Is it a good idea to put a male betta fish in a tank with freshwater snails?

Question

The male betta fish has never been around another aquatic animal before.

Answer 1

It may show initial interest in the snails by "inspecting" them with a few nudges, but nothing that might harm the snail. After the Betta realizes it's never going to be able to eat the snail, it will just ignore the slow moving lump... Email me if you have any questions.

Soop Nazi

EDIT: Please ignore Vickyyy and ALEX. They made it painfully obvious that they know very little about Bettas...

EDIT 2: It isn't the color that "angers" Bettas, it is the long, dangling fins. Also, if the fish is large and peaceful, there is no reason it can't be kept with a Betta (assuming it isn't so big that it would try to eat it).

Answer 2

As long as you have heat and filtration, (which you should have for the betta anyway) snails are fine. To add even more interest to a small tank, add live plants, (An Anubis is a great hardy choice that doesn't need a lot of light) and some shrimp. Bettas, by the way, deserve at least a 5-gallon tank

Answer 3

it's fine
I keep my current male betta with two mystery snails in a 10 gallon tank (they started off in a five gal, but have since graduated to bigger and better things)
my betta ignores them entirely, seems to think they are rocks or decoration rather than his tankmates...
here is a couple links that discuss other betta tank mates which you might consider if you have a large enough tank (some of these I have kept with my bettas):
http://bettas.fishjunkies.com/tankmates.php
http://www.nippyfish.net/tankmates.html

I've kept over 20 bettas in the past 10 years, at times I've had 4 or 5 male bettas all in separate ten gallon tanks with other community fish. I've never had a betta die short of 4 and half years old while the majority of my bettas live to be 6 or 7 years old. I've read more books on bettas than I care to try and remember and I can tell you that it pains my heart to read what people like "vickyyy" below me thinks about bettas: they are not $10 for everything they need! More like $70 to $100 when first setting up the tank. They need proper sized tanks, heating, filtration, variated diet, etc... and bettas can easily be kept with tank mates, just certain types of tank mates (ie, nothing large, nothing colorful, nothing with long fins, nothing that is aggressive...) danios, african dwarf frogs, mystery snails, ghost shrimp, and white clouds are all ideal betta tank mates!

Answer 4

YES!!! It is ok because I have 3 Apple snails in my fighting fish bowl and the fighting fish wont pick on them. And the snails don`t really eat and so I feed them like once every 5 days or so.And my fighting fish is a male!

Answer 5

Yes, that will be fine. Bettas normally ignore snails in their tank. Just make sure that the snail is not small enough for the betta to eat it, and they will be okay.

Answer 6

No! If you put a betta fish in a tank with ANYTHING, the fish will constantly hurt the other fish/snails/whatever else is in there. They are naturally fighting fish. They will torture the snails, possibly killing them. You can get a betta fish tank set at any Wal*Mart or pet store around for less than $10 with rocks and everything. Just make sure the fish has clean water and is alone.

Answer 7

Dont worry nothings going to happen to your snails.

Answer 8

A beta doesn't have the power or tools to cause any harm to a snail. You don't have to worry about any problems.

Answer 9

I dunno...the snails may just gang up on him and ask him for his wallet.
seriously...its fine. Betta males are only aggressive to other male bettas.

Answer 10

i think i did this... and the snail ended up dead... i never found out why, it couldve been too old, but its only a snail, i think theyre like a couple bucks