My Honest Review of 10 Betta Tank Mates

Betta fish are known for being solitary fish because of how aggressive they are, but in certain cases, they can be kept with other fish in a community tank. Your rate of success will depend on your betta’s personality, providing a much bigger tank size than usual, and having the right tank mates. So, here’s my review of 10 tank mates that I’ve actually tried with my bettas and which ones actually worked.

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0:00 Review of 10 betta tank mates
0:29 Tank mate #1
1:01 Tank mate #2
1:34 Tank mate #3
2:04 Tank mate #4
2:55 Tank mate #5
3:27 Tank mate #6
4:02 Tank mate #7
5:01 Tank mate #8
5:36 Tank mate #9
6:31 Tank mate #10

[GirlTalksFish]

*What tank mates for betta fish have you personally had good luck with?*

[easy_fishkeeping.]

I had this one betta in a 29 gallon community tank and he was a literal angel! He absolutely did not care what fish I put with him, he would just get along with anything! I kept him with livebearers, snails, tetras and shrimp too. He did even let other fish eat even when he was young!

[garg]

One important thing to note is that it also comes down to the beta fish’s personality :P

Some are more aggressive, some are more peaceful, some might get along with tank mates you’d think they shouldn’t, some might attack tank mates you’d think they shouldn’t… you never really know with them

So before adding a betta to a community it’s important to always have a backup plan (like a small betta tank fully set up) for if things go south!

[littlecally]

My female betta was a no with snails, she even ate all the pest snails 😂 but my male betta lives with a mystery snail and he’s never bothered her. I love how different their personalities are ❤

[disprefer]

totally agree about snails. My 7yo and I were adding a prized new snail to the tank. The little one just plunked it in, unfortunately, and while it was floating to the bottom, the betta attacked and ATE it. Mildly traumatic for the kid, rather worse for the snail.

[c-rhat]

Always a great way to kick off the weekend with an Irene video drop – love this one! I currently keep my betta with CPDs, chilis, a nerite, and a mystery snail and he does great with all of them. Funny enough – when I kept him with cherry shrimp he also did amazing to the point the lil shrimp got bold and would sometimes perch on his back if he was resting🤣 Then I tried amanos and he HATED them! Whenever he saw one, he would charge at it and scare them back off into hiding. So funny and goes to show how every fish truly does have their own quirks/personality!

[kimfrye]

I have a 5G tank on my coffee table and put some cherry shrimp in with the beta and he pretty much leaves them alone but I got him when he was really young so maybe he's just used to them. He can't catch them anyway. Also have plants and decor that makes it easier for them to avoid him.

[ammamaw]

This popped up in my feed, and I’m so glad it did. I only have a single betta, Sammie🥰, in a small 3.5 gal tank. He’s in my kitchen with me and keeps me such a good company. I absolutely love him. But I was horrified when you mentioned the bubble nests. I thought I had read about Bettas when I got him a year ago, but never knew about the nests. I would see the masses of bubbles, especially next to the Cattapa leaves that I put in for him. I thought it was an imbalance in my tank and would suction them out. After you mentioned them, I read that they get very upset when you disturb the nests and I feel so badly now. I’ve done everything to make him happy and I think he is, but I will certainly never touch one again. So glad I ran across you and will watch all your videos. Thanks so much.

[Monocle]

Harlequin rasboras and porkchop rasboras are another great tankmate choice. I have a school of harlequins, and they get along great with my betta. They are colorful, but also speedy, so they can easily zoom out of the way if need be. That being said my betta is very docile, he gets along with everybody, so he also ignores the nerite snails in the tank.

[wxlurker]

I've had good experience with (mild-tempered) bettas with most bottom dwellers like cories. My old betta that has passed, loved hanging out with the panda cories, he would even dig through the sand together with them like a real cory. It was super cute to see his behavior, but this is highly dependent on individual personalities.

[IsmaelTorres-kb]

In my 75 gallon I have black neon, regular neon, platies, one male Betta, five female Bettas, one Otto catfish and ten mystery snails. Tank is almost five months old.

[korbencoyote]

my bettas love cherry shrimp! mine just like to lay around and watch them do their thing. bladder snails are fine but my betta Giacomo absolutely hated my mystery snail. never seen him flare that hard

[dcphifer]

My male Double-Tail Betta gets along very well with my Chocolate Kuhli Loaches, in fact, he joins them when they are doing their Kuhli Happy Dance. He also gets along very well with my Bronze Cory Cats... they race up to get air when he goes up for air. And, he does not seem to bother my 2 Nerite Snails. I currently have a 6.6G and just got 20G Long 12"Tall tank to move them into. I have more Bronze Cory Cats in a 5G Quarantine Tank waiting to join the others in the 20G. I also have a 2 more Black Kuhli Loaches that was up for re-homing in another 5G and she wanted them with a school. I was picked because I have 5 Chocolate Kuhli Loaches to join with them. I just moved them into a 10G while I am building this 20G long tank and are they all (5 +2) getting along very well together as one school/shoal.

Neither the Betta, nor the Kuhli Loaches appear to be hiding, nor appear to be stressed.

You are right, it appears to be Betta specific, as mine is peaceful.

[FamAcc-dgdr]

I have kept bettas for 14 years and I have kept rabbit snails with multiple bettas and they all worked well in 10, 20, 80 gallon aquariums and it worked extremely well

[alyssajensen]

So far my bettas have done great with mystery snails, cardinal tetras, and otocinclus tank mates. The betta does occasionally follow the otos around, but they can scoot so quickly that his long fins prevent him from ever catching up to them. He usually just wants to swim closely at stare at them, I've never seen him actually bite or nip them. None of my bettas have gone after my mystery snails either, so maybe I've just had good luck so far. Its always a possibility they'll stop getting along, so I'm always prepared to separate them if need be.

[MandyJane]

One day I'm going to set up a betta tank. I love to watch videos about proper tank mates for them.

[hologram]

I had a week where I thought my son's betta had got eaten by our cats. I hadn't seen him in a week and I even moved some rocks to look for him. I got a trio of albino red guppies for my community tank and felt like I needed to move my 3 year old snakeskin guppy with orange fins to avoid mutts, so I moved him to the betta tank as a 'retirement villa'. After about a week and a half of not seeing the betta, I was gonna run and get him a couple male guppy buddies from one of my LFS on lunch break. I sat down in the morning to work and saw a blue flash across the front of the dark aquarium. Lights hadn't come on yet but he was alive and freaking out. After his half hour spaz fest he calmed down. I have a feeling he survived on the amano shrimp that were in there. Cause they're gone. They've been together for a few weeks now. They don't seem to bother each other so they're my odd couple now.

[et]

I've had 2 very different experiences with snails. I've added 1 mystery and 2 nerites with my (rather aggressive for food female betta) and I saw here attacked the mystery. I had to remove him from there after a couple of days, but it's been months that the nerites and betta lived together and the betta doesn't seem to notice the nerites. I've read somewhere that its probably related to the color (mystery being purple)

[Rudidly]

I’ve got 1 large male betta with orange Sakura shrimp and several varieties of mystery/nitrite snails. The betta ignores the snail but does keep the shrimp hidden all day. They live in the plants during the day and venture into the open at night while he’s asleep.

[eddiecochrane]

Interesting to hear your experience with snails and a betta. I have one mahogany mystery snail and a handful of red ramshorns in with my betta and fortunately he doesn't bother the snails. I hadn't even thought about this being a problem, so I'm glad it's working out in my betta tank.