Betta tank mates?

[damanax]

I've recently acquired a 17g aquarium and I'm planning on housing a male Betta in it. I'm looking for suggestions on tank mates that would be relatively easy to get a hold of.

I would like to move some cherry and tangerine tiger shrimp and a mystery snail from my established 53g. I've seen cories get mentioned a lot on lists but I know 17g isn't big enough for 6 of the more common types. Would pandas work? I have a sandy substrate.

I'm planning on having it be pretty densely planted. I've already got some java fern and will be moving some red root floater, frogbit and java moss from my established tank. I'm also using the media from this tank to speed up this new ones cycle.

Cheers

 

[Innesfan]

Cories are among the most reliably safe tankmates for a betta and a 17g is fine for a school of 6 cories and a betta. I have had a betta in a planted 15g for several years now with 7 C. oiapoquensis, first cousins to C. panda. And it's been fine. The water parameters have been rock solid.

 

[damanax]

Great. I was looking at pandas, want to go something bigger than pygmy.

I've also read a few times that the Betta should be the last addition to the tank. Anyone know if that's accurate? Some of these sites also say you can keep your Betta in a cup so idk how knowledgeable they are.

 

[Essjay]

Don't believe anything on a site which says they can be kept in cups. That stems from the myth that wild bettas live in puddles. They don't. They live in shallow expanses of water and some survive the dry season in puddles.

The idea behind adding a betta last is so that he'll see the other occupants as part of the scenery. Other fish added after the betta will be perceived as invaders in his territory. However, bettas have not read any books/websites and many will attack fish already in the tank.


One thing against pandas is that they come from fast flowing water, which a betta won't appreciate, unless you choose a short finned male.

You mentioned shrimps in the first post. It all depends on the individual betta. I have had a betta which ignored cherry shrimps, including baby shrimps. Another betta ignored adult shrimps but ate babies - with this betta the shrimp population did not increase. A third betta dismembered the shrimps.

 

[GaryE]

You'd need to keep the Betta at the lower end of the temperature scale (if you can depending on where you are in Aus). Pandas don't like it very warm, and Betta splendens does. You might want to consider something like sterbai, which is larger but doable as long as you aren't a slacker on the water changes.

I've noticed a lot of small shoaling fish will attack Betta fins, as they appear nutritious and tasty. The slow moving fish can get a haircut. It does him good, but the person who bought him to look at those oversized fins is usually unhappy. However, the harlequin 'rasbora' group never nipped when I had them, and neither did Bororas.

 

[damanax]

Yeah Ive heard mixed things on shrimp. Same with mystery Snails. Depends on the Betta and you don't get to find that out until you own them. If my Cherry's or tigers breed, I'll look at throwing some adults into the new tank. I do have java moss in there and plan to fill it in a bit with more plants. Just got to find a lower light plant.

The sterbai Cory are a good idea. I have seen them at my LFS so I should be able to get them easy enough. I've got the tank set up at 26c so definitely a bit warm for the pandas. I do weekly water changes on my larger tank so hopefully that'll be able to keep up with them if I do the same with this new one.

The rasboras are also really neat but I've got purple Harlequins in my established tank already and don't want to overlap on fish there.

1x Betta splenden
6x sterbai Cory
Possibly cherry/tiger shrimp or a mystery snail if lucky.

Seem reasonable?

 

[GaryE]

To me it does, except that my last Betta hunted shrimp passionately. If the prey drive is high...