# Male betta and dwarf gourami in 36 gallon?



## AmaV (Jan 11, 2015)

Alright so, I got permission from my manager(I work at a pet store) to add one of our bettas to one of the display tanks. We have two tropical ones- a 60 gallon and a 36 gallon. The 60 gallon is a semi aggressive tank, so I added the betta to our 36 gallon(which has tetras, Cory's and some platys in it were the fish I knew of). Well, after I got the betta use to the water and in the tank I found out one fish I didn't know was in there, which was a dwarf gourami. 

The other fish left the betta alone and the betta did the same, but the gourami stayed near him. The betta would flare at it when it got to close and the gourami would back off. It wasn't attacking the betta but seems kind of curious about him?

The betta wasn't actively going after the gourami either, only when it got too close the betta would flare but once it got a good distance away the betta would stop flaring and continue exploring. 

I looked it(the compatability between them) up online just recently and most people say not to have them in the same tank cause they are similar and will attack each other but then some people have said it depends on the individual fish, my manager is going to watch them for tonight(I'm already home) but I work tomorrow morning and if they are both in there(if my manager doesn't remove one) should I just keep watching them and see how they are doing together or should I just remove the betta(or maybe see if I can move the gourami?)


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## AmaV (Jan 11, 2015)

I know I'm stupid for not looking this up beforehand. Maybe I'll call and ask them to remove one of them now or go back down and do it myself. Ack. :/


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## Fin Fancier (Aug 11, 2012)

Sounds like your heart was in the right place, but it might be better to take the betta out. As for those 'every once in a while it works' situations you get people who see things and just assume it will work in their aquarium as well without asking questions.


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## Nismo83 (May 9, 2015)

Dwarf Gourami is not a good tank mate for betta.. =(


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## AmaV (Jan 11, 2015)

Fin Fancier said:


> Sounds like your heart was in the right place, but it might be better to take the betta out. As for those 'every once in a while it works' situations you get people who see things and just assume it will work in their aquarium as well without asking questions.


Forgot to update this thread, thank you for responding! The betta was removed, maybe we will be able to try again in the future when either we have another display tank set up or when the gourami is no longer living in this one 

They did seem to be doing 'okay' together and by okay I mean they weren't constantly going after another, when I had gone back they were both on different sides of the tank and weren't paying attention to each other when they were in the same area. But the bettas tail did seem to get nipped at a bit(he was either nipped or the plastic plants in the tank did some damage) 

I was hoping that maybe if people saw how active and happy bettas are in a bigger and heated tank they'd see they actually do better then when they're left in small tanks. Plus, they could see that they can actually be put in community tanks(with the right fish-so I guess having him with a gourami wouldn't be a good idea in the first place, cause it might give people the idea its okay to put them together in tanks). 

Lesson learned, I'll be doing research before putting any fish with other fish from now on(and double check what is in what tank before adding more fish in!)


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