the ins and outs of fighter fish?

So I have been biten by the tropical fish bug. I bought my first tank thinking that is all I would need however the joy of keeping fish and wanting to explore tropical fish more was too much so I find myself with a 2nd tank!!My first tank is filled with a mixture of fish (platys, guppy, glowlight tetras and a black widow) however since I first started researching tropical fish I have dreamed of owning a blue fighter fish. I have been told that they can be kept in community tanks provide you keep only one male per tank. My question is if i have my one male can I keep him in the same tank as male guppys?Or will this cause too much upset?The other thing I am wondering about is I was thinking of getting a male and female fighter, will they be ok in a community tank or should I leave them in a tank by themselves?
Thanks
Emma

hey, i had a fighter fish a while ago great fish (he got his head stuck in a shell and died)!!!! i wudnt put him in with male guppies.. he will bite there tail. They will attack anything with long flowy tail....

i wudnt put a male and female fighter together.. they will fight...! they can be combined if ur willing to breed them.. but then u have to add female at right moment ect ect...!!

emm if ur willing to let go of guppies a siemese fighting fish should fit in with ur community.. they can go with tetras no problem!! not to sure about platty but im sure they would be fine!!

you should look at some bottom feeders for ur community tank.. like kuhli loaches or cory's.. or some shrimp.. they eat any left over food!!

hope that helps a bit!!! what size is the tank (tanks)?

Thanks Alex that is a great help i didn't think that long flowy tails would act as a temptation!!!
I wasnt set on the guppies just thought they would look all pretty together.But I have developed a bit of a soft spot for tetras (having 2 glowlights at the mo) so maybe a small group of tetras is the way to go with a siemese fighting fish.Yeah i have been looking out for a bottom feeder type fish but I have yet to find one that i like. Dont think im ready for breeding fish so i may give having a couple a miss and go for a batchelor at the mo:)

Well im just a beginner so i have 2 x 60 litre tanks which i have set up for tropical fish, 1 x 20 litre tank which houses my beloved Alfred (a goldfish) and i have a 20 litre tank as a tropical fish hospital.So only one fish can get sick at any time!!!

I wouldnt recommend tetras or any livebearing toothcarp either. Tetras will nip the fins of the slow moving Betta fish. The best tank buddies for a betta fish are any small bottom feeding fish like cory's, a single dwarff cichlid from the genus apistogramma and ottocinclus (spell?). Avoid tetra, mollies, guppies, swordtails, other bettas, gouramis,and anything thats fast and nippy or feeds on the surface.

To be honest a single Betta in a small glass bowl is safest. I would never recommend a bowl for anything but betta's can breed atmospheric air so as long as there is regular water changes they are an exception. If the room is always warm like and apartment room then a heater is not required.

i found my siemese fighter got on fine with my tetra's.. they were in a 70L. i agree with trimax that there "could" be problems with guppies swordtails gouramis ect... but a group of glowlight tetras should be fine!

here is a quote from another forum...

These little guys were a wonderful addition to my community tank. I asked around about what I could add to my tank that wouldn't terrorize my betta. Harlequins and Glowlights were the top two. Both get along with the others well, but the glowlights are the most entertaining to watch. Not only do they shoal almost constantly, but they don't hide very much, so I can see their beauty every time I walk by my tank. Three of them will wrestle around in the plants too. Not violent at all, but very comical. I really think these were the coolest fish I have bought so far.

then again u might get a group of evil glowlights:evil: (but i doubt it)!!! there is no harm in trying it out... and if they dont get along u can move the fighter to your other tank.

also.. trimax i never agreed with the glass bowl thing for bettas... yes they can survive in a glass bowl with low oxygen levels.... but bettas prefer warmer water! also there is no filtration ect even with frequent water changes it cant be good!!... it would deff shorten there lifespan....! id say millions of people have bettas in little glass bowls but its better to have them in a tank since u have the option..

ah and my old betta loved bloodworms!! they actually need frozen or live foods... they eat insects in natural habitat.. a betta would be very happy with a diet of bloodworms and flakes... flakes by themselves are ok but would advise including bloodworms..

