Bettas with barbs ??

Hey this is for all you fish people out there, i set up my tank awhile back with a puffer i had a hard time getting him to eat and sadly he died, its not really a big deal im just going to stick with some fish im a little more expierenced in.....i just wanna mix it up a little, i love bettas both male and female but i like that you can put the females together ive read alot about it and its possible, i just need to get more than two so they can establish a kind of pecking order, you cant have a pecking order with two fish so thats when they fight, i want and will get more nice females but i want to also add a couple more fish....ive had my eye on tigerbarbs they are really cool to me but i hear that they nip the fins of other fish, do you think that i could keep them with the females, thier fins arent even that long but im not sure

Coul female bettas and tiger barbs live together ?

By the way i only have my ten gal setup right now how many bettas can live comforably in there possibly with a small school of tigers ?

Barbs are fairly aggressive.. I would not put them with a betta, female or no. Plus that, some female bettas are very aggressive and will attack other females, even if you have several. Keep it in mind.. you may have to jar up a female or two if they can't settle down. Crowntail females are more aggressive than veiltail.

I'm a betta lover too.. I have 6 male crowntails.

Tiger barbs arn't aggresive they just love picking at long fins. Most of the time they do it is when they're in too small of a school and are bored. I wouldn't put tiger barbs in anything smaller than a 30g long. You could put 3 maybe 4 female betta in a 10g if you kept up on water changes. Also the shape of a bettas tail has nothing to do with agression. Its like saying an albino BP is more agressive than a normal.

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Originally Posted by greenmonkey51

Also the shape of a bettas tail has nothing to do with agression. Its like saying an albino BP is more agressive than a normal.

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Not true. I learned about the aggression of crowntails from a person who keeps and breeds hundreds of bettas - crowntails, double tails, super deltas, and halfmoons.

Also I know this from personal experience. My crowntails are much more apt to flare and try to go after their next-door neighbors than your average veiltail betta.

I have no experience with barbs, but I remember reading about fin nipping - I equate this with aggression.

First, let me say: Bettas completely rock. when I have a house, they are going to be EVERYWHERE.

Ok. anyways.

Tiger barbs
can get up to like 3". It doesn't sound big but you will not be able to fit an appropriate size school of tigers to keep them off of the appropriate sized school of female bettas to keep them off of the barbs..... (circles, anyone?) in a 10 gallon. For the community your thinking of.... think bigger tank.

Although, I have to say that I've had many, fairly docile tiger barbs. All communities off fish will act differently, but just ONE mean guy can mess up the whole rest of the peacefull community. If he's mean enough, he can stress everyone else out and you may experience fatality.

Females can be very aggressive, and I don't know if the thought has run through your mind, but don't put a male and female together. They will most likely kill eachother.

A male can work out in a tank. The thing that sucks about a male in a community is that your options become limited- no super bright colors, no even remotely long fins. But they are beautiful, and the effort is worth it.

I would advise against puttin the tiger barbs with bettas...female or other wise. Tiger barbs,even when kept in good size schools, are notorious fin nippers. They can easily make a male betta look like something that came outta the paper shredder. I would imagine they could do equal damage to a female. Cherry barbs are smaller, and just as hardy and would make a better choice for the female bettas' tankmate. Another thing that you should keep in mind, is the stress the tigers may cause on the betta(s). While you may not see any shredded fins at first, it's what you don't see that could be the biggest problem...when a fish is stressed, it's protective slime coating starts to break down, thus leaving the fish exposed and more susceptible to all sorts of parasites,funguses, and other pathogens. You wouldn't want to lose one of your beautiful bettas to something like this would you?

Ive had both males and females in my community tank (at differnt times, not together) and it has worked out just fine, exept for when my guppies had babies and my red female betta gobbled them all up in a matter of days. I havent had any issues with them fighting with other fish.

Ok, i see how the tigerbarbs will get too big for a ten gallon when they are full grown.

maybe ill just keep one female with a nice sized school of neon tetras, that sounds a little better suited for the size tank ive got going now.


