Betta and Pladies, bad mix

[michaelg210]

I was told it was ok to put these two together, and just watch them the first hour or so to see if there was any nipping going on one way or the other.

Last night everything was fine, in fact the "boss" platy was behaving as the betta had established this was "his" tank. Other than that, both sides were minding thier own business.

I kept an eye on them for several hours, on and off, and as stated, all was fine.

Well this morning was a different scene. Checked on the tank, and the betta was pursuing two of the pladies like the red barron in a dogfight with allied planes. I immediately netted him and put him back in his bowl.

Two of the pladies were missing pieces of their tail fins. Guess he must have worn them down during the night.

Does this mean the betta is destined to remain alone in his own tank? (It would definately seem so)...

 

[Newman]

doesnt work in smaller tanks. I keep my betta in a 40 gallon with a platy and some swordtails, there is room enough for the platy to get away if such behaviour happened. also its loaded with live plants so the betta has trouble being quick enough to chase anything in that tank (fry, cherry shrimp, etc.)

 

[bassbonediva]

I don't put male bettas in community tanks anymore...period. I had my son's male betta in his 29gal tank for a while and not only did he hide constantly (even though none of the other fish chased him or even paid any attention to him, including the 5 platies I had in there), but his original bright blue coloring became so washed out that it looked like he'd been colored with a crayon. I do have a female betta sorority in with some platies and they do fine together. They pretty much ignore each other, even now that they're temporarily in a smaller tank due to the Chernobyl-esque meltdown the 55gal they were in went through.