How did your betta first react to their new community tank?

This little girl is Astrid. She is my first betta and after sitting for two days in a breeder box, she's been introduced to her forever home with my black neon and glowlight tetras (albino cories to be added soon).

I expected... something when I let her out, but she has almost no interest in the other fish. She's been exploring all around though; she does it as if she's out for a leisurely stroll. So far, whenever she's gotten within two inches of the other fish (in her seemingly accidental way) they will move a little away from her, but neither she nor they have darted. I purposely tried to pick a peaceful one of course (I've only seen her flare once and I'm pretty certain it was at me), so I'm definitely happy, I'm just a little confused lol. I'm wondering about other peoples' experiences of when they first introduced their betta to a community tank? How did they react initially? What changed as time went on?

 

My female Betta did the same. She doesn't care about the other fish. She just does her own thing.

Mine is a GIANT pig though, so I have to scoop her up in a breeder box every feeding time or else she eats WAY too much. Like she looks like she is going to explode too much. Make sure you keep and eye on her at feeding time.

 

i had a male betta in a 20 gal community tank and he had no interest win any of the other fish (platies, tetras, and cories) but recently i put a male betta in a 10gal community tank and he was very aggressive. it depends on the betta really. if she isnt getting agressive, thats good, and you got lucky. bettas have such big personalities, its really all up tp the fish. no two bettas are the same.

 

My female Betta did the same. She didn't care about the other fish. She just does her own thing.

Mine is a GIANT pig though, so I have to scoop her up in a breeder box every feeding time or else she eats WAY too much. Like she looks like she is going to explode too much. Make sure you keep and eye on her at feeding time.

I'll keep an eye on that, thanks!

 

My female is almost as active as my rummynose tetras. She constantly ‘patrols’ the tank. She has fish she doesn’t care for and darts at (my peacock gudgeons) but they stay out of her way. As do the tetras (who she mostly ignores) She doesn’t ever really chase beyond that first dart. She is most interested in the snails and shrimp and often goes to them and glares at them as if to say ‘why aren’t you swimming away’. She will leave and come back to them and glare some more.

edited to add: mine is also a giant pig. I find small pellets like bug bites and flake food work best because she just can’t get everywhere before the other fish. Bigger pellets she swallows whole like a vacuum

 

Mine doesn't dart at any fish and the bigger fish (GBR and SAE) don't bother her either. She does patrol the tank too but she is looking for even the smallest bit of food.

 

I agree that this is also what my betta first did. I think they are so intrigued by the new space at first they don’t care for the other fish. Now my betta boy likes to hang on the bottom with the cories
Mine doesn’t dart at anyone either, but he flares at the corys when he wants their wafers

 

My female is almost as active as my rummynose tetras. She constantly ‘patrols’ the tank. She has fish she doesn’t care for and darts at (my peacock gudgeons) but they stay out of her way. As do the tetras (who she mostly ignores) She doesn’t ever really chase beyond that first dart. She is most interested in the snails and shrimp and often goes to the and glares at them as if to say ‘why aren’t you swimming away’. She will leave and come back to them and glare some more.

edited to add: mine is also a giant pig. I find small pellets like bug bites and flake food work best because she just can’t get everywhere before the other fish. Bigger pellets she swallows whole like a vacuum

I'm happy to hear about how variable even just females are; I knew they were variable in aggression but its cool to see how personalities differ too. And I'll check out bug bites thanks! I have flakes and bloodworms right now but I want to vary her (and my other fishes) diet more. I've also bought her a betta log that I want to try to feed her in so that hopefully she doesn't eat everyone else's stuff!

 

my male betta loved my cories too. cories seem to be everyones friends

 

I'm happy to hear about how variable even just females are; I knew they were variable in aggression but its cool to see how personalities differ too. And I'll check out bug bites thanks! I have flakes and bloodworms right now but I want to vary her (and my other fishes) diet more. I've also bought her a betta log that I want to try to feed her in so that hopefully she doesn't eat everyone else's stuff!

Mine would eat her food an then go after the other fishes food...lol

 

my male betta loved my cories too. cories seem to be everyones friends

No trouble believing that! I've got a cory that thought it was a tetra for the first week I had it

Mine would eat her food an then go after the other fishes food...lol

She might have to go back in the breeder box for a few minutes during feeding if I catch her doing that

 

My male betta did the same, he paid absolutely no attention to my school of cory cats.
I think it just depends on the temperament of the fish, some will do some nipping and chasing at first until they get used to having neighbors and others don’t care at all.

 

Yeah, my male went right in, ignored the other fish, and acted like he had never been on a traumatic trip in a net. And he hasn’t shown even a bit of aggression. He’s shy at feeding time and doesn’t like to bother the others while he eats. Sometimes he doesn’t even eat because he’s full from devouring snails (he sucks them right out of the shell!). I think he’s pretending the other fish aren’t there!

 

I’ve owned/raised a lot of bettas and many have made their way into community tanks. The last few males I added to 29-36gal tanks were a mixed batch of reactions. One male was frightened by the juvenile angels and choprae danios but he got used to them in a couple days. His brother was added in with ~1in juvenile rainbows too big to be eaten, the turd went crazy and attacked them right away. He injured a few and didn’t calm down after a couple weeks so I switched him out. An older male traded places with him and he’s completely chill with the rainbows.

As for females, most are fine with other fish. Only one was aggressive and had to be placed in a basket. She wanted to murder everything.

The majority of my bettas added to community tanks were fine, just have to make sure the other species are also peaceful, too big to be eaten and share the same needs.

 

My female Betta looks the same as yours, only that she is fat, thus being called Tubby.
She does not and never really showed a lot of interest in other fish. At times she chases the Neons the length of the tank, but they disappear in the plants and the world is good again. Fearless in typical Betta manner she once stood up to the BN pleco around his Zucchini, trying to get to the shrimp pellets. Well, she learned that he does not have any humour.
So most of the time she is just checking the territory, looking for food.