Unlikely tankmates?

[Apopli]

So I've set my son up with a 10 gallon tank with a Betta.

I had these algea waffers and sinking shrimp pellets leftover from not long ago when I had coris. I managed to pawn off the tropical fish flakes on my buddy who just bought my other 55 gallon tank and wants to set up a tropical community, but still had the bottom-feeding food.

I had discussed with Peter, my son who's 4, but has an incredible ability to retain information, that it would be cute to get a little bottom-feeder or two. Just in passing, since I really didn't know what I could safely introduce to my fairly aggressive little Betta's tank, nor did I have much ambition to bother, as I'm happy with the little Betta.

And who shows up to drop off my son one evening but my mother with my son and a 2 inch Mystery snail Seems my son's a good talker. Active little thing, too. Was wandering around the bag it came home in with it's big pokey tenticles.

So off to the internet I go to read up on them. Every sight I found said "at least a 2 gallon tank or bowl" Most sites say Bettas are okay tankmates as long as the snail is big enough and the Betta isn't too aggressive. So I figured it *should* be okay. Better than making him take a chance with my Oscar, who attacks everything that *might* have moved in his tank. Into the 10 gallon tank it goes!

My poor little Betta huffed and puffed and flared with all his might, but the giant shelled invader just ignored him and ravaged the algea waffer I dropped in after him. For nearly two hours the poor little Betta tried to regain what manhood he may have lost by not striking the fear of god into this moving rock, then finally admitted defeat.

Nowhere while trying to intimidate the snail did the Betta actually touch him, and the Betta has since lost interest entierly. He turns his nose right up at the sinking shrimp pellets, and goes so far as to pick up the algea waffers and spit them into the corner of the tank.

There are no holes the snail could climb out of the tank from, cept when I leave the feeding door open for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, or when I do a water change, but the tank is always supervised when I do this, since Bettas can be jumpers themselves. And so far this pair is contented.

 

[GuppyDude]

lol its pretty hard to scare a snail, they kno wtheir safe snails will do fine with bettas as long ast it doesn't out grow the betta. your betta sounds like hes got quite a personality there. your said he turned his nose up at the pellets, does this mean hes not eating? if so i would remove the snail for a while. bettas take a while to accept a new friend so eventually he'll get over it.

 

[Apopli]

He won't eat the SHRIMP pellets. Or tropical fish flakes, or bloodworms, or anything, really, except his Hikari Betta Bio-Gold pellets. Everything else he takes just to spit out, or watches it sink to the bottom then glares at me.

Some call it "personality" that he has. I call it an attitude problem. lol

 

[Tempestuousfury]

How big is it? It might not even be at it's max size, so soon it will have nothing to fear from the betta.

A ten gallon to a single male betta is a bit much, if you want to add some more fish. Nothing wrong with it, mind you, but you could still get some cories in there... Perhaps even livebearers.

Up to you. Glad to see your son's enjoying his fish.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Apopli

Mystery snails are very interesting creatures indeed! I'll bet your son enjoys watching him crawl around. If you have any freeze dried tubifex cubes, try sticking a bit on the glass where the snail will notice it. It's interesting to see how they eat it when you can watch thought the glass.

Actually, cory cats are excellent companion fish for bettas. I raise them and since there is always a lot of extra space at the top of their tanks, I keep bettas with them. I've found that the bettas seem to enjoy getting down to their level and following them around. They often seem fascinated to see them going about their business of rummaging around in the gravel looking for food. I even had one that could often be found in the cave surrounded by the corys.

I think they get along so well because there is no competition between them for space or food. And the bettas seem to thrive in the same conditions that are good for the corys. IMHO, they are a great combination too.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Depends on your betta though, I tried mine in with my female guppies because the males died and I figured since they were gone he wouldn't fight because none of the girls have long shiny flowing tails. HA. He took one look at them and started chasing them all around. I have him hanging in a small container inside my thirty gallon and he flares and throws a royal hissy fit anytime one of the girls gets even close to him. He also started a bubblenest.... Silly little shi...

 

[Dane]

I have a male betta in my community tank with two female mollies and a female sword tail.. along with a pleco... they've been like this for a few days.. I dont see any nipped tails, or sick fish... so i'm guessing it's working out. I always kept mollies and bettas together.. they get along quite well. The betta stays towards the top of the tank, while the mollies go towards the mid/bottom. So they all have their space.. plus the tank has plenty of plants for them to hide, a long with a rather large castle that the mollies like to sleep in.. the betta has a ball swimming in and out, looping through all the enterences of the castle.. it's rather cute Bettas only get aggressive normally when there's a fish that resembles another male betta.. which then triggers his territorial, protective instinct... like fancy guppies for instance.

 

[Apopli]

I figured I'd dig this up, since we added to the little tank of my son's.

6 Cory cats have been added to the tank. I"m not sure what kind they are. The lady at the pet store gave me a discount - $5 for 6 fish. hehe. One of them's an albino, which was marked at $4/fish, one of them's a metallic green-ish color, also marked at $4/fish, and the other 4 appear to be spotted, which were marked at $3/fish.

They're less than an inch right now, all the same size. The Betta has been ignoring them. They've taken to playing all over the snail, who blissfully goes about his snail-like business. He really is a GIANT in that tank.

Also bought some pretty silk plants for my Oscar's tank. I tried live plants, but he ate them. These he's mostly left alone, but he likes swimming in and around them. THey're a bit expensive, so I'm limiting myself to one or two silk plants (depending on size) per payday. Eventually it'll look beautiful. lol.