# Bettas and guppies - is it possible to house them together?



## Vergil (Nov 10, 2013)

Hi, I basically went out of the betta scene for a while and switched to other tropical fish. Now I miss bettas and was wondering if it's possible to keep 1 or 2 in my current setup.

I have a planted 10 gal with several fish - 2 male guppies, 5 female guppies and 1 female platy.

I'm hoping to add female bettas as I know they've been kept in sororities. 

TIA!


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## kjg1029 (Jun 14, 2014)

some bettas are okay with it, others not. but I will say that theres no way I would add more fish to that tank, especially if its more then one betta. because a ten gallon really isnt that large


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## Strawberry12 (Mar 6, 2015)

You wouldn't be able to add two female bettas, they need to be kept in full sororities of 5 and up.


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## kjg1029 (Jun 14, 2014)

yeah, exactly why I said dont add more then one if you try it.
sororities often fail due to aggression or disease issues. They need to be heavily planted and closely monitored, and I've heard they are better off in a slightly larger 15-20+ gal size tank


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## MeredithNa (Oct 13, 2014)

I have a male betta and 6 guppies in the same 66L tank. There was only a tiny bit of aggression from the betta, and he occasionally takes a bite out of the tail of the longest finned one but other than that it's all good. But in saying that, Barry just doesn't care about anything other than food. They tend to ignore each other.


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## Vergil (Nov 10, 2013)

Strawberry12 said:


> You wouldn't be able to add two female bettas, they need to be kept in full sororities of 5 and up.



Sorry for the late reply... I've been so busy lately. :/ 

I'm not asking about sororities - there's a bunch of threads about that. I'm asking specifically if the female bettas will be able to tolerate being in a tank with other fish that are of another species.


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## SplashyBetta (Jul 28, 2014)

They might tolerate it, they might not. But it doesn't matter because your tank can't handle any more fish, especially not a sorority.


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

I keep my Betta (male and female) in tanks with guppies and never had a problem. 

Like others have said 7 guppies and 1 platy in the tank you will be having fry soon. It takes guppies 30 days for fry to start showing up and they will keep doing that every 30 days until you split the males and females(they will keep having fry for 2-3 months after you split them up). So while I don't think your tank is over stocked right now it could be very soon. 

The betta will eat some of the fry but you will have a lot survive and those will make more and more.

So if your filtering is very good and willing to do a lot of culling a female betta could work in the tank.


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## Vergil (Nov 10, 2013)

SplashyBetta said:


> They might tolerate it, they might not. But it doesn't matter because your tank can't handle any more fish, especially not a sorority.


I hate to do this, but I am NOT asking about a sorority. I am fully aware it is a specialized set up. I am asking about the possibility of 1 or possibly 2 female bettas which have the potential get along with other fish.


-

@Warhawk: That's the main reason! I don't want fry. I intended to have 1 male and 3 females. I rescued a platy that was being given away and that's it. Two of the females and the other male right now somehow survived. I need something that doesn't have much bioload to kill off any fry as I don't want too many of them.


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

Vergil said:


> -
> 
> @Warhawk: That's the main reason! I don't want fry. I intended to have 1 male and 3 females. I rescued a platy that was being given away and that's it. Two of the females and the other male right now somehow survived. I need something that doesn't have much bioload to kill off any fry as I don't want too many of them.



I don't think your betta will be able to keep your fry in check. She will eat some but won't be able to get them all. I would be surprised if she gets half. And if half survive that is a lot of fry 

Good luck


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## Strawberry12 (Mar 6, 2015)

Vergil said:


> I hate to do this, but I am NOT asking about a sorority. I am fully aware it is a specialized set up. I am asking about the possibility of 1 or possibly 2 female bettas which have the potential get along with other fish.


I am responding to this part. You could have one female betta in a community, or a sorority in a huge community, but you can't have two female bettas in a community.


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## Vergil (Nov 10, 2013)

That is why I said 1 or 2. I am basically saying whichever is more feasible for the tank. Please stop using the term sorority which has a recommended number of 4+ females as I have no intention of keeping one seeing as I do not have the room for it.


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## Vergil (Nov 10, 2013)

Warhawk said:


> I don't think your betta will be able to keep your fry in check. She will eat some but won't be able to get them all. I would be surprised if she gets half. And if half survive that is a lot of fry
> 
> Good luck


From what I read and what I was told that I can keep the numbers down if I don't separate the young. The 3 fry that survived hid in my hornwort and are now half the size of the adults. 

Will feeding less help?


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## SplashyBetta (Jul 28, 2014)

Vergil said:


> I hate to do this, but I am NOT asking about a sorority. I am fully aware it is a specialized set up. I am asking about the possibility of 1 or possibly 2 female bettas which have the potential get along with other fish.
> 
> 
> -
> ...


You can't have two female bettas together. If you don't want a full sorority, get a single betta. It's one, 4+, or none.


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## aaronpham (Feb 15, 2015)

SplashyBetta said:


> You can't have two female bettas together. If you don't want a full sorority, get a single betta. It's one, 4+, or none.


Eh, I have 2 bettas in my tank and they do fine. There's no hard rules about this. Each fish has different personalities and will respond accordingly.


