Bettas and swordtails

**Jambot** · 10-23-2007, 02:49 PM

Hi there, I have a swordtail, a dwarf gourami, 3 julli corys, and 5 tetras in my 29g so far. I'm obviously looking to expand my fish community a bit and I want to get this incredibly beautiful male betta they have at the LFS. Now I heard that bettas tend to be fin nippers toward other fish that have longer tails. However, my friend has an even smaller tank than me; she has a male swordtail and a male betta in there and they get along just fine. I don't know if she just got really lucky or if these two fish generally don't have problems together

I'm just curious if anyone can give me some incite on the behavior of these two fish together. Have any of you ever housed a male swordtail and a male betta in the same tank before and had problems? Thanks.

**CAF** · 10-23-2007, 02:54 PM

Bettas are such indivualistic fish it is hard to predict how they will react. I've seen Bettas kill anything esle in the tank, and I've seen 2 male bettas in the same tank with no problem. (Not recommended by the way) Unfortunately, until you have the particular fish in question there is no way of knowing how he will react.

**spudbuds** · 10-23-2007, 06:36 PM

I did some research about betta behavior in communities after I got my betta and it does seem that it is completely betta-dependent (as CAF said). See if your LFS will let you buy it and return it if it doesn't get along with the community. When I got mine, the PetSmart had it in with a group of other fish so I had a good feeling it would do ok.

Good luck!

**mitcore** · 10-24-2007, 02:43 AM

i currently have a male and female betta in my 3ft with swords both male and female swords
i can honestly tell you that in my tank they get along just fine
no agression they are all happy together
i am unsure what anyone else will say to you
but in my tank they are fine