Divided tank mates for Betta?

[RuBirdBlue]

We've only recently moved our beautiful betta boy into a ten gallon tank. The tank has sand, live plants, some driftwood and currently the only other occupant is a ghost shrimp named Scampi.

We noticed after a few days that our Betta (Zaphod) was flaring at the filter through the glass. We tried to cover his view of the filter, but he continued to flare without stopping. We tried moving the filter, changing its settings, putting up a background, changing the lighting in case it was his reflection he was seeing, but none of it helped. Finally, to prevent him from exhausting himself, we just put up a tank divider to keep him away from the filter.

The next day we found he had begun to build a bubble nest along the divider.

At any rate, we now have the right half of the tank looking rather dull compared to our bright guy on the left. Are there any possible tank mates that would do well in half of a ten gallon tank with a betta next door? The divided space doesn't really seem big enough for schooling fish, and so we're unsure of what might do well there. We would prefer to avoid any neighbors that Zaphod might see as competition.

Any suggestions?

[AngelicScars]

Another Betta would be just fine. If you get a female, it would be an interesting show on his part. She'd probably ignore him the whole time.
As far as other things on the other side, you are limited with it being 5 gallons. You can get a couple of ADFs, they are really interesting. Ha, I'm not sure about anything else. :P
Good luck!

[RuBirdBlue]

A female, huh? I hadn't actually considered that, because I wasn't sure if being in constant sight of each other would be stressful or not, even though the tank has hiding places on both sides.

[rb500]

I think another betta would be great. Even if they do see each other it wouldn't be stressful, as long as they don't feel they are in any danger which i doubt they would.

[Vikki81207]

My boy Blue loves being next to Aqua. They both show interest in eachother. It's cute because she flares at him too. He had a bubble nest literally covering the whole top of his side of the tank. I think you should get a female.

[neenjar]

I would add more decorations and hiding places and let him have his full tank back. Mine flare at their reflections from time to time, but my tanks are so densely planted that they quickly forget about that and move along.

[RuBirdBlue]

Wll, Neenjar... We've been trying to give him the whole tank, but every time we take the divider out, he immediately goes right back to the corner with the filter where he begins flaring and just refuses to stop. We watched for quite a while(even giving him a half an hour), to see if he would get tired of it or change his mind, but there was no such luck. Even shooing him away from the filter or trying to distract him with food did absolutely nothing even though there are a number of hiding places and live plants for him.

A female sounds like the way to go if we have to keep the tank divided like this. Maybe I can find him a neighbor that won't obsess about that box beyond the glass.

[doggyhog]

One of mine did this too. He eventually stopped. He never does it anymore, now that he knows the filter isn't a thread. I would just leave him in the tank by himself.

[neenjar]

Originally Posted by RuBirdBlue

Wll, Neenjar... We've been trying to give him the whole tank, but every time we take the divider out, he immediately goes right back to the corner with the filter where he begins flaring and just refuses to stop. We watched for quite a while(even giving him a half an hour), to see if he would get tired of it or change his mind, but there was no such luck. Even shooing him away from the filter or trying to distract him with food did absolutely nothing even though there are a number of hiding places and live plants for him.

A female sounds like the way to go if we have to keep the tank divided like this. Maybe I can find him a neighbor that won't obsess about that box beyond the glass.

Put some fake or live plants in front of the filter as an obstruction. it will break up sight lines to whatever he is going crazy about, and prevent him from getting to it. Just an idea.

[RuBirdBlue]

Just adding an update on this:

After trying other options and giving our boy more time, we still can't seem to pull him away from that corner to calm down. We've gone ahead and decided to leave the divider up and put a female betta in the empty side. We managed to find a lovely little girl that we will be adding to the tank in a few days. Just like his side, her side of the tank is already furnished with live plants and hiding places.