Adding shrimp or otto's

[Friendlyfishies]

I deffinitely want to add shrimps to my 10 gal betta tank...couple of Q's

Ive read that shrimp do best when in a cycled tank but im doing a fish in cycle, im actually not sure the tank will ever actually cycle, I do often water changes due to fin biting, mild rot issues, I think I change 50% every other day or so and may go down to every couple days to every few days when I see some regrowth or a healthy betta atleast. He has no other issues, no itch or parasites or anything like that. My tank is moderately planted and im working on making it a heavily planted tank. Its about 70-80% planted now...in 2 week ill be adding chain sword, hornwort, mosses and some hygrophila.

Does the tank actually need to be cycled for the shrimps or will they be okay is a clean well maintained tank environment?

Secondly - im actually nervous to add any other fish to the tank systems because of possible agression or disease. Yet im seeing a lot of ppl have otto's...
I think id be more likely to put the ottos in my 20g long, but that will be my plakats home....I dont have a lot of experience with plakats, but hes quick and constantly watches his surrounding...are plakats okay with tank mates or are they just too aggressive? What are the chances they would get along and what are the chances I would have a problem with disease (of course id QT firstly).

[LeoTheLakerBetta]

Plakats could be more aggressive but it really depends on your betta. Otos are a little tougher to take care; the problem I had was that they would not eat because the other fish ate their food. Shrimp are a 50/50 shot. There is a good chance they will be a snack or they might just get along fine. Since shrimp are cheap I would try to introduce shrimp and see how your betta takes it. By doing this you could get an idea how aggressive he is and then decide if you want to add fish like otos.

[Friendlyfishies]

Sensible idea Leo! Sounds like a plan. Do you know about the cycling Q with shrimp?

[Oldfishlady]

When you have a lot of active plant growth-they will take care of your water and function as the filtration/bio-filter. With enough of the right species of plants that are in active growth-you will have a silent cycle-The plants generally have lots of beneficial bacteria on them and with active growth they will use the ammonia/byproducts as food. Since most species of plants like to use the ammonia first as their food source-you may not have conversion or the cycling process you would have without live active growing plants-meaning, it might take a long time if ever to see nitrate that helps tell us cycling stage/completeness. Remembering, that some additive and plant food can cause skewed water prams.

Adding shrimp, as already posted-can be a hits or miss depending on the Betta and hiding places for the shrimp-Since your tank is 70-80% planted already, the odds of successfully keeping shrimp is high IMO/E.

With Otos, IMO/E-they need at least 20gal heavy planted mature tanks and to be kept in large numbers since they are social fish. The more the better-in 20gal-at least half dozen or more. They are small fish-but they are active and tend to do best in larger tanks.

One of the bigger challenges we have with keeping mixed species tanks along with a Betta....Is feeding IMO/E, since Betta tend to be little piggies and will sometimes try to eat every last bite of any type of food in the tank. This not only can cause health issues for the Betta-but the other species can end up starving....Its not that it can't be done...its more of finding a way to feed the other species without the Betta eating it all...that is the challenge.....