I need to get friends for my fish?

Question

I just bought a male betta and i have him by himself in a 20 gallon octagon tank. It has a heater and filter and all that good stuff and the temp. is between 75-80 degrees. But hes a bit shy and all he does is hide. So should i get friends for him? if so what kind and how many. and when should i add them? should i wait another week or so?

Answer 1

Well, Beta's are generally really aggressive and will most likely devour any fish you put into the tank with them, I really don't think he needs a 20 gallon tank; the most I've seen for a Betta was a 5 gallon tank.

Answer 2

The most important aspect here is the Octagon tank. Because of the unique shape...you have less water surface area.  This elimates some fish right off the bat.

I would get about 5 cory cats to start off with.

Put lots of plant (plastic or silk).  Because the tank is prob a bit taller than a regular 20 Gallon, get different lengths on the plants.  But a log, stump, or some sort of cave for hiding.  This will give the cory cats some hiding space.

I would also put in a school of a medium sized tetra...like Redeye Tetra or even Headlight/tail light Tetra.  Ya wanna stay away from other Gourami, Angels, Tiger Barbs, Black Skirt Tetra, etc...these can be fin nippers and Gourami and Betta are in the same class of fish and will fight.  Bettas are slower fish and can easily be picked on by the nippers.  Stay away from guppies...or other long finned colorful fish.

Also Danios would not be good in a tank like this, because they like to swim from end to end of the tank...the less water surface doesnt give them as much room to skim the top...so not the best here.

If you get an algae cleaner...look at Dwarf Plecos.  Regular Plecos get to be up to 18 inches long and would definately out grow this tank.

Get a Mystery Snail (Black or Golden).  I would avoid more than one...for these guys can breed pretty quick.

To recap...

1 Male Betta

5 Redeye Tetra (school of medium sized Tetra)

5 Cory Cats

1 Dwarf Pleco

1 Mystery Snail

This would give you a good variety to a great shaped tank.

As for the mixture of male and females...I would only suggest this if your tank was bigger and regular rectangle shaped.  More chance to hide and more chance for escape.  It's kind of like playing cat and mouse and the female bettas might be on the short end of the stick here.  Why risk it?  Sounds like a fight waiting to happen, unless you watch the tank closely...then you are setting it up for a fight.

Best of Luck!

Answer 3

wow nice. You actually know how to take care of a betta. Good job!

He can stay alone but he can get some "friends."

you can get anything that is not very colorful w/ big tails. No guppies.

I would recommend about 4 corydora, or kuhli loaches not clown loaches. danios, maybe tetras (i like glowlights).

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/fwcom...

You can use this chart. Don't get guppies. Plecos generally get large. rubber lips stay fairly small.

I like platies, don't get swords they may nip. maybe some shrimp.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Twenty gallons is enough space that you can have a really rare betta setup.  You can have males and females together.  Before I continue with my explanation of how to make this work, I'll give some proof.  Here is photographic evidence that male and female bettas may live in harmony in the right conditions:  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v415/O...

A closeup:  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v415/O...

So here's what you can do.  Take him out of the tank for a week or two and rearrange all the decorations.  (any fish you add now will be an invasion of his territory.  By adding the fish at the same time, you can avoid one fish seeing it as an invasion of space by another fish.  This is very important.)

For this week, put his temporary home next to a temporary home for a female.  They'll flare at each other and dance around and get used to one another.  Make sure there are a lot of hiding places in the twenty gallon tank (sometimes things get rough) and then add your bettas to the twenty gallon at the same time.  If your male betta is a crowntail, this has an increased chance of success since they are slower than females and unable to catch them.  

It's okay, you can believe me.  My photo demonstrates I'm telling the truth.  The bettas in the image are both sleeping under a light.  She snuck up to him and slept by his side.  

You can also use most tropical fish in your betta tank, just avoid fin nippers that will hurt your betta.  I once had a sixty gallon with seven zebra danios, three tadpoles, and a male betta.  They were chill tankmates.  

Answer 5

males are best left by themselves

larger fich that he cant kill would be nice, though

personally i find that they dont do well with lots of other fish

he is "shy" because you "just bought him"

(duh!)

Answer 6

You have lots of options for your betta unless it is showing signs of being highly aggressive. I would stay away from guppys, gouramis, angels (which your tank is not big enough for away) and many types of barbs because they are fin nippers.

Most tetras do really well with bettas, so do platties, and mollies (but I would get two so they leave your other fish alone and pick on each other)...and also if you do some reading and are willing to give a little extra care an African Dwarf Frog would be good.

You could also go with Danios but with these fish you need to make sure your betta is getting food. Danios swim so fast and your betta may not get a chance to get to the food.

I would suggest getting:

1 Snail*

1 American Flag Fish*

3 Corys

5-6 Tetras or Glass Catfish

2 platties or 2 hatchet fish or 2 Mollies (Balloon Mollies are cool) --> You could probably pick 2 of these if you choose the platys and one of the others

* = fish that are algae eaters, I never recommend typical algae eaters for this size tank because the only ones that would fit are otos and you have to have at least three of them

Also this may seem overstock but I can garuntee it's not because of the swim levels

American Flag Fish, Tetras, Platys, and Betta (1/2 of the time anyways) are mid level swimmers

Corys are bottom feeders

Hatchets or Balloon Mollies and Betta (1/2 of the time) are top dwellers.

I hope this helped!

Edit: Rowdy is absolutely right due to it being an octagon tank most of the fish I mentioned are out. Keep the corys, Tetras, and American Flag fish or snail but don't get anything else I mentioned above! Sorry, for not reading your quesiton fully