# tank mates for female bettas



## im786daMan

any suggestions for my 15G w/ 3 females? i'm thinking an otto or 2 to help keep it clean!


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## trashion

a school of cories would do nicely. keep in mind that otos should not be added to a new tank, let the tank mature for a few months before tossing them in. even so, they will still make as much waste as any other algae-grazing fish, so you can't rely on them to keep stuff clean for you.


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## im786daMan

based on my research (ie. reading wikipedia) i'm thinking some Tiger Barbs....always liked the stripes on them! and maybe a few danios?

just worried about over crowding the tank, it's only a 15G so maybe my 3 female bettas, 2-3 danios and 2-3 barbs? or is that too much?


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## Ringo

Tiger barbs would not be a good idea with the females. Fins make a fine snack for tiger barbs. Most tetras, guppies, smaller barbs, danios will do just fine in a 15G along with your bettas.
Ottos don't exactly clean your tank, they eat the algea growing withen it. Reason for waiting before adding, you need algea first! 
I would suggest going with one larger school of small tetras/danios, instead of two smaller ones. It would give a more natural look and (depending on) fish will feel secure. Then have the bettas as the 'centerpiece' fish. Along with 3-4 ottos. As long as there is suffecient filtration.


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## Ringo

Double post


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## im786daMan

Ringo, when you say "larger school"... how "large" do you mean? how many fish? i guess i'll start with the bettas for now, and add the Danios next week or something.


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## trashion

i would not recommend danios for a tank that size. danios really need a larger tank to thrive, as they are much more active and "darty" than the average tetra variety. i'd recommend picking up some smaller-bodied tetras, such as glowlights.

edit:

wait, how are you cycling this tank?


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## Guest

Definitely choose something small, like Harlequin rasboras, Dwarf Rasboras, Eyespot rasboras, Ember tetras, Gold tetras, Green Fire tetras, Otocinclus (add them after the tank has been setup a while).....you could have 6-8 of one type of tetra/rasbora or 5 of the Otos. I wouldn't do both.

Tiger Barbs get too large for a 15g and Danios are a little too active so skip them.

I believe female bettas stay near the bottom, so I'd choose something top dwelling, like the rasboras.


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## Chrispy

well i have had a couple females bettas in a ten gallon and they lived fine with a few guppies and some ghost shrimp. They never once ate the shrimp. So, depends on how agressive the fish are really.


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## im786daMan

alright, so i have 1 small, freshly purchased betta, and one i've had for about a month now! i have 2 others i've had for about 3.5 months which are alot bigger in size! i've put the 2 smaller ones in the 15G now, and want to add the 2 older ones soon, how long should i wait before i add the bigger ones? the new purchase occasionally gets chased but the 1 month one (about once a day i'm noticing) but never hurting it.

i don't want to stress out the little one too much by putting the other 2 in too fast! please advise!


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## trashion

have you cycled the tank?


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## im786daMan

yeah, the tank is cycled....fishless cycle took about 13hrs to get the amonia/nitrate levels to 0! i was assuming it would take 2-3 days!


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## im786daMan

oh...and i also put some dechlorinator in as soon as i filled the tank...and it is well planted as well for the females!


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## im786daMan

im786daMan said:


> alright, so i have 1 small, freshly purchased betta, and one i've had for about a month now! i have 2 others i've had for about 3.5 months which are alot bigger in size! i've put the 2 smaller ones in the 15G now, and want to add the 2 older ones soon, how long should i wait before i add the bigger ones? the new purchase occasionally gets chased but the 1 month one (about once a day i'm noticing) but never hurting it.
> 
> i don't want to stress out the little one too much by putting the other 2 in too fast! please advise!



any help on this one?


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## Obsidian

Did you ever notice any of those numbers go up? It should have taken at least 2-3 weeks for a fishless cycle to work unless you used birospira. If you never saw a spike then your tank has not yet cycled, it will read 0 for a little while. That is if you used something that is rotting such as a prawn. If you used straight ammonia then you should at least have some ammonia in there for a few days, followed by a nitrIte spike etc... What is your nitrAte reading? That should be present as well.


