# 2.5 gallon Betta+Nerite?



## Tearflame (Aug 14, 2015)

Could I add one Zebra Nerite snail to my 2.5 gallon tank with my Betta? Or will there be too much bio-load in a tank that small? Will he bother the snail?


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## Aly Homewood (Jul 4, 2015)

Bettas do tend to be compatible with nerite snails, especially since there isn't much they can do to attack them through the shells, however, for a 2.5 gallon the bioload would probably be too much, nerite snails produce a ton of ammonia for their size, you should probably upgrade to at least a 5 gallon before adding anything else.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

*2.5 is far too small for a nerite. * They make a LOT OF POOP an need a lot of surface area for algae to naturally grow on fr them to consume. Nerites don't eat algae wafers and only very rarely blanched veggies. So they need a big tank to give them enough natural food to survive. I personally would not recommend anything smaller than a 10g.


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

I agree with Aqua, nerites need a god established tank. They are almost all wild caught and do not eat offered foods, they need a reliable source of natural algae and they eat biofilm. A 2.5 would be cleaned and scrubbed too much for a nerite to survive very long.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Is the tank filtered? Cycled? Heavily planted? Securely covered?

There is a Horned Nerite that gets .25"-.5" that would work in a 2.5. Olive Nerites are fairly small, too. However, as noted above, most will only eat natural algae so you might need to cultivate by keeping a small dish of rocks and water on a sunny window sill.

Even in perfect conditions they have been known to try to venture out of an aquarium so a secure top is required.

I'm pretty sure Vivian successfully keeps Nerites in her 2.5s. She also does frequent water changes and vacuuming which are essential when keeping any sort of snail.


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## Strawberry12 (Mar 6, 2015)

fwiw I had a zebra nerite in my 3 gallon, and I nearly had to double the amount of water I changed in my WCs. I think it *can* work, but it's a lot more work.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

+1 ^ A lot of things can be done if you're willing to do all of the extra work it takes to be successful.


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## Tearflame (Aug 14, 2015)

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> Is the tank filtered? Cycled? Heavily planted? Securely covered?
> 
> There is a Horned Nerite that gets .25"-.5" that would work in a 2.5. Olive Nerites are fairly small, too. However, as noted above, most will only eat natural algae so you might need to cultivate by keeping a small dish of rocks and water on a sunny window sill.
> 
> ...


The tank is filtered, cycled, has no live plants, and has no good top right now :???:

I still do 40% water changes at least twice a week.

If a snail doesn't work, do you have any other tankmate suggestions?


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

For a 3 gallon? No. Shrimp would be the only other thing


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## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

I've found that even shrimp aren't a good companion for a 2.5 gallon tank. My female kills anything that moves in hers, and I have to think that some of the reason is the limited space. It might just be her personality.


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## SplashyBetta (Jul 28, 2014)

I think Aqua Aurora has shrimp with a betta in a 2 gallon tank..? If I'm remembering correctly. 
It can work if the tank is very heavily planted.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

SplashyBetta said:


> I think Aqua Aurora has shrimp with a betta in a 2 gallon tank..? If I'm remembering correctly.
> It can work if the tank is very heavily planted.


Yes but it should be noted the betta housed with shrimp is my most placid/skittish betta, he's *never *flared. And the shrimp survive because the fissidens (aka phoenix moss) is *very *thick and they can hide in it (or under the wood and rock). In a sparsely planted tank even non aggressive bettas are likely to have the instinct to hunt moving food (shrimp). I suspect mine has eaten the shrimplets as I don't see any population growth even though I have seen the lil' babies in there.. but I honestly just put them in with him as an experiment, didn't expect them to last this long. In any of my other tanks (even the very densely planted 7g with my nearly blind betta) the shrimp would get hunted down and eaten.. the other males are pretty determined lil' [censors].

If you do keep shrimp with bettas you have to be careful about water changes, shrimp are very sensitive to changes in pH, temp, and TDS (total dissolved solids) in the water. Its best not to do more than 25% water change (10% is better) and add new water slowly. I use a long airline tube and gravity feed dechlorinated water to the tank (bucket placed above tank), its slower than cupping it in so there's no sudden change in water params hurting the shrimp. When I tried keeping just shrimp in this tank before the betta and did 30%+ water changes or added new water in by cup rapidly (finished in 1/4 the time) I had a lot of die off.


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## VivianKJean (Aug 20, 2013)

As Russell mentioned, I do have a nerite in one of my 2.5 gallons. But my 2.5 gallon tanks have been holding an cycle for over 2 years now. Also i have a special circumstance where one of my 2.5 gallon tanks is right next to the holding tank of plants that I have and there became a huge algae problem since the light was growing algae on one of the walls and plants. in that tank I do 3-4 50% water changes a week, vacuuming the gravel each time. Its a lot of work but it did take care of the algae. 

That being said, i do not recommend keeping a nerite in a 2.5 gallon at all. Its a lot of work and there is still a lot that can go wrong. If I go away for the weekend I remove the nerite from the tank and put it in my plant holding tank while I'm away just so that betta tank's levels stay in a safe.


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