Hello Again....

[White Whale]

About 6 months after the loss of Captain Sailfin (copper betta), I've had a 5g tank with 2 platies and 5 neon tetra. I've lost 3 tetra due to the strange fact that one of my platies is highly aggressive. And recently lost one platy due to that intensity. Tiger would bully the other one at feeding time and the timid one would not get anything to eat. I didn't have another tank to separate them and thought it would subside. Tiger just got more aggressive and I think killed the other one via stress.

About 2 weeks ago I upgraded to a Fluval Edge. It is a sand substrate but I used the same ornaments, tank water, and filter from the 5g tank. The filter the kit came with sucks. It knocked out after 20 minutes of use.

I went from gravel to sand because I was thinking about getting cories. They are so cute and peaceful. But I have not gotten them yet because I am not sure if I could add 3-4 small species cory (preferrably pandas because they are playful) to the current 6g stock capacity - 1 betta, 1 platy, 2 tetra.

Just a peek (camera phone, my old digital camera broke):

 

[Twinklecaz]

Sure you call a fish Tiger and what do you expect!

Sorry, that must have been horrible. and so unusual from a Platy, I wonder what caused that. Hopefully someone will have some ideas.

 

[White Whale]

He even attacked Prince Vlad at first. However, all Vlad needed was a reminder of who he was. So I showed him - in a mirror. And oh man, did his royal lineage kick in - flaring gills and all! He now keeps Tiger in check.

 

[OldMan47]

If you have only 5 or 6 gallons of water, you already have more fish than I would put in that much water. Adding more fish in the form of cories will do nothing but further stress the fish that you already have. Crowding is often a factor in making fish more aggressive than they would naturally be without the crowding. It may well be why your platy is showing so much aggression. I never see any aggression from platies but the ones that I keep usually go into my 120 gallon tank. I carefully avoid fish that large in my smaller tanks, like my 10 gallon tanks.

 

[White Whale]

If you have only 5 or 6 gallons of water, you already have more fish than I would put in that much water. Adding more fish in the form of cories will do nothing but further stress the fish that you already have. Crowding is often a factor in making fish more aggressive than they would naturally be without the crowding. It may well be why your platy is showing so much aggression. I never see any aggression from platies but the ones that I keep usually go into my 120 gallon tank. I carefully avoid fish that large in my smaller tanks, like my 10 gallon tanks.

So what do you recommend for a 6g?

 

[drobbyb]

In all honesty, 6 gallons isn't a lot of water. It is generally accepted that a single betta needs 5 gallons. The extra gallon may not let you add much more. In this case, I would think about something such as shrimp. As long as your water is OK to keep the species of shrimp you want, there wouldn't be a problem keeping a small colony.

The neons really need a mature tank to flourish, and should be kept in groups no smaller than 6.

I'm not sure if the platy would put you over the top on stocking, so I will let the stocking experts handle that.

 

[OldMan47]

In 10 gallon tanks, I keep all manner of small fish like golden teddies, guppies, endlers, black chins and Heterandria formosa. Compared to a platy, these are all tiny fish. A fully mature Heterandria formosa, for example, will be all of 2 cm long in a male and about 3 cm long in a female. Although I do not try to stock a 5.5 gallon tank, they should be able to take small numbers of these same fish.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi White Whale

It's good to see you posting on TFF again and I hope you stay around to advise our members on how to manage the care of bettas in small tanks again. For those of you who don't remember him, White Whale is the OP of this thread among many others:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=18105&view=&hl=ceiling&fromsearch=1

White Whale, I wouldn't recommend keeping C. pandas with a betta because of the cooler temperature they require. They also tend to be more timid and prone to stress than some of the other corys.