10g tankmates for betta - bottom feeders?

H2Ogal

H2Ogal

Betta Be Good to Me
Mar 16, 2010
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Memphis, TN
Real Name
Deborah
Setting up a 10g with a male betta and looking for tankmates. My 29g is all Thai/Asian, so would prefer this to be more international. I can do sand but would prefer to use gravel so I don't have to deal with MTS. Most/all plants will be attached to decor, not rooted in substrate. Happy to vacuum religiously — just don't make me add MTS!

And this piece of decor is definitely going in the tank. Betta boy loves it, and so do I. The holes at the top are about 3/4in. The space between the poles varies from about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Would the fish listed below be liable to get stuck in this thing??

My possibles:

Panda cories. Really love the look of these. Could I do 6 in a 10g? Would they do okay if I got only three?

Dwarf cories. How do haborsus and pygmaus compare in behavior? Some people say habrosus schools mid-water, other people say the pygmies do. Six minimum needed of either species, I take it?

Anchor catfish (hara jedoni). Yeah, it's Asian, but so cute and tiny! Do they have to be in schools or could I do just two or three? Not sure about temp, flow rate... ?

Other ideas:

Fire away!
 
IMO Panda's are to big for the proper amount of them in a 10g, they also prefer sandy bottoms vs gravel.

I have pygmy cories in my 29g they spend most of their time on the bottom although they'll occasionally go midlevel on some driftwood or plants. I have 5 in my 29g started with 7 though. Not sure about gravel with them.

Not familiar with Anchors, you could probably have 3 or 4 Kuhli's but 10g is a bit small for them.

If your having MTS overpopulation you maybe overfeeding the fish, I have sand and MTS in all my tanks the only times I've had a population boom was due to my overfeeding.
 
How about some Ottos. They are small enough to keep in a 10 gallon and they are in the catfish family. They dart around happily all day keeping your tank clean. They are small enough to have a school of 6 or 8 no problem. And they won't get stuck in the decor that you built. Just a thought.
 
Thanks for the ideas ... I'll be adding a bunch of kuhlis to the 29g soon. Considered black ones, oblongas, for the 10g, but I agree that the tank might be too small (not for the bioload I think, but in terms of footprint/space). As for otos, I love them and have 5 young ones in the bigger tank. I don't know how many I could do in a 10g without a lot of supplemental feeding.

Both kuhlis and otos need established tanks, and couldn't be added now anyway. I might re-consider them later.
 
TL1000RSquid said:
I have pygmy cories in my 29g they spend most of their time on the bottom although they'll occasionally go midlevel on some driftwood or plants. I have 5 in my 29g started with 7 though. Not sure about gravel with them.
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Thanks for the info.
 
Oto's in a 10g I'd probably supplement with fresh veggies atleast once a week, unless you get lucky and get ones who nibble on algae wafers mine wont even look at them. As you said I wouldn't add them at all until the tanks well established and preferably pretty heavily planted.
 
well i had the haborsus in my 10g for the longest time before doubling their school and moving them to my 20. they were great in a roup of 4, and seemed happy to roam the gravel for food all day long, resting on this slate of chert i put in the tank alot too. great fish i recommend them to any small tank
 
ssuchem13 said:
well i had the haborsus in my 10g for the longest time before doubling their school and moving them to my 20. they were great in a roup of 4, and seemed happy to roam the gravel for food all day long, resting on this slate of chert i put in the tank alot too. great fish i recommend them to any small tank
Click to expand...

Totally dude. I've never heard of chert in an aquarium...pretty nifty, duder!

:cheers:
 
I have a male betta in my 75 gallon tank who gets along with everyone and everything... and I have 5 females in a 10 gallon sorority tank that are pretty feisty and cranky with most other things and can't live with them. What can live with them really all depends on their individual attitudes.

Otos would be fantastic in there, in a few mos... red cherry shrimp would also look nice, with the red toro gate decoration, and a bunch of bright, green plants for contrast. Neon tetras, harlequins, or danios in a small-ish school (6 or so?), some dwarf cories, dwarf frogs, snails of the non-MTS variety, you have lots of options, really! It all depends on the temperment of your fish, and what you are partial to.
 
I would definitely recommend shrimp or nerites. Do you want some activity on the bottom? (I'm not a big believer in the bottom "feeder" concept, most of my tanks don't have one, I just try to feed sparingly once a day so that the food gets eaten completely...otherwise, snails of some kind or another get the stray bits.) Because as far as algae eaters and general "scavengers" these are perfect for a 10 gallon tank, and for most everything else, 10 gallons is too small.

Dwarf cories would be ok in a tank this size, but they would create a substantial bioload...if you were to keep the six minimum, or more, I imagine they would make your tank dirtier, not cleaner. If you are just looking for an active bottom *dweller* then I'd say dwarf cories are the ticket!
 
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