# Betta's with tank mates?



## cottoncandy946

Can male betta's be placed with other fish?:betta:


Thanks for reading,Kayla


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## ELewandowski

I have heard you want to stay away from any fin nippers and any other fish that look similar to a betta to avoid fighting. Maybe neon tetras.


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## cottoncandy946

ooo thanks for posting


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## Chickadee

It depends on the size of the tank and the betta itself. I have had some bettas that liked their tank mates very well but others would not stand for any other fish in with them. They generally, especially the males, do not do well with other fish. They may accept an otocinclus catfish or if the tank is at least 15 gallons 3 cories but they may hassle them and chase them until they scare them to death. 

It would be my recommendation that if you betta is happy alone that you let him be alone. He is not used to company and does not get lonesome. He would have a bigger chance of being upset by having another fish in there than by not having one.

Relax, Kayla, he is getting to know you and already gave you a bubble nest.

Neon tetras are fin nippers you do not want them. If you decide you must have a tank mate the following are good choices:

Otocinclus catfish are the best All my bettas that had them seemed to accept them but they are nocturnal and do not come out much during the day.

Cories of any kind but since they need to be kept in 3's or more you need a bigger tank like at least 15 gallons.

Right now I have Kuhli loaches in with my betta and he likes them but if you have a tempermental little guy he may nip them. You can have them in anything above 5 gallons per loach and you can have a single if you must but at least two are better so that means 10 gallons.

I have also had: Dwarf or Chain Loaches (expensive); Apple or Mystery Snail (one ONLY per tank); and a small pleco called a Clown Pleco (not a clown loach). But my tanks are big, 12 gallons and over so with a very small tank the Otocinclus is the only one I would recommend and then only one. If you make that choice my only recommendation would be to find someone that has an aquarium that has a lot of plants and see if you can beg one off them. Buying them from a petstore will almost certainly fill your tank with tagalong pond snails and infest your tank with them. They are a nuisance and always make me very angry. My favorite vendor of plants sent me some plants not long ago and while I never had a problem with their plants before I have two tanks full of tiny snails and it will be a long while before I buy there again.


Rose

:betta:


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## cottoncandy946

oo i see well i only have a 5 gallon and Bubba seems very happy alone so i think ill keep him alone. Thank you sooo much for your awesome adivice, Hope your day is awesome!!

Thanks So Much, Kayla


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## DarkRevoultions

Male Betta's are able to be in with tetras. Mainly the ones that don't have LONG fins or very bright.

Like don't go for Neon tetras especially. Mainly because they do give up a brilliant coloration when the light is on in the tank and I guess Betta fishes don't like them.

You can go for Black Skirt Tetras, or Phantom Tetras. Depending on if the Black Skirts will have longer fins that will develop later on.. but if they don't (depending on their genetics) then your Betta will be fine with them.

Barbs and/or Angel fishes are fin nippers. I wouldn't recommend you to get those. Since barbs are species that will fin nip. Angels when they get bigger will be fin nippers too.

Male Betta's are best to stay in with community fishes that don't have wavy/long fins or are very bright in color. Also, aggressive fishes such as Cichlids, Oscar, or even Convicts aren't going to be very good either.

I hope I gave the right information  I've been told a lot about Betta's a lot lately


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## underdog5004

I've got my betta in a 29 gallon tank with about 25lbs of bowl rock and about 70 pounds of river rock. 
I also have:
2 cobalt blue gouramis
1 5" gold gourami
5 blue flame tetras
2 german blue rams
2 bolivian rams
1 blue lobster
10 ghost shrimp
2 kribensis cichlids

they all seem to get along pretty well, but it's not something I'd recommend for a beginner.


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## ELewandowski

underdog5004 said:


> I've got my betta in a 29 gallon tank with about 25lbs of bowl rock and about 70 pounds of river rock.
> I also have:
> 2 cobalt blue gouramis
> 1 5" gold gourami
> 5 blue flame tetras
> 2 german blue rams
> 2 bolivian rams
> 1 blue lobster
> 10 ghost shrimp
> 2 kribensis cichlids
> 
> they all seem to get along pretty well, but it's not something I'd recommend for a beginner.


