Tank mates ideas for male bettas?

Question

What are good tank mates for male bettas? I want to get my daughter a bigger tank and some more fish but I don't want Spike (her betta) to attack them. Thanks for any ideas!

Answer 1

If it's a tank larger than 5 gallons. Then most peaceful community fish will be fine. Avoid very small fish. Faster fin nipper like larger tetras, and barbs. Avoid slow moving fish, and ones with flowy fins like male fancy guppy. Platty/swordtail, molly, killifish, neon tetras (note very small neons may end up food), cory cats, small breed pelco, and the like are good canidates for betta tank mates. As always avoid other bettas male or female.

The important things to remember: The tank will need places to hide. Don't put the betta into the tank alone. He will bond to the tank and eastablish a territory. Put his old tank right next the the new tank, and let him get use to seeing other fish in the new tank for about a week.

Answer 2

Well, here it goes. I am by no way a fish expert but I have put my male betta in a community tank so I can tell you what I did. My betta is in a tank with a couple platties, a dwarf frog, and some tetras. I have heard that you want to stay away from adding other aggressive fish to a tank with a betta or fish with large tails (like the bettas have). Fish like barbs are tail bitters and are more then likely not the best choice either.

I hope this helps :)

Answer 3

Because of the aggressive nature of this species, tankmates must be chosen carefully, and two male B. splendens should not be housed in the same tank unless they are separated by a dividing wall. As a general rule, male Bettas cannot be housed together. It is possible to house two male bettas in a single very large tank, provided that there is plenty of cover (such as floating plants) and enough space for both males to establish their own territories. However, this is an extremely risky procedure because of the male's natural territoriality. These experiments in housing males together often end in the death of one or both inhabitants of the tank. (Male bettas do not 'fight to the death' in the wild; once one fish has clearly won the encounter, the loser will retreat to a safe location. In an aquarium, however, there is no place to run, and the winning fish will continue to attack the loser, often ending in death.)

While they might eventually mate, keeping a male and female together may prove too volatile since the male will often be much more aggressive and mating conditions must be precisely conducive. Often, breeders have a special container so the female may display without being harmed by the male prior to induced breeding.

Females may or may not be able to coexist peacefully in the same tank depending on their temperaments. They are not schooling fish, and are still rather aggressive, but with enough room and many hiding spaces, they can learn to get along. There should never be exactly two female bettas in a tank together—a pecking order, a hierarchy, is necessary for them to live peacefully. With only two fish, one will be the bully and the other will be picked on. However, with three or more, a hierarchy is established.

Before co-housing Siamese fighting fish with other species, their compatibility should be carefully researched, and the owner should have a back-up plan if the shared tank does not work. Although bettas are most aggressive towards each other, they have been known to kill very small fish or nip at the fins of fish such as fancy guppies; oftentimes, the betta will mistake their finnage for that of another male fish and attack the guppy. Certain fish should not be housed with bettas. Oftentimes, schooling fish become fin-nippers, making the betta a prime target because of their flowing fins. Also, aggressive fish like barbs should not be around bettas. Keepers have also reported problems when attempting to keep Betta in the company of piranha, for obvious reasons. It is strongly recommended that bettas given tankmates should be housed in a tank that is at least 35 litres (10 US gallons) with plenty of hiding places. Anything smaller will stress the Betta.

Common tankmates include mollies, catfish, or loaches. However, care should be taken when choosing tankmates, as certain species of fish attack the long fins of the male betta. The key is that the respective species is not aggressive and will not spurn a betta's aggression as well as thriving in similiar set-ups. For instance, apple snails should not be kept with bettas because the water condition will cause the detoriation of a snail's shell and snails are sometimes known to latch onto a betta's fins causing damage.

You can add an African Dwarf Frog, but it will need to eat live food such as live Black Worms at least three times a week.
Good Luck

Answer 4

Contrary to what you hear alot, Betta Splendins are pretty wimpy. I doubt he will cause any problems And I doubt your Moons will cause him any problems. If you buy additional fish to go into this tank in the future, don't buy aggressive fish and don't buy fish that are similar to your betta (most gourami, paradise fish, etc..). Some times betta will be aggressive towards other fish with large flowing fins (guppies, long fin fish spp. etc..), so keep that in mind too. The plecostomus, depending on the specie, may get to larger for your aquarium. As it grows to larger it will polute your tank much more than it will clean. Trade it in to your local aquarium shop when it gets around 4" or so and get another small one. The clown Pleco (peckoltia vittata) is a great algae eater for small aquariums, stays around 3 to 4 inches long. Keep up with frequent small water changes and feed a good quality fish food and every one should do just fine.

Answer 5

None, anything smaller than him will likely become lunch, anything bigger seen as a threat and attacked.
The only fish fast enough to avoid attacks and being lunch would be barbs and danios and both of those are finnippers and will attack your betta!
Bettas are NOT community fish, they wouldnt mix with other fish in the wild, and the result of trying to communitize them with most other fish will end up in tears.

If you realy want to get her a larger tank id keep your betta in his smaller home (no less than 1 gallon please!) and buy a nice 10gal community tank if you realy want to go that route.

And rember 1 inch of fish per gallon of water so no more than 10 small fish (or 5 large) in a 10gal tank!
(Unless your doing goldfish then it increases to 3 gal of water per inch of fish!)

Answer 6

leave the Betta to the small tank and get the bigger tank with other fish. bettas are not aggressive to other fish , they will eat anything they can get in their mouths, but will not attack larger fish unless its a Betta. or looks like a Betta. but they are better kept alone in a filters tank and fed live food try flies and small spiders or other small bugs esp ants !! he will love you for it!!

Answer 7

All fish need a filtration system and mollies are tropicals so need a heater to. And when you have the filter you should not clean the tank often but only around every 2 weeks, and maintain the filter around every month. You should not add any more fish until the new filter has been established for around a month considering there is already a fish in the tank.

Answer 8

You can put it in with neons, gouramis, smaller tetras, small danios, fancy guppies, pretty much any community fish as long as it is not another male betta and if you choose to breed you can put a female in there but as soon as he takes the eggs and puts them in his bubble nest you need to get her out of there because he will kill her.

Answer 9

Bettas get along with most fish as they can get accustomed to a variety of water parameters. Try this compatibility chart http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/fwcompatibility_chart.cfm . And this site to see the different types of common aquarium fish and their requirements http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=830 .
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Answer 10

tetras, white clouds