A Quick Study

Salutations hobbiest. After months of debating whether I should get a lizard or fish I chose (drum roll please) Fish.
I now have a 10 gallon for my female standard veiltail betta. After changing and rearranging I found she did well with the 2 cherry barbs and 3 albino cherries, where as she was the alpha female in my 20 gallon sorority. Its a moderately planted tank (the 10g); anacharis, anubias, and some red indica. Theres a few cherry shrimp (3) and (3) nerite snails. Fingers crossed the female shrimp reproduces. Oh! There also 3 ember tetras, I don't want to overstock this small tank but can I put in more, up to 10? Also because I want my fish to thrive and my betta to be stress free I'm going to connect a sponge to my backpack filters intake. I tried an internal filter but I didn't get a size up (like a fool) so the plant/ food waste quickly created that oily surface so I had to put the backpack filter back on. Also there's a slight smell which is what makes me think this tank is getting crowded, the filter was used to cycle the tank for 2 weeks but its still fresh.
For the most part I'm a quick study and it took me four months to decide if I wanted fish and another two to get my tanks set up and ready for fish. So I had plenty of time to research and go to the LFS to see what I was interested in, but you learn as you go really. So any advice or helpful words would be cool. But youtubes helpful guidance is never to far away, haha (haha means help).

Oh there's also some java fern in there. Completely forgot about it even though its beautiful!

Hard to tell from the angle, but that female betta might actually be a male, hence why it wasn't getting along in the sorority. Can you get some better angles of the betta, perhaps with one where it is flaring at a mirror? The pelvic fins and overall body shape suggest a male plakat to me. Can you see a white spot just between the pelvic fins? If not, this further suggest a male.

As for over stocking, is is a bit of a mess. The cherries and ember tetras really need more to make a school. 6+ of each would do them good, but that is simply not going to work in a 10gal tank. Is there anything in the 20gal at the moment? If not, then you can move them all to that (once it is cycled of course) and then up the numbers of the cherries and embers. Keep in mind that the betta may turn aggressive and go after them. The shrimp may or may not be safe, some bettas eat shrimp, some don't.

As for the oily film, you need more surface agitation. An air stone will work but so would adding a better filter.

Demeter32 said:

Hard to tell from the angle, but that female betta might actually be a male, hence why it wasn't getting along in the sorority. Can you get some better angles of the betta, perhaps with one where it is flaring at a mirror? The pelvic fins and overall body shape suggest a male plakat to me. Can you see a white spot just between the pelvic fins? If not, this further suggest a male.

As for over stocking, is is a bit of a mess. The cherries and ember tetras really need more to make a school. 6+ of each would do them good, but that is simply not going to work in a 10gal tank. Is there anything in the 20gal at the moment? If not, then you can move them all to that (once it is cycled of course) and then up the numbers of the cherries and embers. Keep in mind that the betta may turn aggressive and go after them. The shrimp may or may not be safe, some bettas eat shrimp, some don't.

As for the oily film, you need more surface agitation. An air stone will work but so would adding a better filter.

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You know, I just trusted the container. I checked all my females except Gina (who may be a George) I'll add more photots when I get home. I know everyone would be happier in a larger school which is why I suggested moving them to the 20gal. Sadly I bout all the cherry barbs my LFS had and theyve been out for weeks now which is why I'm stuck with 5. Also do I need to keep an eye out for the Cherries and Albinos breeding? I have a video of flaring and chasing but dont know how to upload. The 20g is cycled and barely inhabited by a bonded pair of female bettas And 5 platies. I also have 2 female betta in isolation due to split fins. I could move the 2 bonded pair into the 10gallon after I upgrade the filter? But I dont think the platys and barbs are compatible and I know 5 platys won't be happy in that 10 gallon.

I will say if Gina is a male that actually will make me happy. Because I did want a male betta at one point but was turned off by there level of aggression.
The site keeps rejecting the photots saying they're too large. Ignot the tiger barbs in the picture idlf it loads. I rescued them, they're going to the LFS

You don't want to keep only a pair of female bettas in a 10gal. Sororities need to be a larger tanks with more females. Even 4 females is on the low side. You could probably keep the ember tetras in the 10gal and up their numbers to 7 or so but that is all I would keep in a 10gal. I think the barbs need to be moved, but moving them to the 20gal would be a bit overstocked IMO. As for them breeding, even if they do it is unlikely that any eggs/fry will survive anyways. I'm more worried about the platties breeding, they give birth to larger fry that are better able to avoid being eaten.

The other pictures are not much help, but I still say male for the betta.

Rather than the barbs and platties not being compatible, the bettas are not really compatible with the platties either. Platties prefer hard water with a higher pH while bettas (and barbs+tetras) like softer water with a lower pH. What is your pH and hardness?