I am no expert, but that seems a bit cramped for a 29 gallon. I could be wrong though. None of your fish are stressed? I would think your 5" Gold would be stressed a little in a 29gal.:fish-in-a-bag:


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## DarkRevoultions

underdog5004 said:


> I've got my betta in a 29 gallon tank with about 25lbs of bowl rock and about 70 pounds of river rock.
> I also have:
> 2 cobalt blue gouramis
> 1 5" gold gourami
> 5 blue flame tetras
> 2 german blue rams
> 2 bolivian rams
> 1 blue lobster
> 10 ghost shrimp
> 2 kribensis cichlids
> 
> they all seem to get along pretty well, but it's not something I'd recommend for a beginner.


Cool 25 fishes  I've got about 15 fishes  they are pretty much dwarf fishes (small ones that won't grow really big) except for my angel, blue gourami, and pleco. I don't know if Oto cats grow big though..

I have one I guess "rare" dwarf Curviceps cichlid but I don't know if it is dwarf because my pet store rarely gets them in haha!


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## underdog5004

ELewandowski said:


> I am no expert, but that seems a bit cramped for a 29 gallon. I could be wrong though. None of your fish are stressed? I would think your 5" Gold would be stressed a little in a 29gal.:fish-in-a-bag:


Nah, my gold gourami is enjoying the upgrade from the 10G he was in. Hey, don't look at me that way, he came with the tank! Anyway, he just hangs out in cave, and only comes out if I put new fish in or if some fish are fighting. The others seem to have territories pretty well marked out, and the betta seems to hold his own as well. He likes to drift from the hornwort floating on the top to a small grotto in the back, to under the filter, and back to the hornwort.

Anyway, my fish seem pretty chill, no fin nipping, my tetras don't school very closely, and all my fishes color is very bright, so I don't think they're very stressed. I'm planning on adding more bowl rock to add more territory space, but not until I get my java fern and christmas moss well established. I hate hornwort, but it's keeping the nitrates down at the moment


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## ELewandowski

I would consider buying a bigger tank, and separate that stock. I havent found anyone that thinks that setup is acceptable. Everyone is telling me its extremely overstocked. I feel sorry for those fish.


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## DarkRevoultions

ELewandowski said:


> I would consider buying a bigger tank, and separate that stock. I havent found anyone that thinks that setup is acceptable. Everyone is telling me its extremely overstocked. I feel sorry for those fish.


Are you sure? underdog might not want to get a new tank though... since they do cost a lot of money and he's happy with a bigger tank. Like he said that the gold gourami is happy now  

I've had 8 small fishes in my 10 gallon before, but then I quickly upgraded to a 29 gallon and then I moved them in there one by one day by day. My Betta was the first to be moved in along with my pleco and my amazon swords.

How many fishes do you have in your *tanks* ELewandowski?

( I meant how many fishes do you have in all of your tanks in your entire house altogether)


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## ELewandowski

DarkRevoultions said:


> Are you sure? underdog might not want to get a new tank though... since they do cost a lot of money and he's happy with a bigger tank. Like he said that the gold gourami is happy now
> 
> I've had 8 small fishes in my 10 gallon before, but then I quickly upgraded to a 29 gallon and then I moved them in there one by one day by day. My Betta was the first to be moved in along with my pleco and my amazon swords.
> 
> How many fishes do you have in your *tanks* ELewandowski?
> 
> ( I meant how many fishes do you have in all of your tanks in your entire house altogether)


Well, it sure does sound like a cramped tank to me. I would love to see a pic.

I have 3 tanks with fish in them currently. I have a 29gal with 6 Exodons and 3 cory cats.

And i have a 55gal with 1 juvi red belly piranha.

and 1 10 gal with 3 cory cats


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## ELewandowski

not trying to get your panties in a bunch, just cant seem to find anyone that will tell me its good for the fish having them so cramped. I mean, you said yourself, you had 8 in a 10 gal and quickly upgraded them to a 29gal. So you yourself wouldn't even do it.

idk, maybe im too honest with my opinions for this forum.


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## DarkRevoultions

ELewandowski said:


> Well, it sure does sound like a cramped tank to me. I would love to see a pic.
> 
> I have 3 tanks with fish in them currently. I have a 29gal with 6 Exodons and 3 cory cats.
> 
> And i have a 55gal with 1 juvi red belly piranha.
> 
> and 1 10 gal with 3 cory cats


Yeah I agree too  pictures would be great ics: Aren't Exodons aggressive?? like a Piranha?

