Shrimp Or Snail?

[missdarwin]

My Betta tank is upand running but I want something else in there... I was thinking an amano shrimp or snails... I've heard snails can be a pain with breeding and its only a little tank.... What do you think?

My tank is 15 litres, it's got real plants, IAL, some silk plants and sand as a substrate....

 

[TallTree01]

It depends on the betta. Try shrimp and if he eats them get snails.

 

[mike455555]

a betta eating a amano shrimp... id like to see that :L amanos are  about the size of a betta  what type of snail were you thinking of getting, personally i love shrimp would get them over snails anyday 

 

[missdarwin]

I was thinking mystery snail or amano shrimp, it's a small tank, but lots of hiding places... Don't really want to test my bettas temperament with some sort of gladiatorial battle between him and a shrimp though....

 

[mike455555]

betta and shrimp will mix fine and snail imo 

 

[missdarwin]

Cool, I'll go take a sneaky peak at the shops tomorrow....

 

[Wildbetta]

LOL  I have seen bettas eat amanos before.  LOL  Don't discount a natural predator's ability to eat something easily the same size of its own body.  It make take it a while to do so but it CAN do it.  
 
Now in saying that, most bettas are fine with amano shrimp because they are bigger shrimp with a better ability to get away from the betta.  
 
In that body of water, I would be more likely to recommend a nerite snail than a shrimp though.  Nerite snails are not going to over run the space since their eggs don't hatch in FW.   Mystery snails are too big and messy for your size tank as they easily reach the size of a golf ball and are quite messy.

 

[missdarwin]

omg, didn't think they got that big!!  Nerite snail sounds good!  is it a good idea if I supplement his diet with algae wafers? I'm just conscious with only one betta who eats every other day there might not be loads of algae (I know as I'm typing this, algae is overrunning my tank to make me look stupid...)

 

[KirkyArcher]

My Betta was all nice and peaceful then started having a go at everything within the tank that moved including some large Cherry Shrimp, I've never had Amano in with a Betta my Amano Shrimp in my other tank are approaching 2.5 " in length, For entertainment/viewing value it must be large Amano shrimp, for safety it would have to be snails

 

[Wildbetta]

I always supplement all of my critters food.  So I do recommend feeding an algae wafer or a piece of fresh vegetable to the snail on occasion in addition to any algae in the tank.