Male bettas make fantastic comunty tank mates...

[Ilovemyshiny]

if their is not another male in the tank...says the idiot manager at walmart... who has 7 bettas in tanks with zebra danios, goramies, guppies, goldfish, painted fish, cat fish and others such as chilids (dont know the spelling for that one) .

[dramaqueen]

Bettas are solitary fish and really prefer to live alone.

[AngelicScars]

Wow, I guess that would be expected at Walmart. >:(

[Scienceluvr8]

Wow, that was the situation where you rescued that betta from right? I hope he removed them all, seeing the betta the way it was should have taught him a lesson...

[Ilovemyshiny]

yea...i mad him remove them all. one other was in pretty bad condition i doubt it will make it..and i doubt what i told him made anydiference. he stuck to "they make great community tank mates"....so i was like screw you guys im goin home ;D (i will love anyone forever if they go that.

[Jynx]

Here's the thing you need to remember about people-
100 is the average IQ- and because only a tiny percentage of people is actually at a level 100 it actually means that half of all people are below 100 and half of all people are above. So when you go someplace like WalMart or a pet store remember that even if they try to hire people who know what they're doing, statistically half of the people who apply for those jobs will have an IQ lower than average. Maybe even more in some places. Then they do weird things like sticking bettas in with tiny delicious guppies or huge carnivorous cichlids- and want to argue with you about it. I'm not being elitist- I'm just saying not everyone can be expected to understand the finer points of animal behavior, and yet they find themselves in the position of having jobs where that's exactly what they're expected to do. ick

[MrVampire181]

Technically: gouramis are bettas. Chiclids kinda creep me out. I like them but still.

[ScentedLove]

THats so horriable how could people be so ignorant!!!

[Jynx]

cichlids are bloodthirsty little beasts- I kept some in my turtle tank for color. I much prefer bettas or nice goofy looking community fish like dojo loaches. lol dojo loaches

[RoseyD]

I love my bettas. Before buying them I thought that I'd love gouramis more - but, I'm really hooked now.

And, I do have one male betta - my king betta sharing a community tank with gouramis, rainbows and neons - and he loves having the 30 gallons - and I've seen him interact with the gouramis. He's bigger than the gold for now, and just a tiny bit smaller than the pearl. When he's done growing - I think he'll be similar size as the pearl - but the gold girl will be the largest tank mate. I'll have to watch her to see if she becomes mean as she gets older.

Thats what I've realized with these fish types more than anything else - is that you take it day by day, and you watch how they interact. If all goes smoothly - then let them all be friends. If it suddenly doesn't - then have someplace to seperate the bad guy to... or the good guy... (if he's been beat up)...

I don't know how my half moons would behave in this community setting - I don't have enough betta free tanks to test them on... and I don't feel like starting another 'big tank' project just yet...

:) 5 tanks should be enough...