Betta tankmates

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paul_219

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
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202
What can i have in a betta tank. My tank is 29 gal tank i am thinking of platies swordtails and what do u advice me.
 
Depends on the Betta. Some will live peacefully with any fish that won't pick on it. Others will go after any fish with flowing fins that might be mistaken for a rival Betta. Finally some will not tolerate any tankmates whatsoever.
 
So.. what do i add. Do tank size plays any role. I haev a 29 gal tank.
 
Small, fast moving fish that have small fins and are non-aggressive.

This way: even if the betta hates any and all other fish it won't get beat up when it chases the others, it won't be able to noticeably tear up the fins of your other fish, and if you have many of them it won't be able to harass a single fish to death.

Probably could toss in a variety of neon, cardinal, green fire, glo-light, or black neon tetras. I don't mean throw everything in there, but it is a list of smaller tetras who prefer groups of like fish that would work well as I described previously. Maybe pick 2 species and build up a group of 6-10 of each...of course this is with the idea that these would be the only inhabitants of the 29G.

Platies and swordtails may be a bit slow moving and easy targets for an aggressive betta...if your betta plays well with others than it could be no problem but I personally wouldn't bother with the risk (fish just look terrible when their fins are getting torn to shreds).
 
Oh i c. But i like swordtails. They said that they can handle them selves with other fish.
 
I know many won't agree, but I had a betta mixed in with 3 gold barbs for years and they did great together. The gold barbs, in my experience, seem to keep to themselves. There was also a handful of rasboras in this tank. It was 20 gal by the way.
 
I know many won't agree, but I had a betta mixed in with 3 gold barbs for years and they did great together. The gold barbs, in my experience, seem to keep to themselves. There was also a handful of rasboras in this tank. It was 20 gal by the way.

Yeah, barbs should be fine as well if they aren't nippy or overtly colorful. male Cherry barbs would probably be harrased by a betta.
 
I have seen a group of neon or cardinal tetras gang up on and nip a betta. I'm sure others have successfully mixed bettas with other community fish, but just in case it doesn't work out, you should have a backup plan for the betta (his own tank). Like Purrbox says, it depends on the betta whether he will tolerate tankmates.
 
I have 3 peppered cories in my 10g with my betta. They get along fine especially since the cories hang out at the bottom.
 
You might be able to get by with some mollies or platies but be ready for lots of fry if you get these, and also be ready to separate the betta if he gets to aggressive.

Good Luck
 
Also, do you want the live-bearers because you WANT to breed them? Because I know from experience that Bettas will go after the babies, which, if you don't want to raise them works well as a natural way of keeping the population down, but will get tricky if you are trying to breed them.
 
i've kept otos & bettas together with great success.
i dunno about anything else tho.
 
Sorry, don't mean to hijack this thread, but Pinky, I'm just curious what size tank you keep Betta's and otos together in? I just set up a 5 gallon that i'm going to move my Betta into an want to add a couple other fish, Oto's are on my maybe list.

Thanks!

Kara
 
it was a 10 gallon sorority tank with 4 bettas and 2 otos. i had those otos for around three years, but only with the betas for about 1.
 
i keep my betta with 2 otos in a 5 gal heavily planted tank. i actually had to add something because i was getting BGA from low nitrates - my plants were absorbing it all. i wouldn't do this combo if you didn't have some plants, though.
 
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