Okay, from all of my knowledge, I figured this arrangement would be alright, but...

[jabce85]

Now we all know that Betta's all have their own "personalities", but have you ever known a male Betta to think a male Dwarf Gourami is another male Betta? Kinda wierd, I know, but when they first got together in the tank, there has been conflict. Jerry, the male Betta, always stalks the Dwarf Gourami around the tank. Sometimes Jerry even flares his fins and gills and tries to attack the Gourami. The Gourami is so scared and timid now, he has hardly been taking food. I know Gourami's are timid anyway, but this is just making it worse. Okay, so are there any suggestions to my little "conflict" I am having? Suggestions are welcome. Thanks! BTW, Jerry is a cool name for a Betta! haha

 

[Iggy]

Welcome to the board!

You probably guessed it already, the betta (Jerry) thinks your gourami is another male betta, and he does not like that at all. It will not get better with time, the gourami will likely always be chased if not bitten or worse.

I suggest putting Jerry (betta) in a seperate tank, like a 2gal or 3gal tank. They dont seem to care about space, he would probably prefer his own turf.

 

[prhelp]

To my limited knowledge, I'd agree: those fish probably will never go together well. I'd separate them, and keep the betta in something by itself -- a 5 gal if you can do it.

 

[tramca]

My problem was the opposite.
My gourami's bullied my male betta. Unfortunately he died.

Now I have a male betta and 4 females in a 10 gal.

Doing fine too.

 

[ducksarefun]

I was actually going to post this question (do they get along?) because at the moment I have a male betta in my 20g, but I definately want gouramis. I kinda figured there would come a point where I would have to take him out.

 

[tramca]

We never saw the gouramis bully the male fighter....but the LPS said they would be the culprits.

It'f funny what goes on in the tanks while we're sleeping.

 

[revfred]

Apparently you need to keep them apart. If you want to add other fish, bottom feeders . . . not too small . . . seem to do well with Bettas.

 

[smalltank99]

gouramis arent supposed to go well with bettas anyway

 

[jabce85]

Thanks for the help! I put the betta in a samll containment tank until I get a larger one.