FISH LOVERS I have a male betta in a 10 gal. tank!?

Question

What other fish or fresh water animal could I add to the tank without the betta trying to kill it, or can I add a female betta? What would you suggest to make my little tank look good without being crowded.? thanx!

Answer 1

Don't add another betta. There are lots of community fish that you can add. Since you have a small tank though, I'd keep the community small. Brightly colored livebearers such as platys and swordfish might be nice. They are cheap and easy to maintain. You could also try tetras, if you like the idea of a small school of fish. Here is an overall list of suitable tankmates:

http://bettas.fishjunkies.com/tankmates.php

Note that it might be a good idea to experiment with inexpensive fish first, so that if your betta does attack them, it won't cost you a lot.

Answer 2

First off, NO FEMALE! They will fight in a tank that small! They say you only put a male with a female if they are ready to mate.

Of course, you never put 2 males together. It's a male territory thing. They will fight.
You have to try to avoid any fin-nippers, since a betta is easy prey for them. That would include any chiclids (sp?) raspboras, oscars, or any other known agressive fish.
Gourami's are bad since they are kin to the betta. I've heard they will fight them.
Small fish are also bad, since a betta is a meat-eater.
I'm not sure why, but red-tailed sharks are also a no-no.
Nothing with long colorful fins. That includes lyretail mollies, fancy guppies, long-finned danios, or anything of the like.

What would be good then? Try larger tetras. Maybe large-sized neons, or zebra danios. Cory cats are known to be best friends with a betta, and will follow him around, since they are very sociable. Upside down cats are super-cool looking (by that I mean weird), and are ok too.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is HIS tank right now. You have to take it slow in adding new tankmates. You don't want to scare him with a bunch of fish all at once. If you don't take it slow, there's a good chance he will freak out, and start fighting everyone new. Another thought, make sure you have enough plants and places for your betta to hide, just in case he needs to (or just likes to) hide from everyone else. Caves, logs, or just dense plants work great.
Good luck, and ask lots of questions whenever you decide to get the fish. If one person isn't giving you the answers you want, try someone else, even if it's just another customer... It's better than spending so much money on something that's just going to fight...

;o)

Answer 3

It's typically considered not a good idea to house a male betta with any other betta in a tank as small as a 10 gallon. As for tank mates, you could add any variety of tropical freshwater fish that is small enough to go in a 10 gallon and that does not have long flowy fins. We currently have a male betta in with our Endler's Livebearers and they get along wonderfully. The betta does eat the young fry, but since that's why we got him, we don't have a problem with it.

Answer 4

It really depends on the betta. I have 2 bettas who both each also have a ten gal tank. These are the stories why. One of the bettas names is Tad. Well one day I decided to put some other fish in his tank, rosy minnows, well next day I find him chasing the minnows who were desperately trying to hide from Tad, so they were moved out of that tank into a 29 gallon tank. A month or two later, his tank started growing a little bit of algae, so I decided to get two otocinclus(grow to be1.5") to clean it up, figuring he wouldn't mind them. Well soon as I put the bag in to equalize the temperature, he started charging at the bag and was all flared up. Seeing that this wasn't going to work, the baby otos were moved into the 29 gal too. So for Tad, he wont get tank mates except for ghost shrimp, he didn't mind them but when he was sick I took them out and put them in the 29 gal, decided to leave em there since it is hard to find them. Now here is another story. The other bettas name is Demetre. We have put two african dwarf frogs in his tank before and it was previously a 5 gallon tank, and he was fine, left them alone. One time when I recently got a lot of different species fish for my tropical ten gallon, I set a bag with guppies and neons in there to equalize the temp so I could put them in the ten, and he didn't seem to care. So the moral is it depends on the betta. If you have never put anything in his tank before, these would be good fish to try if you have a back up plan in case he doesn't like the fish( like a friend who wil take them or another tank to put them in.)
-otocinclus (get 2 or more, 1.5")
-dwarf african frogs (get 2 or more, 2.5")
-ghost shrimp (get at least 2, 1", but dont include them in inches count if number you get is under 5 in my opinion)
-neons (get at least 3, more the better) or other small short finned tetras
-platies (get at least 2 females- ratio is 1 male to 2 females)
-corydoras catfish (get at least 2, preferably 3 of the same species, get either adolfi's, or dwarf, or bronze, or panda, or spotted, not emerald or peppered, they would prefer a larger tank.
Corys can't tolerate salt! and a safe med for them is Pimafix and Melafix.
****All of these fish can coexist in a tank together, just dont add more then 8" of fish.*************

Don't add a female betta, most likely he will try to kill, or goldfish, or any fish that adult size is more than 3''.
Also dont add any fish with long fins, like guppies, or aggresive species like cichlids. Or plecos!!!!

I would add silk or live plants, not plastic, there will tear a bettas fin. I would also add those little statue things you see at Walmart for under a dollar that say stuff like "No Fishing" or have little statues of snails and stuff.

Good Luck and Hope This Helps!!!!!!! =)

Answer 5

A betta is general okay with most fish that aren't betta like. In fact other fish nipping his fin are more likely to be a problem. Female betta aren't a good companion. You need 50 gallons per male, and 5-10 per female.

Avoid these type of fish-
-Slow fish (goldfish)
-Showy fined fish (male fancy guppy)
-Fin nipper (Most large tetras, abd barbs)
-Aggressive, and semi aggressive fish
-Gourima (related to bettas so either may get confused)

Types of fish that work:
- Bottom feeders (like cory cats)
- Sucker fish (like small breed pleco, oto, and saimese algae eaters*)
- Live bearer other than fancy guppy, and sail fin molly (molly, platy/swordtail)
- killi fish
- neon tetras (be sure there are 4-5 to avoid fin nipping)
- danios
- snails
- ghost shrimp (note some of my betta eat these guys)


*Avoid the common pleco, and especially the common (chinese) algae eater. Common leco grow to 1-2 feet dependng on species. Chinese algae eaters reach a foot, and develop a taste for fish.

PS- Note my answer is completely different for a smaller tank.

Answer 6

You need some nice peaceful fish that don't get too big and won't bother your betta. I would suggest any of the smaller tetras commonly found in pet stores. Neons, glolights, penguins, emporers, head and tail lights or anything of a similar size. Thry getting a school (5-6) of one of these and then add in 2 small cory catfish for something really cute on the bottom.

MM

Answer 7

there are tiger fish that you might be able to add. but with the female Betta you could put it in but you would have to watch the male fish closely cause he might not get along with her. so i would watch and then if you saw the male Betta fins get bigger i would definitely take her out right away

Answer 8

It really depends on the additude of the fish. You can add most any kind of tropical community fish that doesnt have long fins because betta will probably nip. I would probably recommend some bottom feeders like otos or corys

Answer 9

tetra are an okay choice, but can be fin nippers and tear your bettas fins some good idea for tetras would be about five of one kind of these:
flame tetra http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10tetra_flame.htm
glowlite tetra http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10tetra_glowlite.htm
neon tetra http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10tetra_neon.htm
cardinal tetra http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10tetra_cardinal.htm

or a few livebearers, like 2 or three of one kind of these:
variatus http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10variatus.htm
moon/platy http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10moons.htm
molly http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10molly.htm

with any of these you could also add a mystery snail. one mystery snail cannot breed on it's own and will not over run your tank. or an african dwarf frog. these are all assuming you have a heater and filter, right?

Answer 10

I have a male Betta in my 29 gallon fish tank with 6 fancy tail Goldfdish, 1 Pleco, and a cory. They all get along great.