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Can a male beta fish coexist with zebra danios, and guppies in a heated aquarium. I say a heated aquarium because most beta tanks are not. Thanks for the help.

mine did fine with zebras. i would urge caution mixing him with fancy tail guppies. mine would only mess with fish that resembled him. however, the tank was large, and he was slow. he spent most of his life deep in the confines of a dense plastic plant.

Bettas can go with other fish, most of the time. They cannot when there are fish in the aquarium that:

are agressive
are fin-nippers
look like bettas

or when the aquarium is heavily filtered, otherwise the betta will either hide and not move very much or get blown around the tank like some debris.

HTH

Racso

Yes, in my experience male bettas -- contrary to their reputation -- act frightened and hide in a corner when you put them in a large community tank. I may have even had one starve himself to death that way.

On the other hand, I once had one male betta who had a 5-gallon tank to himself -- and when I put a banjo catfish in with him, he instantly and viciously attacked it, forcing us to run out and get another 5-gallon tank for the poor catfish. (In self-defense, I was 11 at the time.) I suspect now the reason is that in the wild, bettas tend to live in small stagnant puddles -- and any other fish in that same puddle is a serious threat to both their food supply and their oxygen supply, so they tend to instinctively attack tankmates in really small tanks.

However, in my experience FEMALE bettas -- for whatever reason -- seem to get along just fine in large community tanks. (The more reasonable sex and all that...)

i did not mean to imply fright when explaining his habits. i would never force a fish to live like that. he just seemed to prefer that plant. i do agree with you in that it closely resembled its native habitat- somewhat stagnent, planted, etc. he would peacefully intermingle with other fish at feeding time, and he would actively explore the tank when the lights were dim. to the delight of my kids, he would usually follow them around the front of the glass if they walked slowly.

there used to be a website suggesting good tankmates for betas, but i have no recollection as to what it was. if i find it, i will post it if this thread is still active.

I have a male in my community tank and he loves it. The tank also has guppys, platies, neons, bristlenose, 2 kuhlis loaches and a flying fox. When he was first in there he would partially flare up at platy if it came near them but if he tried to move near them they just darted off. Now he doesn't care about any of the other fishes and loves exploring the tank. He like to hide in a couple of the ornaments and lie in on the plants and also he likes to hang out around the filters where there's more water movement which I find really strange.

just make sure the betta is the last fish introduced so he is the odd man out...

me

male betas have been given an undeserved reputation for such a long time. the truth is that they are a hardy, curious, semi-aggresive fish. keeping them in bowls or partitioned tanks makes no sense. just because they breathe air does not mean they prefer small, unadorned enclosures.

i have a betta in my community tank i had guppies, and other long fined fish aka long finned danios swordtails and congo tetras and never had a problem. my betta will even interact with my other fish he thinks he is one of the guys
just make sure he has room, and might want to add him last (i added mine last)
hope this helps

I used to have guppies..among other things, in a 125 gal (6ft) community. I had various male bettas I'd switch out. I had one that I recall being aggressive (there were also females bettas and Gouramies among other things). I also had one male betta that was scared to death being in a big tank. So, these two males I didn't put in again. But there were about 6 others I had in various small containers that I'd switch out. Never had a problem with guppies.. I could see possible having a prob with some Danios (nipping the betta). Some male bettas are aggressive..but what you really have to watch for are other fish that may not normally be aggressive in the least..but can't resist those long, flowing fins.. That, and the very shy males who'd rather be in a small tank or extremely peaceful community.

if you want your betta to look like it went through an industrial strength paper shredder, go ahead and mix them. i'd advise strongly against it.

My male betta co-existed fine in my 25 gallon (tall) tank with a molly, swordtail, chinese algae eater, dwarf gourami and zebra danios (long fin & regular), but I noticed a couple cherry barbs died and caught him in the act of definning a harlequin rasbora. I had to remove him to a separate location. I think part of his problem was possibly not getting enough food, since the others are more aggressive eaters and he was rather timid at mealtime. Now he's got a black mystery snail for company which he uses as a bowling ball and his appetite has improved.

just put a crown tail betta in my tank and hes doing fabulous. he even goes u p to the top and bumps the other fish out of the way so he can eat. surprisingly enough even my barbs dont chase him... toher way around actually lol

me

I guess everyone has bettas that are different(frightened, aggressive, calm), but if you do put a male betta in a community be cautious(be ready for its own tank)