tank mates

Question
QUESTION: I just bought 4 fish for myself and my daughter.  We chose a danios, a blue paradise gourami, a tiger barb and a plecostomus.  I was looking for care and maintenance information online and noticed someone saying that a gourami and a tiger barb are not good tank mates due to the fact that the tiger barb is a fin nipper.  The salespeople that sold them to me said that they would be fine in a tank together.  Do I have to be concerned that my gourami will get his tail nipped or no?  Also, I put my beta fish in the tank with them for a few minutes and he got mad and blew up his little gills.  I took him out immediately, will he be ok and can I put him back in there or no?

ANSWER: Hi Jami

First, it is actually called a Paradise Fish, though many often refer to it as a Blue Paradise Gourami.

I'm not sure what type of Danios you are talking about. If they are Giant Danios, they will be fine. If they are Zebra Danios, they may be in trouble. The Paradise Fish may eat Zebra Danios.

The Tiger Barb and the Paradise Fish should be fine together. Your Tiger Barb should be more afraid of the Paradise Fish rather than the other way around. Paradise Fish can be very aggressive. Another thing about Tigers though is that they are schooling fish and do best in groups of at least 4.

Finally, no your Betta will not be safe in this tank. Both the Paradise Fish and the Tiger Barb will nip his fins. The Paradise Fish may actually do a lot worse than nip fins :-(

Hope this helps, good luck!

Richard

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your quick response to my last question.  I would like to introduce more fish to my tank. Do you have any suggestions and are you saying you think I should get a few more tiger barbs?  (It's only a 15 gallon tank)

Answer
Hi Jami

Well unfortunately, in a 15 gallon tank, you don't have room for many more fish. Maybe one more Tiger, but that would be about it. There are many fish you could keep with the ones you have, but to add more fish, you would need to upgrade to a 20 or 30 gallon.

Hope this helps, good luck!

Richard