Female betta and male dwarf gourami?

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HannahJ

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Apr 2, 2006
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Location
College Station, Texas
I'm babysitting an out-of-state dormmate's female betta over winter break, and seeing as how she's currently housed in one of those teeny little betta bowls, I'm considering tossing her in my community tank to give her some space. Only caveat is the male dwarf gourami in the tank. Can this combination work? I know male bettas and male gouramis are a no-no, so I'd like some insight on this mix before I try it out and risk disaster.

Thoughts?
 
Eh, I got impatient and put her in the community tank, with some careful observation. Betta seemed overwhelmed with the space and company, and nosed at all of her tank mates (she followed one of the cories around with fascination for a good 10 minutes) but seems to have settled in fine. Her coloring is crazy dark right now, she looks black (she's a red-blue betta) and she's all fins, just kinda wandering around.

The gourami could care less. He came and checked her out when she first went in, and now seems the same as always. Not even a nip. I'll continue observations, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that (from an anecdotal standpoint) this combination looks workable.
 
As long as the gourami isn't an issue you should be fine. I've seen females in all sorts of community mixes at the LFS.

From personal experience, bettas love space. Any time someone mentions that they keep their betta enclosed so that they don't become "overwhelemed" I like to mention the story about the male betta I rescued from my sister. I threw him into my pond where he had no problem with swimming down 6' to annoy the guppies.
 
Yep-- bettas do like their room.

My female is in an 8gal with tetras and cories, she zooms all over swimming about. I'm also betta-sitting for a friend and I popped him in my ~4gal QT/extra plant tank from his ~1/2gal "tank"... he's VERY happy about the room and place to rest (the plants are a big knot of floating anacharis right now, doing a major rescape, so when those big fins just get too heavy he finds a stem to hang out on like a hammock).
 
Well, the betta bowl is a 1 gallon little desk tank that actually has a little undergravel filter in it (not that I imagine it actually cycles worth anything) so it could be a lot worse. She's having a great time in the 10 gallon though.

She and gourami did take a few swipes at each other at food time, but then again, he does that to everyone (his name is The Big Meanie).
 
i have seen DG temperments varry ALOT. it seems the ones that are more imbred or born with illness are much more laid back. however, any healthy specimen I have had are downright mean. i tried to put a sunset red DG i had a few years back in my community tank.

it attempted to kill the bolvian rams at the bottom of the tank. they tried to hide and run, but he wanted em dead.

needless to say he went back into his own private tank
 
Yeah I had another dg in there with him when I first got him, that lasted all of a day. The glofish are too fast for him to bother much, and the cories stay out of his way. He's certainly a strong personality.
 
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