Betta Tank Question?

[Onyx!]

Just to add another two cents worth to my previous two cents (wow the cents are piling up), I have had a similar experience where I was actually able to keep two male bettas together in the same tank with no problems (started out as an accident - one betta jumped from one tank into the other - but since they got along fine I left them together). Not to say that I'd recommend trying this, just to reiterate that it really depends on the fish's personality as to who and what they are going to get along well with. I actually brought home a male gourami from Petsmart without realizing that typically they are not compatible with bettas. the gourami turned out to be suffering from what we think was damage to his labyrinth organ and gills from unstable oxygen in the tank water at the store... in any case the poor guy only lived about a week and a half but the betta actually stuck to his side and defended him from any other fish that came too close for the entire time he was in the tank, so go figure. It's definitely a lot easier when you have more than one tank where you can shuffle fish around if they are not getting along

 

[achase]

Interesting experiences.....but like you said it's key to have various tanks that you can shuffle fish around in if problems arise.

 

[lauraf]

Well now I'm all confused. I had wanted to do a combo of ADFs, shrimp and a betta . . . .

 

[bassbonediva]

Laura, after researching ADFs because I was curious about them (my son expressed interest in them), I found out how difficult they can be to feed and that they aren't recommended in setups with fast or aggressive eaters (which bettas can be classified as aggressive because they will eat anything, just about).

About the shrimp...adult shrimp should be safe from the betta...it's any shrimplets you have that you'd have to worry about.

 

[lauraf]

Hmmm. Must re-think this now. I had previously discussed the combo with the wise ones on this forum (not having kept either ADFs or bettas in forever) and got the go-ahead. I was going to introduce the ADFs first, get them trained on feeding in a certain spot, and then add the betta . . . Sigh. Why must I choose?!!! Do not want!!!

 

[Meleemaker]

The ghost shrimp would be okay if they were large enough. I placed about 25 in my one tank after it cycled and I had 9 females with them. After a month or two, they slowly started to dissapear. I couldnt find corpses or anything(the dang things were small to start with) but I have no clue what happened to them, but I never saw the females beating up on the shrimp, they would all share during meal times so who knows. All fish react differently

All you can really do is try a combination out and see if it works. No one can really tell you what will or will not happen. We can only really give what we think will happen and what our experiences are.

 

[bassbonediva]

I'd put ghost shrimp with females, but not a male. I had four ghost shrimp with my blue grizzle halfmoon male betta and they ripped his fins to shreds.

 

[ValRasbora]

You can hand-feed your adf thawed, frozen bloodworms with tweezers if you're concerned about him not getting enough to eat I hand-feed some of my fish and it's really fun! Amano shrimp, also called yamato shrimp are good betta tankmates because they get about 2" so they can't fit in the betta's mouth.

If you were more interested in fish, neon tetras might be alright. They're not overly active (compared to wcmm or danios) so they should be ok in a 10g. But they're very colorful so if your male is more aggressive I wouldn't try.
Cory's are great as well! You could have a school of about 4 of the bigger ones (peppered, panda, etc.) or 6-8 of pygmy cories.

 

[lauraf]

You can hand-feed your adf thawed, frozen bloodworms with tweezers if you're concerned about him not getting enough to eat I hand-feed some of my fish and it's really fun! Amano shrimp, also called yamato shrimp are good betta tankmates because they get about 2" so they can't fit in the betta's mouth.
\QUOTE]

This was exactly my plan . . . . .

Sorry to have hijacked the OP's thread!
Pygmy cories would be awesome . . . .

 

[Tethys]

I've kept betta's in a community tank with with white cloud minnows, harleqiun rasboras, otos and bronze corys, and not had any problems with compatibility.

 

[paperdog9]

I'd put ghost shrimp with females, but not a male. I had four ghost shrimp with my blue grizzle halfmoon male betta and they ripped his fins to shreds.

I tried keeping a few ghost shrimp with my betta as well and they ripped him up really bad. I took them out and he was so happy he zoomed around all day. He has healed, but his fins still are not full size still to this day ( 4 months later).

 

[Meleemaker]

I tried keeping a few ghost shrimp with my betta as well and they ripped him up really bad. I took them out and he was so happy he zoomed around all day. He has healed, but his fins still are not full size still to this day ( 4 months later).

Fins never grow back as full or colorful as they were before(betta scars if you will). Thats why they tell you that if you try breeding bettas, dont expect to be able to show them. They get real messed up over it. My female crowntail is still regrowing her fins(like milimeters right now on high protein) and they will be real white compared to the rest of her. I did have my 9 females with a 55 gal tank so they had plenty of room to avoid the relatively slow moving ghosties

 

[ValRasbora]

amano shrimp are nice little guys. They mind themselves and don't bother my betta imbellis.

 

[Tiikeria]

Wow, everyone! I'm learning a ton from everyone else's questions, so I definitely don't mind the hijacking.

I might, when I go home, set up the betta's normal tank, but then set up a larger one, so, just in case he doesn't react well to a community, I have his tank all ready to go.

I'm still looking at my options as to what fish to consider, but, seeing as it seems to very depending on the betta, I may just have to see what fish are the most compatible with each other, and with bettas.