# Planted 5.5 Gallon tankmates?



## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I have a 5.5 gallon tank with one Betta fish. I have a plethora of live plants, and I'll be adding a few rocks in coming soon. His tank is quite full as of right now, so I'm not sure if there's enough "room" for tank mates, tho I was thinking about 5-10 ghost or snowball shrimp, depending....

Here is more info about his tank:
5.5 Gallons, Glass
Filtered, 4 Media (Sponge, Matrix, Carbon, Purigen), Baffled
Steady 79.5-80.2 Degree Temp
7.5 pH, Very Soft Water
Weekly Water Changes 50-70%
Airstone
Well Lit (33 LED's)
Well Fitting Lid

Extra fine Black Sand
3 Anubias Petite
3 Amazon Sword
2 Pads Flame Moss
6 Bits Cholla Wood
12 Mini Marimo Balls
2 Medium Marimo Balls
1 Giant Marimo Ball
Indian Almond Leaf (Nano small size)
And 3-4 Small Round Stones (as of next week, 1-2 inches in diameter)

Water is treated with Seachem Products: Prime, Flourish, Flourish Excel, Flourish Trace, Stability, and the Occasional Stress Guard and Paraguard, and AQ Salt.

Finn, a Male Halfmoon Betta, does like to hang out on the bottom of his tank as much as the top half of his tank and spends good amounts of the day swimming EVERYWHERE! He loves his tank. What would be some good tankmates for him, or is the tank too full to have anything else in there? I was thinking maybe a few Tetras... but I heard they need to be in a small school of fish and 5.5 gallons probably won't be enough. 

Finn seems like he MIGHT be very territorial, as he's always all over his tank and never disappoints to flash against his mirror toy. I'm thinking shrimp might be his only option, but I would like any and every suggestion!!! 

NOTHING red. He's red, but it's not cause I want him to be the only red thing in the tank, he'll attack anything red in his tank, so no Cherry Shrimp. (I put a red cutting board in front of his tank once to chop some lettuce and he was ALL OVER the front of his tank going WTH IS THAT I WANNA KILL IT)

Below is a picture of his tank as it is, now, without the rocks.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I did think MAYBE some "Silver Sharks", they're similar parameters, but they say no aggressive tank mates and schooling, so I would probably need a bigger tank without a betta, huh?


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Tank isn't planted nearly enough for shrimp. While your tank is absolutely gorgeous it is what is considered lightly planted. Also, Betta are hardy fish and can handle those large water changes. Shrimp, on the other hand, are extremely sensitive to sudden changes in parameters so anything 25%+ can be lethal. Shrimpers will tell you no more than 10%...ever. Those large water changes, I'm convinced, are one reason so many report failure with dwarf shrimp.

Have you thought about two or three African Dwarf Frogs? They are practically Betta-proof and my favorite Betta companion. Your temperatures and pH are perfect and your filtration is ideal. ADF have a very small bioload; about that of a Neon Tetra. They are easy to feed with HBH (or is it HGH?) Frog and Tadpole Bites (which none of my Betta will touch) and the occasional frozen bloodworm or shrimp. They only thing they can't have is freeze dried. You can't have rocks, though, as they can get their little legs caught quite easily; maybe a nice terra cotta pot for them to use as hides, instead? They are very social and mine piled on top of each other when I had pots. Now the pile up under arched Cholla pieces. I did have one friend who glued rocks to a piece of slate and buried the slate in the sand of her ADF tank. She kept a small piece of black slate on top of the sand and used it as a "feeding dish" for her ADF. Had to sweep it, though, first. 

You could easily have six or so Pygmy Cories if the tank is cycled. Your pH is well within their range. The Pygmy are peaceful and none of my Betta have ever minded them.

The other option might be six or seven Ember Tetra. They don't seem to need the swim room that Neons do and they are quite a bit smaller at around .75"-1". They are also slow swimming, peaceful. If you're boy doesn't like red he wouldn't do welll with Neons and their bright red stripes. You'd have to judge if the Embers are too red.

There are some really nice Rasbora that are not red and would do well in you tank in a shoal of six or seven without overcrowding.

Have fun!

Edit: Or six or seven male Endlers. I forgot about those. You can feed them Fancy Guppy food which is too small for the Betta to see; much less eat. They, too, are about an inch long.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Excellent advice! No shrimps for me, then! My tank is cycled, and holds the cycle very well. 
I never even considered frogs as a tank Mate, didn't even cross my mind, actually. I really wanted the stone in there, as I really liked my original geode, but the color didn't look right anymore, and the naturally perfect soft round stones I'm bringing in have special meaning to me (they're being shipped up from California from my parents) so if I can have my stone ball's, I might stray from the frogs. 

I'll also check my local stores for the ember tetras and rasboras and the pygmy cories... 

Excellent advice, thank you!


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

You're welcome. If you can anchor the stones so they won't roll on the ADF or they're heavy enough they won't move they'd be fine. That's why my friend anchored hers to a piece of slate: They were small. Looked really nice and you couldn't even tell they were on the slate by the time the sand covered it up.

Mine are in with some Akro Agate cullet but it is big enough it won't move.

I really love your tank. Mine looked like that until 1) I became addicted to aquatic plants and, 2) got shrimp. ;-)


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Lol, thank you! I want to get more plants in it too, but it's HARD in Alaska to find quality plants! Back home in Cali, I had a MASSIVELY planted tank that I loved when I had my goldfish and my kois... But it seems like any plant I get here in Alaska wants to die within days of putting them in the tank no matter how hard I try to keep them Alive. 

Also, the stones are quite heavy and fairly large and would be situated deep into the sand so I HIGHLY doubt they'd move... 

I have a picture of the ones my parents sent below.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

For reference, the big one is about 4-5 inches long...


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Those should be fine. What are they? Very interesting.

I used to buy African violets from a lady in Alaska. They shipped pretty fast. Can you online order when it's warmer? Could be the plants you're order were grown emersed and didn't adapt well.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Ah, and I forgot. My tank is no longer cycled... Despite precautions, a bit of the cholla wood managed to bring bacteria into the tank. Nearly Overnight, it caused a bacterial bloom and I immediately took Finn out, gave him a paraguard dip as a precaution, and cleaned the tank to the nth degree... Including replacing all filter media but the sponges, which were cleaned. 

My tank cycle has just restarted a week ago.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

I've ordered some plants online to be shipped but it's still too cold and my baby tears came to me liquefied, sad. Right now I'm only able to get PetCo plants, tho there IS an amazing store in Anchorage for plants, but I'm just never in Anchorage while they're open when I have money lol


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Ah, and the rocks are a form of granite.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

A bacterial bloom is harmless. If what you saw on the Cholla was whitish and looked/felt kind of slimy, that's normal and harmless, too. Amano shrimp love that stuff. Driftwood/Cholla often get that gunk even if you've boiled the heck out of them. It lasts for a week or two and disappears as fast as it appears.


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

Well. Now, I didn't know that. LOL. All I know is that I woke up and there was a huuuuge glob on a bit of it and it kinda looked like a ghost hocked a loogey on it and I wasn't sure what to do, and It was water change day anyways so I was like, "Welp. I wanted to add new plants, I need a water change, and his tank is getting reorganized anyways. He's already going to be scooped out for this change as it'll be less stressfull while I'm planting new plants than leaving him in, SOOO... we're just going to take a few extra precautions..."


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## FinnDublynn (Feb 27, 2015)

OH! I just saw your EDIT for Endlers... those are gorgeous fishies.... I wanna do Endlers!! I didn't know if those would work or not!!


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