# Which Tankmate to Try First?



## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

So I was thinking of trying to introduce another tankmate in with Maxwell (not another Betta of course!). He seems pretty mellow for a male Betta.
He is not afraid of anything, when I move something in the tank he goes to check it out but never bites at it. At night when he can see his reflection he rarely flares. He is just a really sweet Betta and I think he might accept some kind of tankmate.
My question was, what tankmate should I try first to see how he reacts?
Obviously I want both Maxwell and the other to be safe and unharmed.
I know some people try out ghost shrimp because they are cheap. However I do not want to risk their death just because they are cheap.
Any suggestions?


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## TequilatheBetta (Apr 5, 2011)

How about cories? Depends on your tank size, of course, but even in tiny tanks cories and bettas get along, because cories are the sweetest fish in the universe. If you have a 10 gallon, I would say get 4 cories for your betta  they need fine gravel or sand, though.


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## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

I forgot to mention the tank. lol
It is a 14 gallon, it has smooth gravel.
Here is a picture:


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## Micho (Aug 22, 2011)

Which fish are interested in. . ?

If you're LPS carries them I would recommend Pygmy Cories, these buggers are tiny and when I say tiny I mean it, you'll have a hard time finding them. They like to be in a shoal so I would say six of them, they get no bigger than 1.5 inches. 

Shrimps are usually used as a snack, so I wouldn't recommended them. You could do a snail or two?

Maybe a shoal of some sort of short-tail fish, like tetras? 

It's really all up to you. :]


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## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

No Tetras, please. They might be okay, but I believe they need at least 15 gallons and a school fo 6 to shoal properly. 

I reccomend Ghost Shrimp. I love thm! And in that great big tank, I doubt he would care, and even if he did they could hide. 

I do not reccomend Cories. They need at least 20 gallons for a shoal of 4. Pygmys, though, are okay. You can get 6. 

What about a snail? Funny little critters they are!


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## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

I am not really sure what I wanted for the tank as I do not know much about non Bettas. 
I think I would like sometype of bottom feeder more than other level fish.
I have a Petco near me and I do not think they sell pygmy cories. :/


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## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

I have had snails in the past and the were very very dirty. I would like to avoid them. lol


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## Micho (Aug 22, 2011)

You could try rasboras, I almost wanted to say guppies but they prefer to with themselves, maybe a few platty? 

Yeah snails poop a lot.


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## fishy friend2 (Aug 28, 2011)

If it is a Petco you will probably not have a lot of choices, I know that my Petco has these compatible fish for bettas.
-platies might work I have never tried this before but I have heard of many people having platies with there Betta
-non fancy female guppies will also work fine with a Betta just make sure she has not a lot of color
-cories I'm not sure about them being in a 14 gallon but I think 4 albino cories will be okay
-neon tetras 6 or 7 maybe eight would be fine with your Betta 
- shrimp those little feeder shrimp have lived in peace with my Betta and seem like they are compatible with him


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## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

Yeah, Rasaboras could work. 

Lol when you said that I thought of minnows... I was like 'NO! THEY ARE COLDWATER!'


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

BettaMiah said:


> No Tetras, please. They might be okay, but I believe they need at least 15 gallons and a school fo 6 to shoal properly.
> 
> I reccomend Ghost Shrimp. I love thm! And in that great big tank, I doubt he would care, and even if he did they could hide.
> 
> ...



Probably should practice what you preach before trying to give stocking advise. 



ANYWAY... Other members on this forum are more informed than i am, but you could do pygmy cories, shrimp of any kind (except bamboo, since they need a very well established tank to thrive) otos, tetras (neon, glo-light, and blacklight are all the same pretty much. I have had all and they work well with bettas), feeder guppies, and others that have been mentiones. These are just what i have had. You can also do khuli loaches or african dwarf frogs.


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## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

Gizmothefreaky said:


> Probably should practice what you preach before trying to give stocking advise.
> 
> 
> 
> ANYWAY... Other members on this forum are more informed than i am, but you could do pygmy cories, shrimp of any kind (except bamboo, since they need a very well established tank to thrive) otos, tetras (neon, glo-light, and blacklight are all the same pretty much. I have had all and they work well with bettas), feeder guppies, and others that have been mentiones. These are just what i have had. You can also do khuli loaches or african dwarf frogs.


