Time For Me To Show My Betta I Care.

[snowflake311]

I have been keeping bettas for 12 years now. I was addictied to them. But since then I moved ok to sa cichlids. But I still have one betta mr sexy. He has had a hard life with me. He had a 5gal to himself life was good for him. Then I had a baby. I also got another tank and differant fish. So poor mr sexys tank was not being cleaned as it should. He got fin rot and I felt so bad he was so pretty and will never be the same.

So I just kept him in with my smaller cichlids in a 36 gal. He did ok but was not happy. He lived like that for 2 years. I now only have 2 big tanks going and feel poor my sexy needs a good home. He is in a 80gal discus tank I know it's bad. He just hides out and eats scraps.

So I have a 20 gal I am going to set up today. It will be full of plants and have a few tankmates.

Tank mates will be
4 Pygmy corys
6 galaxy danio
4 ottos

of do the 10gal with mr sexy and only 4 Pygmy corys nothing more?

What would be best for mr sexy?

 

[JoshuaA]

I would say Betta + Pygmys only though your betta has lived with many fish over it's life time.

It's your call though, if you are prepared to go for a 10G with only Betta + Pygmy I would say that is the best bet to ensure he is the happiest. The Galaxy Danio might be a bit too quick and stressful though like I said he has lived with many fish in his life.

 

[snowflake311]

Yeah anything I put him in will be better then what he is in how. He can deal with any tank mate I throw at him. He has been with everything from fast tetras blue acara breeding pair of angels and Cory cats. Corys are good tank mates IMO. How funny is it that we say a smaller tank would be better because he is in a 80gal now. Oh betta fish.

 

[Lacuna]

Personally, I would do the 20 gal with about 8-10 pygmys and leave out the danios. You could still add a few ottos. The corys would appreciate being in a bigger group, especially as, in my experience, they can be a very shy fish.

 

[snowflake311]

Yeah I think the 20Gal would be more fun I would have more room to play around with it. What about these very cute sparkling gourami? I know Gouramis and bettas don't mix well. But I saw the Cutest little fry at my LFS I was so tempted. I'm pretty sure its a bad Idea.

 

[Lacuna]

I think you're right, sparkling gourami probably wouldn't mix well with a betta. Could you do the 10 gal with the betta and 20 gal with sparkling gourami and the CPDs?

 

[snowflake311]

I think you're right, sparkling gourami probably wouldn't mix well with a betta. Could you do the 10 gal with the betta and 20 gal with sparkling gourami and the CPDs?

Yeah I think I will just set up the 10gal with betta snail and pygmy corys for now add lots of plants then go from there. I would keep the 20gal for another project thanks. Time to go set up the tank.

 

[snowflake311]

Well mr sexy loves his new home. The first 2 days he would still hide, poor guy. Now he out and acts like a betta exploring the tank comes up to the glass. I never should have put him in a big tank with other big fish. Never again.

He now lives with 4 Pygmy corys and 6 neon tetras. They all get along great. At first he kind of nipped at the new guys but now he does not even look at them. Now I need more plants.

 

[JoshuaA]

I have found tall stem plants the best with a tank like that, I wouldn't recommend Neons but if it's working for you great.

I found Vallis one of the best plants to break up sight for the Betta as some times even though he has been living with the Pygmys for well his entire life he still sometimes has the urge to have a chase, the Pygmys tend to hang out around the roots of the vallis which means a lot of bending and squeezing for the Betta to get to them so he doesn't bother. However he does seem to love swimming through it when he bothers moving away from the front of the tank.