Tankmates for a betta in a 16gal bowfront

[MountainAsh87]

Jeepers, but my plans for this tank have changed drastically! Originally, I wanted to have a planted tank with nothing but nano fish - chili raspboras, axelrod sundadanios, and pygmy cory cats - but then my dear sweetie pie decided I needed a betta. So, I have a betta. And nothing else. In a 16 gal tank.

When digging through the archives, the threads I found all referenced a tank much smaller (think, 5 gal) or much larger (30-50 gal) than mine. So, I'm looking for suggestions. I'm not particularly interested in inverts or frogs, so any help would be most appreciated.

This is what the tank currently looks like:

 

[Cynic]

I'm very anti mixing any top/mid dwellers with betta, while it works for some it ends in misery for the majority.

Best advice is look at a group of small bottom dwellers like 5 or 6 Kuhli Loaches/Pygmy Cories.

 

[MountainAsh87]

Mixing top/mid dwellers definitely sounds like a bad idea, but do you think the pygmy cories would be big enough to be safe from the betta? He kind of hangs all around the tank, rather than just staying at the top.

I also meant to say I don't like kulhi loaches. They give me the heebie jeebies for some reason.

 

[LS240]

I have a 16g bowfront with 6 Cories, 6 Rummynose Tetras, and a male Betta. I've seen the Tetras chasing Moon(the Betta) around a few times but that seems to have smoothed out now. In return, Moon hasn't shown any aggression other than flaring when he was chased those few times. With a more aggressive Betta there might be issues so as others have said maybe active mid-top swimmers would be a bad idea. I guess I'm just lucky that everyone gets along(not counting the RCS he ate).

With the Cories though, there has been no aggression whatsoever from Moon or the Cories. In fact, he seems to really enjoy their company and frequently swims with them as they chase bubbles and whatnot. Even when they get super hyper during feeding time he seems completely relaxed around them. This experience coincides with what I've seen at the local fish stores as well. I've seen lots of tanks there with Bettas and Cories together and have never spotted any aggression.

I would strongly suggest getting the Cories for your Betta's tank. He will most likely enjoy having them around and they'll certainly never pick on him. It might be best though to pull out your Betta and rearrange the tank a little then introduce the Cories and reintroduce the Betta to give your community the best chance of success.