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Baby Doubletail and Dwarf Gourami

2K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  KevinGillbride 
#1 ·
I recently put a baby double tail in a 20 gal long with 2 platys, 1 glow light tetra , 1 rubber lip pleco and 1 male dwarf gourami, I think the betta is male his tail and bottom(claudal?) fin have grown some in the last 3 weeks but his dorsal has really grown tall. I know it is not generally advised to put betta and dwarfs together, but this gourami already lived with a plakat for a year until the bettas recent death he always had a deformed spine and it got worse and he died, I think he never challenged the gourami's dominance due to this, and the gourami never got agressive with him although they both chased the platys a little. I think introducing the betta as a baby will let the gourami get used to him without being threatened and the betta will know the gourami is dominant without it stressing him out, it's been three weeks and they are getting along fine, they are not aggressive towards each other and they both chase the platies just like before
 
#2 ·
Just be warned, they DO NOT like each other. They will tolerate it, then one day one or the other will end up dead. Having it fine once is a fluke... Twice, can be asking for trouble. Betta fish come from the gourami family, and with a male gourami a colorful betta with longer fins poses a threat to his territory. And vice versa as well.

Also, for the platys get one more to even them out :) If they are two males, you need one male. One female one male, then another female.
Same goes for the glolight tetra. Mainly because they are social, schooling fish, and these guys do best in 5+.

Your pleco will have the highest bioload :lol: They may be cleaners... But they don't eat poop. Make sure to grab a water testing kit, and it will allow you to watch the levels of ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and even pH.
 
#3 ·
Like was said, glad it's working now, but the threat that it will stop working will always be looming over head. The dynamics of a tank can change as fish grow and mature, and it can happen overnight.


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#4 ·
x: fish dynamics aren't like dog or people dynamics. as Sena said, bettas and gouramis come from the same family, and they WILL fight at some point. they might be doing so now, and you just don't see it. i'd remove the betta into his own tank, and get another platty and three or four more tetras.
 
#5 ·
I thought two gouramis and a school of platys would be okay, since I had platys with bettas before. The gouramis scouted their territory, and the platys pestered them to death. They did not eat the bodies, they merely left it. THAT was a bad mistake on my part to think that since gouramis were bigger they could fend for themselves x.x Fish always prove us wrong.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for all of your betta /gourami information I'm aware of all of this though, I am going to remove one of the fish if it doesn't work but I'm gonna give it a shot. as for the glolight he's the last of a school of 7 from 5 years ago i don't really want anymore of them, or any other tetra. the platies i really don't think are schooling fish and 2 are fine but I would get more of them, I also do regular water changes
 
#7 ·
They are social fish that work best in 3+. This, I found first hand. I had 4 (one male, three female), and when adding more kept a 2-1 female to male ratio to avoid stressing the females, and kept the males from trying to tear into each other. Though fish show they are "fine", they could always be "better" ;-)
 
#11 ·
Agreed. It's been my experience (in a 45 gallon), as well as the experience of countless other people. Doesn't always end with one killing another outright, but one usually dies "for some reason". Stress is a killer, and aggression need not be manifested in the form of an attack for it to take its toll.


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#10 ·
Actually Kevin, dwarfs can if they are allowed the space and hiding spots. I had two blue dwarfs, and they scouted their territory and were fine. I also made sure to add natural barriers like driftwood.
 
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