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betta tank mates

6K views 25 replies 15 participants last post by  goobypls 
#1 ·
We up graded to a 10 gallon tank and I would like to see what our options are and if we could add some tank mates in a couple months.
Its probably a lightly planted tank. We have a marimo ball about golf ball size may be bigger, a tree made of peacock moss. and some christmas moss and Taiwan moss scattered about the tank on various rocks.

As for live stock the girls have a male Crown tail betta he seems fairly calm to me. What are some options for tank mates for him. The girls would like something cool to look at. I think for our tank size we need small fish. what could be some fun options for the girls to study.?
 
#3 ·
This is really going to depend on the betta. Ive had some that are no problems in a community tank, and others that are absolute terrors to the tank. Your best bet is to acclimate your fish for an extended amount of time in the bag and see how he reacts. Based on that, if you think its safe, let them go but i would have plenty of hiding places just in case. As for tankmates, i would go with fish of equal size such as sword tails or mollies as they are not overly aggressive, but are not afraid to hold their own. Or i would go with a schooling fish, such as neons or cherry barbs. They should stick together so he may leave them alone, or if he likes to chase them, at least there is room to spread out the stress with 6-8. Another good fish that i have had good success with bettas are ottos. I even had one betta in a 2.5 gallon planted tank with three ghost shrimp and an otto and there were never any problems. Hope this helps!!
 
#4 ·
the Ottos look cute the girls might like one we will put it on our list of maybe and do a little more learning about them. what would I feed it i don't think we have any algae in the tank. do they eat algae wafers ?
I have thought about a couple ghost shrimp once the mosses grow in some more and the dwarf hair grass.

Our betta has quite a bit of red on him I would like to get a different color in the tank.
 
#5 ·
I have successfully kept my crowntail bettas with rummynose tetras, glowlight tetras, corydoras catfish, Kuhli Loaches and other larger fish. One of our Bettas was aggressive, but he could never catch the speedy tetras. The other betta (in different tanks of course) was very peacful and loved the corydoras catfish!

What is the length and width of your 10 gallon? If it is 20" long it will be perfect for 1 small school of fish such as 9 Rummynose tetras or a school of 10 Glowlights with 7 dwarf corydoras. Rummynose need more space than the Glowlights so I wouldn't recommend anymore than them with the Betta if you chose Rummynose. Something that might be even better concidering "fun" for the kids is to have your stocked with the 1 Betta, 10 Dwarf Corydoras, 4 Bamboo Shrimp and possibly a few Nerite Snails depending on your water parameters. Bamboo shrimp need to have a mature tank before you add them though because they are filter feeders (eat particles out of the water column naked to the human eye).

Before you add fish to your Betta's home, you should have ample hiding places. Floating plants are great for Bettas and the fish and invertebrates I suggested. Driftwood with wide sections is great also giving a place for the Betta to rest (they do like to perch ontop of things and sleep). Plants like Anubias are great for a tank like this as well offering leaf cover for the bottom dwelling catfish as well as the low-level schooling tetras.

Good luck!
 
#6 ·
Otos do better in a very mature tank where there is at least a good amount of bio film for them to eat. They are pretty sensitive and are known to die easily, which might not be a good choice if your kids get upset easily.

I know alot of people have had luck with ADF's and bettas together. The frogs can't see well tho so you have to make absolutely sure that they get enough to eat, especially since bettas are such pigs.
 
#7 ·
I am starting my 10 gallon betta tank and I will be going with a small school of cories, probably pygmys, and a shoal of small tetras, rasboras, or barbs. I am leaning towards CPDs. I will probably skip the Otos this time. I have not been having good luck with them in my main tank. I've lost two this week.


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#8 ·
Some Bettas do not get along with any other tank mates.
Most are OK as long as the other fish are not as pretty as the Betta, so no long tailed fancy Guppies.
Many are just fine with lower level fish, or fish that are well camouflaged like Cories or Otos.
Some Bettas are in more danger from the tank mates! Avoid ANY fish with even a hint of a 'nipping' reputation.
 
#11 ·
Personally, I've never had a betta that was too aggressive to live with something. All but one did fine even with very small fish. The exception got along well with small cichlids and livebearers as big or bigger than himself well enough. Both my current males are so mellow they don't even mind cherry shrimp.

