Betta lonely

[Aqua_Princess64]

I have a male betta and an algae eater in a minibow 5 gallon tank with a flourescent light, filtration, and some plants. My betta has been active since I got him, and he and the CAE are best friends, but the tank looks empty. Do I have room to get a few neon tetras? Would it be a good idea? I don't think I have enough room, but some of my fish friends think I do.

 

[White Whale]

I have a male betta and an algae eater in a minibow 5 gallon tank with a flourescent light, filtration, and some plants. My betta has been active since I got him, and he and the CAE are best friends, but the tank looks empty. Do I have room to get a few neon tetras? Would it be a good idea? I don't think I have enough room, but some of my fish friends think I do.

Maybe a couple of dwarf golden barbs or a couple of dwarf cories.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Mine seems to enjoy chasing around guppies, and he never catches or hurts them. These are plain guppies, not fancy.

 

[wetwetwet]

Which type of CAE - some of these can get upto 6"

 

[Aqua_Princess64]

I'm not really sure. The tag thing just said algae eater. I do know that some AE's get very large and if he starts to get big then I will put him in a bigger tank.

 

[sheffbetta]

I've got 2 CAEs in my betta tank (they were being sold as otos) and after doing some research have found out that they grow to around 6-8" and can become very territorial I'm hopefully going to have a larger tank I can move them into in the summer. They don't seem too aggressive so far, but if I have to I will return one of them to the store.

As for getting companions for your betta, it depends on the personality of the betta. I would love a shoal of neons in my tank, but mine hates other fish and barely tolerates the CAEs. I've bought a few shrimp, which should hopefully help in keeping the tank clean and are also fun to watch. They seem to have settled in ok so far. If you do want to get neons then you'd probably need about 5 or 6 (neons are shoaling fish) so there may not be enough room in a 5gal. Have you thought about an african dwarf frog? or a couple of corys?

 

[rsz]

Get a trio of small cories (ones that only grow to about 1" or something... like pygmy cories ).

 

[Aqua_Princess64]

Ok!! Thanks guys!