Keeping Betta Splendens and Corydora together? (please read)

[Miranda_S]

I posted a similar question to this one about in November of last year and only got one or two responses. Can someone please give me help and respond to my question this time so i don't make a mistake in the future?

I recently got a young Betta in the beginning of January. So far, he is doing very well and seems very healthy and happy for a Betta. I would like to put him in a tank with a small ammount of Corydora, maybe 4 or so. Of course i will keep them in seperate tanks for maybe a month or so to make sure they aren't sick (is that a good ammount of time for quarantine?) and then i will introduce them into the same tank.

I have read that if i would like to get more fish to put with my male Betta, that Corydora would be one of the best because they are so peaceful and keep to themselves and have similar habitat needs as the Betta. I am, though, worried that i might get an aggresive Cory that would nibble at my Betta's fins or that my Betta would be aggresive towards the Corys.

Could someone please give me advice and help me with this small problem? I don't want to end up making a bad decision if/when i get the Corydoras. Thanks to anyone who offers advice.

(P.S. i am also wondering what is a good size tank to keep only about 4 corydora in? Thank you for your help! )

[MatsP]

My wife likes Betta splendens, and I put some Corydoras sterbai in her tank whilst they were growing out to go in my big tank.

Currently, there's some C. habrosus in the tank.

I've not had any problems with fin-nipping.

Bettas are, in general, not overly aggressive towards fish that don't look (a lot) like bettas, and I certainly haven't had any problems with aggression from Corys.

I personally wouldn't buy a tank that is smaller than a 10g, but that's just me. That is definitely large enough to keep several corydoras as well as a few bettas (1m + 2f or so).

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Mats

[gage]

Dont put females and males together, the male (usually) will kill the females, ive had it happpen

[Powder]

Hiya,

saw your post and thought i'd share some betta experience with you!

whether they will get along can depend on the 'personality' of your betta.

i've tried keeping a betta with cories twice, and both times it didn't work out. the first time was in a small tank, about 8 gal. it had the betta and two panda corys. they were nice little things but the betta terrorised them. he was very terrotorial and he just hated them. they were scared out of their wits! any time they moved he would stalk them and take swipes at them. i moved them to anoter tank and the betta was happy 'patrolling' his own space.

the second time was just recently, with two sterbai cats, one betta and a dwarf frog. this betta came from a tank with baby fry in it, pet shop owner said he was fine with them so i though he would be a better shot with the cories. he was ok with the frog but again after a week or so he started bullying the cories, constantly chasing them all over the tank, swimming at them aggressively and nipping at them. i had to seperate them and now the cories seem happier away from him.

putting them together can work out well if you have a 'chilled out' betta or not so good if you have an aggressive wee bugger! its good that you are going to start them off in two seperate tanks so that if it doesnt work out you can split them up again.

my advice would be keep your eye on them and be prepared to seperate them if the betta is getting aggressive.

best of luck!

powder

[MatsP]

Dont put females and males together, the male (usually) will kill the females, ive had it happpen

Obviously, like Powder said about corys and bettas, it does depened on the the bettas temperament. The ones I've (well, my wife then) have had have been OK both with females around and with corys.

Just like any other fish (and humans), the range from mellow to outright nasty and viscous. The latter are hard to keep with ANYTHING else and do better in a hang-on-the-edge container or some such.

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Mats

[davenia7]

I keep cories with my female sorrorities with no problems. Some of the female bettas shoal with the cories and will eat with them from the bottom in fact.
I haven't tried it with my male bc he's got basically the nastiest disposition of any fish I've ever owned. I also don't put them with my single female bc she almost as mean as my male.

[NEONCORY]

Hi. I know I am not expert on Bettas and never kept them with Corydoras either.
However I can totally see that the aggression and temperamental of the Bettas vary. After all, some of the Bettas are bred to fight hense the name "Siamese fighting fish". Especially some of them bred in some SE. Asia. They are like cock fight or dog fight in those country. I'm sure they place the bet also.
Anyway, so I believe those Bettas are more aggressive compare to the Bettas that bred for their finnage, color., etc. And I believe the males are more aggressive than females, generally speaking.
So if you see some Bettas in some Asian aquarium store with the blinds(paper/postcard., whatever so they don't see each other) between little containers of Bettas, watch out for their aggression. If you take out those blinds, they will flare the their fins and ready to fight. I hear some even try to go after their own reflection. Compare to the one bred in another Country like U.S. for finnage or color. I think those are more domesticated(less aggression).
So I say watch out where they come from and know their upbringing/background.

