Stocking Help, Tank Mates For A Betta

[DanielG]

Hi i am just about to set up my fisrt tank its a Juwel RIO 125 apporx 33 US Gallons

I am going to have it well planted and wondered if the following fish would be compatible to go in it

1 x male betta
2 x guppies
8 x neon tetras
6 x zebra danios
3 x cory catfish

would these fish get on well and is my tank big enough to house them?

thanks for the help

 

[celaeno]

the male betta, guppies, and zebra danios won't go together. you have to pick one of the three.

 

[rdd1952]

Bettas will generally attack guppies as they think it's another betta (large tail). Danios can be nippy and will nip the tail of bettas and guppies. As mentioned, pick one and increase the number of corys (better if at least 5 or 6) or neons.

Edit: It's also better to keep guppies in a 1 male to 2 female ratio so the male doesn't harass the female too much.

 

[nivisec]

Something else many overlook for a betta tank are ghost shrimp. Providing a little cover (which you should for your betta anyway) will keep them from being eaten unless you have a really mean betta Ghost shrimp are kind of neat to watch and about 20 of them to your tank will eat every bit of extra food to keep the tank totally clear. They also eat algae, which is a bonus, since algae eaters generally don't do well with a betta because they try to eat their fins in my experience.

The tetras would do good and you could also go for the flame tetras (look like the neons but with an orange stripe, same size) to add more color. I've also had success with several cherry barbs with a betta (only one male though, which are the bright red ones, the rest female). You have a decent tank size, so I'd think you could do it easily.

Also, just in case you didn't know, get all the other fish added first for a day before adding the betta to have the maximum chance of him not killing them while establishing his territory.

 

[rdd1952]

Ghost shrimp are a good option but they don't eat algae except possibly as a very last resort when there is no food at all in the tank. It is ver doubtful that a betta will harm any other fish in the tank unless they have big fins like guppies and angel fish which he can mistake for another betta. The won't bother tetras and similar community fish.

 

[zxsixr]

I have in my 80gl

1x male betta

2x Pakistani loaches 1 more to come

11 x Cardinal neons


Eveyone gets on great no probs at all.

 

[DanielG]

Right ok i think i want to stick with the Betta as a centrepiece fish

so if i am going to have

1 x Betta

10 x neon/cardinal tetra

5 x cory catfish

is there anything i could have in a colourful pair to add a bit more variety?

also which fish should i add first to the tank out of this list, which will be the most tolerent to the newish tank conditions?

On the other hand if there are no real alternatives to go with the Betta are there any other quite large centrepiece fish that would go with the guppies, corys, tetras?

also will all tetras shoal together? or just specific species, for example will black neons shoal with cardinals etc?

 

[mark.w.jones]

Personally. I think that bettas are always a bit of a danger as community fish and that ideally they should be kept as a solitary species. Plus, they are so common it's untrue. Gouramis are always good centre piece fish. I am currently setting up the same size tank at the school which I work at. I'm going for:

5 Boesemani Rainbows
2 Gouramis (species still undecided)

to go with the 2 catfish it came with

1 bristlenose
1 Unknown Plec (which I'm a bit worried about as it could get enormous) possibly a candidate for being rehomed.

 

[DanielG]

thanks for the advice everyone, i went to the LFS today to see what they have in store and i think i am going to go for this set up

9 x Cardinal tetra

5 x Cory catfish

2 x Honey gourami

3 x Guppy (2 female)

which order do you recommend that i add the fish in so as to avoid trouble, also which would be the best to add first when the tank is pretty new

 

[rdd1952]

Personally, I think you should do a fishless cycle (link in my signature) so you can add all your fish at once in 3 or 4 weeks. There really aren't any fish on your list that I would consider realy hardy so all of them will struggle in a cycling tank. In either case, you will need a good liquid master test kit to keep track of the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH levels.

If you cycle with fish, you goal will be to keep ammonia and nitrite as close to zero as possible by doing partial water changes as needed. This can sometimes mean 2 water changes a day. And definitely make sure you don't add more than 3 or 4 fish at a time and then wait until the tank has completely cycled out (ammonia and nitrie at 0 for a full week) before adding 3 or 4 more fish and going through the same process again.

 

[DanielG]

i was planning on doing a fishless cycle but am a bit new to the process, i thought there would still be a bedding in time even with a fishless cycle but if not then i guess it does nt matter which i add first

thanks for the advice

 

[rdd1952]

Once you have finished the fishless cycle, you will have more than enough bacteria to support your full fish load. You can easily add them all at once. If you only add a few, most of the bacteria will die off as there won't be enough waste/food to support all the bacteria. There is never more bacteria in a tank than what is needed to process the waste so a tank with 20 tetras roughly has 4 times as much bacteria present as a tank with 5 tetras. At the end of a fishless cycle, your tanks will be cycling 4 to 6 ppm of ammonia twice a day, way more tha a full load of fish can produce.

 

[andyboy!!]

I've had a tank with all three of these species (Betta, Danio, Guppy) in and they got along fine.

However, my Betta had a 'thing' about orange platy's and would chase them around the tank.

Just depends on the nature of the individual fish.

Aandy.

 

[gilaesther]

Something else many overlook for a betta tank are ghost shrimp. Providing a little cover (which you should for your betta anyway) will keep them from being eaten unless you have a really mean betta Ghost shrimp are kind of neat to watch and about 20 of them to your tank will eat every bit of extra food to keep the tank totally clear. They also eat algae, which is a bonus, since algae eaters generally don't do well with a betta because they try to eat their fins in my experience.

How big do ghost shrimp get? Do they count under the "1-inch rule", or do you need a different amount a gallons for them? Are they big waste producers? Do other fish eat them?

 

[rdd1952]

Ghost shrimp grow to about 2 or 3 inches but really don't add much to the bio load. They are scavengers so they will clean up excess food that makes it to the bottom of the tank. You don't really have to consider the too much. You could fully stock your tank and then add 3 to 6 without any problems.