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if my livebearers produce fry, will my male betta try to eat them even more than their parents?

I would almost bet on that betta (or even the gouramies) making quick work of any fry your platties have. LUNCH.

On another note, I'm a little concerned about your stock in that 10 gallon. Mixing bettas with gouramies is generally a bad idea as they can have issues with fighting. Also a 10 gallon tank really doesn't have enough territory space for more than one male gourami, so you're probably looking at a bloodbath some time in the near future. Mollies and the algae eater (which I'm going to assume is a common plec) also get too big for a 10 gallon. I would remove the betta to his own home (preferably about 2 gallons all to himself), keep the sparkling gourami and the platies in the 10 gallon tank, return all of the other fish you have in there to the fish store and pick up 1 more platy while you're there. Make sure you get 1 male, 2 female as most livebearers really tend to do best with this ratio. I know it sounds like bad news, but changing your stock to something more appropriate will really save you and your fish a lot of trouble in the future. HTH.

Welcome to FP by the way!

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[span class="edited"][Edited by trystianity 2004-07-11 02:16][/span]

i think you were right about the betta, i just moved him, as soon as i read your reply i went down to feed them and he got really aggressive, not only chasing the gourami's but also trying to bite them where their necks would be. But the gouramis are described everywhere as peaceful, and right now they aren't bothering anybody. Do you think that if i leave the betta by itself for a few weeks, i can let him back into the community tank and he'll get used to having the new fish around?

Your tank, as it stands now, is severely over- and mis-stocked. I still stand by my suggestions in the previous post, taking the stock down to 1 sparkling gourami and 3 platies (1 male, 2 female). Keep the betta out of that 10 gallon and find appropriate homes for the others or return them to the store.

Gouramies are described everywhere as being peaceful, but as with moth anabantids, they can be quite territorial with males of their own kind. Do your fish a favour and make some changes to that tank before you run into serious problems and dead fish. The stock above is the best I can come up with for keeping platies and gouramies in that small of a tank.

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