Betta Harem Questions

acutally i would say it wouldnt work but then again i seen it work ONE time, a guy i know has a 55 with a male betta and a female betta, but then again its a lil planted. and i am supprised they get along. but i would NOT recomand having a male/female togther, 3 females maybe but not a M/F combo..
 
definitely not 3 females in a 10 gallon, too small a space, and fighting IMO would happen. i personally would never house a male and female betta splendens together, regardless of the tank size, unless i was breeding them.

considering the OP's grandma wanted to mix male and female bettas in one tank, i suggested common and easy to care for tetras that can usually be found locally (the neons for sure) and are not that expensive. once grandma has gained some more knowledge on proper stocking, and wants to take her tank in new directions, then i highly suggest branching out to the less common and more unique fish that would fit for her tank size.

and just to clarify, i would only do the tetras in this tank if the otos were not increased in number at all. going back to that 'small tank, small stock level' guideline i follow.
 
Okay actually she likes the neon idea better so thank you for telling me that! I think in place of the zebra danios we will put in some neons. Will that work?
 
yep. i would do 6 neons max personally, in a tank that size that will also house a betta and a couple snails, plus the existing ottos.
 
No we don't have any otos I was just considering them, sorry if I caused some confusion. Thank u!
 
Oh what I meant was we will move the Otos if there is a better idea that requires them being moved so therefore there will be no Otos so I hope that unconfuses people.
 
i say if the oto's are doing well in that tank, leave them be. no sense moving them, and just keep them in mind when adding more fish to the tank.

i would stock this 10 gallon slowly, because the beneficial bacteria is accustomed to the bioload of just the otos. add the snails, then wait a week or two to add the neons, and then another week or so and add the betta. you want to ensure the bacteria has sufficient time to play catch up to the larger bioload. monitor ammonia/nitrite/nitrate daily and do water changes as necessary, if you see an ammonia or nitrite spike. get your grandma a bottle of Prime dechlorinator if she doesn't already have some.

and quarantine of the new fish is essential, unless they are coming from somewhere that you can 100% trust to not have diseases in their tanks (this is a VERY rare thing!).
 
Okay thank very much for all your help! we will keep the Otos so we won't have to get any snails. Also, her tap water isn't chlorinated it's softened well water so we don't really need a dechlorinator. Also, we will add the fish slowly anyways because we are too busy during the week to get any, so just on the weekends. She is retired so she will be able to monitor the water well and will be able to keep up on water changes. Finally, our LFS is one of those RARE places that I know is 100% disease free, so I'm very lucky! They quarantine all their fish in a backroom that's as big as the store and they medicate the and isolate the healthy fish that didn't die before they put them into the buying area plus I've never, I repeat, never seen a dead fish in their store, so I'm VERY lucky! Thanks again for all your help!
 
You should do an odd number of schoolers IMO, I reckon theres just something about it that makes it look better. Its some zen or feng shui thing I remember reading. Just my $0.02
 
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