Well, we have a new addition

[techgirl]

As a reward for my daughter's successful week of potty training, we got her a fish. She picked out a red betta male that is now known as Goldy. Sorry, no pics right now. He's currently residing in a 10 gallon with about 8 gallons full of water and he has neon multi-colored gravel with a variety of fake plants. We gave him an air stone and a filter for up to 20 gallons. She is loving him and constantly wants to feed him(we are only sticking to once a day). I have had bettas in the past and am glad to have another back in our life. She was hoping to put him in her turtle tank, but understood that he would become turtle food. She was inquiring about friends for Goldy, but I have never done that. I have no heater for the tank, never had for bettas. Any suggestions? I was thinking of getting some ghost shrimp for the turtle tank, are they ok with bettas? thanks for the info.

 

[BettaDragon]

I wouldn't try ghost shrimp. I tried using them to clean my tanks and they did a terrific job for a while. Only problem is that most bettas see shrimp as just a giant brine shrimp and they will kill it and try to eat it and they will sometimes succeed in eating it shockingly enough.

I have a couple concerns with the tank. Bright gravel can stress the fish in some cases but you'll probably be fine. If you notice tail biting then I would remove it immediately though. My other two concerns were the plants and filter. Bettas' fins are extremely delicate and some plastic plants can rip their fins. The way I used to use to test if plastic plants were safe was rubbing pantyhose on them. If it snagged then I knew it wasn't safe. As for the filter, I would be careful with a filter meant for a bigger tank especially with a betta. Bettas hate current as their natural habitat is the very still waters of rice paddies. If Goldy seems like he's struggling to swim, it's likely because of current. If not then I wouldn't worry about it at all. Also as for the heater, for a 10 gallon I would get one. Optimum temperature for a betta is in the mid 70's.

Other than that you have a very good start to what could be an awesome small community tank with a betta centerpiece!:main_yes: As for other things you could put in with Goldy, I would try livebearers. Just stay away from flashy male guppies as some bettas mistake them for other male bettas! lol :main_laugh: A single snail would also be a good companion. I've kept oto cats with some success with bettas (not the hardiest fish from my experience). Most non aggressive tropical fish are ok as long as they are not bigger than the betta or small enough for the betta to get a thought in its head that it can eat it. I once bought a bunch of feeder guppies that I thought were too big for the bettas to eat to put in a female community tank I once had. The girls ate all the guppies! Bettas are actually overall not that aggressive and are more likely to be picked on by other fish for their fins so you have to watch them carefully when putting anything else in the tank.

Hope that answers everything. If you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer them. Bettas will always be one of my favorite fish perhaps only rivaled by zebra sharks in my heart (what I would do to keep one of them...) They have awesome personalities and are extremely intelligent and can actually be taught to do tricks if you have the patience (lots and lots of patience!).