@Byron is better at stocking and compatibility among species.

As my name was mentioned, I'll just post to mention that I concur with Demeter's advice in both posts.

Im not seeing the egg pouch/sac. And nothing has gone wrong but all my research was useless because im housing the wrong fish together. I thought betta and barbs wouldn't be a good fish because barbs ar fin nippers not because of parameters and where they're from. I'm disappointed and while they're fine and active now things could take a turn for the worst in the blink of an eye.

Also. I bought the tetra 6 in one test strips. I live in an area where you can't get all the alkaline out of the water if you dont have spanking new pipes So my ph ranges from 7-9 . 0 nitrites 0 > 20. Waters looks on the Softer side to me. Everything looks good aside from the over feeding ive been doing (which ill cut back on) I dint think these strips are as good a quality as the pet store uses but everything looks good.

I'm trying to upload a photo of the strip but trust me when I say

Demeter32 said:

Hard to tell from the angle, but that female betta might actually be a male, hence why it wasn't getting along in the sorority. Can you get some better angles of the betta, perhaps with one where it is flaring at a mirror? The pelvic fins and overall body shape suggest a male plakat to me. Can you see a white spot just between the pelvic fins? If not, this further suggest a male.

As for over stocking, is is a bit of a mess. The cherries and ember tetras really need more to make a school. 6+ of each would do them good, but that is simply not going to work in a 10gal tank. Is there anything in the 20gal at the moment? If not, then you can move them all to that (once it is cycled of course) and then up the numbers of the cherries and embers. Keep in mind that the betta may turn aggressive and go after them. The shrimp may or may not be safe, some bettas eat shrimp, some don't.

As for the oily film, you need more surface agitation. An air stone will work but so wou

The 10 gallon was a package buy. everything came with the tank. Filter heater etc. What would you recommend?

Click to expand...

Barbs and Bettas do not mix, Tetras and Bettas do not mix.

I agree with Demeter's advice.

Honestly I did download a photo that had showed which fish and friends were compatible and it hadn't specified all the barbs it did just say that barbs and bettas weren't male compatible but with females it depended on the fish it could go well it could go bad is what impression it gave me, it hadn't said why and then when I went and found Community betta tanks on YouTube Some people had just different type of different types of fish with their bettas and it I guess gave me false truths. The barbs aren't nipping at the betta & honestly they don't even pay attention to it but that's why I thought they were compatible I wasn't aware that they needed different water parameters.

Ill make necessary changes to my tanks this weekend. Thanks y'all

I'll offer a few comments on fish species compatibility that may help you in understanding the complexity of this topic. First, remember that anyone can post videos, photos or "advice" on the internet, and much of it is completely worthless. You need to know the knowledge/experience of the person posting, and there are reliable sites we follow. I have spent considerable time researching fish species and habitats, and one thing I found along the way was that the reliable individuals invariably agree on the basics.

The second thing I'd like to point out is that we should generally assume that a fish will behave/interact in specific ways according to the species. Inherent behaviours, levels of aggression, etc. are programmed into the species DNA. It is always safest to assume the fish in the store tank, when you get them home and settled in your aquarium, will most likely follow the inherent traits. Sometimes a fish does behave contrary to the norm, but there is usually a reason for this, whether genetic, or caused by stress we have forced upon the fish due to an inappropriate environment in some aspect. Hoping the fish will behave abnormally to suit our desires is dangerous, as the fish usually won't accommodate us and the result is a stressed fish which means it will slowly be weakened and at some point react usually with aggression, but sometimes the complete opposite and waste away.

There is much to consider when combining fish species. Environmental factors as I like to call them are considerable: water parameters, the aquascape, tank size, number of fish in a shoaling species, the flow from the filter, the tank lighting, and of course other species present...all these factor in to how the fish will react, interact, and directly relate to the long-term health.

There are some general aspects we should always follow. Fish species in an aquarium absolutely must share close water parameters. I cannot go into the complicated biological reason this is so critical, but it is. The species must also have very similar environmental needs related to water flow, substrate, wood/rock, plants, and light. All of these can stress fish if they are not what the fish "expects" naturally. Fish, like most terrestrial animals but even more so, have a very limited capability to adapt to an environment other than the one for which they have evolved over thousands of years. The fish species lifestyle is important; sedate fish like most cichlids, gourami, Betta, and many of the rasboras and tetras, cannot be housed with active swimming fish like barbs and danios. Now, I am being very general here, there are a few exceptions here and there, but generalities are easier to remember and form a good guide.

I'll leave it at that for the present, but don't hesitate to ask questions. We are all here to help each other.

Byron.