I've got one male betta (Shy Guy) in a 5 gallon aquarium and was wondering what I could put in there with him. Preferably fish but I know probably no other fish could go with a betta in a 5 gallon.

So I've been thinking a mystery snail or an african dwarf frog.
What do you think about those choices and are there any other tankmates out there?

Thank you!! :smile2:

Well, I assume from your post that your betta is already living in the tank, and that can make adding any tankmates problematic. Bettas are best added last to a tank because anything that is already there just becomes part of the betta's territory. Additions to an established betta tank can be viewed as "invaders" and will be harried mercilessly. Of course, bettas differ, but in a 5 gallon tank there isnt a lot of territory to begin with.

Good news is you can do a tank-reset. Bowl your betta for a few days, rearrange your plants/decor and add your tankmates. Once they are settled, add the betta and voila, it is like your betta is being added to the tank for the first time.

As for tank mates, I wouldn't go with an African Dwarf Frog. It is a small space for both the frog and the betta, and frogs are messy. Also, African Dwarf Frogs have notoriously poor vision, and people occasionally complain frogs will nip flowy betta fins thinking they are food. In a 5 gallon tank, I forsee the small space making this more of an issue.

Mystery snail is an ok option. My only experience with these two ended poorly for the snail. I had a 3 gallon tank and the betta harrased the snail to death. Eyes and antenna become easy targets for a bored betta. The extra two gallons you have may mitigate the problems I had.

Another good option are cherry red shrimp. The small ones are food size, but they are prolific breeders. With good plant cover, even if your betta develops a taste for shrimp your population should survive. You can also have a lot of them in a small space. My CRS population has stabilized around 30 in my 10 gallon tank, along with the other liveatock.

Both the snail and the shrimp should be added to established tanks, because they are water chemistry sensitive and a large portion of their diet is biofilm.

If you upgrade to a 10 gallon tank, dither fish become an option. I would reccomend either Celestial Pearl Danios or Ember Tetras in a school of 5.

Hope this helps.

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Thank you! I've looked into this on other forums and have come to the same conclusion: mystery snails=maybe while ADFs=bad. Just checking to see others' opinions!

I've never heard that about bettas' being added last to the tank, though. That's very interesting and it makes sense.

 

That Betta should be introduced last is a long-held myth. If introduced properly you should have no problems. All you have to do is turn the lights off while you float the new residents and leave them off for at least an hour after they are released. They reason most people came to the conclusion Betta needed to be added last is they floated the new residents in a lighted tank which allowed their Betta to become agitated and frustrated so it went after the new additions with a vengeance. Leaving the lights off also aids the newbies in scoping out their new environment in peace. If adding new fish or inverts they also needs to be be lots of cover.

However...in a five gallon a Mystery Snail would be perfect. They come in such pretty colors. If you wanted to do ADF you'd need three...that being said, I no longer recommend ADF in anything less than a 10 gallon. This is not because of bioload or space (they have a very small bioload) but because they are nearly blind and can mistake Betta fins for food. This is why I also recommend them only with females or male Plakats; never males with excessive finnage.

The caveat is that some Betta are not good with tank mates of any kind. In 50 years and hundreds of Betta I've only had two or three but should it happen you need a backup plan.

Have fun and Welcome to the Forum! :wave:

 

I've had four friendly bettas out of 7 that I've tried, so be sure you have a backup plan. Including asking if returning the fish is possible.
The biggest difference in friendly or not is that three out of the four bettas I raised as baby bettas, either with other fish or in a tank next to other non-bettas. Only one betta that I purchased as an adult was fish friendly.
Snails are perfect for a 5 gallon, besides a mystery snail you can also get a nerite snail. Just don't get more then one since they eat the algae and will starve if they have to many. Also, your betta may bite at the snail and take off its stalks, but as long as the betta doesn't flip the snail and eat it, the snail will often recover.
10 gallon is best for fish, as most need a school. I have kept my bettas with tetras(not neon), kuhli loaches, cloud mountain minnows(they flare like bettas, so thread with caution) Rummy nose, and pygmy cories.

 

I had one of my boys with Cloud Mountain Minnows at one point, but I was told it was a bad idea because the minnows naturally like cooler water than the bettas do. Warmer water shortens their life spans, I guess. I'm doing pygmy cories now.

 

Rabbit snails + live plants = dead eaten plants haha. I was lucky that mine stuck mostly on the floating salvinia...but then, overnight one night, it decided one of my rare crypts was a tasty snack. They are beautiful, but only if you don't mind your plants being munched on.

 

Nerite snails are pretty good too, and their eggs won't hatch in freshwater.

 

I would not do pygmy cory in a five gallon, that’s far too small.

 

In my five-gallon I have three Otos, a plethora of snails--mainly ramshorn and bladder snails that hitched a ride in on plants--I feel bad but I have to cull their numbers every now and then And one ghost shrimp (there used to be three but my betta didn't like two of them). The tank was already established when I added my betta and he did attack several snails immediately. He also harassed the Otos but they were too fast and he gave up fairly quickly. They also like to hide on the underside of a piece of driftwood, so if you get a few, make sure you have a good hiding place for them. To keep the algae eaters well-fed I throw in a tropical wafer every 2-3 days. Everyone seems to like them, even the Otos (which I've heard are notoriously picky).

 

I've got a 10 gallon right now, with a variety of tetras, 2 Ember, 1 Black Stripe & 2 Neon (I had more of each, but had a water issue a while back and these are the guys that stuck it out). It is fairly well planted with lots of hiding spaces. My Betta, Jon Snow, likes to chase the tetras around a bit or swim into the middle of their school and just sit there, but has not attacked any of them. I also have a fairly large Mystery Snail (About the size of a 50 cent piece) whom he does bother at all, although I have heard that people have had issues with Bettas attacking them before. I've got a baby African Dwarf Frog in there as well (He will be moving to my 20 gallon when he gets a little bigger) and I don't think he even notices him. I recently added a Bristlenose Pleco (Also moving when bigger) and honestly Jon Snow seems the most upset by him than any of his other tank mates. He doesn't attack him but he will swim right up to him, flare a little bit and then just stare at him for a long time. There are also ghost shrimp that hangout and eat the leftover food. I replenish the ghost shrimp every so often as one turns up dead almost every other week, however I blame this on my frog more than I do my Betta. If you do do ghost shrimp, I recommend buying them from tanks where they are with other fish and not in a giant feeder tank, as they are not very well taken care of when kept in feeder tanks and could bring disease into your tank.

 

Hi! I currently have a betta and a dwarf frog together in a 3 gallon and they’re actually very happy together! The only time I’ve had an issue was feeding time once, he got territorial over the food and nipped at hjm but didn’t hurt him and was completely fine after he ate his share. Once I changed the way I fed them(two separate feeding spots of opposite ends of the tank) I haven’t had an issue again!

 

@BettaloverSara fyi reviving an old thread