Bettas And .....?

[LilyRose Tank]

I would like to enquire what breeds of small fish I can house with a Betta. I have always loved their elegance and beauty, and I suddenly remembered them again on a recent visit to a lfs which has a glorious selectin of diffent colour varities. I have my eye on a CT ( I think thats its name) it is turquoise, purple and red and he is absolutely stunning. I am cycling a 64 L tank, and am in the nitrite spike phase, and was thinking of my stocking wishlist and wondered about putting a betta in with my chosen fish list.... platies, guppies, tetras.... I'm willing to purchase another tank fo this Betta if I need to, but I still need to find out which other small fish he would tolerate, any ideas and opinions would be great thanks in advance xxx

 

[lilacamy931]

Hello there
With guppies, these are not recommended due to their tails and the male betta seeing them as a threat, tetras are well known tail nippers and likely to stress the betta out and platies dont know... These are things that you hear and read from others but then again others have made it work. I would personally have the betta on his own. known fish that have worked for me are javanese rice fish and normani lampeyes

 

[Assaye]

I would like to enquire what breeds of small fish I can house with a Betta. I have always loved their elegance and beauty, and I suddenly remembered them again on a recent visit to a lfs which has a glorious selectin of diffent colour varities. I have my eye on a CT ( I think thats its name) it is turquoise, purple and red and he is absolutely stunning. I am cycling a 64 L tank, and am in the nitrite spike phase, and was thinking of my stocking wishlist and wondered about putting a betta in with my chosen fish list.... platies, guppies, tetras.... I'm willing to purchase another tank fo this Betta if I need to, but I still need to find out which other small fish he would tolerate, any ideas and opinions would be great thanks in advance xxx

Be wary of putting a betta with any fish.

I would strongly suggest getting him his own tank. No nipped fins, no aggression. With the fish you are planning, there are a few known problems:

Tetras - can be nippy. Being in a larger group can help calm them but they might also get too bold. You're not 100% safe with a big group or a small group.

Platies - if you've ever seen a betta in with platies in a pet shop, you'll know why these guys are a problem. Sometimes it works but many times the betta is terrorised.

Guppies - with either nip, or be killed, in most cases.

I had a betta in a community tank for 3 months and everything was fine. Happy fish all around. And then one day I came home to find his tail had been shredded. Thinking it was finrot, I added salts and hoped for the best . . . until a couple of days later I saw the tetras ripping his fins. Since then he's turned into a tailbiter and I can't get his fins to grow back.

It might be OK, but I wouldn't risk it.

 

[finalfantay85]

Maybe ask over in the betta subforum but i'd agree with what has already been said about probably keeping him on his own. Maybe some cories would work but it does depend on the personality of the betta. My guy was very placid and had no problems in a community until i added in some guppies (newbie mistake i know) and they absolutely terrorised him until he lashed out and took a chunk out of one of their tails.

 

[waterdrop]

oldman47 used to always make a nice post about the conditions under which a beta could make a nice community member but he's been so busy over in the common livebearers section that we've not seen him in a while. WD

 

[ian]

I had mine with some Norman lampeye and never had a problem. Then i added the guppies, it was like watching Terminator! I removed the Betta and he's now settled in my missus's hair salon (in a tank lol). Lamp eyes can be hard to get hold of though, but imo they are great little fish. You could get a nice school in a 64 ltr.

 

[waterdrop]

I'm sorry, its probably inappropriate but I was reading that last post and it was.. like.. when I hit the terminator

 

[ajs2294]

Like stated above it would probably be easier to provide it with its own tank, maybe with a female betta? And I presume the CT stood for Crown Tail Beta just one of the different types,IMO the prettiest!

 

[Assaye]

Like stated above it would probably be easier to provide it with its own tank, maybe with a female betta? And I presume the CT stood for Crown Tail Beta just one of the different types,IMO the prettiest!

Males and females should not be kept together.

That'd be like Terminator, Predator and Alien all rolled into one!

 

[ajs2294]

Like stated above it would probably be easier to provide it with its own tank, maybe with a female betta? And I presume the CT stood for Crown Tail Beta just one of the different types,IMO the prettiest!

Males and females should not be kept together.

That'd be like Terminator, Predator and Alien all rolled into one!

Oh how come? My mom has a male and female together and they are fine.

 

[Kitty_Nin]

Might be fine for a while or in a very large tank, but eventually it will lead to carnage.