Just got a new Female Betta. . .

[honmol]

She's currently in a ten gallon alone. I want to get her some tankmates. She's still relatively young. Could I put some cherry barbs in with her? I know that barbs are generally nippy but maybe the cherry barbs will be ok? Or some dwarf cories. Maybe an adf? Some sparkling gouramis? The cherry barbs at my lfs just got there and they are bright red. They're not fully grown yet and it might not be their permanent home. I might get another tank this summer when I make my pond. I want fish that breed easily but are not fry machines like livebearers. Any suggestions? If possible I'd like to get the cherry barbs but it's just an idea. What would you choose?

 

[Tiffi]

The safest would be IMO to go with some kind of bottom dweller like a school of corys, or otos, or shrimp, etc.

The barbs will be a catastrophe! I doesn't matter if they are still young. You're right the barbs will be fine, but the female betta won't!

 

[honmol]

ok. It's just that the cherry barbs are in a tank with some longer finned fish and the fins of those fish are still intact. So I thought that maybe it would be okay. What about the sparkling gouramis?I'm not going to get ottos for this tank and probably wouldn't get the cories because their tank at the lfs had some problems. Maybe a few marbled hatchet fish? Or tetras?

 

[Fluff]

I think it depends on the fish. There is a male betta in my daughters tank with three male cherry barbs and they've never nipped his fins. Since the female betta doesn't have the long showy fins of the males, you may be ok. You could try it and if it looks like there will be problems, remove the barbs. Hatchets would probably be ok but I would skip the gourami's due to them being labyrinth fish and I would be afraid the female betta would harrass them.

 

[Lance M.]

Here's what I have in a tank with my female betta- 3 Glowlight tetras, 3 Metae cories, 1 kuhli loach (I believe is going to die), 1 female gold guppy, 1 german blue ram (male), 1 mustard spot pleco, 1 longfinned albino pleco, 1 flying fox, and 2 FW clams.

Plants- Cryptocoryne wendtii and willisi, green cambomba, 3 lily plants, around 6-8 aponogetons, 3 pieces of driftwood with java moss growing on them, 1 piece of dirftwood with Anubias (I'm not sure how long it takes to attach), and getting some petrified wood soon (Ya! )

Hope that helps.

My betta doesn't bother anything and nothing bothers my betta.

 

[poppab02]

I'd steer you toward the tetras or danios. they aren't going to harass the betta and are going to be too fast for the betta to harass.

 

[honmol]

that's what I was thinking. And before, when I've had fish that might become aggreesive or might eat tankmates, I get them when they're small and keep them with their future tankmates that they might have problems with. Since when they're small they see the other fish as bigger, they sort of grow up not eating or harrassing them. I was thinking of getting a small school of lemon tetras maybe but I really like the cherry barbs. The sparkling gouramis don't get big or really colorful fins and when you get them from the pet store they're very drab. This also doesn't need to be the sparkling gourami's final home. I'll get a 2 gallon and would like them as inhabitants. I could get her different tankmates is there are problems. I'll try to see if they'll have problems because I watch for 15-3 minutes when I get a new fish home to make sure that it's ok. If I see any problems then I'll take them back and get new fish. I'll see what works. I'm getting her new tankmates either this or next weekend (not all at once so that there isn't a huge increase in bio-load but her first tankmates) I'll post if the chrry barbs have problems.

 

[Lance M.]

The sparkling gouramis don't get big or really colorful fins and when you get them from the pet store they're very drab. This also doesn't need to be the sparkling gourami's final home. I'll get a 2 gallon and would like them as inhabitants. I could get her different tankmates is there are problems.

Sparkling gouramis get around 4 inchs long, will look much better in a home tank than in a store (like basically all fish), and please do not put any type of gouramis in a 2 gallon tank.. unless u are refering to the betta going in the 2 gallon.

 

[Tiffi]

I could imagine honmol forgot the 0 like in

I watch for 15-3 minutes

.

There are many colorful tetras (IMO more colorful than most barbs).

Plus I would try to mix up their niches/habitats too. Don't just get so many fishes that swim on the top (betta, sparkling gourami, hatchetfish). Get some that are more in the middle regions and don't compete for the same space.

 

[RoK]

Sparkling gouramis actually only get to about an inch and a half but I still wouldn't keep it in a 2g or with a betta.
I've never heard of cherry barbs being nippy or aggressive at all. From what I've read is that they are peaceful barbs who don't bother anyone, then again I don't have any experience with them. :?

 

[czcz]

I have had cherry barbs (m/2f) with a female betta. The male tried to get fresh (not aggressive) with her and she stopped it quickly. At times she hangs out with the female barbs but otherwise claims territory. The cherry barbs mate often but eggs are eaten as they are released. Both the female barbs and betta seem to appreciate planted cover. My betta is normally ornery by nature. FWIW

 

[honmol]

My tank is cloudy. It was clear a minute ago. . . I've never had cloudy water before. Will it clear up or do I need to do something about it? I'm going to try the cherry barbs. If they don't work out then I can take them back and get different fish. Just so that you know about my cloudy water. . . The tank's been set up with her in it for a couple days now and I've been doing daily pwc. The current plants are alot of elodea and the substrate is gravel. That's it until I get the new fish and (tommorrow) the other plants. The water is about half water that I let sit and allowed the chlorine to evaporate and the rest is bottled water (I've used it before for tank water when I needed it and it worked fine) Tommorrow I'll do a pwc ( how much of a pwc would you do? I've been doing 25-50%) right before I put the plants in the tank. My betta seems fine and has not been affected (as far as I can tell) by the cloudy water. She's acting the same as before. I don't know what caused the cloudy water. It's not really cloudy but it's cloudy enough that when she goes to the back of the tank I can't really see her colors, even though I can see her and can watch her normally (the colors just appear faded and not as distinct) Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'd like to find out what's causing the cloudy water and get rid of it) TIA