# What can I stock in a 20 gallon aquarium with a male betta



## jcsunan (Mar 3, 2012)

What can I stock in a 20 gallon aquarium with a male betta fish?
Right now I have a Betta fish.
My nitrates are fine. Ammonia: safe, etc.
Ph is soft/neutral (between 6.5-7.2)

What would any of you recommend as tank mates?

In mind I have:
2 african dwarf frogs (not clawed)
Platies (can they be okay without brackish water?)
maybe a pair of german blue rams
A school of Cardinal Tetras (5)
Maybe zebra danios (or will their activeness stress out the betta?)

(^NOT all together. I understand the 1 inch /gallon rule~)
& NO catfish. My tank currently has aquarium salt in it. & No nippers, of course.

I have read countless articles & forums about this, but I can't figure out a good mix. Please help!


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

First of all, congratulations for giving your Beta a proper tank! Seeing that most of it's kind is condemned to a miserable existence in cup-sized containers, yours should really appreciate its luxury accommodation :thumb: You might know this already, but if you provide some floating plants, the Beta will really enjoy this, and spend most of its time cruising around in them. These could also be the long leaves of Valisneria that are allowed to curl around the top of the tank, or stem plants like Cabomba that are left to float at the top.

A lot of people claim that Platies can benefit from a bit of salt in the water, but they certainly don't need it, and brackish water - meaning lots of salt! - would probably kill them. None of the other fish you are considering would benefit from salt - quite the contrary, actually. I would recommend against using it.

The inch per gallon rule was undoubtedly created by somebody trying to give a simple answer to a complex question, and for that reason was doomed to fail from the beginning. In my experience it's not even a useful rule of thumb, but far too often leads people to bad decisions that they later regret. When stocking fish, there are far too many issues to consider for such a simple rule to be useful. For example under the 1 inch per gallon rule, you could comfortably house a 16" Red Devil in a 20G tank - and still have 4" to spare! Of course that's ridiculous, since even a single fish of the size and aggression of a Red Devil needs a 75G tank to itself as a bare minimum.

In your case where you are dealing with smaller fish, you can stock more fish if you consider which parts of the tank they will occupy. Betas, Danios and Platies all tend to hang around the top of the tank. Tetras prefer the middle and the Blue Rams would be mostly at the bottom. Sorry, I know nothing about those frogs. Fish like the Rams and Platies would almost certainly breed if kept in good conditions. The Platies bear life young, and the little ones would hide in the same floating plants that a Beta likes so much - where the Beta would find and eat them. Cichlid fry tend to stay at the bottom of the tank, and their parents defend them fiercely against other fish, so they should be reasonable safe from a Beta. What you stock could depend on whether or not you want fry!

Last but not least you might want to use some fish for algae control. Platies do a pretty good job with some types of algae. Others are better controlled by catfish like Otocinclus or Bristle Nose Plecos. A pair of BN Plecos might well breed in this type of community tank. Beware of Common Plecos, which will far outgrow the size of your tank.

I hope this will give you some ideas how to think about stocking your community tank. In summary, you already have the Beta for the top level of the tank, but you could probably ad one more type of fish for that area, like either Platies (about 6) or Danios (about 6-8). The bottom could be occupied by a pair of Rams, and possibly BN Plecos (single or pair) or 3-5 Otocinclus. A 20G is comparatively small, so there is not as much of a middle as you might find eg in a 29G, but I reckon a school of cardinal 6-8 cardinal tetras would be possible - especially if you go with Danios instead of Platies, since Danios stay even more at the top.

As always when you are stocking heavily, you want to have first class filtration, and keep up with the water changes :thumb:


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

PS: That's supposed to read "Danios (about 6-8 )". Without the spaces the stupid software turn 8 ) into 8)


----------



## chadott (Mar 4, 2012)

That was a fantastic response by the moderator!

I just had to share a recent story about an "emergency" stocking in one of my tanks.

My son had to have a male betta, who was, until this incident, residing in a 30 gallon tank by himself. We purchased some new fish, and for whatever reason (I can't remember at present) I had to place my two Brichardi into the same tank with him. The tank is actually meant for the brichardi, but that's not the point.

ANYWAY...although the betta should have been fin slapped for doing so, he would not stop harassing the two brichardi. He would come up to one, lean to one side and shimmy, flare his gills, the whole nine yards. It was actually quite an impressive display, and it showed what a beautiful fish he is! But the cichlids were not impressed! They just kind of looked at him like "dude - what's your problem?!?"

I got a kick out of it! I should have grabbed my phone and shot a short vid to share, but I didn't think of it until later.

Now the male betta is in his own 10 gal with a little company from a couple of hand me down T-Bar barbs. They seem to get along fine with each other.

Good luck with whatever you decide to stock in your tank!


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

chadott said:


> ANYWAY...although the betta should have been fin slapped for doing so, he would not stop harassing the two brichardi. He would come up to one, lean to one side and shimmy, flare his gills, the whole nine yards. It was actually quite an impressive display, and it showed what a beautiful fish he is! But the cichlids were not impressed! They just kind of looked at him like "dude - what's your problem?!?"


That's a very interesting observation! Betas are very non aggressive to other fish. I can only assume that they mistook the Brichardi for another Beta - I just can't decide if male or female. I guess it wouldn't happen to us, but the shape of the head is quite similar and they also have long flowing fins. Maybe to the eyes of a Beta there is enough resemblance!

I am glad you separated them, because I am sure a pair of Brichardi could shred any Beta that becomes a nuisance to them without breaking a sweat!


----------



## chadott (Mar 4, 2012)

I don't know if it was just because the brichardi weren't settled in yet, or what, but they showed absolutely NO aggression to the betta! And he went after both of them. (I don't know for sure it is a male and a female. Maybe the betta couldn't tell either! :lol: )


----------