I've never raised piranha's before mainly because I had to "fish sit" before like taking care of them when my friend was in Spain... so he had this huge 125 gallon tank with 10 5" piranhas, and when I gave them food they pretty much jumped up in the air. I don't know if they were trying to aim for my fingers or the food, but I finally had to throw in some shrimp and other stuff from far away to avoid them from trying to take a chomp out of my fingers :S

Even worst was doing a water change or doing a gravel wash. I had to put a separator in the tank so then the piranhas were on one side and then do the same thing again just move them to the other side that was already siphoned.

Do you have plants in your big piranha tank?


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## ELewandowski

Yes, the exodons are aggressive, but there is only 6 of them, so not overly aggressive. The piranha tank is not planted, has a piece of driftwood in it. Its easy having only predators for me, because i can feed them all the same food. And the cory cats seem to love the food too.


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## DarkRevoultions

ELewandowski said:


> Yes, the exodons are aggressive, but there is only 6 of them, so not overly aggressive. The piranha tank is not planted, has a piece of driftwood in it. Its easy having only predators for me, because i can feed them all the same food. And the cory cats seem to love the food too.


Oh I see.

I have some pictures to show you. I don't know if you'll like them but I tried my best to make the plants as green as possible 



















And this was my planted tank before:




























I have a lot more of the current ones now because most of my fishes died out because of old age 





































That's all  I only have the 10 an 29 not the other tanks since they are pretty much all over the house and I hate walking all over my house  it's HUGE though xD


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## underdog5004

I have some videos of my tanks on youtube:

YouTube - Video of all my critters

sadly, this was before I put all my fish into it, so it probably doesn't help much 

I'll get a new video up soon, gotta borrow my gf's cell phone camera


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## Chickadee

underdog5004 said:


> I've got my betta in a 29 gallon tank with about 25lbs of bowl rock and about 70 pounds of river rock.
> I also have:
> 2 cobalt blue gouramis
> 1 5" gold gourami
> 5 blue flame tetras
> 2 german blue rams
> 2 bolivian rams
> 1 blue lobster
> 10 ghost shrimp
> 2 kribensis cichlids
> 
> they all seem to get along pretty well, but it's not something I'd recommend for a beginner.


It is a wonder that betta is still alive with all those gouramis in the tank. They are related to it and it is not a good idea to have them all together. Then to have the ghost shrimp in there too with him is not the best idea. When they molt they will probably start being lunch and dinner. There is not one fish in that tank that is technically compatible with a betta and then a lobster too. You have had luck but I am not sure that I would recommend this combination to a beginner or even someone advanced who loves their fish.

Rose


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## underdog5004

Chickadee said:


> It is a wonder that betta is still alive with all those gouramis in the tank. They are related to it and it is not a good idea to have them all together. Then to have the ghost shrimp in there too with him is not the best idea. When they molt they will probably start being lunch and dinner. There is not one fish in that tank that is technically compatible with a betta and then a lobster too. You have had luck but I am not sure that I would recommend this combination to a beginner or even someone advanced who loves their fish.
> 
> Rose


I agree, the ghost shrimp were a bad idea. I last saw one a few days ago, but since then, nothing :/

Other than that, my fish are getting along well, and nobody messes with the betta, which is pretty much all I could ask for. The different species tend to stick loosely to each other, but also tend to mingle. Guess I just have pacifist fish 

And I understand what you're saying, that you think that I don't love my fish...
I care for them, and would never put them in a stressful situation just for the heck of it. I added fish slowly, and in a specific order, so as to minimize stress and maximize pre-established dominance (who was in the tank when I added the next set of fish)

I did:

betta and gold gourami
then a week later, the blue flame tetras
then a week later, the rams
then a few days later, the kribensis and cobalt gouramis
then 2 days later, the lobster (not for dominance purposes, just because that was when I decided to get him, instead of waiting)


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## COBettaCouple

I'm surprised the other fish are getting along with each other. I would keep a close eye on them, especially the kribs and rams as they get larger.


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## DarkRevoultions

underdog5004 said:


> I agree, the ghost shrimp were a bad idea. I last saw one a few days ago, but since then, nothing :/
> 
> Other than that, my fish are getting along well, and nobody messes with the betta, which is pretty much all I could ask for. The different species tend to stick loosely to each other, but also tend to mingle. Guess I just have pacifist fish
> 
> And I understand what you're saying, that you think that I don't love my fish...
> I care for them, and would never put them in a stressful situation just for the heck of it. I added fish slowly, and in a specific order, so as to minimize stress and maximize pre-established dominance (who was in the tank when I added the next set of fish)
> 
> I did:
> 
> betta and gold gourami
> then a week later, the blue flame tetras
> then a week later, the rams
> then a few days later, the kribensis and cobalt gouramis
> then 2 days later, the lobster (not for dominance purposes, just because that was when I decided to get him, instead of waiting)


I still think that if your tank mates are doing fine, it's good to go with what your set up is  If the fishes aren't doing so well then you can probably put them in a different tank.


