Need a playmate for my betta..

[colematthewmala]

Betta's are solitary fish. VERY solitary. He would be much happier without tank mates. The only thing in my betta's tank is a nerite to help with algae and an MTS snail and pink Ram to eat leftovers.

Bettas aren't solitary fish. In fact bettas love being around other fish. I took my male betta out of the community tank and he got all depressed and stopped eating. Bettas are very social fish and do like to interact with other fish. Give your betta a snail to hang with. They seem to like snails. Also if you do upgrade to a 10 gallon some good tankmates could be very peaceful fish like platy's. I keep mine with platy's and he seems to like them. He loves the pleco. He never attacks him but he's always following him around and eyeing him.

 

[timmyfishman]

I had a betta in my 65litre but he died of unknown causes ( he was blue with a kind of red outline on his tail really nice )

 

[Eupterus]

If the purpose is stimulation, I would give him an interesting cave or piece of decor. Bettas like floating objects they can rest on too.
I'm going to go with bettas are solitary fish too. However if you want other fish and they are compatible, that's OK too. I just don't think a betta needs "friends". They are not social like shoaling fish. They are simply indifferent to compatible tank-mates.

 

[Fishy_Fun]

I currently have a male betta in my 65G with angels and he couldn't be happier.His colors are the brightest i have ever seen them.They seem to be good in communities with other fish besides bettas.No matter how many hiding spots or how big you tank is, if you keep multiple bettas in one tank, they hunt each other.

 

[Jayhawk]

I don't think anyone is truly arguing bettas are social fish, but a few caves and plants does not equal stimulation for an intelligent fish unless you go in and rearrange them on a nightly basis when he's sleeping.

Other fish create a stimulating environment. Sometimes they cause stress, they provide visual change and keep the fish involved in his surroundings, and their actions are what is good for fish - few fish live in total isolation in their native habitat.

Periodic introductions of live prey animals can also provide such stimulation...but unless you're feeding nothing but live food they're only a temporary diversion.

Eric