Planning my 20 tall with a Betta??

[JerryO]

I am in the process of setting up my 20gal tall and want to have a very colorful tank. I have done tons of reading about Bettas and what they can and can't live with and am trying to find a good balance of fish.

How well would 1 betta, 10 neon tetra, and 1 clown pleco do together?

I have heard everything from they will all be OK to the betta will chase the tetra to death or the tetras will nip at the betta.

Everything I have read about betta and pleco have ben from betta people who say a pleco it too big for a betta tank, but they are obviously referring to a commor or larger variant.

Does the truth lie somewhere in the middle or am I setting myself up for failure?

 

[Crepe]

They should be okay, a school of tetras should keep to their own devices.

 

[mellawson]

Depends mostly on the betta some are aggressive and tolerate nothing and some pay no mind to anything. I would say the betta and pleco will be fine, I have a betta in a 10 gallon with 5 corries and they are fine together. Some one else will have to chime in on the neon tetras.

 

[Sum22]

Fish like to swin side to side, so the fact you have a tall limits the ability for the fish to swim around. There is less surface area, which means slightly less oxygen in the tank.

However, that being said, I think it would be fine.

I have had neons with a betta without any problems. However, the neons did fin nip the betta for the first week they were in the tank together.

 

[BigJim]

The high designation is really just to differentiate it from the 20L. It's 18"H x 24"L x 12"W. Basically a 29g that had six inches chopped off. It's a good starter tank.

Bettas and neons will do fine together if the tank isn't completely bare. The betta is too slow to catch the neons and the neons will generally leave the betta alone. A few plants to hid behind help. Out of sight, out of mind.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

You should be just fine, I am not too familiar with the clown pleco, but if they get large like other plecos i would suggest going with a bristlenose pleco or a nice group of oto's. Algae eaters are not a necessity but its nice to have them so if you dont NEED to have one then i would do your bioload a favor and get some otos.

 

[mommytron]

I have a 20gallon tall that I'm in the process of setting up as well, and wanted something colorful (especially for my 2 year old). after looking around at a bunch of people's tanks i decided i wanted a school of cardinal tetras. they are just like the neon except the red stripe goes all the way down their body, and they stand out so much more IMO. i've heard that they're a little harder to care for than the neon, but i read up on them some and it seems if my tank is well established before they are added there shouldn't be a problem. and +1 for otos, nice and small, so you could get a few of them to keep each other company.

 

[DragonFish71]

A little on the neon vs betta thing.

It's all down to the betta's attitude.

We had a female that would hunt, kill and then play with a dead neon. She would shake it like a rag doll. Wouldn't even let go of it when I chased her with my 18inch planting tweezers. She would also kill corys, shrimp, and snails. Even large snails like the mystery snails. She would also flare up at her male.

Our others do fine.

So really, it's all up to the fish to be cranky or not.