Guppies and female Betta

[Dom11]

Can I keep 2 guppies with a female betta in 6.5 gal?


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[dragon14]

I would say not. A female is usually more docile than a male betta, but she is still a betta, and might nip fins!

 

[Dom11]

Alright cheers


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[dragon14]

Anything with showy, flowy fins is a no-no.

 

[Dom11]

Okay gotcha can I have your advice on 2-3 corys being with 2 zebra loach's in a 14 gallon


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[dragon14]

I am not really the person to ask about that; my only fish experience thus far is a male betta who sadly passed away early in Oct (we miss him so much) and our female betta and pygmy catfish that we decided to get after a lot of research. The male was originally going to be with the catfish but sadly he/we never had the chance to find out if he would get along with them....

How many catfish would be in the 14g total?

I hope someone else can answer this question for you. I just don't want to answer things that I don't really know the answer to.

 

[Dom11]

Well I currently have 2 albino corys in a 6 gallon with nothing else, hoping to leave it at that after I have added a male betta and nothing else but the amount of people that have said the tank is too small is ridiculous. All I want is a betta in my new tank with my new cories which is what I bought the tank for and all this info on here is messing my plans up


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[dragon14]

Ok well those cories in the 6g should probably go in the 15g when you get it/have it set up

No one is trying to be mean to you or mess up your plans. Those fish truly thrive and will display their natural behaviors to you (which I'm sure you'd love to see!) when they are in a larger group in an appropriately-sized tank. It's nothing against you personally that people are saying this. It's because it is true and it is ideally the conditions that those fish should be in.

I do agree that the 6g is too small. For the moment, it is what it is. Please make sure you do water changes I would say every other day or every three days at MOST, about 50% water change. The tank is uncycled, correct?

We had our female betta and the 7 pygmy catfish in a 5g and that was too small for all of them. It did LOOK like they all had plenty of room but really, no, plus when you factor in waste production and such, it just was too small. We only ever did that with the intention of it being temporary of a few weeks to a month while we finished readying our 10g tank for them.

I have done some good research on catfish in general, but specifically pygmys (since that is the only kind of catfish that I found should be in a 10g tank, especially when you consider the number of them that you should have at minimum), and catfish really do need to be in larger groups. The folks on here confirm what I already knew about that. They will be happier, shoal, and show you how much fun they are having when they are together in ideal groups and in an appropriately sized tank.

The other issue with the catfish you have in the 6g tank is waste production. It could quickly get toxic in there if you forgot to change the water often enough. Do you have any testing kits?

 

[Dom11]

Thank you.

1. I already have a 14 gallon set up with quite a few fish.
2. 2 of those fish are 2 Zebra loach's which I don't know how they get along with corys.
3. The substrate isn't right for cories, it's big and quite sharp looking.
4. I don't wanna overstock my 14 gallon.

Yes it is cycling and I've been doing water changes to reduce nitrates and yes I have test kits


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[Fishobsessed7]

Do you use strips?


Fishobsessed7

 

[Dom11]

Yeah. Not extremely accurate I know but I've never had any problems and they've done a good job for me so far


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[dragon14]

You're welcome

1) Ok, I wasn't quite sure what was going on with that.
2) Maybe do some research on if they get along or not. I really hope someone comes along on here and can give you some insight into that though.
3) I'm really glad that you don't want to put the cories on inappropriate substrate. We switched to sand from gravel specifically so that we could get catfish. Ours wasn't really sharp looking/feeling at all, but, we wanted to be better safe than sorry. Especially since these catfish are so tiny! Plus catfish like to dig/nuzzle into the sand. At least bigger ones do. I haven't observed much of that with my pygmys.
4) I'm glad that you don't want to overstock. Could you maybe get a 20g for everyone and do sand, and keep the betta in the 6g? If not now, at some point in the not too distant future?

Ok good! We use API liquid test kits. I don't know if you use strips or not, but, when I was first getting into having fish, I read on multiple sources, and on this forum before I joined, that test strips are just not accurate and to not use them. So I didn't get strips.

 

[Dom11]

I have no room or money to get another tank and a 20g. I only bought the 6 gallon a week ago just so I could get two cories and a betta and now cause of all this I'm thinking it was a waste of my money. (I'm a student)


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[dragon14]

I understand. We have kind of maxed out on fish spending too. Sometimes people don't know to or realize to do research ahead of time. Fish keeping seems so simple right? That's what I thought. Thank goodness a friend of mine guided me a lot when I told her I was going to get some fish. If she hadn't, we may have made some mistakes and even worse, cost some lives, and I hate to think about that!

Is there any possibility of either returning the cories or re-homing them? If there is not, they'll survive, but they won't be as happy as they would be in a larger tank and with more of their kind. If you can return or re-home them, you could look into getting some cherry shrimp to go with the betta.

 

[Dom11]

Ahhh stress


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[dragon14]

Yeah, I hear ya

We didn't really know what we were getting into in terms of fish supplies and their costs etc, we've spent a lot of money. Decorations aren't cheap! The heaters weren't cheap but we did our research and got the best after a few failed attempts (we were able to return them). And the test kits were like $10-17 each but they last a long while! The fish were the cheapest part lol!

Well keep me posted... it's good that you joined here and are learning. People make mistakes. We're only human. No one is trying to upset you, just educate you I certainly got educated when I first started out. Thankfully I found out a lot of things BEFORE getting fish so that helped, but not everyone is so fortunate.

 

[Dom11]

Yeah thanks a lot for your help when I can I'll move them into the 14g but no idea when that will be


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[dragon14]

You're very welcome! When you can afford to, I would most certainly get the api liquid test kits. I am trying to think which would be most important... they all are but.

Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate I would get when you can. I would get ph last.

I also have a ph test kit but I don't use it much because no matter what, my ph always seems to be the same. I do test for it, but, not as often as I test the other three. This is not always the case though, it IS important to test ph, and it can vary during different points in a cycle. It can be different straight from the tap from when it has been in the tank for a week or so.

Ammonia I think I would recommend you get that first. Then get the nitrite test, and last the nitrate test, if you can't get them all at once. Nitrate you can keep in check from water changes even if you don't have the test yet.

Test strips aren't super horrible, and I know they're cheaper, but they really are not accurate And especially when cycling, especially with a fish-in cycle, accuracy is important.

 

[Dom11]

I know but I simply can't afford this :/


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

 

[dragon14]

My PM box is nearly full, but, I am going to send you a pm.....