Few Q's On My10gal.tank Thinkin Of Convertin To Bettas

[tamara]

Well i have two ten gallon tanks, one is being cycled at the moment.--went through a weird stage
The other one has about 10 guppies and 3 peppered cories and a bristlenosed pleco.
there are too many yes..i know, and the guppies keep reproducing
1. so i read that cories&plecos make great tank mates for bettas..true or false?
2. i also read that bettas eat guppy fry [i'm not a killer, i just have too many!]..true/false?
3. in a ten gallon, how many dividers could i have? 3sections maybe?
4. if i did divide it in half or into 3 would i have to have 2/3 females? or 2/3 males in the 2/3section? could it be like 1 male and 2 females each in different sections?
5. if i divided the tank in 2, could it be 25%/75% and have maybe 3 females in the 75%, and a male in the 25% ?
and i think that's all for now, sorry if you don't get a question or two...
but please when you're responding...try to tell me the number that you're answering for lol just so i know what you're talkinga bout hehe!
thank you a million!!

 

[mommyof2bettas]

1. so i read that cories&plecos make great tank mates for bettas..true or false?
2. i also read that bettas eat guppy fry [i'm not a killer, i just have too many!]..true/false?
3. in a ten gallon, how many dividers could i have? 3sections maybe?
4. if i did divide it in half or into 3 would i have to have 2/3 females? or 2/3 males in the 2/3section? could it be like 1 male and 2 females each in different sections?
5. if i divided the tank in 2, could it be 25%/75% and have maybe 3 females in the 75%, and a male in the 25% ?

1.true
2.true, but your guppies eat guppy fry as well
3.you could have 4 if you'd like.
4.you could have any combination you want, make sure you only have 1 fish in each though.
5.Females should be in groups of 4+ so I think you'd be better off dviding the tank.
HTH

 

[tamara]

Wow! perfect responses thank you very much!
actually it's weird, but my guppies don't eat their fry...
well i think they actually hide until they're big enough to not get eaten which is good

 

[Amunet]

1. True, but it depends on the betta. Sometimes the betta will totally ignore them, but sometimes a betta won't tolerate any other living thing with them. Just have to watch them carefully and have a backup plan just in case.

2. Probably. From what I understand, they love live food and enjoy 'hunting' for it. I've only read this though and have never tryed live food with my bettas. If you want to get rid of guppies though, have you tryed contacting a LFS or a LPS to see if they would take the fry?

3. However many you want really. You just have to decide how much space you want to give your bettas. I personally would not do more than 3 sections.

4. Any combo would do. But like mommyof 2 said.. just make sure it's only 1 fish per section. If you get 2 males side-by-side it probably would be a good idea to get some sort of divider that they can't see eachother through.

5. Actually most people will tell you that you shouldn't get any less than 6 females so aggression is spread out. There are others who do successfully keep only a few females together, but these really are too few and far between to risk doing it I say. I would just section the tank off in 2 or 3 sections and have a single fish in all spots

 

[jess6905]

Wow! perfect responses thank you very much!
actually it's weird, but my guppies don't eat their fry...
well i think they actually hide until they're big enough to not get eaten which is good

i think mommyof2bettas and amunet have covered it pretty well, but if you are thinking about housing females together you need to keep afew things in mind:
1) you should keep atleast 5-6 together to spread out the agression but the more the better just dont put too many in the tank.
2) when keeping females together dont use a less than 10 gallons. they need to be able to establish thier own territories.
3) not all females are suited for community living so keep extra housing units open just incase the girls decide they dont like being ith the others.
4) the tank must be heavily planted and having afew other decorations doesnt hurt either so they can hide and get away from each other if they want.

aside from that good luck with what ever you decide to do with the tanks.

 

[Glod]

I'd have to agree with the comments made so far. The only other comment I would add is - a bristlenose plec is a very messy fish and really grows too large for a 10 gallon tank. I would look into getting him/her rehomed into something more spacious. Great algae eaters tho, and quite characterful once they get accustomed to their home

If you're splitting the tank then you probably shouldn't be considering tank mates at all. Stick with a single Betta and some cories in the full tank, or stick to Bettas only if you split it.

 

[tamara]

Well i know am thinking just spliting it in half and having about a one inch space at the bottom for the cories to go through...because there's soo small right now, and when they grow bigger i'll transfer them
dumb idea? or would it maybe work??

 

[zoekin8yg]

Well i know am thinking just spliting it in half and having about a one inch space at the bottom for the cories to go through...because there's soo small right now, and when they grow bigger i'll transfer them
dumb idea? or would it maybe work??

Dont leave any gaps, the bettas will swim through, and jump over dividers and then you end up with them fighting and hurting each other. Cories prefer larger groups of at least 4 so if you do want cories in there it would be best to just have one male betta really, I have a 10g with one betta and some cories as well as bettas on their own and a group of girls (and a girl on her own as she was too aggressive)

 

[Amunet]

Zoekin is right.. do NOT leave any sort of space b/c the betta will find it and will get to the other side. They're very curious about everything and will investigate everything in their tank, and if they see an opening that they can squeeze through.. you better believe they're going to take advantage of it.
As Zoe said.. I'd either just leave out the cories, or just get one betta and a group of cories. Even then, the betta might not be compatable with other fish so have a back up plan just in case.

 

[tamara]

Alright, thank you very much