male and female betta in 5g?

[fish_gal77]

It has become clear that I need to re-think my 5g setup and move the cory and oto to my 44g at home so they can have more friends :) I don't want to move ADF to home since the tank is 24" tall and I worry they would not be able to get enough oxygen and food... plus it's great to watch "Mr. Frog" in the small tank!

My question is, do you think I could put a female betta in the 5g with the male and one ADF? I do water changes at LEAST once a week. The tank has a biowheel filter and is very stable in terms of ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. Three sword plants are growing well and I plan to put in some java fern as well. I monitor ammonia constantly (with seachem ammonia alert) and check all other parameters often.

Thanks in advance...

[echoofformless]

Save your money on the ammonia and nitrite testing. Once a tank is cycled and established you should have little reason to check such things except periodically and in the case of you seeing a possible problem.


Now as far as your question goes, I would advise against a male and female betta in the same tank unless it's larger in size...maybe a 30 gallon minimum if at all.

Reason is that both are semi-aggressive fish and are fully aggressive to their own species. Now while it's well known that males will not get on together, opposite sexes have been reported to get into some scraps, especially males toward females. In fact, after spawning it is always advised that you remove the female immediately.

So in short: NO. I would love to. I have so many bettas without tanks of their own. But I won't risk it. I hope you won't either.

[led_zeppelin]

yeah male betta's dont do well with other big or colorful fishes in there aquarium unless its a bigger tank. If you want to add another fish to the tank you might want to try wat i accedentaly did, when i got my feeder goldfish for my outdoor pond they accidentaly gave me a feeder guppy to, but since i couldnt keep it in the pond because of the temp i decided to give it a chance and throw it in my 5gallon betta tank, well because he was all silver and small the betta didnt really care, after about 2 months that guppy slowly got all its color in and is a mix of red, yellow, silver, black and turquoise. And because his color slowly changed the betta didnt care in the long run, if you are going to get one though make sure he has no disease and is healthy.

you could always stick a bigger snail in there too...

[fish_gal77]

Save your money on the ammonia and nitrite testing. Once a tank is cycled and established you should have little reason to check such things except periodically and in the case of you seeing a possible problem.

I don't test ammonia at all since I have the ammonia alert card hanging in there all the time. It actually works! I am in the habit of testing other parameters once a month or so just to keep an eye on everything... it just makes me feel better.





Reason is that both are semi-aggressive fish and are fully aggressive to their own species. Now while it's well known that males will not get on together, opposite sexes have been reported to get into some scraps, especially males toward females. In fact, after spawning it is always advised that you remove the female immediately.

So in short: NO. I would love to. I have so many bettas without tanks of their own. But I won't risk it. I hope you won't either.

Thanks. I am new to the world of Bettas so I wasn't sure how well it would work. Glad I posted the question! I sure do enjoy this one though and I'll do my best to keep him happy and healthy so he's around for a long time :) Perhaps I will try a snail rather than another fish...

[DaisyTattoo]

A snail would do great...sometimes bettas pick on them, but i think that is kinda rare IME. Some bettas are just very aggressive. You might try some ghost shrimp too and even if the betta eats them, they are only like $.18 apeice.