File :-(, x, )
Anon
I found a deal on a tank kit and put my female betta in it. And it looks pathetic with only a single fish in it.
My little girl has a temper. I had little snails in her small tank and she'd grab hold of them and do a barrel roll to rip them out. I want to get one or two small fish that are not fin nippers yet can hold their own.
Any suggestions?
>> Anonymous
Most anything will do as long as they aren't fin nippers or have very similar morphology to bettas.

Consider getting more female bettas(at least 2 more if you do).
>> Anonymous
How big is your tank?
>> Anonawry?
Consider at least having one gallon per fish with the smallest tank for a betta being 2 gallons. If you happened to get them one of those small tanks because you believed that bettas survive well on minimal space or one of those funny, small odd-shaped bowls consider yourself a monster.

If you have a 10-gallon tank for a betta, I applaud you, but are you man enough to have 20 gallon tank for one female betta?

Little Snails? Get a bigger snail.

Consider raising mosquitoes with your own blood. Natural prey of bettas are mosqito larvae.

What works well with bettas you ask? Mostly anything that does not look similar in shape with bettas. Goldfishes would kill them.

Additional female bettas may work, but you must have larger tank. Get a 10-gallon tank and place lots of foxtail or aquatic plants in the same tank. You must have dechlorinator. If its a smaller tank try placing bettas at the same time. Territorial bettas are territorial.
>> Anonymous
Get a bunch of bettas and have yourself a battle royale
>> Anonymous
You need at least 4 female bettas in a tank, not just 3. Females develop a hierarchy that with only 3 females would result in the two more dominant ones picking on the least dominant. With 4 or more, this doesn't typically occur. However, you would need at the VERY least a 5 gallon tank for this.

I also suggest putting some aquatic plants in your aquarium, if you haven't already. They keep the nitrate levels down and tend to improve water quality overall, provided you maintain them and prune back the dead leaves.

Bettatalk.com has some good suggestions for keeping bettas in a community tank. Just don't put a male in with the female; they'll rip each other apart.
>> Anonymous
Someone said Goldfish kill bettas but that is not the case..as long as you get one of the bigger fancy goldfish and a tank large enough to sustain the both of them....at least an 8 gallon tank or so theyll live pretty much okay aside from maybe a little push here and there. my betta and goldfish never had problems.
>> Anonymous
How can you distinguish a female betta from a male? I've always wondered...
>> Anonymous
Males typically have larger finnage than females, but not always. There are shorttail breeds of Bettas in which finnage is not a good determining factor of gender. If you're buying from a pet store, you run a remote risk of picking up a shorttail male that is misidentified as a female. You run a similar remote risk when buying from a breeder, but it's less likely that a reputable breeder will mis-sex a fish.

That said, there are other ways to tell a Betta's gender than finnage. One is behavior. Males tend to be more aggressive and will more readily flare at their reflection in a mirror. Females flare as well, but under most circumstances won't do so as readily as males. Also, females will engage their reflective double head on whereas males will engage at an angle or sideways so as to appear larger to his perceived opponent. All male Bettas blow bubble nests (the big piles of what look like soap bubbles on the surface of their tanks); very few females do. This is because in nature, the males take care of the fry until they are free-swimming.

A fairly fail-safe, but often difficult way (especially on light-colored Bettas) to determine gender is to look on the underside of the fish, just behind the pectoral fins. If there is a white dot, about the size of a grain of salt, then odds are pretty good that your Betta is female. All female Bettas have visible genitalia...that's what this dot is. HOWEVER, a small number of males (of any size or fin type) will have a similar dot in the same place. This is a very rare occurrence and is thought to be one of two things: either very large or prolapsed genitalia.

In other words, sexing Bettas is a somewhat inexact science, but there are a good number of ways to make a guess that will be accurate in 99% of cases. I'd wager that unless you keep a large number of Bettas or are a breeder, you'll never come across any "exceptions" to the rules.
>> Anonymous
good god... they ought to be called asshole fish

that's amazing how hard it is to get them to not kill each other.

good thing for them that they look cool.
>> Anonymous
mantis shrimp.
that will teach her.
>> Anonymous !4X8vLLNDE2
>>94966
>> Anonymous
I keep my betta in a 2 gallon jar with a plant, I never clean it out and just have to refill it when the water starts to get low every other week or so. Going on 4 years now, enjoy cleaning your 10 gallon tanks.
>> Anonymous
Betas live in shallow shit filled rice paddies, people saying LOL GET A 50 GALLON TANK are idiots.

Which isn't to say put them in the plants or a little fucking cup.
>> Anonymous
>>95009
What you are forgetting is, that bettas in nature rarely reach three years of age.
They can live in shitty small and murky water because they can breath air, but that does not mean that they do not enjoy a big and clean tank.
>> Anonymous
>>95022

Who said they enjoy big clean tanks? Their natural environment is nothing like a big clean tank at all.
>> beta Beaded_bunny
I have my beta in a 10gal with some platies, placo, and some guppies. I've never had a problem with anyone eating the betas fins
>> Anonymous
>>95027
Because every fish does.
>> Anonymous
>>94946
Thanks for the info. I'll try to get to a breeder next time!

>>95050
Wow! It must be a very pretty tank. I didn't know that bettas could live with so many different species.

/r/ photo of it!
>> Anonymous
>>95022
>>95054
Fish are incapable of enjoyment.
>> Anonymous
>>95076
Lies! My fish enjoy chomping my plants.