I really wanna move my big BP out of her 30 gallon long and into a big a big christmas tree storage rubbermaid that i have and setup a big fishtank in her 30 gal....but i dont know if that'll work

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Originally Posted by adizziedoll

First, let me say: Bettas completely rock. when I have a house, they are going to be EVERYWHERE.

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Ooh me too! Crowntails and halfmoons all around! Double tails are quite nice too..

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Originally Posted by Brandon.O

Ive had both males and females in my community tank (at differnt times, not together) and it has worked out just fine, exept for when my guppies had babies and my red female betta gobbled them all up in a matter of days. I havent had any issues with them fighting with other fish.

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yeah, all communities are different, and all bettas are too. I've had successful tanks with bettas, and not so successful.
You could buy one single tiger tomorrow,(which actually, I've had more luck with singles than schools) and he could be an angel. You could also go out and buy a tiger tomorrow, and he terrorizes your tank and ultimately kills your fish. You just never know! :) They are all different.


Shelby- it's so cool how they are starting to carry crowntails everywhere- they are so gorgeous. I'm not sure if the doubles/ scissors are going to grow on me, but for right now they aren't really my bag ;)

I prefer color over fin variey....I just looove the whites,yellows,and pearls!!! I would loove to have an orange or black, but i have never seen one.......for sale, that is.

okay... for starters neon tetras are the tastey crunchy morsels of the fish world! (okay they aren't crunchy that are squishy) - and put them with a betta and let's call it a buffet!

females are actually very aggressive if you don't give them the right set up. a nice grouping a 5 females is wonderful with lots of floating plants. that way they all get to make their own little territory.

so if you want 5 females in a 10 gallon (IMO way to small) then you need to not have anything else in there except perhaps a few cories to clean up the bottom of the tank.

as for barbs... barbs, in nature, live in pools of water which dry up in the summer... so there can be hundreds of barbs in a very small area of water... with no food. so they nip each others fins and scales to stay alive. so it's not that they are aggressive... if you keep them in a school then they don't bother anyone else in the tank... they'll just nibble on each other.

keeping the two together is a recipe for disaster. i would not recommend it at all.

personally a nice 77 gallon community tank is perfect for a group of female bettas... and one male. (the reason you don't keep less females together with a male is because he'll pester her to breed till she dies... so you need lots of females so he spends time pestering each one and gives each female a break!)

hope that helps.

Double tails are not my favorite, but I saw a really nice copper green one.. super huge dorsal fin, it was quite pretty.

I have a real soft spot for crowntails.. I want a melano CT, (I like the melano with red butterfly patterning.. really neat looking) but I haven't gotten around to ordering any online. Opaque are super cool too..

I'd like to get a halfmoon sometime. Sure aren't going to find one of those in a pet store! I can't stand veiltails.. uuugly.

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

okay... for starters neon tetras are the tastey crunchy morsels of the fish world! (okay they aren't crunchy that are squishy) - and put them with a betta and let's call it a buffet!

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I'd be very surprised if a betta could catch the much faster tetras, much less fit them in their mouth. I've never tried the two together but.. I just can't see a betta eating a tetra.

Perhaps cardinal tetras? They're slightly bigger, and prettier.

i have had them together... and watched the neon tetras get eaten!

angel fish looooooove neon tetras as well :D

Well maybe our neon tetras are on steroids.. they seem mighty big to fit in a betta mouth! Well, either way, I will remember not to try that combination. ;)

ah so that's your secret! ;)

lol.. well I actually haven't owned a neon since I was about 6. I meant the ones at petsmart are huge. Perhaps THEY are giving them steroids.. eh?

hahaha i guess it depends on where they are getting them. when i worked at the petstore most of the ones we got in were so tiny...

Nah, we get big suckers. Most angel fish would have a workout eating these guys even..

must be full grown. normally when you buy a fish at the petstore it's young. that way the breeder feeds it less... keeps it in their tanks shorter and can sell them for less $$ that way. ;)

the neons are, i believe, the smallest if not one of the smallest tetras out there. of course endlers are smaller but they aren't tetras.