"Friends" for my Betta...

[ScotJ]

Yes yes, I know they don't like friends. But is there anything I can put in the tank? Snails, frogs, etc? He has a nice big 5g to him self, and he is a very mellow guy.

 

[robott]

SNAILS. i love snails. mystery/apple snails are the bomb diggity.
great algae eaters, and i think they are one of the most majestic creatures to watch.

 

[ScotJ]

And the Betta won't kill him?

 

[robott]

nope. really, i've put male bettas in community tanks before, they mostly hate other male bettas and anything that could resemble one. bright colors, long fins, etc.
you could probably even put like a whisker shrimp/ghost shrimp in there.

 

[ScotJ]

how can I tell if "bob" is a male or not?

 

[FastFly67]

how can I tell if "bob" is a male or not?

female bettas have very short fins, (normally) muted colors (althought alot of what i've seen lately on females rival a male coloration) and smaller bodies. males have long flowing fins, will flare at their reflection. was it not labeled when you bought bob?

 

[robott]

i'm gonna bet it's a dude.

 

[Punkymom]

Those cute little apple snails do get to be softball sized just so you know. And they're pigs so you'll need to feed the snail quite a bit and from what I've read, veggies are a must. Sorry, no suggestions for tank mates. I was thinking maybe those dwarf frogs but I don't have any experience with them so I won't advise anything. Good luck! Oh, there are smaller snails that you could keep, though. Just not too familiar with any of them. You could do a search for nano stocking ideas. I read a nice list of them recently for tanks like 10 gal and under or something.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

I recently started a new 5 gallon betta tank. I initially tried some amano shrimp as tank mates. But they had to stay hidden all day long because if the betta ever caught them out in the open, he would chase and harass them. He wasn't going looking for them (after all, he HAD to know they stayed hidden in the knot hole in the drift wood, because from time-to-time, the betta would swim through the not hole and scatter them).

During this time, I also discovered some pond snail hitch hikers. I manually removed the ones I found... and also found a few that looked like perhaps the betta had taken care of them for me.

Well I took the shrimp out (they were eating the drift wood anyway) and I replaced them with a single nerite snail. This snail, while relatively small, is apparently big enough that the betta has totally ignored it. Only thing is, now the snail is eating the drift wood, and leaving tons of white eggs all over my drift wood.

Anyone know any betta friendly tank makes that snack on nerite snail eggs?
So I took the shrimp out and replaced them so far with a single narite snail. The betta has totally ignored the snail.

Yet at the same time, when I discovered a few pond snail hitch

 

[robott]

okay. i know mystery/apple snails have a bad rep. for eating plants, but i've never had it happen. that's the thing. so buy em some algae wafers, or shrimp pellets, they like both. and maybe they won't be tempted by plants.

 

[peaceablegarden]

Here's a good article about tank mates for Bettas on another forum I belong to. I have mine in with two male platies (which are not suggested as tank mates) and they get along just fine, but I was prepared to keep him in another tank alone. I almost put my other male into the community tank but it was pretty easy to see he wouldn't get along with the platies when he was floating in his bag from the lps.

Betta Tankmates - UltimateBettas

 

[HooKooDooKu]

okay. i know mystery/apple snails have a bad rep. for eating plants, but i've never had it happen. that's the thing. so buy em some algae wafers, or shrimp pellets, they like both. and maybe they won't be tempted by plants.

I know I've heard that common pond snails eat plant. Don't recall about mystery snails and apple snails. However I do recall that both nerite snails and MTS will NOT eat plants (except decaying/dead plant material).