Male Betta living arrangements

[rach125]

Hi,

Could a male betta live with a school of bronze / peppered cories in a 29 gallon tank?

[Slaphppy7]

Bettas can be tricky with other fish, but I think this arrangement would be fine...have a backup plan to move the betta if he begins to show any aggression toward the corys.

[PaulPerger]

I have a male Betta in a 5 Gallon with 2 Bronze and 3 Albino Corys and they are all living together peacefully. Sometimes during feeding the Albinos will swim up to the top of tank, too impatient to wait for food to sink to them. If they come by the Betta he will flare his fins and twitch and the Albinos turn and go to another part of the tank for their early snack. But other than that, I haven't noticed any aggression on his part toward the corys.

[daniel2222]

The thing that has always kept me from trying a community with a male betta is the concern that the betta would over eat and constantly eat everything I try to feed the other fish. Corydoras are slow feeders and your supposed to give them time to eat. Maybe feeding then after lights out would prevent the betta from overeating?? I've asked this question here before but never got a answer. I had a betta with some shrimp and a Dwarf frog. The betta would take food right out of the frogs mouth when I feed with tongs. Otherwise no issues with the frog. Lost some shrimp though.

From my research the popular opinion says it should be ok. I believe corys have some kind of protective plates in the event that the betta does attack when you're not watching they might have some protection.

[Cyclops]

Your betta should be fine with your cories because bettas are usually around the mid level of the tank.

[mac]

Hey there guys,

I would like to take some time to answer this thread, and in answering this thread its set for two answers, one the OP and also Daniel2222.
The biggest issue I have found with the research I have done on Betta and tank mates is so much conflicting information.
What works for others dose not work for some one else.
So a quick fill in so people understand, were my experience comes from in this answer. When I was active on this forum many years ago, I had a tank set up, 50g community tank.
I always thought the common set up with a smaller tanks for a Betta to be a little dull, semi cruel in a way. So I set the tank up with mostly Rasbora's Cory and kulie Loaches, Thread Fin Rainbows.
I had one male Betta in the tank for a couple of years, till I ended up moving home, through the shift he ended up in a small tank on his own, due to not having the 50g tank set up any more.
The reason I thought I should try it was, well in the wild they do have some space, not like they are confined. And yes I know the arguments about space will pop up, but that ends up territorial fights between males. So I thought 50g 1 male tons of space. Low flow, heavily planted wooded tank set up.

The whole time he was in the tank, I never had any issue with feeding. He was more than able to keep up with the Rasbora schools Emerald Eye ,Rasbora Red Line Rasbora, Harlequin Rasbora, Ember Tetras . Provided when it was feeding time I waited till he was very close to the feed hatch. Then he would eat till he was tired. Then back to his routine of patrolling the entire tank. Not once did he pick on other fish, though rarely he would bother the Bronze Corys. When I say rarely bother the cory, I mean he its very rare. Once in a while he would go through there day time hang outs having a patrol. Which would get them moving around a tad, then back in again they would go.
In saying that common myths of Bettas being around the mid section of the water, I found very miss leading, and I claim miss leading IME only! He spent his time all over the tank. From drifting around the top of the tank, to wondering around the the mid water column, investing drift wood java fern, then wander down to the bottom were he spent most of his time. He use to eat with the cory's quite a lot. The Cory's got fed a variety of sinking pellets, which they ended up sharing with great greedy guts. They never seemed shy of him or stressed. Over time he ended up giving up eating with them since they would end up pushing him of the food, to which he would start wandering on in his patrol.

The very interesting part of his patrols were that they were very consistent in times pattern and also locations of the tank. He really was just like a sentry guard in the army patrolling the parameter, of a camp. But what I noticed throughout the day he would spend close to 65% to even more of his time from mid to bottom of the tank. His routine to the top was more closer to normal feeding times for the rasboras in the tank.

Now most of this experience I have had with was very good in a large tank, with many types of tank mates. But what I will say was it could be dependant on the temperament of each type of males personality. As for cory's in smaller tanks and Bettas I would not do it. I know some people reading this could miss-construed that because cory and Bettas get on that they can go into small tanks, that is a not. Cory's, unless we are talking of Dwarf Cory will suit small tanks. A tank of at least 15g is better suited for Corys. If you were to try and have dwarf cory with a Betta, I would think he will possibly get grumping with them, depending on the temperament. Although mine never bother smaller fish like Ember Tetras.

I hope this helps answer some questions regarding tank mates with cory and Betta.
Just a note the tank was 50g, not 5g. So a decent territorial foot print for the Betta.

mac