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## aaronpham (Feb 15, 2015)

Vergil said:


> From what I read and what I was told that I can keep the numbers down if I don't separate the young. The 3 fry that survived hid in my hornwort and are now half the size of the adults.
> 
> Will feeding less help?


Feeding less will help, but that won't keep the population down.. 3 female guppies can produce ALOT of babies over a month span... You would probably need to cull them yourself or you'll find yourself stocked with tons of fry. Keeping the fry together may slow their growth slightly, but it's not going to keep numbers down.


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## SplashyBetta (Jul 28, 2014)

aaronpham said:


> Eh, I have 2 bettas in my tank and they do fine. There's no hard rules about this. Each fish has different personalities and will respond accordingly.


It's very risky. If one betta decides to go psycho, there's only one other betta to take it out on, instead of in a large sorority where there are multiple fish to spread out aggression. Bettas are unpredictable. Their aggression can change at the drop of a hat. One minute their fine, the next you have one tearing the other to pieces. And I would definitely never recommend it to someone who doesn't have experience with sororities.


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## Vergil (Nov 10, 2013)

SplashyBetta said:


> You can't have two female bettas together. If you don't want a full sorority, get a single betta. It's one, 4+, or none.


I am not asking about paired females by their lonesome or sororities. Please understand I am asking something specific to my situation as there is another dynamic: the guppies. I am wondering if they will be able to provide a substitute school for the two females if they are kept. This is the thing I'm asking about in particular. 

@aaronpham: Yes, they don't fight most of the time but I wouldn't put it past them. They're called fighting fish after all. 

And, no. I meant if I feed less, will that encourage the betta/adult guppies to munch on the fry. Hopefully I can get rid of most. I'm trying to avoid directly culling fry. If it can't be avoided I can possibly offer surviving ones to fish shops.


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## aaronpham (Feb 15, 2015)

Vergil said:


> I am not asking about paired females by their lonesome or sororities. Please understand I am asking something specific to my situation as there is another dynamic: the guppies. I am wondering if they will be able to provide a substitute school for the two females if they are kept. This is the thing I'm asking about in particular.
> 
> @aaronpham: Yes, they don't fight most of the time but I wouldn't put it past them. They're called fighting fish after all.
> 
> And, no. I meant if I feed less, will that encourage the betta/adult guppies to munch on the fry. Hopefully I can get rid of most. I'm trying to avoid directly culling fry. If it can't be avoided I can possibly offer surviving ones to fish shops.


Adult guppies don't munch on the fry that much. And yeah that's what I ment by feeding less, it's a two bird one stone thing, they'll eat more fry and produce less babies, but regardless, they'll still be a ton of fry, maybe half will be eaten, but half will probably grow up.


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

SplashyBetta said:


> It's very risky. If one betta decides to go psycho, there's only one other betta to take it out on, instead of in a large sorority where there are multiple fish to spread out aggression. Bettas are unpredictable. Their aggression can change at the drop of a hat. One minute their fine, the next you have one tearing the other to pieces. And I would definitely never recommend it to someone who doesn't have experience with sororities.



I agree but all Betta are different. I have keep 2 females in the same tank for well over a year no issues at all. The do the middle school thing where they puff up their chests and look at each other but after 20-30 secs they swim away. I don't know why it is working in my tank it could be the cory in the tank or could be that they where part of a sorority for a while(lost all the others over a year ago). I have moved the decor around a lot so that might play a part also.

Like you I'm not suggestion one try this but it has worked for me. 




Vergil said:


> I am not asking about paired females by their lonesome or sororities. Please understand I am asking something specific to my situation as there is another dynamic: the guppies. I am wondering if they will be able to provide a substitute school for the two females if they are kept. This is the thing I'm asking about in particular.
> 
> I understand not wanting to cull at first I didn't want to, but after a while you realize you don't have a choice if you want to keep the males and females together. I started getting bigger fish so I could feed the fry to, a south or central American cichlid will keep the fry levels down but would grow large enough to eat everything in the tank.
> 
> ...



The betta's will naturally eat all the fry they can catch so feeding less won't really help that. I have noticed the Betta is an ambush predator so they will sit and wait for the fry to swim by. But in my experience the guppy fry don't swim around in the tank unless they feel very safe. So the Betta will get some but most will stay in hiding until they feel safe and this is to big for the betta to eat. 

Ask the pet store if they will take them, some will some won't. There are different ways to cull I have heard of a lot of ways I won't do it but maybe you can find a why that works for you.


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## SplashyBetta (Jul 28, 2014)

Vergil said:


> I am not asking about paired females by their lonesome or sororities. Please understand I am asking something specific to my situation as there is another dynamic: the guppies. I am wondering if they will be able to provide a substitute school for the two females if they are kept. This is the thing I'm asking about in particular.


I have guppies in my sorority tank and the bettas ignore them completely. If they did decide to go after them, the guppies would very likely end up dead. Guppies are not fit for fighting against a large betta nor are the long-finned male guppies very fast. So either the bettas will ignore them or they will attack them. The guppies will not act as a substitute for female bettas.


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