betta in a schooling tank

austinpetemo

austinpetemo

AC Members
Sep 25, 2007
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Newton Falls, OH
i plan on doing a planted tank and i want to have a school of fish and a school of ottos. but can a betta go in there? i have tetras in mind so you dont have to worry about me putting it in with tiger barbs (i know better than to put them with fin nips) but will sumething like cardinal tetras be too much for the betta???
 
only 1 female betta.

A male betta will go after the fish, or anything else in the tank.
 
My male vt betta lives with cherry shrimp and 4 pygmy cories with no issues at all. I am sure he occasionally gets shrimp babies but my population has exploded so he doesn't get them all. It just depends on the personality of the individual betta. Some don't tolerate anything in their tank.
 
My betta lived with guppy fry for a while untill I got another tank. He could have eaten them at any time but he didn't. Cardinals or neons should be okay. They are more shy then other tetras.
 
catnipgal said:
only 1 female betta.

A male betta will go after the fish, or anything else in the tank.
Click to expand...

Not true. I have kept male bettas with cories, loaches, snails, shrimp, and platies with no problems what-so-ever. Right now I have a 12g set up with a male betta and a dozen endlers.
 
I have kept male betta with neon tetras, cory, shrimp, juv. angle, and guppies with out any issue.

I found it strange that when i introduced gourami in to the community the betta actively peruse them and attack them. In the end i had to make another tank for my pearl gourami... the gourami/angle tank was lovely for many years until i had to move

Soo no gourami with bettas... i also dont' recommend fish that peck like barbs since they will tear appart the betta's fins. and of course you shouldn't put any betta in with that betta... unless you are only going to have females
 
I have kept a beta with tetras, guppies (currently), platty's , corries, and I can't remember what else. I even had one with my discus! I have kept a beta in most of my old community tanks. The only trouble I ever had was with a fancy guppy that looked like him. Once the guppy knew who was boss there was never a problem.

Beta's can be the highlight of the community tank!
 
Male bettas are usually nothing like what they are painted out to be as far as aggression goes. If anything they are more often shy amongst other species and really only bother similar fish or something small enough to eat.

Honestly i wouldn't even consider them an "aggressive" fish. I would say more like a "peaceful*" species. The asterisk standing for the following:

Don't keep with other bettas.
Avoid nippy little fish that will harass him.
Avoid annoyingly active fish that will undo his meditation.
Avoid other similar looking fish.
Keep him away from anything small enough to eat.

Most important - understand that bettas are highly evolved fish and therefore each have very distinct characters.

It may seem like a lengthy list but really it isn't. There are countless other species that a betta will happily live with.
 
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