Looking for Betta ideas

[Pash]

Fairly experienced fish keeper, but have never had a  Betta.  I’ve set up a 10g planted, heated, sponge filtered and almost cycled tank.  I’m thinking a male, but I also want to give him some compatible tank mates. Looking for recommendations for both a Betta variety and mates. Also would appreciate insight of which to add first, the Betta or buddies.  Not particularly a fan of snails, but shrimp are on the list.  Any thoughts welcome.  I apologize as I’m sure this topic probably gets asked routinely, but hey, new here. Look forward to meeting you. 

[Theresa_M]

I love my panda corydoras. Never feels like there's any competition for food. Harlequin rasboras is another one that comes up often. I also have tetras.

Here are a couple good videos: 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Theresa_M

[Pash]

If my wife wanders in here and sees me watching another of Cory’s videos I’m afraid we’re headed to divorce court. 

[OceanTruth]

7 minutes ago, Pash said:

If my wife wanders in here and sees me watching another of Cory’s videos I’m afraid we’re headed to divorce court. 

Lol. Who knew Cory was such a home wrecker? 😛

I've also been in this "hobby" a while and have yet to keep a betta. BUT I'm finally on the lookout for my first as well. Good luck with yours when you find him or her.

[FrozenFins]

I like neon tetras or ember tetras with bettas. The biggest thing to look out for is to make sure they are peacful non fin nipping fish. Not all bettas will like shrimp as most of them will find the shrimp as a tasty snack.

I would put the betta first to claim their territory.

Edited January 16, 2021 by James Black

[Ben C.]

Biggest advice I can give is pair the betta with another pretty quick eater, like ember tetras mentioned above. Bettas bloat so easily and are such fatties that I had a really hard time with them in communities - even getting food to snails was hard - so I gave up and kept them alone. Also, need to get to know the betta first. Some are chill, some are genocidal. All of mine have been murderers..shrimp are too risky in my opinion. 

[Fonske]

I learned the hard way that bettas don't thrive in my hard, higher-pH water. Especially bettas with ball gowns for fins and those of most "unnatural" colors, like white. Reds and blues seem hardier in my experience. These days I make sure the water in betta tanks is soft and full of tannins from catappa leaves.

I would also make sure there are no sharp objects in the tank as well as tight places the fish can get stuck in (which bettas love to do).

My recommendation for a first-time community-tank betta would be a short-finned one, a plakat or maybe a spade tail.  But it's hard to resist other types, they all are so gorgeous!

[Mr_Manifesto]

7 hours ago, Fonske said:

I learned the hard way that bettas don't thrive in my hard, higher-pH water.

 

I too have learned this the hard way.   The seem fine for a while but eventually just deteriorate.  I now use a RODI system and mix my water with the RO to get something around 200 TDS.  seems to work well. 

Also my experience is that Bettas usually get some sort of intestinal blockage if you over feed or fed them low quality stuff.  I feed mine mostly frozen foods, occasional live black worms,  Vibra-bites, and Bug Bites.   I literally count 2-3 of the 'bites' so they don't over eat, and I don't go heavy on the frozen foods.

 

[OceanTruth]

1 hour ago, Mr_Manifesto said:

I too have learned this the hard way.   The seem fine for a while but eventually just deteriorate.  I now use a RODI system and mix my water with the RO to get something around 200 TDS.  seems to work well. 

Darn it... This is why I haven't tried keeping a betta in all these years of fish keeping. I thought I had read enough info lately that Bettas actually adapt pretty well to hard water that I built up some confidence about it. I have a tank all set up for my first one, but I guess I should rethink it. Glad I didn't jump the gun and get one already.

[Kirsten]

If I could redo my 10g betta tank, I'd just do ramshorn snails. My 6 pygmy cories never seem super happy or active, just hang out on or under the plants and around the sponge filter. They'll get a little active at random times, but mostly just hang around. And they didn't do anything to help the algae. They mostly just nibble slowly on veggie wafers and any betta food that sinks. I think they'd be happier in a larger group, in a larger tank, with other fish that weren't so scary (my betta's never hurt any of them, but sometimes slowly chased them when we first got him).

[Schwack]

1 hour ago, OceanTruth said:

Darn it... This is why I haven't tried keeping a betta in all these years of fish keeping. I thought I had read enough info lately that Bettas actually adapt pretty well to hard water that I built up some confidence about it. I have a tank all set up for my first one, but I guess I should rethink it. Glad I didn't jump the gun and get one already.

I've been keeping several bettas, both white, in 8.0 pH and very hard water. I don't use RO or anything and both fish have been thriving for coming up on a year now. 

One of them got moved into a 20 gallon since he's partially blind and doesn't seem to be bothered by other fish in his space. Rainbowfish and a pleco have done well with him, although the rainbowfish will steal his food if I'm not careful about feeding. The other is in a 10 gallon with a few corydoras and they do very well together. I tried adding some shrimp to his tank, but he saw them as a snack.

[Alaya]

My favorite tank mates for bettas has been long finned leopard danios and platies. I've also generally gone for the females for a community set-up. That seems to lower the chances if aggression and fin nipping dramatically. I have done standard veiltail males in community set-ups without issues, but I just found it more stressful on me to constantly be monitoring for fishy fights. I would not attempt anything with bigger fins, those giant fins slow the betta down too much, and are just too tempting of a target.

I also wouldn't worry too much about water hardness unless your water is on the extreme ends of the scale, or you want to keep wild-caught bettas. If your water is on the extreme end of the scale, and you don't want to invest in a R/O system, check and see if there is a grocery store that has a bottled water refill station. I'm not sure how popular these are in other regions these days, but I found that to be a much cheaper option when I've needed to use them. Current cost is 0.25-0.49 a gallon, rather than the $1-2 of an off the shelf gallon.

[Mr_Manifesto]

On 1/16/2021 at 12:01 PM, Schwack said:

I've been keeping several bettas, both white, in 8.0 pH and very hard water. I don't use RO or anything and both fish have been thriving for coming up on a year now. 

I have very hard water as well, pH 8.2 - 8.4 and around 450 TDS.  Maybe its just my water chemistry here, I've kept bettas in my hard water and they do ok.  My experience is they become very susceptible to bloat/blockages and renal failure in the hard water. I'm not saying that you can't keep bettas in hard water, and I have kept them in it too.  Just be careful!
 

 

[Tonik]

My female betta, Bluey, has been very mellow and has tolerated shrimp and snails as tank mates very well.  She doesn't even flare at the mirror like my male betta does.  So, I needed to get my male endlers out of the guppy tank because holy millions of fry(!), so I added three to her 10 gal planted tank thinking there were lots of places to hide and that they were fast enough.  Even though she has always ignored the shrimp, she has chased the endlers and forced them to hide.  It's only been a day, but should I go ahead and separate them right away?  I don't want to stress any of them if there is no possibility of cohabitation.  I do have a 5 gallon that I could make into a betta tank.  

[Dancing Matt]

It's kinda an experiment like any other fish. I have 7.8-7.6 ph and my betta is all good. I tried mixing him with corydoras and he was attacking and chasing them down so... no tank mates for him.