 How many neon tetras could I have in my 14 gallon? I know they have to be in groups.


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## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

I think you could pass with 14 gallons if you really kept up with water changes. I really don't think 1 gallon will make a difference. Plus the betta, okay. But still, more water changes. 

Plus, they are SO active, that is why they need a lot of space, They are very small fish, but swim a lot. 

They NEED at least 6 in a shoal, so at least that. I think that would be good. 

Gizmo- I found that kind of rude. What do you mean? I don't own Neons. Or 4 cories, or pygmys. I don't want to get in a 'fight'. I just didn't think that was nessecary. How is Splatter? I still think about him all the time. An hey, once I upgrade, I will have a spare 3 gallon... :3


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

Aluyasha said:


> How many neon tetras could I have in my 14 gallon? I know they have to be in groups.



With the betta? Say the betta is three inches including tail, that leaves you 11 gallons to play with as far as stocking goes. Neon are generally only an inch long... So you could have as few as 5, or as many as 10. It is up to you. They need to be in groups of 4 or more, but i like odd numbers for small groups. lol You can also mix the three types, because they will school together from what i have personally seen.


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## bettafish15 (Oct 3, 2010)

I have 4 bronze cories in my 14g, and I don't see any problem at all.


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## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

Cories can get 4 inches, and if they are healthym quite active swimmers. 

I don't know. That is just what I have learned and it made sense. 

I'll go do some more research.


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## Micho (Aug 22, 2011)

Really the one inch for one gallon rule can be very loose if you have a very well established tank which is heavily planted plus a good filtration system, just saying.

Neon tetras I would suggest starting with six only, seeing how you have only one Betta in there right now, anymore than six and you'll have an ammonia spike, plus I'm guessing you're not going to QT them you want to wait a couple of weeks before adding more, just in case. 

You have a somewhat large variety of fish to choose from, the choice is all up to you.


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## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

Yeah, you do. Maybe do some research? 

Micho explained it really well.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

Micho said:


> Really the one inch for one gallon rule can be very loose if you have a very well established tank which is heavily planted plus a good filtration system, just saying.
> 
> Neon tetras I would suggest starting with six only, seeing how you have only one Betta in there right now, anymore than six and you'll have an ammonia spike, plus I'm guessing you're not going to QT them you want to wait a couple of weeks before adding more, just in case.
> 
> You have a somewhat large variety of fish to choose from, the choice is all up to you.


+1 :3

I only suggested five because i have a thing for odd numbers. X3 Im silly like that.


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## hedgehog (Sep 1, 2010)

BettaMiah said:


> Cories can get 4 inches, and if they are healthym quite active swimmers.
> 
> I don't know. That is just what I have learned and it made sense.
> 
> I'll go do some more research.


There are many, many species of cories most of which only get to be 2.5 inches maximum for females. All the species of cories are different in their personalities and activity levels. If you get your cories from Petco or Petsmart you'll only ever get C. aeneus. These guys aren't super active and mostly just scuttle along the bottom of the tank. They also get less active with age except during spawning in which cause they swim midlevel with each other out of the way of the other cories. You can keep four of these in a ten gallon. 

BettaMiah I really believe you have a Brochis splendens which isn't even a cory. These guys get to be 4 inches but most cories don't. This could explain the high activity level you see with your fish. Even so your 'cory' needs to be kept with others of the same species otherwise he will be stressed out and unhappy in his environment no matter how much space he has. Before I knew better I kept one cory with my betta fish and he constantly glass surfed because he was trying to school with his reflection. He seemed super active when I kept him alone but when I put him in a group of four he calmed down and is less stressed. He's rarely ever pale and he's actually had two successful (but unexpected) spawns. 



BettaMiah said:


> Gizmo- I found that kind of rude. What do you mean?


Gizmo was trying to point out that you keep telling everybody not to get cories because they're too active to keep a school in anything under 20 gallons (which is a huge generalization considering how many different cory species there are) but you only keep one 'cory' which is not meeting its needs.



Gizmothefreaky said:


> Probably should practice what you preach before trying to give stocking advise.


I totally agree Gizmo. I tried to tell BettaMiah that her cory needs to be with others of the same species and that he's probably not even a cory and they never responded. It's bad to give inexperienced keepers stocking advice. In this case because they'll be missing out on some seriously awesome fish that they can easily care for.