I agree a tank is better for a betta, the hospital the op described would be perfect. Many people breed betta's in jars though so low oxygen cant be all that bad, they are found in slow oxygen starved waters in the wild. Unfortunatly everything I know about betta's is from keeping them in a petshop and I've tried mixing them with many species to see which works. I know many people are very passionate about betta's but It's a sentiment I never shared. Basically because they were a nuisance compared to other fish when it came to finding them a home in the petshop! so I have a tainted view of them. I have tried with glowlights, but there was also neons and black neons in the same tank, and sometimes hockeysticks so I just assumed they were all at it when I found nipped fins.

I'd go with Alex's advice on this one, As although I have kept thousands of betta's it was only ever for a week or two in a petshop envioronment and therefore my experience is not as focused.
I thought I never kept one at home but just vaguely remembered having a betta years ago living in my blackwater setup quite happily for a year untill I gave him away. There was Apisto's, a blue ram, some Otto's, Rummynose's, Cardinals and Black widows/skirts. The only fish that gave the Betta any hassle was the Cardinals and the widows but it was a 220 litre tank and was well planted so the attacks were minimized.

I remember seeing some betta breeding ponds in a fish farm. They surface was completely covered in a surface growing plant, viney with some flowers, dont know the name though.They had hundreds of pairs living in the same pond, there was so many surface plants that the fish couldnt see more then a few inches in any direction so they rarely met and could escape other males quick enough.

i never thought bout that... betta's are probably pretty hard to keep in shop!! 1 per tank and would prob get fins nipped!! i remember a while back a shop got a load of males in.. they gave them a tank each to themselves!!
i do love the constant pissed of look betta's have:angry: !!

Not as pi**ed off as I looked when I was accidently sent 50 betta's one day....lol

Probably this it's gonna confuse you, but it did confused me as well. I'll say that depends a lot of the personality and caracter of the individual fish(probably genes he caries). I had female crowntale bettas whitch where ready to kill eachother(females soupoused to be much more peacefull than males), and I still have at the moment males which I can keep in the same tank with females with no agression at all.

I did kept them in jars as well but they where much happyer in an oxigenated tank with good quality water and slow flow.

But if you want to go for one i'll say do it. No other fish is gonna look at you from his tank or bowl with the same wondering eyes, and express his joy when he sees you as a betta. Great caracters and maybe one of the most beautiful tropical fish.

I've kept a couple of bettas over the years. Very cool fish.
I have a stunning blue & white crowntail at the moment.

Get one of the plastic breeders traps, float it in your main tank & keep the betta in that.

It'll prevent him from getting nipped & prevent him from eating your fry when your fish breed

am gonna try and breed my bettas again soon, I have always found them to be the most amazing fish to watch, especially the veiltails, if given enough tank space to explore they swim so gracefully , it's like watching a silk scarf fly off into the wind. Ideally they should be in a tank with filtration but sure when you're breeding them and the males need to be separated after they start seeing each other as competition for the charms of their female friends then any container will do, i've used test kit lids, plastic pint glasses, glass vases - basically anything that would have a good surface area for the water to oxygenate and also easy to change the water in. Of course context and circumstance dictate what you do and what the fish will temporarily put up with.

As for the kinds of companions, I have kept several females in a 70litre along with glowlights, neon tetras, corys, shrimp and they all got along fine. When my last betta breeding session stopped I kept the remaining 2 juvenile male and female in the tank and started my endler reeding session and they all got along fine. Now that the breeding tank is being setup for another betta pair all i moved all the livestock from the breeding tank into a 120 litre, so in the 120 there are now 9 neon tetras, 22 female endlers, 11 male endlers, 3 glowlights, 3 cory sterbai, 2 dwarf aquatic frogs, 2 dwarf rasbora, 1 WCMM, 3 golden WCMM, shrimps, siamese flying fox and a common pleco. A few female SFF look really good in a tank and you could add 1 male so then he doesn't spend his time hassling any single female into courtship.

Andrew

Thanks for all the great comments they have all been really helpful and full of info.I think u have all convinced me of the joy of keeping bettas.So i am going to try them in the tank with the glowlight tetras and c how they get on. And if they all dont get on I will put them in the hospital tank and hope that no one gets sick till I can convince my mum to let me have another tank!!(shes not too happy with having her sitting room changed into an aquarium!!)