Tank mates for bettas???

ok so i started thinking today, not always a good thing tends to get me in trouble, that the other night my bettas were looking awfully lonely in their tank and that they need some tank mates. what i would like help with is what kind of other fish could i put into a split 10g? I know i will need better filtration since all i have in there now is 2 whisper filters for up to 5g since they are the only 2 in there. what would be a good filtration system for this tank? my temp stays at a constant 76. i also realize that i will have to add better airation. any suggestions on that would be great also. here are a couple of pics of the tank

would mollies be ok with the bettas? it would have to be something that can tolerate salt since i add salt to their tank. for the filter i was thinking a aquaclear.

don't take my advice to seriously, seeing as I'm rather new to the hobby.
But, we had a betta in with fancytail guppies and mollies, it never messed with them, so I would say guppies or mollies would be good, but dont take my word alone.

a friend of mine has a betta with platys and mollies so i thats what made me think of mollies. i know i want something small and i only want to add just a couple to each side. but i know they breed like it's going out of style too, so that was just another hang up. thanks for the advice. that's exactly what i'm looking for, some good advice, and i know i can get it here.

Yes a few mollies would be fine. You can also try some guppies. I have had male Bettas in community tanks and they are fine with guppies ,mollies, platys. If you want a bottom feeder you can put an oto in each side or Albino cat. Any fry that the other fish have will get eaten so don't worry about over crowding.

whisper wrote:

Yes a few mollies would be fine. You can also try some guppies. I have had male Bettas in community tanks and they are fine with guppies ,mollies, platys. If you want a bottom feeder you can put an oto in each side or Albino cat. Any fry that the other fish have will get eaten so don't worry about over crowding.

great! thanks whisper. any idea what kind of filtration i should use? i know what i have in there now is not adqeuate enough for more so i will need to upgrade that.

Ph man those bettas will eat any fry, that is why I haven't gotten any fry from my community, my females eat them all before I can grab them lol. U can use aregulerhob filter nothing special, I would do guppies bc they are really pretty, they stay really small, you can have quiet a few of them without crowding. Mollys get really big, at least 3 inches and with a 10 gallon u can only put 3 with out crowding. Bottom dwellers any that stay small, most of corys, they are goofy and cute to have( I have over 30 corys in my 100) and I love them, and I have a hard time getting rid of a few.

thanks on the filter advice. i am going to get some more fish this weekend!!!!


i knew i could get the answers i needed from you all. thanks so much!

woohoo, i wasn't totally wrong, actually according to whisperer and pillierox, i was pretty accurate, not to bad for a nooby eh lol

not bad at all!

pillierox1 wrote:

Ph man those bettas will eat any fry, that is why I haven't gotten any fry from my community, my females eat them all before I can grab them lol. U can use aregulerhob filter nothing special, I would do guppies bc they are really pretty, they stay really small, you can have quiet a few of them without crowding. Mollys get really big, at least 3 inches and with a 10 gallon u can only put 3 with out crowding. Bottom dwellers any that stay small, most of corys, they are goofy and cute to have( I have over 30 corys in my 100) and I love them, and I have a hard time getting rid of a few.

i have some panda corys in my 42g and they are very cute. if you ever need to get rid of any give me a shout.

i used to keep my betta with corys, black skirt tetras, danios, and just about any other community fish tht doesnt exceed 2inches in my 1st 10gal

other bettas??? lol

Yes canjun you're right. Not males but a soroity of females are very pretty also. I have a wide variety of different color females in a community tank right now.

Girls can go with girls and boys can go with community but never together no girl and boy unless breeding, boy and boy, battle to the death. I'm growing up some Cory fry right now.

ive heard the rumor that you can put an all male tank together but theres gotta be a lot em to disperse the aggression. Altough there might some casualties at 1st, but over time once the pecking order is established itll be fine. is this verified? has anyone ever done this? bettas no longer hold my interest, or else i wouldve tried this out in my younger days.

That is so ludacris to even think about I wouldn't even try it. That's why they are called Fighting fish. They will fight to the death. That would be like putting 10 fighting Pit bulls together to see what happens.

the name fighting fish is a misnomer if any ive ever seen, comparing em to pitbulls is perhaps overstating their aggression. maybe pitbulls wearing 18th century ballroom gowns. just about any other fish can dish out a spanking to em. bettas are an otherwise harmless community fish. dont get me wrong i love MY fish to death, but im a scientist [animal biology] too. and you never know something until you try it in the name of science [you just have to use specimens youre not attached to].

If i were breeding bettas, i would put specimens that i would have otherwise culled anyway, just to observe the behavior. but like i said, keeping bettas isnt something that interests me anymore. although a couple years ago i used to buy a betta that was well past his prime and wouldve otherwise never have been bought for my kribensis to smack around just so theyd get some spice in their love life(which does work, after breeding dry spells, killing a betta always got em in the mood fast).

No comparing them to pit bulls is not in the least over rated. They will fight to the death just like pit bulls do.

indeed i learned that fact all to well, in my 1st tank setup. i had a 10gal with a crude homemade divider. it fell over and found that one of my bettas got his butt kicked and died shortly after. which opened me up to adding community fish and 1 female betta, cuz i didnt want just 1 male betta in a 10gal by itself. back then it was a blind guess (trial and error and error and error, with occasional success), as i didnt have the internet for another 3yrs

Female Bettas are very nice in community tanks. More then one is called a sorority. People don't realise how pretty females Bettas are. They come in a wide variety of colors just like the males.

Oh yeah i know!! my old roommate and I were out at a LFS and i saw pure Red betta in a tank, i paid little mind to it at 1st. then i double taked and noticed it was female. my roomie got it and bred it with her male at home, but none of my roomies fry survived past 3days cuz she rushed and didnt cycle her fry tank, NH3 spike noob. but yes females can be very stunning as well, but ive only ever witnessed that one specimen with such vivid color.

I think that'd be an interesting experiment with the male bettas, Kasshan. Afterall, in nature the wild species aren't separated in a slow moving stream. I would suspect that isolated pools of water would have solitary males, because of fighting to the death, only because space is limited. But in open water, if two males were to encounter each other the losing male would have the space to retreat. In a fish tank I don't think this is possible. If one had large shallow pools, like 100 sq feet at least with plants and hiding places to retreat to, that gets interesting. I think that could be possible.

I wonder if there has been any studies/observations as to the size of their territories in the wild. One male can't keep an eye on an infinitely large area without compromising his territory to other males.

hmmmm. i think i may be inspired to make a coffee table fish tank. using my spare 40 gallon. what better fish i suppose to place on display. itll require more furniture in the family room. something for me to consider down the road.

The Asians are the worlds largest breeders and exporters of Bettas. They do seperate all there males. There must be a reason for that don't you think? They would be the experts. I'm sure they have learned through trial and error.