Topic: My Betta looks lonely

[Jon @ Work]

Hey Everyone!
I haven't posted in awhile, but I have been watching the forums and keeping up, so I hope that you have all been doing well and your tanks are looking extra spiffy these days!

Anyway, I have been watching my little guy (I named him "Buddy" btw), and he looks lonely. This may just be my sillyness, but I would really like him to have some other friends in the tank. For those of you who have forgotten, I have a 5g, non-planted tank with my male crowntail as the only occupant.So my question is this, do you have any suggestions of something else I can add to my tank that my Betta will most likely tolerate and won't bite him also?

Would he tolerate a female betta also? Or should I go with something smaller like some neon tetras? Here is some key points:
(1) My tank is in my office so I dont do any feeding on Sat or Sun. My Betta does fine like this because I always feed him on Friday afternoon before I leave, and then again 1st thing on Monday morning.
(2) My filter is a "Whisper" cartridge filter, meaning that it is not the best, but overall it does an ok job, and I dont want to add allot more to the bioload as I worry that it won't be able to keep up.
(3) Finally, I normally do around a 50% water change once a month currently as this tank has allot of evaporation and I have to add aroun 1 1/2 liters of water every 2-3 days. I do water tests each week and so far my Ammonia stays at 0 ppm, Nitrites at 0 PPM and Nitrates in between around 10ppm. (Yes my tank is cycled) Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[Guppyguy]

Glad to hear everything running! He may look lonely, but there's something in your heart that tells you he's absolutely loving the space. Now for the buddies for Buddy-What you keep really depends on Buddy's temperament! Small shrimps may or may not work. Ghost shrimps don't wait for food- they will swim for it! Red cherry shrimp are lovely, and I think they're a lot calmer than ghosts! Neon's usually do better in colder water(74F?) but I have seen beautiful tanks with both of them in there, and Betta's can tolerate lower temp(74-79 best ) REGARDLESS what people say, males will attack females! I've seen it, but I don't advise it, they really only should be kept for breeding purposes. People have also kept African Dwarf Frogs with their Betta! Snails- they are easy going, but the population will EXPLODE!! Anything else I'm sure you'd need a larger tank.

[wendyjo]

You can't add any schooling fish to a tank that size, so that rules out most fish (tetras, danios, rasboras, cories, otos, etc).  No you cannot house a male and female betta together - they would kill each other.  You could try a few shrimp but more than likely they will simply become a snack.  You could try a snail  - the only snail I would put in with a betta is a nerite - they won't reproduce in freshwater so there is no chance of them over taking the tank.  The betta may pick at the snail tho.  I have one in each betta tank for algae control and my bettas ignore them.

I doubt your betta is lonely and if he is there's really not much you can do about it in a 5g tank as it's just too small to comfortably house other inhabitants.  You *maybe* could try a single, male livebearer of some sort, but personally I wouldn't do it as 1) there is a good chance they would fight and 2) there's just not enough room in a 5g for them to each have their own territory and to have space to run away if a fight does break out. 

[Jon @ Work]

Thanks Guppy & Wendy. I suspected as much that I was pretty close if not at the max based on the size of my tank. Based on what you guys are telling me, Buddy will remain a "swinging bachelor" for the forseeable future.

[LittlePuff]

An African dwarf frog would probably work ok, the others are right about it all.

[Jon @ Work]

An African dwarf frog would probably work ok, the others are right about it all.

I have seen other posts that that may work, but what about the issue of the frog taking his time in eating? There seems to be some debate on the matter of the Betta eating the frog's food and it starving to death. Also, do the dwarf frogs have to have a spot out of the water to breathe, or do they live totally in water like fish?

[wendyjo]

I've never had a frog, but I think the type LittlePuff mentioned live totally in the water.  I believe they have bad eyesight and that is part of the "eating slow" issue - they just can't find the food right away.

Whatever you decide to you, you have to prepared to either return the new guy or set up another tank for him.  Bettas can be very unpredictable and they truly have their own little personalities and each is different in temperment from the next.

[Guppyguy]

I forgot the tank was a five gallon! Yeah, that about eliminates tetras, nerite snail would work though! Twilight went in his tank today! For now he's unwinding! So- ADF's do need acess to air as they have lungs. In fact, sometimes they spend half their time with their head poking out of the water. Cute, eh? As for the eating habits, they don't need to eat too often. So, when you feed your ADF, if your were able to feed your betta flakes, it may take him longer to eat, givin' frogger more time

[Sandypup]

I've tried the whole keeping a male and female together thing. First time when I was trying to breed a pair. They ended up staying in the tank together for a few weeks before they finally figured it out. They just kept to their own side of the tank, so I didn't worry about them too much. Second time I put a male plakat in a 20 gallon long sorority. He died one very frustrated man. They thought he was a female.  

You could get a snail or something, but he's probably just fine by himself. I've always kept male bettas by themselves except for my plakat.

[LittlePuff]

ADF's do need to have access to the air, but so do bettas. The feeding trick is solved by feeding them sinking food. It also stays together longer for them to take their time eating. If you feed the betta at the same time, he won't notice the pellets/wafers sinking.