xxloviegirl422xx

I dont know if I am being selfish in wanting more than two fish in my ten gallon tank, but I do want more. My problem is that I have two male bettas in one tank, but they are separated by this divider down the middle. I am wondering what the best tank buddies would be for my bettas, both seem to be friendly, the problem is I can not get a good opinion from the pet stores in my area.

I know for sure that Serpe Tetras will not do since I tried that after a man at my local pet store said it would be ok. They attacked the fins of my bettas.

Some fish I am interested in are rainbow sharks, tetras (that are not fin nippers), guppies, mollies, zebra danios, bala sharks, and the sharks with the black body and red tail fin.

Also, if you could tell me what would be some good plants to add with the fish, it would be greatly appreciated. The ones the man from the pet store told me would work tore up my bettas fins!

I would like to make my fish happy in thier environment so please help me. The only other thing I know as of right now (until I get ammonia testers and such) is that I keep my tank at 80 degrees for the bettas because that is what the man told me to do since I can not just keep them in a bowl, which is a different story altogether.

I also use API Tap Water Conditioner for my water.

Amanda

Guppies - will nip at the fins
mollies - too large to be kept in a divided 10 gal.
danios - may nip
bala sharks - need a 90 gal. tank
Red tail black shark - need a 55 gal. min.

Amanda

Snails work, ottos sometimes are accepted by the bettas, but it's generally best for them to be left alone.

xxloviegirl422xx

Thanks, I guess I will just stick with the two bettas. The man at the pet store said that the males would kill the females if I put them in

Amanda

Yeah, males & females cannot be kept together.
I have a 10 gal. divided 3 times with a betta in each part. I don't keep any other fish in the tank except bettas.

capekate

Hello and welcome to fishlore
As Amanda posted above, you see those ideas will not work. On plants, you can try using java moss, its a low light easy plant and the Betta's like it. You can also try using artificial plants such as the type that are made out of silk, which wont hurt your Bettas. They like to sleep in the wide leaved plants such as Amazon Sword.
Since you do have them in a divided tank, it means that each has 5gs to move around in, which is fine, but I would not advise getting more fish to go into the 5g space with them.
There is a lot to read up in the freshwater beginners section and you may find it very useful. You are doing good in not putting your Betta's in a bowl.

xxloviegirl422xx

Ok, thanks for the help.

jack--sos

wouldn't a few Cories/ Ottos work?

xxloviegirl422xx

Thanks capekate, I will look into those plant ideas.

agabr123

maybe, i've had it go 50/50 with my bettas for cories (of the original 4 that i had, i haven't tried it with the other 7), two were perfectly fine with them aside from one betta girl eating an entire sinking wafer, the other two decided after a week or so that they didn't like them in their space and attacked them, so i put the cories back into the 10 gallon

xxloviegirl422xx

If anyone is still on and reading these posts, I forgot to post another problem I am having with the bettas.

When I separated the tanks, the filter was on one side of the tank, and on the other side a slime coat was building on the top, so I bought a separate filter for the other side of the tank and the slime on top of the water disappeared. The problem is the bettas back fin on the one side is slowly getting smaller.

The filter is the only thing that I can think of that is messing up his fin, because like I said I had to take the plants I had in the tank out. All that is in each side is coloured rocks and a little clay hiding statue thing.

I was wondering if the slime coat across the top was normal or if I did the right thing by buying a new filter. Also the filter that I bought hangs into the water, not outside of it, as that was all I could afford at the time.

Amanda

It was a good idea to buy another filter, but your betta may have fin rot.
Can you post a pic?

agabr123

you did the right thing by buying a new filter, i assume it's a whisper filter made by tetra? a lot of people with divided tanks either rotate their filter from one side of the divider to another, have a smaller secondary filter on one side, or put some kind of powerhead on the side w/o the filter.

it's possible the filter is doing it, or it's possible that he has fin rot, OR it's possible that he is a tail biter like my betta billy. do you notice any discoloration around the area that is shorter? does it look torn to shreds or fairly evenly cut?

xxloviegirl422xx

No, I can not post a picture as of right now, I am not at my home, is there a way I could contact you when I get one tomorrow, or should I just create a new thread?

xxloviegirl422xx

There is a bit of white around his back fins, where the damage is.

agabr123

white sounds like fin rot....there are a lot of good meds that you can use (i use jungle buddies tabs) but you'll want to try to confirm that it is before medicating. do you have a quarantine tank?

xxloviegirl422xx

Sorry, I am new to fish tanks, I bought them to live in a bowl, but the fish were unhappy.

What exactly is a quarantine tank? I will get one if I can. I really dont want anything bad to happen to them

Amanda

A QT is just an empty cycled tank.

xxloviegirl422xx

No, I dont have one, but I just googled pictures of bettas with fin rot and they look like my betta.

Amanda

Could you post a pic?
Jungle puts out good meds for fin rot, it's what I use.

xxloviegirl422xx

Sorry, I can not post a picture right now, but I will tomorrow, I am really worried now. I thought it was the filter and I was just going to go buy a new one, the article says it can kill them

Amanda

It won't kill them if it's treated.
It ususally take a while before it gets serious enough to do serious harm.

xxloviegirl422xx

I am going to go get all the testers I need and I will take pictures as soon as I get home and post all the information I can. I really dont want him to get hurt, almost half of his fin is gone.

Amanda

API Master test kit is generally recommended by people on the forum.
Jungle tabs are good for the fin rot.

xxloviegirl422xx

Ok, I will buy them both, just in case.

Thanks for your help.

Amanda

No problem,
Good luck with your bettas

shih-tzu mom

Hi: i agree with Amanda, that Jungle makes good product's, and you will want to keep your water super pristine lol about 50% daily and use prime for your water conditioner as fin-rot can be healed with pristine contition's and meds.Lot's of water changes will help them and use some garlic-gard for their immune system. hope this helps you and welcome and congrats on your betta babies, on a side note betta's are best kept alone-all they need is you lol bella

prairielilly

When I first brought my betta home from the pet store he had a bit of fin rot. After 2 weeks in a heated cycled tank he's all better, with no meds. I decided not to medicate him immediately after reading on the betta section how often times good clean water and TLC is the best medicine. If that hadn't worked then I would have medicated him, but this worked in my case.

From your aquarium info you stated you don't know about the nitrogen cycle, and you have posted that you don't yet have a test kit. Because of this I think it's entirely possible your tank isn't cycled. Therefore getting another filter definitely helped your betta, and getting the test kits is great too, but the ammonia levels in your tank might be what caused the fin rot.

If this is the case, there are some excellent articles on this site about cycling, and there's also lots of wonderful experienced people on this forum who are more than happy to help Just keep asking!

I hope your betta is feeling better soon and that you get to the root of the problem. Good luck!