The Riddles of Tank Mates

One of the more remarkable on-line resources for the aquarist it the AqAdvisor, which allows you to calculate the capacity of your tank. This little program is great for guidance, but let common sense be your guide. If you do weekly water tests, you will see quickly if your tank is over populated. In my little 5 gallon nano tank I have experimented a lot with different possibilities, and some of the time I know I have stretched the system to the limit, but then I scale back again, and it's always the weekly water tests that tell me. My ammonia and nitrite are always 0, but nitrates and phosphates can get stubborn if the tank is over populated. Having said that, I have found that I am often amazed at what is possible, but I do use excellent filtration (API Superclean 5-20, throttled to about 50% for my 5 gallon nano), and if need be, I use a Nitrazorb, or Phoszorb cartridge.

At one point early on, I had 4 little Corydoras Aeneus, with the idea in mind of having some bottom feeders, for betta's tend to be top feeders, and they can be sloppy. It worked for the most part, except the betta would go after the sinking pellets for the corys, so it wasn't easy, sometimes I isolated him temporarily to allow them to feed. And, when the Cory's grew, they were clearly too much, and they went back to the store, and I started with small ones again.

 After doing the routine with the Aeneus Corys twice, I started with Pygmy Cory's instead - Corydoras Pygmaeus. Seven of them. The betta chases them once in a while and I have to do handstands to make sure they get to eat too, but I'm getting handy at it.

Along with these developments I acquired a population of Malaysian Trumpet Snails, and they keep my algae under control pretty well, and to be sure I added some Amano shrimp. Over population again. Mr. MJF II is going to move to a larger tank. I am convinced by now that the minimum tank for a betta is 10 gallons, and then you can have a few bottom feeders to balance out his behavior. At five gallons the tank IS his territory, in a larger tank he can set off his own corner. I used to have a betta in a 125 gallon community tank, and it worked just fine - but again, you really have to watch it with who the tank mates are. No fin nippers, etc.

The shrimp are hilarious, and they will go hang upside down on the betta's feed ring, and the funniest part is he does not know what to make of them, and essentially ignores them, and they simply try to steal a piece of food, and then they whisk it away to a corner where they can eat it. Apparently some bettas will chase and possibly demolish shrimp, but I see no sign of that with mine. He does chase the pygmy cories, but they are faster and it does not seem to really bother them, it usually only lasts a few seconds that he shoos them out of the way. There's an excellent forum dedicated to bettas, www.bettafish.com - recommended if bettas are your thing. Happy exploring.