MTS has possibly struck Zooms household. My wife and I started with a 40litre tank, moved onto a 160litre tank shortly thereafter, BUT packed the 40litre away due to space constraints. After my wife insisted we get a small tank to raise our fry in, we managed to set up a small 20litre tank. My wife is now bored with raising fry, and says it's boring, and is quite happy to leave the baby guppy and swordtail fry in the community tank as live food for the Danios and Angels. (My ORIGINAL intention). She has had a change of heart because NOW she has her eye on having a Siamese Fighter display tank. I've managed to convince her to alow me to pack the small 20litre away, and pull out the more attractive 40litre Boyu, and turn that into a Siamese tank for her. Can anyone give us suggestions on what we can/should do here? Plants? Rocks? How MANY betta's? What make suitable tank mates? (I was thinking of lightly planted tank, 1 male Betta, 3 female, and about 10-15 Neons???)
i read they like a heavily planted/dense tank? Only one male otherwise they'll shred each other, oh, see you said one, and apparently tetras are fin nippers?
I've got a 20l tank where I use to house my betta with some black neons and rasboras. The 20l had some rocks and plants in it. The neons and rassies never hassled the betta, but the betta is a bit shy and chilled out by the plants most of the time. Anyway, until recently I decided to raise guppys, to feed my clown knife, in the 20l. So I took the betta, neons and rassies out of the 20l and stuck them in my 100l tank. In the 100l, I've got 1 pleco (not the type that gets huge), 1 ghost knife, a couple of pearl gouramis, 4 baby angels and some other tetra types. The betta seems to be happy in there and no one bothers him, although he still likes to chill by the plants.
i read that about them too, like to stay by the plants, thats why i said it likes a dense planted tank
They originate from the rice paddy's in China (If my research serves me right) so hence they enjoy the plants. I use to have one in my community tank... and he was perfectly fine with all my tetras, guppies, swords and angels. My problem now is my angels have doubled in size since the previous betta passed on, and they are pretty agro to new commers.
I would plant the tank heavily along the back and sides, to try and betta to come out more, and have about 10 neon's or cardinals with as tank mates.
Zoom, if you think the angels will be a bit hostile, then before you introduce the betta into the tank, try and change the layout of the plants and rocks/wood (if possible). This way the fish will no longer have "territory" and will have to re-establish the pecking order.
Mmmm, been wanting to this aswell. Check this stunning Betta tank: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LubYMbtL23E
that is a nice tank, peaceful So you guys all reacon i can add my planned/scratched betta to my community tank in the making as well, tetras and corys and such? No fin nipping?
In my previous tank I had a Betta with Red Robbin Gouramis. Big mistake, the Betta mistook the Red Robbins for Betta Males. a Quick trip back to the LFS ensured the Red Robbins' safety. :bigsmile::bigsmile:
if it weren't for the alleged aggression of mollies, i'd be fine, gareth26 said i could have some of his spawn, and they are completely freshwater raised/acclimatised @Zoom, thinking on the rice paddy thing, wouldn't it be cool to make the habitat /rice paddy idea in your tank? dunno what plants would suffice though
@ Ruan... Wow, that's a whole list of what fish can't be put with Betta's.... so what can Zoom put with them? Sounds like the Betta's are fussy little buggers.
Aah.. So basically, all the betta's will tolerate in "their" kingdom are slimy frogs and humble, lowly bottom-dwellers.... :notrust: Basically, anybody that won't steal their limelight. If betta's were people, they'd be supermodels.
I'd say try and stick with fish from the same Biotope, so you'd be looking at Rasboras, Otocinclus (while they're not Asian, they're much more peaceful than Siamese Algae Eaters), Loaches of all types (Pakistani loaches are relatively peaceful bottomfeeders that get to about 10cm as adults) and that should make a nice Betta tank. Unfortunately all of the species mentioned are social, so you might have to choose between loaches and rasboras. Definitely have a look at Microdevario Kubotai (AKA Microrasbora Kubotai and Neon Yellow Rasbora) and Celestial Pearl Danios. Their small size will mean you can get a nice big group of them in your 40litre tank. Also check out this tank that's got some of the neon rasboras in it.
How many Bettas could I then put into a 10gal tank? (40litre)? I'd do a hood filter, so filtration will be similar to sump set up. I plan on a well planted tank, with very fine silica sand (play pen type). I would obviously only do one male, but could i put in 4 or 5 females??? At this point I might just LEAVE it as soley a Betta tank and scrap idea's for other mates. Would Betta females be suitable in a normal community tank?