[MatsP]

Hi. I know I am not expert on Bettas and never kept them with Corydoras either.
However I can totally see that the aggression and temperamental of the Bettas vary. After all, some of the Bettas are bred to fight hense the name "Siamese fighting fish". Especially some of them bred in some SE. Asia. They are like cock fight or dog fight in those country. I'm sure they place the bet also.
Anyway, so I believe those Bettas are more aggressive compare to the Bettas that bred for their finnage, color., etc. And I believe the males are more aggressive than females, generally speaking.
So if you see some Bettas in some Asian aquarium store with the blinds(paper/postcard., whatever so they don't see each other) between little containers of Bettas, watch out for their aggression. If you take out those blinds, they will flare the their fins and ready to fight. I hear some even try to go after their own reflection. Compare to the one bred in another Country like U.S. for finnage or color. I think those are more domesticated(less aggression).
So I say watch out where they come from and know their upbringing/background.

I'm not entirely sure that the breeding for finnage has much to do with things - these are indeed agressive species, however: They are agressive to conspecifics (same species) - they don't see very well all the time, so they may find that a fish that "looks similar" is of the same species, but in my experience, Corys rarely look (and behave) similar to Betta splendens, so it should (generally speaking) not be a problem. But there is a range of aggressiveness in these fishes, so some will attack anything that moves, whilst others will only attack if they think it's a threat to their empire.

--
Mats

[hellocatfish]

I just got a betta for my daughter this past weekend. He kind of mopes in his 3 gallon tank when left to himself, but really comes up to socialize when my daughter or I sit with him. My daughter shows him the rocks in her rock collection and he does look like he is peering at each one. I don't think I've seen a fish as fond of people since I had my Oscar as a child.

Would this personality be any indicator of whether he may actually be SUFFERING for being isolated and might actually do well with some of my larger warm-temp cories? Or are bettas fond of people but can still be aggressive to other fish?

[MatsP]

I just got a betta for my daughter this past weekend. He kind of mopes in his 3 gallon tank when left to himself, but really comes up to socialize when my daughter or I sit with him. My daughter shows him the rocks in her rock collection and he does look like he is peering at each one. I don't think I've seen a fish as fond of people since I had my Oscar as a child.

They are definitely quite "intelligent" and they know where food comes from (humans!).

Would this personality be any indicator of whether he may actually be SUFFERING for being isolated and might actually do well with some of my larger warm-temp cories? Or are bettas fond of people but can still be aggressive to other fish?

There's really only one way to find out - try it, if it doesn't look like it's working, separate them again. [Do this on a day when you have plenty of time to watch the fishes].

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Mats

[hellocatfish]

THanks Mats. Unfortunately the little dude has dropsy in a real bad way. Frankly, I thought he had it in the LFS. I pointed this out to my husband AND to the clerk waiting on us, who usually is pretty smart about the fish. But the clerk said no, he had just been well-fed. The scales did not raise up until today so I gave a benefit of a doubt. Plus, it wasn't an expensive betta so I was not willing to fight with both my husband AND my daughter about it. My husband was pretty adamant that THAT particular betta was what our daughter wanted, when I tried to steer her toward a betta I felt was in perfect health and similar in color.

Oh well, it will be a sad day when he passes on but Mom will deal with it. I have gotten VERY fond of him, though. I am trying to treat the disease but not knowing what exactly caused it, I don't hold out much hope.

Edit Update: now I know. Poor guy has a wicked case of Velvet. I am sure he's had it all the time we had him and had it in the store as well. I thought the scales on his head looked a bit rough. But now it's progressed to where I can be absolutely sure without a doubt as to what I am seeing--it is such a textbook case. I salted down his tank, raised temps and threw in part of a Jungle Buddy Parasite pellet because it has acriflavine in it and that was an ingredient I found in common with an Ich remedy I saw in the ThatPetPlace catalog. I don't really have any ich-specific meds on hand nor will I get a chance to get any because my best friend is having her baby right now and my husband is watching their daughter and I'm watching ours and neither kids wants to sleep because they are so excited.

I've so far managed to conceal betta's illness from my daughter. She doesn't know what she is looking at. Fortunately with the treatments, at least Betta is acting normal again and even ate betta pellet. His scales are less pine-coney, too.

Now I just have to make sure I didn't spread the disease to my other tanks. I've been careful but in a limited space as I have to work with, it is hard to prevent cross-contamination of equipment.

That is one thing I do not like about keeping more than Danios and Cories--other species are more prone to things like ich that is hard to treat in cories once it does get a foothold, because of the fact cories can't take some of the more common ich/velvet remedies. I really just want to stick to cories, cories, cories. That is enough to keep me scratching my head with confusion for the rest of my 40's.