Thinking of creating 10g "community" tank

Otos are a little hard to take care of. They are very sensitive to water conditions.

I currently have a school of 6 (was 7, 1 jumped out while I was constructing a lid and died) White Cloud Minnows. They are nice looking fish and My betta leaves them alone. Another one I've heard does well and look great (they look like mini rainbow trout) are Galaxy Danio/Rasbora. I've heard tetras work well mostly as well.

I also have around 8 or so Mixed Ghost and Cherry shrimp and 1 Mystery snail for a cleanup crew. The ghost shrimp do better with the Betta i think, cause they are bigger then the cherry shrimp. A few of my cherries got eaten i think. Amano Shrimp also get bigger then Cherries.

I put them all in together. Moved the Betta from his previous 5 gallon home to the 10g at the same time I bought the Minnows, and all worked out well. My Betta isnt very aggressive tho.

The only thing you wanna be careful of is, if your new tank is going to start over the cycling process, you wanna start out with just the Betta (and the shrimp, since they have almost no bio load), wait a few weeks, then add the school of whatever you are gonna get. Otherwise you'll be doing water changes every other day cause of the heavy bioload in an uncycled tank. I used the same filter (alongside the new filter), gravel and drift wood from my previous tank to help it cycle quick.

It really depends on the betta to determine how/when to add the tank mates. My betta is timid so all of his tank mates were added after him. Some moved with him up to the 10g, but then others have been added. I am fond of panda garras as tank mates. They are hardy, happy little fish who do a great job of cleaning algae. They do well on their own or in groups, but they do have some specific needs.

Panda garras like a current. My two have done well with a bubble wall and a filter with a water bottle baffle open on both ends. Sometimes they lay in the baffle or swim through it. Its all on one side of the tank so distance and decorations provide a buffer for when my betta is wanting to avoid the current. He likes playing in the bubble wall with them though so he's special all over.

As far as other fish options, I had a friend who had a betta in a massive community tank, but I can't recall all the other fish. It really comes down to making sure you don't get a breed that is aggressive and territorial. Its also recommended that you avoid breeds that are brightly coloured so the betta doesn't think it is another betta.

CeeEssGee said:

How can you tell? I am fairly new to this hobby, and wouldn't be able to tell you.

I know my fiancee said that our previous betta flared all the time. The new one doesn't, but.. he is VERY active. He actually does seem to like playing in the stream, and in fact, seems to like "attacking" the filter.

Unlike the previous betta, when we put a small mirror in the tank to watch him, he swims away immediately and hides. We have only had him for a few days though, and I think it is deplorable how they were treated at PetsMart.

Click to expand...

My betta never flares at anything. Just tends to stare at new things curiously so it was pretty easy to tell he wasn't an overly aggressive fish. I tested him with a couple larger ghost shrimp and he followed them around at a distance but never touched them. One accidentally bounced off his head and he panicked more than the shrimp I think. I got a large nerite too and he stared at it a while but would go into his floating log and sleep even if the snail was cleaning in there. When I got the pandas I put the bag in the water and let him check them out in there first. Again no flaring as he watched them and swam around their bag. He swims around with them and there's never been any nipping or even poking. From what you've said it sounds like you may have a fairly timid betta as well. Before you get too excited adding a bunch of fish I'd start slow with a few and gradually build up to see how he does.

Jaysee is right: Never cycle a tank with shrimp; they are extremely sensitive to changing water parameters and even .25 ammonia can kill them.

Have a back up plan. Decide if it doesn't work out whether you want to put the Betta back in the 2.5, set up a separate community tank or rehome the other fish. Personally, I would try a Nerite snail before I attempted adding any sort of fish.

And remember you're putting something smaller in a tank with a predator. This means you have to set it up to give the prey the least stressful environment: Densely planted with lots of hiding places.

ZZD is correct: Start with a few as adding too many fish at one time can send your water parameters way out of whack. I have a different method of introducing into the tank as I feel floating in a lighted tank stresses the fish in the bag. I don't float my fish any more but back when I did I floated and released them in a darkened tank.

Otos are shoaling so you need at least five.

If you are looking at schooling fish, I personally prefer rasboras over neon tetras. My neons were rather shy and I found they were often at the back of the tank unless it was feeding time. When I added a small school of harlequin rasboras, they were obviously braver and actually brought the neons out to the front of the tank. My school of neons actually swim with my school of rasboras, which is really neat to watch.

When I set up my tank, I made sure there were lots of big silk plants and various places to hide. I added my school of neons first and had my betta sitting in a containment container that hung on the inside of the tank. After letting the neons settle in after a couple days, I released the betta into the tank and he didn't even look at the neons. A couple weeks later, I added my rasboras. My betta was not even phased. My betta, however, HATES snails. I tried to have a nerite in there to clean up some algae, and my betta refused to leave it alone, he was so aggressive towards it that I ended up removing the poor snail and placing him in another tank. Luckily none of that aggression has been shown towards any of his fishy tank mates.