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## cottoncandy946

oooo what type of fish is that in ur profile


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## underdog5004

So, here's a new video of my tank, with a brief showing of my betta 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhvDBmpLTYg

Hope you like it.


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## Chickadee

underdog5004 said:


> And I understand what you're saying, that you think that I don't love my fish...


Nope, not my intent at all. I did not think any such thing at all. I am just saying that we are answering a question here placed by a novice fishkeeper and sometimes we have to take into consideration the fact that what we may be able to do may not be recommended to do by anyone else. Perhaps you are able to do this and you may have exceptionally pacifisitic fish for their species but to send someone else out at a recommendation to do what you have done is risky and to risk their fish and the money they will spend getting a tank together and money spent on fish is risking their time, energy and money. That is not something I can condone.

So I congratulate you on the success you have had so far, and I hope that it continues, but I will hope that you do not recommend that others follow your example as this has very little chance of being the normal way a tank set up as yours will be. It is my responsibility to give recommendations based on my experiences and the knowledge I have to the best of my ability and that would be it. I cannot in all good conscience say otherwise, but I do wish you well with that tank and hope your luck holds out. 

Rose


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## underdog5004

underdog5004 said:


> they all seem to get along pretty well, but it's not something I'd recommend for a beginner.


I didn't mean to recommend this for anyone. Like you said, what I have works, but is not necessarily something that will work for every/any one else. Sorry for the misunderstanding about fish love


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## DarkRevoultions

cottoncandy946 said:


> oooo what type of fish is that in ur profile


Which one are you talking to? xD


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## cottoncandy946

i'm talking to u and the fish i mean is that white one on ur profile


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## underdog5004

cottoncandy, it looks like an albino plecostomus to me.


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## DarkRevoultions

cottoncandy946 said:


> i'm talking to u and the fish i mean is that white one on ur profile


Oh, ha ha sorry xD I took that picture in Japan so everything was in Japanese  but it's an albino pleco  with RED eyes and I didn't even turn on the flash  the reason why I got a really good picture of it is because my camera has an aquarium mode which allows me to take clear pictures of fishes without using flash or anything else 

I didn't get to bring it with me  Canada is FAR FAR away


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## cottoncandy946

ooo thats a cool fish


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## DarkRevoultions

cottoncandy946 said:


> ooo thats a cool fish


Yehp  There are a bunch of them at Big Al's in Kitchener, but I don't want to buy them xD I have two in my 29 gallon but none in my 10 gallon.. I moved my small pleco from the 10 gallont o my 29 gallon mainly because it doesn't do anything.

Now that I moved it to my 29 gallon it does do a lot more  it does clean my plant leaves, and the glass, and eats the fish flakes that fall to the ground.


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## cottoncandy946

wow thats cool my mom has a 155 galon and we have two plecos and lots of ciclids


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## DarkRevoultions

cottoncandy946 said:


> wow thats cool my mom has a 155 galon and we have two plecos and lots of ciclids


Oh Cool  I have a 125 gallon with a lot of plants and tetras plus one angel and I'm going to be putting in a male Betta soon  Hopefully I can get one for all of my tanks since they don't have any cichlids in them.. and even if I do have cichlids they are RAMS or friendly cichlids


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## cottoncandy946

ooo what is a RAM


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## Chickadee

I need to remind you all that this is the BETTA forum and if we are going to wander we should be posting about other fish in the proper area. 

Thanks

Rose


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## DarkRevoultions

cottoncandy946 said:


> ooo what is a RAM


It's a type of friendly cichlid that you can put in with tetras and angels... just not aggressive cichlids like the African ones.


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## DarkRevoultions

Chickadee said:


> I need to remind you all that this is the BETTA forum and if we are going to wander we should be posting about other fish in the proper area.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Rose


Sorry, I just got too carried away  I thought we are allowed to do this.


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## cottoncandy946

ooo thx for telling me what a RAM is


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