Suggestions On Colorful But Compatible Stocking

[manofish123]

I have a 6 and a 10 gallon tank that will each have a male betta in. What smaller colorful fish can I add that will be compatible with each betta. Read where Platys are a bit nippy and flowing fin guppies can sometimes be an issue. Everything
I'v heard is its up to their personalities and sex than their species. Trial and error ? Or is there some method to this madness in selecting fish. The primary fish will be the two bettas so I dont want to have to move them.
Thanks in advance ..........

 

[crazyforcordoras]

In the 10 galon, you could have neon tetras. In the 6, im not sure. Im also looking for a betta tankmate in a 6 gallon.

 

[manofish123]

In the 10 galon, you could have neon tetras. In the 6, im not sure. Im also looking for a betta tankmate in a 6 gallon.

I guess I'll go for the trial error and watch method. Everyone has a different opinion and experience so it boils down to
buy and put what you want and seperate them as the the issues come up. Here's a list of some of the tank mates I'm interested
in :

bleeding heart platy
painted platy
red platy
red fire guppy
orange sunshine guppy
Neon blue tux guppy
cherry barb
red crystal shrimp
assasin snail
neot tetra jumbo

 

[LoachLover!]

A 6 gallon would be ideal for a couple of ottos as well as the Betta.

 

[Baccus]

Endlers are a nice little colourful fish that should be fine with fighters, Endlers are basically a mini version of guppies (they happily cross breed so its hard to get pure strains), I hunted for ages for some endlers that somebody was willing to post and I finally ended up with 30 odd fry. The exciting thing is the fry are just starting to colour up and the males are begining to get their amazing fluro colours.

A group of dwarf chain loaches might be ok with a fighter too, they like swimming around above the substrate more than other loaches but they may also be too inquisitve about the fighter and may find its fins tempting.

I wouldn't try crysal red or crystal black shrimp they are just too fussy about water quality and temp, cherry shrimp should be fine and there are some great colours happening in the cherry shrimp now, like fire reds, blues, greens, rili and yellow. If you went shrimp however (and got a not so common cherry shrimp colour form) I would let the shrimp breed up their numbers for a month or two until you have a thriving population then add a fighter, that way any predation by the fighter is less obivious and a stable population can be acheived.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Platies can be nippy. I would never keep them with a betta.fancy guppies can be attacked. I would go with Endlers, i fact i will get some for my betta tank.

 

[jellychris]

Hi
you can't have male guppies because theey have long flowing fins which a male betta could misake as another betta and fight it
I agree with red cherry shrimp, I got some recently and they are great, they eat left over food, keeping the tank cleaner and they are one of the hardiest shrimp
about the platies, I had some and they were aggressive so I'm not sure that they'll be OK with a betta
dwarf gouramis are very peaceful and pretty, although not very hardy, you could look into them...
tetras will be fine, a small shoal would be OK

ground feeders and sucker fish will be good too eg
otto
cory catfish

 

[BigTom]

Pretty much any of the Boraras species would be perfect here I think. Definitely more suitable than platies or guppies, and a bit less active than most tetras so shouldn't need as much swimming space.