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Betta Tank Mates For 5 Gallon

FreshwaterAfishianado

FreshwaterAfishianado

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So I bought my wife a new Fluval Spec 5 gallon (19 litre) aquarium for her crown tail betta Apollo. I was trying to think of a few tank mates for him. I realise that other fish are probably out of the question, but can anyone suggest some interesting inverts that might work? We're using black sand substrate with a few live plants, Anubis, crypt and another that I'm not sure of.
 
Snails will be a good idea, if you don't want them breeding then either get nerite snails or get a different type of snail with some assassin snails.
You could also try shrimp but bear in mind that Apollo might eat the shrimp.
 
Some Bettas can cohabit with roomies some can not!
 
My female Betta ate all her shrimp companions (or they're hiding really well) whereas my male Betta lives with Rasboras, Kuhli Loaches, Otocinclus and Shrimp without any fights or problems. He is in a 40 gallon (long) tank!
 
Our previous Betta, which we had for 2 years, did at first not even like a snail in his tank! He did come around later to accept Kuhli Loaches! I would not recommend Kuhli Loaches for your tank though, they would not like it in a 5 gallon!
 
You could try him out with a snail and see how he handles that? The shells of Nerite snails are quite beautiful and would look great with your black substrate. They also do not reproduce in freshwater set-ups, so you won't get overrun by them! :)
 
ADF's eyesight isn't that brilliant, so if you do decide to go down that route you will need to keep a close eye that it doesn't jump at the betta each time it passes, as they can ruin a bettas tail in a short time.

I do like ADFs but have been put off because of this reason, I'm sure it an be done successfully, however I wouldn't want to risk it with mine :s
 
I have a plakat betta in with 3 amano shrimp as they are quite large and can move quick if they need to, there's also a young male platy and an assassin snail in there, but the best thing is to judge whether the betta is aggressive or not first.
 
Shelster said:
ADF's eyesight isn't that brilliant, so if you do decide to go down that route you will need to keep a close eye that it doesn't jump at the betta each time it passes, as they can ruin a bettas tail in a short time.
I do like ADFs but have been put off because of this reason, I'm sure it an be done successfully, however I wouldn't want to risk it with mine :s
Click to expand...
I used to keep 6 ADFs and a male veil in a 6 gall corner tank, never had a single issue between them. Decent thick planting may have had an effect here.
 
FairPlay dgwebster, like I say, I do like the ADFs :)
 
I should take heed to my own advice that I give my wife too: just because it works for one, doesn't guarantee it will for another.
 
Don't know if I can sell the wife on the African dwarf frogs, last time my 4 year old brought a frog in from the yard she about had a heart attack lol. If we were to try the snails or the shrimp what would be a safe amount of stock for such a small tank? Will they self limit their breeding to the space available or just take over?
 
I did not have a good experience with a betta and dwarf frog together.  Not because of the above listed reason although I can see how that could be a problem with some.  My issue was the dwarf frog was slower and of course had very limited sight.  Feeding was a mess.  The betta would scarf his food down and then eat all the frog's food therefor leaving the frog hungry and the betta horrendously bloated.  There are ways to make it work with situations like that like removing one or the other while feeding but to me that is more work than I wanted to put into it so I moved betta to another tank.  In a 5 gallon, I suggest a nerite snail.  They are beautiful and are great to clean algae. Shrimp are a hit or miss because most bettas will relish that kind of treat.   
 
So here it is with Apollo exploring, planted with bamboo, crypt, Anubis, Kyoto grass, dwarf hair grass, crimson temple and the moss ball.
 

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Nice picture of Apollo, Fresh!
Is that a pH monitor on the glass front right?
 
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