Betta in a 2.5 gallon tank. Can we add a catfish?

M

mizmichelle73

AC Members
Dec 9, 2005
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My son got a mini-bow 2.5 and a Betta for Christmas. So far everything is going well, thanks to this board. We've got water changes down pat and fishy seems very happy. We use the whisper filter that came with the tank, I also have a small 7.5w under gravel heater to keep the water temp stable when we turn out the light(it's cool in my son's room and the temp was dropping about 5 degrees at night). We have a small cave he sometimes goes in and a fake plant. So.....

my question is, can we add a Cory Catfish, or should we just leave it with the 1 betta. I told my son I really thought the tank might be too small to add anything else.

Thanks!
Michelle
 
I'd say no because the cory would feel very lonely - they like to be in groups (3+). Maybe tell him that a lonely cory would be unhappy - i am sure he'll understand.
 
Okay, replying to my own post LOL!

I did some searching around in the forums, and I'm sure we need to have a bigger tank to accomodate a catfish. I've thought about maybe a snail, but I'm worried about the fact that they multiply so easily. I guess we'll have to eventually upgrade to a bigger tank, but I thought the 2.5 was good to see if it was something we'd enjoy(which we do).

Michelle
 
mizmichelle73 said:
I told my son I really thought the tank might be too small to add anything else.
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Agreed. Although a snail might work.
 
Hannys_Papa said:
I'd say no because the cory would feel very lonely - they like to be in groups (3+). Maybe tell him that a lonely cory would be unhappy - i am sure he'll understand.
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Thanks! I'll try telling him that. :)
 
By all means you should get another tank !! Fishkeeping is a very interesting and relaxing hobby,,,,,,,,,,here is a suggestion ,,,,,,get a 20 or 30 gal. tank,,,leave the betta in the boys room for him,,,,,,,,once the tank is "cycled",,,,stock it with a dozen neons,,,wait another 10 days then add 7 cherry barbs,,,after waiting another 10 days add a male and female kribensis,,,,,,a tank of this nature will provide hours of pleasure,,,here's why 1) lots of color,,, 2) neons and barbs will serve as excellent dither fish for those shy kribensis,,, 3 )providing a cave (i made one out of slate rocks) for the kribensis will give them a place to spawn,,,then you can enjoy watching the parents protecting the fry !!,,,,,,,,,,hope this helps,,,,,cheers
 
Hi there.

I have a large snail, i think that might work well for your smaller tank. I can't remember off the top of my head what it's called, but it's about 1 inch large. One of these would be great and you wouldn't get babies.

You may also consider something like an aquatic dwarf frog- im not sure if you have enough room but they make excellent companions for bettas. I've had two bettas before, and each of them had their own little froggy companion. They're cheap and just eat the betta's food so there is no secret tip to taking care of them.

You may also look into getting a shrimp for that small area. They are great, because they act as a clean up crew. My betta attacked my shrimp for the first week or so I had them together in a 5 gallon tank but then they seemed to be OK with each other, keeping in mind that the shrimp does smell like food (which is why im sure this took some time..) Just make sure it's a docile shrimp, there's a type that likes to kill things.

Other than that, im fresh out of ideas. But perhaps some of the other users could say if the frog thing would work, space provided. They're cute, smaller children love em.
 
impossible said:
By all means you should get another tank !! Fishkeeping is a very interesting and relaxing hobby,,,,,,,,,,here is a suggestion ,,,,,,get a 20 or 30 gal. tank,,,leave the betta in the boys room for him,,,,,,,,once the tank is "cycled",,,,stock it with a dozen neons,,,wait another 10 days then add 7 cherry barbs,,,after waiting another 10 days add a male and female kribensis,,,,,,a tank of this nature will provide hours of pleasure,,,here's why 1) lots of color,,, 2) neons and barbs will serve as excellent dither fish for those shy kribensis,,, 3 )providing a cave (i made one out of slate rocks) for the kribensis will give them a place to spawn,,,then you can enjoy watching the parents protecting the fry !!,,,,,,,,,,hope this helps,,,,,cheers
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll keep a note of these fish for when we're ready to tackle a bigger tank. For now I'm off to learn about snails.
 
I'd suggest ghost shrimp then a snail... We were quite surprised at how interesting they are to watch when we first got them. Of course 6 months after getting our golden mystery snail we had something like 20 little ones climbing around... Everyone we know with a tank was promptly given a few. :Angel:
 
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