Otto with a Male Betta?

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The_Wolfman

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 26, 2008
Messages
38
Hey I have a question...I have a 3 Gallon Eclipse tank with 1 Male Betta and a couple of live plants. Recently a ton of algae has been growing and I want to get a Otto catfish because they eat algae and stay very small. My question is though, the betta has been by himself for probably 4 months now, would be aggressive towards the otto or embrace a new fish in the tank?
 
Ottos can be finicky about water conditions, and do best in small schools. I'm not sure how well you can accomplish this in 3 gallons.

Instead of getting a fish to solve the problem I would try increasing water changes and adding some sort of plant to remove nutrients from the water. I would recommend something easy/quick growing like anacharis if you have descent light, or some moss if you had low light.
 
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Otos are usually fine with bettas... definitely get more than 1 though.

You could also try shrimp-- although be aware your betta may harass them. I have shrimp with a female betta and she left them alone after about a week, now everyone gets along well.
 
i wouldn't put anything in the tank. i put in a snail with my betta and the snail was killed the next morning.
 
I recently put 2 otos in with my male betta who's been by himself for probably 6-8 months in a similarly sized tank. Tried a snail, but the water here is really nasty and I suspect some serious heavy metals (NOT the betta).

I DID have some aggression initially, but I used a small tupperware container (solely for the fish) and isolated him in that while floating it in the tank. He figured out pretty quickly he couldn't pick on the otos.

Charming guys...cleaned up the tank (which was very algae-fied) in less than a week.
 
thats good. just watch the ottos closely for a few more months, for aggression
 
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