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## im786daMan

i used a jumbo tiger shrimp. i read somewhere that if u throw in a shrimp...the kind u eat, that'll kick off the cycling process. readings went up for about an hour and a half....then Amonia went down to zero, and nitrate was at about 0.35 ppm


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## trashion

i'm still pretty sure that's supposed to take a few weeks....


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## Guest

omg...I read the tiger shrimp, and thought who the heck would throw some totally awesome shrimp like that in the tank? but then I read it was the kind you eat...lol I've never heard of them being called tiger shrimp...just table, jumbo, or dinner shrimp.

Either way, unless you used bio-spira or Seachem's stability, it couldn't have cycled so fast. Did you add some filter media from a pre-existing filter to the filter on your tank? That would help too, and that is the only thing I can think of that would cycle your tank so quickly.


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## im786daMan

i did get 1 bag of water from the local fish store aquarium, but that's maybe 1.5 Gallons? in a 15 Gallon....so 10%? would that be enough to have made the difference...

the fish are in there now, they seem to be getting along fine, but i'm keeping an eye on them to watch out for slowness/laziness or anything that could indicate that the water isn't right for them. but 5 days now they're fine!


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## trashion

ack, you shouldn't have put that water in your tank. god knows what nasties could be in there.


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## gemjunkie

Bettas are not fish that hang around the bottom. They hang at the bottom of whatever they are in at the pet shop because they are not happy and just waiting to die. They are labrynth fish and HAVE to be near the surface to breath.

Female bettas do not get long fins that are prone to nipping by other fish and are quite aggressive so they do fine with many 'nippy' type smaller fish (even some larger ones). In fact female bettas are prone to nip others.

From what I've read, you are talking about overstocking an uncycled 15g tank, NOT a good idea. Cycling a tank w/o fish can take up to 6 weeks no matter what you do. No tank can be cycled in days without an aged filter and sponge filter squeezings. I hear biospira is great but it's hard to find and I am one to question exactly how effective it might be (is there an exparation date on that stuff? and if so, how long is the 'shelf life' supposedly?). I can't see that product staying viable for TOO long in a package.

Female bettas might not get along so be ready to pull girls if they get too onery. LOTS of plants is a good idea with this set up. I've also, had much better luck with 6 or more females together than 3 or 4. 

I'm not sure what else I could add to this. No matter what you pick to put in there, you will have to keep an eye on the BETTAS most likely and NOT the other fish.


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## gemjunkie

im786daMan said:


> i did get 1 bag of water from the local fish store aquarium, but that's maybe 1.5 Gallons? in a 15 Gallon....so 10%? would that be enough to have made the difference...
> 
> the fish are in there now, they seem to be getting along fine, but i'm keeping an eye on them to watch out for slowness/laziness or anything that could indicate that the water isn't right for them. but 5 days now they're fine!



I can not stress enough, that you should NOT USE water from your local fish store!!! (Thanks for that head up Julie!) No matter how clean the place looks, they do NOT know what the condition of the fish they get and many are on one central system so if there is ONE sick tank, they are ALL exposed. 

I am a firm believer in 'slam dunking' my fish. I temperature acclimate, and replace 1/2 the water in their bags with mine, then they go straight into my water. I NEVER put bag water into my tanks!!!

Bettas are 'puddle fish' and will seem fine in much worse conditions than your average fish. This is an adaptation from years gone, when their water supplies might dry up for a while before the rains came again.


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## im786daMan

so your implying my female bettas chasing around the neon tetras is not normal?


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## trashion

no, if they're constantly doing it, definitely not. i would definitely get rid of the neon tetras. i don't mean to sound rude, but they probably won't survive your tank's cycling, anyway.


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## gemjunkie

im786daMan said:


> so your implying my female bettas chasing around the neon tetras is not normal?


Actually that is quite normal for the bettas but not very fun for the neons.

This undue stress will eventually cause the neons to die.


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## im786daMan

hopefully i won't go home to find them dead! :S i'll move them to a jar for now or something....


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## Mutaki

A snail would be just fine in a 2.5 gallon tank with a single female, right? What type of snail would be best for it? I've never had a snail in any of my tanks before so I'm absolutely clueless. Should there be a nice film of algae before I purchase one?


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