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I recently moved the neons and ottos out of my 10g and left my betta to have his own place. I was going to divide the tank and make room for my other male betta, but it didn't work out.

Now, I want a few small fish to go in the 10g with him, because he seems a little lonely.

The only small fish I can think of to put in there are cherry barbs. Would a trio be alright with my betta?

It is moderately planted. I recently trimmed all the plants and moved things around, so its not really heavy, but when things grow out, it will look quite nice, I think.

If not the cherries, is there any type of smaller fish that could live with him? I only want to add a few, maybe 4 fish. When I had the 8 neons in there, the tank parameters eventually went crazy...I think it was a bit overstocked...so I don't want to do that again.

Any thoughts?

*Kristin*

my friend katie i think most of you know her. has a tank with all kinds of fish in it and they are fine. she has a charry barb( i think she still has it) adn rams and all kinds of thinks oh ya she has some ottos to they all get along with eachother so i dont see why you wouldent be able to but the charries in with it oh ya is it a male or female and is it agressiveor not just a few quetions some other people may ask thought i would cover them

It is a male betta. He is pretty old and not aggressive. He had neons and ottos as tankmates before and wasn't aggressive towards them. I just had too many fish in there before so I moved everything out but him. Now it looks empty, so I want to get a few fish to live with him.

*Kristin*

Hi GirlieGirl

I was advised that cherry barbs would be great with my betta and bought 6 for my 10g but I caught a couple of them giving him some nasty nips on his fins. So I moved them to another tank. Now I have cardinals and ottos and he seems ok. I think my betta would actually prefer to be on his own as he always looks a little stressed when I try to introduce some tankmates - he's very sensitive! But as much as I'd like to give him the whole tank to himself, the other half of me does prefer the tank with a few more colourful fish in there. I kept the light off for a few days while he got use to them.

I guess the trouble with suitable tank mates for Bettas is you only need one nasty nipper to throw a spanner in the works and that can happen with any peaceful school.

good luck

I would leave the Betta on his own & maybe decor the tank.


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i recomend a pair or a single rama 10 gallon would be realy good if you keep up with matenance (not because they get big, but because they like clean water) if you get a pair, the will most likely breed and then you can see them protect against the betta (they wont hurt him, just chase him away if he tries anyhting funny) they dont like dense planting, butthey like moderate planting with an open space, cherries would also work too, a male/female pair would be good, as these fish realy dont school...they moreso bunch, but dont rely on a school to be happy

It says on the profile here that Glo-Lights can be kept in shoals of 4, and they aren't exactly what i'd call aggressive. Or maybe some Dwarf Corys????

More Ottos????

A ram????

M/F Cherry Barbs???

Well I got 3 cherry barbs today, 1M/2F. But Jack (the Betta) just chased them and had them confined to a corner. One female would get brave and swim out to the middle, but Jack would just chase after her.

I wasn't worried about him biting their tails off or anything because they are faster than him...I just didn't want them stressed all the time, so I put the cherries in my 29g.
I am now thinking about getting a few ADF's. I am hoping maybe they would be better because they don't look like him and don't swim around alot. I may just be better off leaving him alone. He didn't have a problem with the neons before...from what i could tell, but there were 8 of them.

If I think that the tank needs more fish I could just move him to an empty 5g hex tank. He wouldn't like it though...not enough space.

I just think a nice planted 10g should have more than just a betta.

*Kristin*

Get 3 ADF s. I wish i could do the same...

3 red-wag platies or more. Quite a stunning contrast and peaceful. You should really take the betta out of the tank for a few days and put the new fish in, so he can't claim the tank as 'his' territory.