While you often see bettas living by themselves in bowls or small fish tanks they don't have to be solitary fish. With some care and taking the betta personality into account you can select the right tankmates for them. A fish tank with great species diversity can be a beautiful centerpiece to the room.
Multiple bettas can coexist but some care needs to go into the planning of the arrangement. Two male bettas probably aren't going to work out. They are territorial and need to establish dominance over the other betta. In the wild once one has triumphed over the other the loser will usually swim off. In an aquarium there isn't enough space to get away, however, so the winner will keep attacking the loser. This can result in death.
Two male bettas can be in the same tank if there's a divider between them. A sheet of glass or a tank separator will do. There is a possibility that they'll keep squaring off through the glass and that can really stress them out, however. Two males from the same batch of eggs can usually coexist until they hit maturity, too. Then you'll notice bullying behavior and it's time to separate them.
Male and female bettas don't coexist much better than two males unless it's breeding time. A male will often attack the female just as it would another male betta. The same rules as two males apply here.
Multiple females can exist together, especially if you have several of them. Two females sharing a tank will often result in bullying behavior, but several together will result in some scrapping until a hierarchy is established. Once the pecking order is in place they'll usually calm down. Keep an eye out for especially aggressive females, though. Sometimes they are just too aggressive to be kept together.
Other species of fish can coexist well with bettas. Make sure that the species aren't exceptionally aggressive or a great deal larger or smaller than the betta. Platies, corydoras catfish, mollies, shrimp, and types of loaches make good betta tankmates.
Female bettas are a bit more accepting of other fish and can probably be kept with danios, tetras, barbs, and gouramis.
Be careful with the following types of fish, they aren't recommended to share space with bettas.
- Fancy guppies, as the bettas will chew on their fins.
- Schools of barbs. Sometimes they'll go after the betta's fins.
- Aggressive fish will take on a betta. These could be tiger barbs, piranhas, bluegill, or oscars.
- Male bettas may attack dwarf gouramis or pygmy gouramis as they have a similar look to a male betta.
- Paradise Fish can grow much larger than bettas and have similar mentalities on territory. They'll go after a male betta and kill it.
- Any fish much smaller than a betta could be at risk of bullying.
Bettas can be a central jewel to a tank, but please use some thought when you're deciding to add one to a tank. Keep an eye on the behavior of both the betta and the other fish. If one is continuing to bother the other then probably the combination isn't going to work. Set up a backup plan before you add the fish so that you're not stuck without a place to put the betta.
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