Betta in community tank

[prettypleco]

I stopped in Petsmart to get some jerky turkey for my dogs and spotted Bettas in specimen jars in blue water. Now is this food coloring or medication? No one seemed to know. The jars only hold 6 ounces of water. Anyway i ended up rescuing one and am thinking of putting him in my community tank [100 gal]. Anyone have any luck with this or should i scrub out a 5 gal hex i have in the attic?

 

[phOOey]

cool, a betta in a 100g would cetainly be different. looking at what you've got in there it looks like there could be some problems though. firstly he will most likely be very aggressive to your guppies, due to there long flowing fins. also the neons and glowlights can also be a bit nippy. in such a big tank i guess it could work, but if i were you i'd set-up the 5g as i expect he'll probably end up in there.

i dont know why that water was blue though.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

That's medication they put in there (not sure why though). You could try him in the 100g, just watch him really, really good for a while. They sometimes go after tetra eyes, I'd be much more worried about that than the tetras going after him. Mostly depends on the betta. If he doesn't work out in there, you can always net him and put him in the 5g after. It's not like they're really hard to catch .

 

[FishWhisperer]

Hi Pretty Pleco. I don't know whether you have a male or female betta but here's my "little" experience with bettas. There is one male betta in a 10 gal tank with five neon tetras and one zebra danio. He is very gentle and only chases the danio and "biggest" neon every now and then. Both the neon and danio chase him too. They have been in the 10 gal tank for over a year. However, I do have one very aggressive female betta that I tried putting in a 20 gal tank. She actually chased the RTS in his cave all the time. The RTS was actully swimming away from her. It was a good experience for the RTS since he is always chasing the cories and gourami. I hope I have helped you a little bit. Good luck!

 

[prettypleco]

Thanks all... I have the 5 gal ready in case. This is a male betta who seems kinda placid. We'll see. One more silly thing. Lets say i put him in and everything is fine. Could he wake up one day and decide to be nasty? Or can i assume [which i hate to do] that this will remain a peaceful environment for all? I like to live dangerously but not at the expense of other living creatures.

 

[CaptainZissou]

I have two bettas. One is named Captain Zissou, and when I first got him, I put him in a five gal, where he peacefully coexisted with guppies, mollies, and a gourami. However, one day he got stressed out as I was cleaning the tanks (this was before the 10 gal) and he swam at my male guppy and killed it. I recomend you keep an eye on him, because you dont know how he is going to react under stress. (I am figuring that you have a male because First Mate Jacques was a petsmart beta too)

 

[phOOey]

bettas can be pretty unpredicatable, so one day he may be fine, and the next he may go crazy. but the chances are, if hes alright from the start, then he should stay calm, as long as there are on big changes in the tank or anything.

 

[Chazwick]

It is a common fact never to put male Bettas with Guppies, they see them as competition, because they look similiar, in the way that they have the same flowing fins, etc... your male Betta would rip the guppies apart when he finds them, like he would do to an equal male.
And tetras are NOT nippy, as someone said, thats danios

I think your betta would do fine in a 5GAL Hex, great in fact, you could even get a small shoal of neons, a frog or a snail to keep him company

 

[nobody]

I have been told that bettas do better alone in a small size tank. So just watch him. When ever my dad was given a betta by my grandma it would disappear and we'd find it dead a while later. So just watch him.

 

[TitanWarrior]

I had a betta in a 2 gallon before and i also had 3 fancy guppies with him. Nothing happened to the guppies.

 

[twoluvcats]

bettas are often kept in med water in the cups at stores...petsmart/petco ALWAYS do this.

Really, bettas are not strong swimmers, and are easily spooked...so they are not really good community tank fish...they don't like any fish they can consider 'competition' and since they are shy and not the fastest swimmers, they often starve in a community setting. He'd have a much happier existence in the 5g with some non-swimming tankmates.

 

[FishGeek]

The "general guidelines" say that you cant put Bettas with anyother fish. However; as we have said in other posts, it depends on the Betta. I would give it a shot. There is plenty of room for them to find their own territories and stay away from each other. But besure to keep an eye on him.

Also, tetras can be nippy. I had 6 Red Eyed Tetras and they cornered my Angel and would let her move. It depends on the fish.

 

[phOOey]

And tetras are NOT nippy, as someone said, thats danios

even the most peaceful of tetras can get nippy when things like bettas enter the water, but it is normally black widow, phantom, lemon and other tetras like that who tend to be nippy. even so, i've heard stories of neons going after bettas too.

 

[GIS Guy]

It is interesting to read that ppl are keeping bettas with other fish. I always assumed them to be loners. Since I have a community tank, I thought a betta would now be a colorful and "flowing" addition.

I am currently feeding Tetra brand color enhancing tropical food. Would a betta eat this or would I have to feed betta bites?

Thnx.

 

[cybersymes]

i have a betta in my comm. tank...
check out the others below...

he's only been in a short while...
but so far he's been great...
a real good addition in my opinion...
he's turning out to be a real character...

in fact...
i would say that i'm starting to see a personality...

i thought bettas were loners with regard to OTHER bettas...
my experiance so for would lead me to recommend these guys...
as great additions to a community setup...
[with compatable tank-mates of course...] ...

 

[prettypleco]

They love bloodworms and mosquito larvae. My betta begs for them. Mine also eats the tetra tropical flakes. I bought him all kinds of betta food. He wanted what everyone else was eating.

 

[GIS Guy]

He wanted what everyone else was eating.

Sounds good enough for me.

 

[Fishchaser]

i tryed to put my betta in with my other fish and they bit off its fins and they werent even aggresive maybe if you had lots of plant and hiding places it would be good

 

[geekrockgirl85]

uhm... unless he was in the guppy tank, i see at least one fish in each setup in your sig (and that lobster!) that would have delighted in an attempted betta snack.

 

[MidSSouth]

I tried a Betta in both my 40 and my 135. In the 40 he was killed by the Angelfish (gee who would have thought Cichlids would be agressive) and in the 135 I think it starved to death because it would never be fast enough to get any food. I would put in flakes, or tubifex worms, or betta food and the other fish would always eat it before the betta even knew it was there.

Also the strong circulation from the two canister filters on the 135 didn't really seem to appeal to the betta. He would always swim back and forth on the back wall because if he tried to go toward the front at all the current would sweep him away and down to the bottom.