I would recommend a small group of endler's livebearers (probably only males, prettier and smaller and no overpopulation possibilities), a shoal of pygmy corydoras catfish (3-6), a trio of guppies (iffy with their fancy tails but I've never had a problem with it), a trio of platies, a school of otocinclus catfish (3-6), or any of the freshwater shrimp - especially amanos and cherries. I've never had any luck with ghosts. Obviously not all of these together, but for example a tank with the betta, 5 cories, 3 endlers, two amano shrimp and 5 - 10 cherry shrimp wouldn't be overstocked but very interesting. I'd also recommend nerite snails for algae control (but not together with otos - not enough to go around). Very hardy and my favorite algae eaters.

Be warned, amano shrimp climb out of tanks like no tomorrow if frightened by a fish or not happy with water quality, and need a tight fitting cover. I recently bought three, and lost three, all in one evening because my betta terrified them. They don't just jump like other shrimp and become limp on land, they climb plants or wires and run away like cockroaches only to dry up in a back room somewhere you'll never find them. Cherries also bail when scared but not nearly as readilly and they won't climb.

If you don't like more red, they also have blue, white, yellow, and a few other breeds of cherry shrimp but they aren't as readilly available.
 
#14 ·
thanks for the suggestions I am afraid of over stocking the tank.
I love the endlers those have some great color I think the girls might like them with the unique color, They look funner than the standard tetra, the corys are interesting too do they usually stay near the bottom?. I would love a few blue shrimp but im not sure what we could find where we are at. me and the girls will make a list of some possibilities and see whats available. Hopefully we can find some that wont break our budget for our home school project.
 
#12 ·
Avoid brightly colored fin fish which may trigger the betta's aggression. I have a giant betta with sparkling gourami which are a dwarf variety. Endlers are safe but the females get quite large and feed aggressively which may outcompete the betta during feedings. Avoid barbs that will bite the betta fins unless you have a plakat which can better defend themselves.

I have wild neo shrimp in the same tank as my betta but would not recommend the pairing unless the tank is over 10 gallons and heavily planted.
 
#13 ·
Oh, thought I should mention that the Serpae Tetras are not a good match for Bettas IME. I had a large school of them with my Betta in a 30 gallon thinking they would be too busy amongst themselves to fin nip; wrong! They nipped eachother constantly and if the Betta got close to the group, she'd get nipped too. My Skirt tetras did the same thing but less often.
Another thing to concider is feeding time. Bettas stock their food and Tetras go after it lightning speed like pirahnas! I feed my betta by hand and drop food on the other side of the tank for the zoomy-eaters. Works great!

Let us know what you decide! :)
 
#17 ·
Yes HotrodPrincess, the corydoras will stay at the bottom. This question reminded me of something very important. They have barbels on their mouths to sift through sand for food. That is soething I didn't think to mention before suggesting them. If they are kept in a tank with gravel, sadly their barbels will get warn down which leads to death. I had mine with gravel and was told this very same thing. I thought mine looked fine and kept them in the gravel anyway. Then, sure enough, found one dead. Poor thing had no barbels! So, I changed from gravel to sand, and the younger ones grew their barbels back, but the older ones never did.
Just something to keep in mind.
 
#20 ·
we have made a list of the suggested fish and we will see what we can find at our two pet stores neither one seems to have much of a selection. Hopefully we will be able to find some cool little guys to put in our tank. Not sure if i can find any cool colored shrimp so we may end up with ghost or cherry shrimp.

We are going to wait a couple weeks before adding any more livestock to the tank just to be sure there are no problems with the new tank. thank you everyone for the great suggestions
 
#24 ·
We have two albino and one peppered cory in our ten-gallon. There has never been a hint of trouble. You might want to reconsider the cherry shrimp. Our betta chased the ones we had. We never saw him kill any. But we no longer have any cherry shrimp. Could be a coincidence. He doesn't bother the ghost shrimp though. He doesn't even seem to notice the apple snails. So there's another option to consider.
 
#25 ·
The shrimp are a may be I like the cherry shrimp but the girls want ghost shrimp we will see if we can even find any so far we havent spotted any shrimp of any kind at out pet stores. We are going to start with the corys and then add the endlers in a few weeks.
 
#26 ·
I keep my Veil Tail in a 10g with 5 White Cloud Minnows. He chased them around a bit at first but now he leaves them alone all together. I have plenty of floating plants for my Beta to swim in, as well as small rock caves. He spends a good deal of time exploring while the minnows spend their time swimming in the filter current. The WCM were quite young when I bought them and now they are about an inch size. So far so good :)
 
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