Tank Mates For Betta Male

[smokie]

Hi folks Iwould like to keep a male crown tail betta in a 28ltr tank, I have read several articals and would like to keep a couple of harlequin rasboras and some small cory possibly panda or scunk with him. I would like the opinion of some more expieranced Betta owners on this idea. Note the owner of the shop I intend to buy the fish from said that there would not be a problem.

 

[Snooks1!]

Pygmy or panda corys would be fine so long as you had enough of a footprint in your tank for them to scavenge and look for food. What are the dimensions of your tank? Filter/heating ect.

 

[Jaded12]

Cories should be fine, how many gallons is 28ltrs? I've never kept harlequins with bettas but I've had success with many different types of fish.

 

[TribeOfShroom]

28L will be fine for a betta Corys tend to be a good choice, I've never had any of my bettas go for a cory.. well not unless the cory has ideas of trying to steal food out the bettas mouth. Trust me I've seen it happen to rather amusing results

 

[blue_betta]

personaly i would never keep any characin, cypinid, or rasbora with a crowntail. these fish would be tepted to nip the tip of any other male betas tail... but a CT has many tips to its tail, i dout even a herlequin would resist.

corries, ottos, khuli loaches. ive never had any problems with platies and betta co-existing but others have, so its a dodgy one.

 

[jennybugs]

Just to add my bit, I've never had a male betta that doesn't attack other tankmates, regardless of what they are, so have a 'Plan B' ready if you try bettas with other fish just in case...yes, bettas can be nipped, but they can also DO alot of the nipping themselves to the extent of killing other fish. I wouldn't recommend any tankmates from my experience but it all depends on the individual betta and it's personality.

Don't get caught out like I did, just have a back up plan ready

 

[smokie]

Cories should be fine, how many gallons is 28ltrs? I've never kept harlequins with bettas but I've had success with many different types of fish.

As far as i can remember Jaded there are about 4 liters to the gallon so that woild make it a 7 gallon tank.

Just to add my bit, I've never had a male betta that doesn't attack other tankmates, regardless of what they are, so have a 'Plan B' ready if you try bettas with other fish just in case...yes, bettas can be nipped, but they can also DO alot of the nipping themselves to the extent of killing other fish. I wouldn't recommend any tankmates from my experience but it all depends on the individual betta and it's personality.

Don't get caught out like I did, just have a back up plan ready

Thanks for that Jennybugs, Ill get a smaller betta tank ready just incase of emergencys (Hopefully it wont be needed) but betta safe than sorry ha ha.

 

[Shrimper]

If you are thinking of Cory i would recomend having sand as your substrate. I've kept them both with sand and with gravel the they seem a lot happier and active with the sand.

As for other Tank mates for a Betta I would recomend Anamo shrimp... My first shrimp were Amano shrimp as tank mates for my Betta. He didn't like the smaller cherry shrimp i added later and killed them but I have never seen him hurt one of the Anamo.

 

[lovemyfraggies]

I have my male betta in a community tank with mollies, platys, a guppy, ottos. They all get along great. The betta is always exploring and playing. None of the fish hide. They are very active. I'm glad I gave my betta and happier life that the tiny cup he was in..

 

[hollyp0p]

My male is also in a community tank.....luckily he's very very placid, never attacks anything else.
He gets along best with the zebra danios I had, which people said are too fast for him, but he joins in chasing them about when they chase each other sometimes.....due to zebras proving not too hardy to disease I am swapping them for dwarf neon rainbow's soon......I also have tetra but they turned out to be fin nippers....so I am swapping them for harlequin rasboras who apparently are not known to nip at any fish.....so I think you picked a good fish there, I did consider cherry barbs but being from the barb family I thought this may go the same was as the tetra, who some peope keep with them no problems, and others have no end of trouble...lol

at the end of the day it's down to the individual fish and the personalities they have, as long as you do have a back up small tank, or a way of sectioning off part of the existing tank purely for mr betta if things go wrong then it should be fine, but hopefully as you've been doing your research it should be fine!

Oh forgot to mention my betta also lives with a pitbull pleco no problems

 

[millym]

hi
i would have said corys too...until last week i caught our 2 baby peppered corys munching on our male bettas tail as he rested under a low plant, his fins were trailing on the sand. i have now had to move the corys into our big tank after catching them several other times chewing berts fins & they were looking a little ragged around the edges!
our betta now lives with 3 khuli loaches & an otto & 2 amano shrimps. i know there have been cases of bettas attacking little shrimps but our 2 have been in with bert for nearly a year no problems, we do have lots of rockwork/caves etc for them to hide in though.