Im choosey with my twenty!! HELP!

[guppy12]

Hi- i have a 20 gallon and so far i have 1 gourami (dwarf), 4 guppys ( soon to be hit'n the road) 4 dwarf platies, 3 corys, a eel, 2 loaches , 8 rainbow threadfins and i WANT a female betta, but would mr.g. fight or get picked on by the female?
Thanks
G12

[Purrbox]

Either one or both is likely to happen. Gouramis and Bettas should not be housed together under most circumstances. While it could work out the odds are against it.

[rich311k]

Just curious what kind of eel and what kind of loaches? I agree with Purr, gouramis and bettas do not do well together in most cases.

[coldmachineUK]

Hmmm...most eels I heard of grow pretty big (in the region of 15" plus)...

[sith j]

that sounds like a lot fish for a 20 gal

[guppy12]

I have no idea what kind of eel it is but is full grown and 4-5 inches. the 2 loaches are khuli loaches. But im really excited to have all th rainbows together

g12

[JustOneMore20]

I think your tank is fully stocked...maybe overstocked a bit, so I wouldn't add anymore fish. If you want a female betta setup a 5g or 10g. In a 10g you could get a few female bettas, if they are all even tempered.

[Tostada]

I've had 3 different male bettas with my gold gourami, and he's never fought with any of them. I've seen the gourami picking on my swords now and then, but never any of the bettas.

I've got 30 hex with a gold gourami, a big blue betta, 4 swords, 4 ottos, 5 panda corys and 7 rasboras, and the betta is actually the only thing I haven't seen the gourami nip at.

Well, my last betta got constipated and died, and the day he died he was having trouble swimming, and the gourami did come up and poke at him a little bit.

It seems like bettas and gouramis can have very different personalities from one to another, and you really can't say for sure what they'll get along with. You can say that bettas will attack other bettas and gouramis will very often harrass other gouramis, but other than that I don't see a lot of consistancy in who they get along with.

[guppy12]

I have no idea what to do... i did a 50 water change and wow im firing my bottom cleaners! LOL but it was really dirty and i do that every week