bettas and tetras

Question
Hi Kathryn. My name is Ashley and I have had my betta for about 6 months. Up until a few days ago he was kept in an 8 gallon tank with a filter system and heater. We had a friend over and he knocked over the betta's tank! The betta is fine and is living in a back up bowl, I was thinking about purchasing a 30 gallon tank, and I had heard that bettas will get along fine with neon tetras. As they both are tropical fish I would hope this would do fine. I was planning on purchasing many real plants so the betta would have an area to get away if he wanted. I feed him Nutrafin max Betta flakes and he gets freeze dried bloodworms every other day. I keep his tank at 75 degrees and he seems to like that. Please let me know if the neons will be OK, and if so how many should I get? If not, what other fish do you suggest?

Thank you so much,
concerned betta parent

Answer
Hello Ashley,
I am glad that he is kept in a decent sized tank, rather than some of the tiny vases some people keep them in. May I ask, how was the tank knocked over? 8 Gallons, although not very large, is quite heavy...?
Anyway.. Bettas are very territorial fish, but are usually ok with smaller sized fish such as Tetras. So yes, Neon Tetras would be a good choice. 30 Gallons is quite big, so you could have any number of Neons up to about 20. Although if you buy 20, you won't have room for any other types of fish. With Bettas, the simply, but useful, rule, is don't keep Bettas with long-finned fish, or colourful fish the same size as itself, such as Gouramis. They are not the cleverest of fish, and can easily mistake a colourful fish with long fins as another male, which they will fight with.
This is a list of possible mixes of fish you could have:

The Betta (obviously)
20 Neons

The Betta
15 Neons
5 - 7 Dwarf Corydoras (Panda Corydoras, Bronze Corydoras, Albino Corydoras, Corydoras Hastatus, Peppered Corydoras)
or...

The Betta
6 - 8 Neon Tetras
6 - 8 of another species of Tetras
4 Dwarf Corydoras

The Betta
15 Neon Tetras (or 6 or 7 of two species)
5 - 6 Ottos

The Betta
6 - 8 Neon (or other) Tetra
5 Dwarf Corydoras
5 Ottos

There are thousands of different fish you can buy. I suggest going to your local fish shop, and noting down the names of fish that you like. Tell me the list, the longer, the better, and I'll tell you what's suitable and what isn't.

Looking forward to hearing from you again soon.
Best of luck,
Kathryn