For Christmas, some relatives gave us a Siamese Fighting Fish in a very small aquarium. Now TastesLikeBurning and I are really not fish people for a start (diehard dog people actually) and we actually feel really sorry for this little fish only having a limited area to swim around in and no other company.
We are about to move into a house that has a decent size fish pond with a few Goldfish and Koi swimming around very happily in it. Could our little Siamese Fighting Fish coexist with these other fish?
Essentially my question is:
Do Siamese Fighting Fish only try to kill each other or do they try to kill everyone?
Well, I’ve not tried, but I’d actually guess that the goldfish would eat the Siamese fish. Leastwise the goldfish I’ve had have eaten every smaller fish they could reach.
Bettas, don’t suffer that much in small aquariums. The wild version of this fish tends to stay in VERY small territories guarding it’s nest and it’s massively territorial, chasing all other fish it can away. So they don’t really get lonely (it will even chase away any females that aren’t ready to breed, and chase those that are after the ‘deed’). If you’d like to give it a bit more range, just use a bigger bowl.
I’ve had single male bettas in large (50+ gallon) tropical commmunity tanks with no problems.
However, goldies aren’t tropical - they do just fine at room temp, but bettas like to be warmer than goldies, and aren’t tolerant of temps much below 65 or so.
Goldies are prodigious poopers and polluters. They’re fine with that, but bettas aren’t so tolerant of dirty water and will get sick. Goldies are also pigs - they’re apt to gobble up the betta’s food before the betta has a chance to get at it.
If your goldie’s on the fancy side, the betta may mis-read that and think he’s living with another male betta and attack.
So, a single betta and a goldie might occasionally be OK together, but the general consensus is that it will more often result in a poor life expectancy for the betta.
They do fine as long as the other fish are not red.
The Beta’s natural home is in very murky water. They are very territorial, but within a small area, because the sight distance is short.
The males have a red under fins, that show up in the muddy water. When one encounter another male beta, they display their underside. Then they attack one another.
The females have a bit of red too, which they flash to attract a male. When he approaches, she hides her red, but by then he’s caught
In a community tank, all the fish should be close to the same size. Even docile fish sometimes attack smaller ones, not so much to eat, but to establish a pecking order.
I had always read that the two main reasons not to combine goldfish and topicals was that the two prefer different temperatures, and that the composition of the goldfish food is different than tropical food.
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I’ve mixed them before, and they coexisted fine. There was no fighting, and no one died because of temperature problems. Just wanted to say that it can be done.
Hmmm… considering my circumstances (colour of fish, water temperature etc) I think I’ve got three votes for no and two for yes.
Another factor I hadn’t considered in my OP - will the sex of the Siamese Fighting Fish make a difference? Also, is there a way of telling the sex? He/she is a blue/black kind of colour, with a tinge of red. Does this indicate I may have a ‘she’?
Another person who has combined Betas with other tropicals. No Goldfish though.
Red-Tipped shark, Gouramis, Tetras, Platys, and Tiger Barbs are all in the tank with the Beta (female).
While by no means an expert, I have kept a tank of freshwater fish off and on for most of my life. (I, too, am a dog person, with an affinity for cats as well.) In my experience, goldfish do not care for the warmer temperatures which the betas need. Goldfish are a “dirty” fish, and tend to clog up the filtration system if not carefully monitered. (It’s not that I don’t like goldfish, but they do require higher tank/filtration maintenence.) I love the betas, and have successfully combined them with tetras of all colors, gouramis, (another favorite) mollys, a couple different varieties of shark, plecostamus and catfish. The only real problem I ever had in the community were the angelfish, which are aggressive and territorial.
At the moment I have a 20 gallon tank, with living plants. I have noticed that my betas like to have a bit of privacy in a corner of the tank, and I accomodate them. They are a very lovely fish, and I often find myself gazing at the fish community and watching their antics, they have their own little personalities just as other pets do. Good luck with yours!
You could conceivably put them into the same tank. The reasons not to are that bettas need warm water and carp need cool water. Bettas can handle temperatures above most tropical fish because they are air breathers. Warm water holds less oxygen than cold and carp need lots of oxygen.
The problem with bettas in community tanks is that those long flowing fins are often a good target for nippers. The betta isn’t a fast swimmer and can’t defend himself against a school of nippy fish like, say, tiger barbs. If he gets nipped too much, it can kill him.
Generally speaking, bettas are best in individual aquariums. Besides, that way you get to interact with them one-on-one and get to see betta dancing.
Compared with tropicals, this is very true. Goldfish are big-bodied fish, lots of mass in comparison with, say, a tetra, so they eat more and excrete more. People try to put them in too small tanks because they aren’t really considering how much bigger goldfish are than the small tropicals. And they love to rummage around on the bottom and stir up anything that may have fallen. Messy fish, but I do love them.
A friend of mine did an experiment with her SFF. She put a mirror in the bowl with him to see how we would . Not good. She removed the mirror, too late, however. The poor little thing went nuts and spent the rest of his life looking for the other fish.
I’ve had a lot of bettas, and it’s hard to predict what fish they will or won’t get along with. All of them took an absolutel hatred to one or more other fish but you’d never know which ones until you tried. One absolutely hated a golden gourami and would chase it at every opportunity. Another could not abide guppies, and still another went psycho whenever it saw a snail, of all things. I had one at work that would get furious if anyone other than me came into my office.
The little bastards are just surly and disagreeable by nature; they’re not happy unless they’re not happy. It’s a good bet that in a large community tank they’ll decide on SOMEONE to hate.
Isn’t a Siamese Fighting Fish otherwise known as aBetta? Yep, it is, check the link. No, don’t put it in with ANY other fish that are smaller than it, and aren’t tropical. (Don’t put two males together, though I believe the females can get along ok IIRC.) Make certain you don’t give it chlorinated water, that is a quick way to kill one. Maybe Jinwicked can come in and better advise you as to how to keep Betta fish, I think she’s got some and is well versed in their care. I believe there are other Dopers who have also kept Bettas, but I can’t bring up any names. Good luck.
Generally, bettas don’t try to kill non-betta fish of a similar size, especially peaceful community type fish. I used to keep a betta and an albino cory cat in my little 2-gallon tank.
Most koi, however, are far larger than your average betta and will probably either tear at his lovely fins or eat him outright. Bettas are also warm-water fish, and are not suited to being kept outdoors in a temperate climate, especially heading into winter.
So no, you should not put you betta in your koi pond.
I’ve combined bettas with both tropical (a mixed tank of guppies, neons, and angelfish) and goldfish (standard orange or marble color). No problems in either case. If you’re really concerned, though, you can buy these things called Betta Blockers which are like little partitions you stick on the side of the tank so the betta can be in the tank with the other fish but not attack or get attacked. It’s a small space though. But bettas aren’t really bothered by small spaces, since they usually stick to that type of environment anyway. I wouldn’t put them with koi since koi are so much larger, and I wouldn’t put them with very aggressive small fish like miniature sharks, but they should get along fine with small calm fish.
I don’t think bettas would attack just any red fish–I put bettas with reddish neons and marble goldfish that had red in them and they didn’t attack. Or would they only attack red fish that had big fins and acted aggressive?
