5 gallon planted stocking?

[kittlefairy]

Hello, I have a 5 gallon planted tank nearly finished cycling and I plan to add my male betta when the cycle is complete, which should be within the next week. Could I add a snail with him? I’d like to add a mystery snail, but would be fine with a nerite if that would be better. I don’t want to overstock the tank, though, so I’m looking for advice. Thank you!

 

[Essjay]

A snail would be fine with a betta. I have always had nerite snails with my bettas over the years. In one way a nerite would be the better option. Nerites have very small antennae and the body does not come out from inside the shell. Mystery snails' bodies do come out of their shells when crawling and they have fairly long antennae. It is not unknown for bettas to bite these long antennae.
If you could have somewhere to rehome a mystery snail if your future betta turns out to one of the antennae biting kind, then you could try a mystery snail; otherwise personally I'd go with a nerite.

 

[kittlefairy]

A snail would be fine with a betta. I have always had nerite snails with my bettas over the years. In one way a nerite would be the better option. Nerites have very small antennae and the body does not come out from inside the shell. Mystery snails' bodies do come out of their shells when crawling and they have fairly long antennae. It is not unknown for bettas to bite these long antennae.
If you could have somewhere to rehome a mystery snail if your future betta turns out to one of the antennae biting kind, then you could try a mystery snail; otherwise personally I'd go with a nerite.

Perfect. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

 

[Somethingsfishy001]

A snail would be fine with a betta. I have always had nerite snails with my bettas over the years. In one way a nerite would be the better option. Nerites have very small antennae and the body does not come out from inside the shell. Mystery snails' bodies do come out of their shells when crawling and they have fairly long antennae. It is not unknown for bettas to bite these long antennae.
If you could have somewhere to rehome a mystery snail if your future betta turns out to one of the antennae biting kind, then you could try a mystery snail; otherwise personally I'd go with a nerite.

I agree with this. I had a betta in a 3.7 gallon. I added a small mystery snail and he bit off its antennae and it died...
Yours is better though as its 5 gallons. I might recommend putting the snail in first and adding the betta after so he doesn't think its his territory. Or even a female betta. Another idea is to rearrange the items in the tank before the the snail, sometimes it confuses the fish about their territory.

 

[vanalisa]

I totally agree with @essjay and the others.
Also, have lost a Mystery snail to a betta.
Then got nerites. I got 3 tiny yellow and black stripes with tiny horns. Those are my favorite type as they really maintain their color ☆