Fish for a 54L filtered aquarium

Question
Hi,

I messaged you a while back about my betta getting fin rot, he was well on his way to recovery when a random outbreak took a lot of his fins over night! I am treating it with multicure and it stopped within a day. I think it might have been from stress. He could see his reflection a lot.

Anyway my 54L tank has a bout three weeks left of cycling to go and I was wondering what are good tank mates for a betta? My water parameters are:

27C (80F), pH of 7.0, a good filter and an air stone for some circulation for the plants. It has two large snails in it at the moment which  are costing me a fortune! they got rid of the algae...and my plants.


I am not sure what fish are like with betta's, and I also don't want my betta to become stressed out by other fish. I looked at a few cory catfish or other small ground dwellers but apparently they are not good with bettas?

Thanks for the help!

Answer
Hi!

Oh no! Hmmm... Sounds like maybe stress is to blame here with your betta's fins. I hope he is doing well regardless.

Tankmates for bettas can be tricky sometimes because it depends upon the betta's personality. Some bettas are quite aggressive and ready to attack anything. While others are very peaceful and even sometimes shy. And then some are a nice balance in between.

The bad part is you don't really know for sure until you introduce another fish with him. Its good that you mentioned cory catfish. Because they'd be a great place to start. Cory catfish never bother other fish and tend to mind their own business and they are the least threatening tankmate to add with a betta. Cory cats like to be in groups so plan on at least 4 or more.

Other species would be most small peaceful fish that are not known to nip fins or have boisterous personalities.

Good fish would include-

*Neon Tetras
*Black Neon tetras
*Lemon Tetras
*Zebra Danios
*Leopard Danios
*Harlequin Rasboras
*Platies

- Bottom-dwellers -
*Snails (Of course!)
*Kuhli Loaches
*Cherry Shrimp
*Ghost Shrimp

*Many people keep guppies with their betta and the two species live peacefully together. However, you must be very cautious because a guppy's fancy tail and bright colors can bring the aggression out in some bettas. Again, it depends on their personality.

Have a plan B if your betta decides he doesn't like the new additions to make things easier.

Best of luck and I hope this helps!
Susan~