had to return him to the owner ( I was taking care of it)

Wow. Really makes me wish I could read the minds of Bettas and tell if they'd go on a crusade against the rest of the stock or if they'd chill with some floating plants. When I input the stock I was looking at into it said I was using about 50% of the tank space so it's not like it'd be crowded... but if they really don't want neighbors then that doesn't matter too much.

 

There are a couple channels on YouTube I watch that talk about betta and community fish frequently. The most extreme is my 4th closest LFS. They only sell betta out of their in store community tanks. The coolest looking (betta) tank I've seen there was ember tetras that happened to have a betta in it that day. Maybe check their stuff out for some ideas. KGtropicals (used to be a store in FL I believe but closed/sold out) has done a decent amount of videos with betas recently as well. Sorry if I'm breaking some unwritten forum rule plugging these two channels but I have found them very useful and am running a tank with a betta and a hand full of endler guppy hybrid mutts and haven't had an issue yet. It's 10 gallon on a network rack and the betta isn't slated to stay in the network forever (I am going to be buffering this tank outside his parameters eventually) but for now he's doing quite well. Personally I would choose a less fancy betta, this one's a super Delta, for a tank with even moderate stocking as I had to cut the flow down do 2 cycles per hour for him to swim and not look labored.

 

There are a couple channels on YouTube I watch that talk about betta and community fish frequently. The most extreme is my 4th closest LFS. They only sell betta out of their in store community tanks. The coolest looking (betta) tank I've seen there was ember tetras that happened to have a betta in it that day. Maybe check their stuff out for some ideas. KGtropicals (used to be a store in FL I believe but closed/sold out) has done a decent amount of videos with betas recently as well. Sorry if I'm breaking some unwritten forum rule plugging these two channels but I have found them very useful and am running a tank with a betta and a hand full of endler guppy hybrid mutts and haven't had an issue yet. It's 10 gallon on a network rack and the betta isn't slated to stay in the network forever (I am going to be buffering this tank outside his parameters eventually) but for now he's doing quite well. Personally I would choose a less fancy betta, this one's a super Delta, for a tank with even moderate stocking as I had to cut the flow down do 2 cycles per hour for him to swim and not look labored.

Thank you, that's actually really useful to know there's places that sell Bettas they can show at least get along with the community they're kept with. I'll see if there's anything around me or if they ship.

 

Yea mine ate my ghost shrimp. Took them a few months. I have my bettas (19 of them) with glowlight tetras and emerald cories.

when I was on here before a couple of years ago, someone had a male betta community in a large tank. david1978 , do you recall who it was?

 

Could of been me. I think gypsy had 2 males in a 40 gallon breeder. Other then that noone comes to mind.

 

So you had 2 in the same tank?

 

So you had 2 in the same tank?

3 males and 16 females in a 55. They were in a 75 but got downgraded.