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## ForbiddenSecrets (Aug 15, 2010)

Ghost shrimp are pretty fun to watch once you find them - it's neat how they eat  I had three a while ago and one vanished and I've had two ever since. I thought they would be snacks as well but I'm starting to think that I'm the one who killed the third accidentally in a WC ^^;; My bettas do the food scavenge thing with them. 

I'd avoid ottos unless you plan on a live very planted tank that's producing algae and you're also growing algae for them on the side. They enjoy hobbies such as starving themselves to death by not eating wafers and ignoring fresh cut veggies because they are all wild caught and don't get that it's food. :/ If you have the right environment for them though they are super little guys. 

I have some [4] kuhli loaches in a sand bottom 10 which there is a lot of debate on if they can be in a 10 or need at least a 20 but they have fattened up and gotten great colors since I got them so they seem to be doing well. They share their space with a young female betta. 

I've had good success with Platies as well even though I was hesitant to put something in the same water level as my betta. [Try for all females ] And as many people have said Cories are darlings  If you can I'd recommend shipping a few pygmies in though just so they could have a larger school. Other then that Petco carries Juli Cories that I find to be super adorbz.


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## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

@Hedgehog: So if I got C. aeneus how many would I be able to have?
I have also heard that some Cories have attacked Bettas. What are the chances of this happening?


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## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

Cories? Attack... Sounds like a bunch of bull. Cories are very sweet fish.


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## hedgehog (Sep 1, 2010)

you could get 4 maybe 5 but that's a bit much. I honestly can't believe that a cory would ever attack a betta. They are sweet and don't actually do anything. When one of my bettas harassed my cory the cory didn't do anything at all except swim away. The cory that attacked the betta was probably not actually a cory.


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## Micho (Aug 22, 2011)

It's actually the reverse, when Jake was still alive he would chase the pygmy cories I had, this stopped after a day and he just left them alone. Pygmy cories are fast swimmers and can outswim a Betta with no problems.

While other types of cories have spikes and armor so your Betta won't have any effect on them. C:


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## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

Well I have been thinking about it and I am going to go with 4 C. aeneus. And the tank well just be housing Maxwell and them. 
So would I introduce them all at once?
And should I buy more plants or something?


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

BettaMiah said:


> No Tetras, please. They might be okay, but I believe they need at least 15 gallons and a school fo 6 to shoal properly.
> 
> I reccomend Ghost Shrimp. I love thm! And in that great big tank, I doubt he would care, and even if he did they could hide.
> 
> ...


Corydoras are great for that size of a tank.. get 4 or 5 pygmy and you will love them. Or 4-5 of the larger species. 

Others have listed other great ideas =) But a smaller shoaling fish would look pretty in there! And +1 to female platies, I love those little fish lol


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

Whoops, didn't read your last post (I blame that on me eating and not paying attention!)

Go ahead and do all in at once, they will be able to get to know each other and establish anything that is needed easier. You can place a few more plants, but cory tend to swim on the bottom of the tank, and sometimes they love to swim up and down the sides of a tank with the filter current.


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## Micho (Aug 22, 2011)

Bronze Cories are a great addition to your tank, they like plants though, did you mention you had a planted tank, I could have missed it. . .

Anyways, they're omnivores so they'll eat anything, I recommend sinking wafers since pellets/flakes your Betta will get to them before they will. 

So yeah four sounds like a good number~


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## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

So I went to the petstore today and they did not have any cories...so I left with 5 Platies and a Molly. lol
I let them float in their bags to see what Maxwell thought of them. He was more interested in the bits of stuff floating in the bag rather than the fish.
After a while I added the fish. At first he was a little afraid of them, but it has been a few hours now and he is swimming around fine now. 
He is such a nice Betta.


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## Micho (Aug 22, 2011)

Keep a close eye on them. :] Usually I would recommend taking out Maxwell and adding the fish in then wait for a couple of days, re-arrange decor in the tank and re-add Maxwell into the tank.

But if he's a peaceful guy I see no problems with your set up right now.


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## Aluyasha (Sep 2, 2010)

Maxwell seems to be fine, so do the others. 
Tomorrow morning I will look closely at all of them to see if they have any missing fins and whatnot.
I have an extra little tank setup and waiting just in case I have to remove Maxwell.


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## PaintedOaksOki (Oct 6, 2011)

I've heard of the small cories being great Betta fish tankmates!


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