betta buddies

[enixrayne]

I went to my LPS to get ghost shrimp. The last ones died? Poor GS...anyway the owner told me that GS are fine but that she has seen people have a betta and 3 or 4 Neons in a 5 gal hex. Is this sound advice? I have the feeling I might be getting bad advice. It is heated and cycled.

[Pitluvs]

Neons should be kept in groups of six or more, in tanks 24" long. Sadly, that's horrible advice someone gave you. I wouldn't put any tank mates in a 5g tank with a Betta :)

[SmokeNLark]

I agree. I wouldn't do that. The only tankmates suitable for a 5 gallon are shrimp or a snail. Also, neons tend to be fin nippers, so I wouldn't recommend them with a betta anyway.

[Rosso1011]

I agree with SmokeNLark. Somebody at the pet shop failed to mention that tetras were tail nippers and we believe we lost several fish due to the stress of having their fins attacked. This was in our community tank, btw. Haven't ever tried putting a betta in with anything else.

[TaraVictor]

My sister has neons in with her betta, and he killed them all. She has some rummy nose tetras in with him now, and even then he can be quite aggressive to them (he took one of their eyes out).

I was wondering the same, but since then I've found out that overstocking your tank over the limits just isn't a good idea. I had 3 platies sharing the tank with Victor, but I sent them to my sister's house because I realised it wasn't a good idea to house them all in such cramped space.

I was considering getting some neons too, until I heard that they don't really get along with bettas that well, and the fact that my tank just isn't big enough. The people at the pet store should really know better.

[kfryman]

Usually never trust big petstores like petsmart, most people that work there almost only know the very basics. If you go to a small petstore you can probably trust them.

[Jodah]

All depends on who's in charge of the fish. my local petco has a very determined and caring attitude towards all the fish. She somehow even managed to tlak the manager into setting up something like 10 10g tanks as quarantine tanks for the new arrivals. About 6 of them are freshwater, with the remaining 4 for saltwater.

It really is hard to find a good lfs with good advice. It all basically boils down to whether the person taking care of them truly cares about them, or is there to just collect a paycheck.

[lillyandquigly]

can you keep bettas with other bettas?

[kfryman]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Never keep bettas together they will fight and one can die, the only way is with females in a huge tank and that is hard. The only way to keep them together is high dividers (bettas like to jump).

[dramaqueen]

Bettas will fight if they are kept together. Males can't live together and males and females should never be housed together except for breeding purposes only. Females CAN live together in what's called a sorority but the tank needs to be at least 10 gallons, heavily planted and decorations for them to hide in. There needs to be 4 or more females. The more females you have spreads out the aggression more.