# Guppies vs. Betta



## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

Having 1 male betta and 2 females in that 50gal of mine has definetly made things interesting. The more I read up on tetras the more and more they seem frail and fickle as fish go. I've had early leanings toward guppies, and really do like em from prior experience. They are not fussy, and are very hardy.

The problem I have is that when I squint at em hard they do kinda look like Male bettas... And so far I have yet to lose a fish due to the betta's messing em up. 

Soooo has anyone had the balls to throw in guppies with a male betta? Did your male betta leave em alone? If you haven't ever done that, would you recommend me buying 1 and only 1 fancy guppy and throwing him in the tank as a sacrifice to science? Or, should I just forget the idea and look for some other small, schooling, midlevel swimming, community fish.


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## vintagetankgirl (Feb 25, 2009)

Save the Guppy. Even the female Bettas will go after him. I have done this with 2 female Bettas and 2 male Guppies and their tales didn't last long and one died (I also had a bunch of female guppies). I felt terrible!

How is it having a Male with your Female Bettas? In my experience it is never a good idea as the male or the female will beat each other up (ripped fins and internal injuries). I used to breed Bettas and never let the females and males stay together longer than it took to get the "job" done!

Also have you thought of Rasboras or Pencilfish? They are schooling and small to smallish fish.

Good luck!


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

it's a well planted 50gal that I have so it's rare that the male and females really run into each other, most of the time he will flex nutz at em if they come close and chase em around a bit, but thankfully the females are way faster than him and lose him fairly quickly in the tank. When I first set up the tank and all I had was the driftwood he kinda chased em around 24/7 that's when i decided to make a planted tank. ehehehe

KK, thnks fer advice I'll save the guppy then. I've heard them two rasboras and pencil fish are kinda on the finicky side when it comes to water parameters


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

Okay I appologize, i had to goto the fish store for some more flourish yesterday, and they had a special on guppy. 99cents for a male, 50cents for a female. I couldn't resist. Sooooooo The guppies are fine in the tank with bettas. Betta's and Angel eyeballed em hard when they were in the plastic, but once they were in the tank, they were ignored. it's day 2 with the guppies in there and no fish show signs of nipping or harrasment.


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