Fish mix suggestions

[zpidi]

Alright everyone I would like to hear everyones suggestions on if I should add the following and if so which ones and how many? I have a 14g cube tank with a male dumbo halfmoon betta as my main focus. I am considering the following in order of preference:

- Tetras (specifically rummy nose)

- hillside loach

- otos

- kuhli loach

- corys

 

[DiscusLover]

On 4/1/2023 at 5:13 PM, zpidi said:

Alright everyone I would like to hear everyones suggestions on if I should add the following and if so which ones and how many? I have a 14g cube tank with a male dumbo halfmoon betta as my main focus. I am considering the following in order of preference:

- Tetras (specifically rummy nose)

- hillside loach

- otos

- kuhli loach

- corys

 

scrap the rummy nose they need at least a 3foot tank, hillstream loach usually need cooler water then bettas, otos should do fine just grow enough biolfilm for them to eat, kuhli loachs could work but thats if you choose between corys, I dont recommend any corydora species except pygmy.

[nabokovfan87]

 

On 4/1/2023 at 5:13 PM, zpidi said:

I am considering the following in order of preference:

- Tetras (specifically rummy nose)

- hillside loach

- otos

- kuhli loach

- corys

The scape itself determines a lot for me as far as what would or could go in the tank. Nano fish specifically is all I would be thinking. The Betta wants generally warm temps, but let's say the tank is at 78 as opposed to 81.

I would look at stuff like green neons, neon tetras, other tetra of that size that generally can get away from the Betta if it's feisty. The tank would need places for them to hide as well if need be.

I would avoid loaches and Otos just because of temperature alone. Kuhli I just don't know if that goes with a Betta or not. It may be absolutely fine, but I don't know. 

If you want to get corydoras then I think the pygmy, hasbrosus, false julii, or sterbai do well.  If your Betta is kept hotter, then I would scrap corydoras.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/betta-tank-mates

[Lennie]

Hello,

welcome to the forum 🙂

I checked what 14g cube refers to, and if I am not wrong it is 38cmx38cmx38cm approximately.

From the fish listed above, I keep everything except kuhli loaches. 

I would consider borneo suckers instead of hillstream loaches for that tank size. They like to be in a cooler temps and high flow well oxygenated waters, but in my experience as long as the water is oxygenated well they can tolerate higher temps. It is a bit hard to have a good surface agitation and water movement with a betta tho.

rummy noses love to swim a lot. I have some in my 60cm tank, and moving them to my 100cm tank in the following days. They enjoy a big school and vertical swimming space.

In my experience, otos like a big group and feel secure that tway. You never know if they will ever accept commercial foods or blanched veggies. So you should always have an established tank with algae and biofilm available all the time. The problem with keeping otos in smaller tanks is, in order to make sure they can graze on algae you need to cut their school size a lot as they literally consume algae A LOT and they may run out of food easily if they don’t accept commercial foods. I have 5 in my 33g/ 50cm cube heavily plant tank and they ate all algae there in 2-3 days after I waited algae to build up for 2-3 months. Thankfully they like to school with pygmy cories ( I have 16) and they taught them to eat commercial foods.

Maybe you can try a school of pygmy cories and ottos and expect them to enjoy each others company. But that is my very own experience and I haven’t seen anyone else mentioning this before. Probably I just got lucky
 

the thing is, bettas are really not a community tank fish. If you don’t have a backup plan in case anything goes wrong, I would not try a betta community tank. If you have other established tanks that you can separate fish in case betta shows agression, then you can try.

The problematic side is, if you wanna try a betta community tank, it is adviced to introduce the betta at last. Now the tank is its territory, and you are planning to add new fish  into is territory. Things are very likely to go wrong.

 

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by Lennie

[zpidi]

I should have expanded on the tank set up. Water temp is set at 79F and it is planted with java fern, christmas moss, banana plant, moss balls, octopus plant and another wide leaf plant that starts with a T (i cant remember the name). I have fluval stratum for the base along with rocks and drift wood. 

[zpidi]

On 4/2/2023 at 10:33 AM, Lennie said:

Hello,

welcome to the forum 🙂

I checked what 14g cube refers to, and if I am not wrong it is 38cmx38cmx38cm approximately.

From the fish listed above, I keep everything except kuhli loaches. 

I would consider borneo suckers instead of hillstream loaches for that tank size. They like to be in a cooler temps and high flow well oxygenated waters, but in my experience as long as the water is oxygenated well they can tolerate higher temps. It is a bit hard to have a good surface agitation and water movement with a betta tho.

rummy noses love to swim a lot. I have some in my 60cm tank, and moving them to my 100cm tank in the following days. They enjoy a big school and vertical swimming space.

In my experience, otos like a big group and feel secure that tway. You never know if they will ever accept commercial foods or blanched veggies. So you should always have an established tank with algae and biofilm available all the time. The problem with keeping otos in smaller tanks is, in order to make sure they can graze on algae you need to cut their school size a lot as they literally consume algae A LOT and they may run out of food easily if they don’t accept commercial foods. I have 5 in my 33g/ 50cm cube heavily plant tank and they ate all algae there in 2-3 days after I waited algae to build up for 2-3 months. Thankfully they like to school with pygmy cories ( I have 16) and they taught them to eat commercial foods.

Maybe you can try a school of pygmy cories and ottos and expect them to enjoy each others company. But that is my very own experience and I haven’t seen anyone else mentioning this before. Probably I just got lucky
 

the thing is, bettas are really not a community tank fish. If you don’t have a backup plan in case anything goes wrong, I would not try a betta community tank. If you have other established tanks that you can separate fish in case betta shows agression, then you can try.

The problematic side is, if you wanna try a betta community tank, it is adviced to introduce the betta at last. Now the tank is its territory, and you are planning to add new fish  into is territory. Things are very likely to go wrong.

 

 

Yes that is correct on the tank size. My betta is not here yet and ive read to introduce them last so yes i was trying to get everyone else in first before introducing my betta. I just want to make sure i dont overcrowd the tank.