15 Gallon Tank Betta For A Community Tank

(I apologize if some of my text is a little hard to understand, I'm not a native speaker so I can sometimes sound a little weird in my sentences :confused

Tank details:

Size: 59 liters / 15 gallons

Height: 34 cm / 13 inches
Length: 59,3 cm / 23 inches
Depth: 29,3 cm / 11.5 inches

Temperature: 25,5 °C / 77 °F
pH: 6.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <10 mg/l
KH: <6°
GH: <4°

Tech & Decorations:

Filter: Eheim Pickup 45
Heater: Sera 50/75 W

Substrate: Sand
2 pieces of drift wood
1 lava rock

Plants:
Hygrophila polysperma - Dwarf Hygrophila
Vesicularia dubyana - Java moss
2 Chladoflora aegagropila - Marimo moss balls
Nymphaea sp. - Red lilly
Microsorum pteropus - Lace Java fern
Zosterella dubia
(Some of these species might be wrong since I lost my notes where all the information about them was and had to google these...)

Current inhabitants:
9 (adult) cherry shrimp + few babies
10 Corydoras habrosus, "deinty cory"
2 assassin snails
+some "pest" snails

Pictures of the tank: (These were taken on my phone so the quality is terrible ops









This my first fish tank ever. I got it as a Christmas present and it's been running for about three months now. Everything has been going smoothly except for the unfortunate passing of six of the original shrimp. I think they died because I was stupid and didn't change any of the water in the tank before they arrived... But now the remaining shrimp and the five new ones I bought are doing well, being active and eating (and reproducing!). Same with the corydoras.

I've been thinking about what other fish to add in my tank. I was originally going to get some ember tetras but I've since grown an interest for bettas. I've done a lot of research on this and I'm aware of the risks of a betta in a community tank. Despite the risks I'm pretty confident a betta could work in my tank. Firstly I think my tank is big enough for it's current inhabitants + a betta (?). Secondly, the cories mostly stick to the bottom although they do wander to the mid-column from time to time and go to gulp air from the surface. The shrimp stay mostly at the bottom or in the floating bush formed of the zosterella plant. I think the shrimp would be safe from a betta with the amount of hiding places in the tank and I'm okay with losing some babies. So neither species would invade the bettas territory too much (?). Lastly in the fishstore I'd get the betta from the bettas are kept with other fish. So they would be used to having to get along with them. At one point I was going to get both embers and a betta but now I think that would be too much other life in the tank for a betta to handle.

I'm not going to make the decision about getting a betta just yet, I'm still figuring it out and reading about betta care. In case I end up getting a betta I'll prepare in case it doesn't work out and get the betta its own tank. I'd like to hear your thoughts and experiences on keeping bettas in community tanks. Could my tank and inhabitants in your opinion be suitable for getting a betta? I wanted to ask from the people here in addition to my research on the internet.

Any advice, tip, experience or opinion (about anything!) will be appreciated!

 

If you were going to add a betta definitely do a female as they aren’t nearly as aggressive as males, but it isn’t the first species in the tank so it will be a little more aggressive. If there is enough hiding spots you should be okay though

 

If you were going to add a betta definitely do a female as they aren’t nearly as aggressive as males, but it isn’t the first species in the tank so it will be a little more aggressive. If there is enough hiding spots you should be okay though

I don't know where you get that information from, but females can be just as aggressive as males.

I don't know much about stocking a tank, but for your choice of a betta in a community tank I suggest a male plakat or any female betta. Having a short finned betta in community tank allows them to swim better in a large tank with other fishes and they're unlikely to get their fins damaged.

 

Our female betta ate all of our cherry shrimp, but completely ignored ghost shrimp. Good luck, have a backup plan!

 

I would say the females are more aggressive at least in my experience. The males only show off but the girls acasionally chase each other. My betta ate my ghost shrimp but that's with 19 of them and it took 6 months to eat all 20 shrimp. Right now I have a girl I haven't been able to catch yet that chases a jack Dempsey if it gets close to her.

 

Can definitely do betta in this tank, tho you may lose the shrimp as they often snack on these kinds of guys-but not always. Ember tetra, harlequin rasbora, pearl danio also make good fish for this size tank. I don't advise ghost shrimp unless you get short finned, fast fish as these guys are prone to hitchhiking and picking at fins. A lot of nano fish that can go into this tank if you look around.