# Norman's Lampeye?



## Sathori (Jul 7, 2013)

Hey everyone.

So I'm leaning towards breaking down my divided 10gal tank and letting my one male having the whole thing to himself (rather than only having half of it), but I would like to have some tank mates in there with him.

I was flipping through an order sheet from the company that my work orders their bettas from, and stumbled across Norman's Lampeye fish. I tried to do a bit of research on them, and I'm wondering if any one has tried a small schoal of these with a male betta. I've read different things here and there. I'm just really intrigued by these little guys and think the would make a fun addition to the tank. I was thinking them or some neon tetras or something similar.

That being said, I am interested in getting some bottom feeders (someone to clean up the scraps if there are any). I'm open to ideas. So far I've looked at pygmy corys and ghost/cherry shrimp. I know this will mean sinking wafers to feed the extra hungry mouths 

I've read the good/bad about bettas with ghost shrimp, but I'm always seeing that people have live plants with their shrimp. Do they do best with live plants? Right now I've got soft plastic "betta" plants and silk plants in my tank.
And I see corys like sand rather than gravel - so if I want to stick with gravel, does that rule out corys? Any other "clean up crew" suggestions?


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## eatmice2010 (Jan 1, 2013)

Paragraph 1: Killifish i've herd come from different water, but the people that have tried have had success from what i read. Do you know if you will order eggs are live fish?

Paragraph 2: Your tank is a little small so i think cories would be best. Cories are great little vacuums, and they come in a large variety so your choices are great.

Paragraph 3: Yes they do best with live plants. If you do not want to change completely to sand then you can always try small grain gravel. But otherwise the cories will be fine in the tank (gravel isn't ideal but it is fine.) 

Shrimp and snails are great for algae and cories are good for waste.


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## Sathori (Jul 7, 2013)

1. I believe the company would ship the live fish, not the eggs.

2. I'm told cories do best in shoals no smaller than 6, ideally 10. Is 6 too small of a shoal if they are provided with places to hide?

3. The only reason I'm hesitant about live plants is the fact that I live 2hrs away from the closest place that MIGHT sell live plants, and the fact that I am a total noob at taking care of aquatic plants.

I do like the idea of having cories. I find them adorable. With my size of tank, should I stop at just 1 betta and a shoal of cories then?


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## eatmice2010 (Jan 1, 2013)

No 6 is fine.

With it being a male betta then no other bettas can be in there.


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## Sathori (Jul 7, 2013)

Yup, I have no intention of mixing bettas. I know the danger of males and the stress a female can add  Not touching that with a 10ft pole haha.

Well I just took out the second male and took away the divider to see how my one male likes having a 10 gallon. He seems very curious about everything. I'll likely wait a few days to see if he will leave his tail alone before I make the 2hr trek out to get some tank mates.

I only asked if I should stop with 1 betta and a shoal of cories simply because I didn't see any response about the tetras and wasn't sure if you were suggesting that I should stick with just the cories and betta. From the aquarium stocking calculator I used, it says I should be able to do 6 cories and 5 neon tetras with my betta without going over my bioload. Is 5 tetras a big enough shoal for them to feel safe?


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## eatmice2010 (Jan 1, 2013)

Oh ok, ya some people have problems with the tetras and bettas, but they will be fine together. 5-6 is the minimum school size so 5 will be fine.


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## Sathori (Jul 7, 2013)

Awesome 

Thanks!


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