HELP NEEDED: BETTAS, NEONS

[Dannys111]

I'm new to the hobby and have got a 37L heated tank.

The local tropical fish store is highly rated and the staff in there are knowledgeable enough.

Today I introduced 8 'large' Neons, 2 female bettas and one male betta into the tank. This was recommended to me by the staff in the store. I have now read online that this isn't great - males attack both females and Neons.

I need some advice on what to do - do I take the male back? No deaths have occurred yet, but if I do have to take the male back, I need a recommendation of a nice, beautiful fish to go in the aquarium.

Thanks in advance

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm sorry you've been given such awful advice

If you can, I would recommend you return all the fish, except the male betta.

Whilst female bettas can live together, unlike the males, it does need to be in a largish group; five or seven usually. That's because, even though the females are more peaceful than the males, they can be aggressive, and need lots of other fish to bicker with; in a small group or pair, the stronger fish can bully the weaker ones.

Neon tetras, although they're often classed as peaceful fish, can be quite nippy in smaller numbers and your tank isn't big enough for a proper shoal, and they do need quite a lot of swimming room; a two foot/60l is the smallest tank I'd want to see neons in.

 

[Dannys111]

I'm sorry you've been given such awful advice

If you can, I would recommend you return all the fish, except the male betta.

Whilst female bettas can live together, unlike the males, it does need to be in a largish group; five or seven usually. That's because, even though the females are more peaceful than the males, they can be aggressive, and need lots of other fish to bicker with; in a small group or pair, the stronger fish can bully the weaker ones.

Neon tetras, although they're often classed as peaceful fish, can be quite nippy in smaller numbers and your tank isn't big enough for a proper shoal, and they do need quite a lot of swimming room; a two foot/60l is the smallest tank I'd want to see neons in.

Thanks for your advice, but, my family want a decent amount of fish, so we need more than just 1 male betta.

What can we get to fill the tank?

 

[fluttermoth]

Before we could properly recommend suitable species for you, we'd need to know the dimensions of the tank and the pH and hardness of your water, but a 37L tank is very small, and you're not going to have very many options for multiple fish, in all honesty.

 

[Dannys111]

Before we could properly recommend suitable species for you, we'd need to know the dimensions of the tank and the pH and hardness of your water, but a 37L tank is very small, and you're not going to have very many options for multiple fish, in all honesty.

Here's my tank: http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/aqua-one-platform-37-litre-tropical-aquarium-white

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Some male Bettas are peaceful and get along great with other fish, and some can be real nasty and kill anything that gets put in the tank.

You could just leave them as they are for a week and monitor them. If they get along and nobody gets eaten or loses fins, then let them be. But if someone starts causing problems, then take that fish back.

 

[Essjay]

We need to know the hardness of your water before recommending fish. You should be able to find this on your water company's website. Tell us the number and the unit as they could use any one of half a dozen units. And ignore any words they use as those can be misleading.

Males and female bettas should not be kept together except during breeding (and possibly in large, densely planted tanks with a lot of experience at keeping fish).
Neon tetras need a longer tank than you have.
Depending on your hardness, there are small fish that would be OK in this tank but not with a betta which would see such small fish as potential food. Even if the bettas didn't actually eat them, the stress of being chased would make the small fish ill.


Did you cycle the tank before getting the fish? I'll bet the fish store didn't mention that! If you return all the fish, then cycle the tank this will give you plenty time to decide which fish to keep. This link explains what cycling is and how to do it. http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/


The first lesson of fish keeping is to ignore everything a shop worker tells you till you have researched it for yourself. So many of them either haven't a clue or just want to make a sale, and they just make things up.

 

[NickAu]

That tank is not 37 liter when you take substrate and decorations into account.

With this setup for example its probably closer to holding 30 liters of water

Neons and Bettas do NOT make great tank mates.

Male Bettas are solitary fish and best kept that way, at the end of the day it is the Betta that decices who can or cant be its tank mate, some Bettas are fine with tank mates and some are not, some may be ok with tank mates for a while then one day they just snap, I have seen it happen time and time again.

I had a male who happily lived with Hengeli rasboras for over 6 months, then one day he killed 3 and was stalking a 4th. I have female Bettas that even kill Malaysian Trumpet snails.