# Betta with green tetras?



## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

The 6 new red rainbow fish in djamm's 55 gallon seem to have decided that chase-and-maybe-eat-the-tetra is a fun game.  As a result, the poor tetras are spending all their time hiding behind the driftwood and plants in a corner of the tank and we barely see them except for the daily head count at feeding time.

So I'm thinking of taking the 10 green tetras and seeing if they do better in my planted 5 gallon Fluval Chi with the betta. Anyone have any experience mixing tetras and bettas? I'm slightly concerned because my betta is on his own right now and I would have preferred them to be in there first, but at this point I don't think the red rainbows are great tankmates either.


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## christhefish (Nov 8, 2010)

i had a big one with some black neons in a 10 gal before


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

they should be fine, I have a Betta in every one of my tanks that have tetra's and have no problems what so ever


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## Keri (Aug 2, 2010)

As long as the tetras are not fin nippy (ie: serpae's) you should have no problem


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

At this point I'm more concerned about Spike (the betta) killing the tetras than about them fin nipping! They're not serpaes - they're very peaceful. He's pretty aggressive. However, they can't go in with the goldfish or into the shrimp tank, so he's the only other housing option unless we set up another small tank. The planted tank has hiding spots so they won't all be in each other's faces all the time, and I'm hoping the betta will just ignore them after a while. Plus I think they're look cool together. 

The only other concern is that the 5gal fluval tank won't be overstocked. I do regular 20% water changes 1x-2x weekly, and so far it's seems cycled and stable. I'll probably bump up the changes after the tetras go in, but how much bioload will they put on it and will; they have enough swimming room in a 5 gallon? I'm reading a lot of recommendations that tetras need more swimming space, so we may end up putting them in the Edge tank instead....

The weird thing is that the rainbows seem to do just fine with the zebra danios in the 55gal tank with them - it's just the tetras that they seem to view as playthings/snacks. I thought rainbows were supposed to be peaceful community fish!!!!???


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## TCR (Jul 13, 2010)

unless they have long flowy fins they should be fine.. 

for 1 the betta has the giant tail to wiegh him down.. I had bettas with countless of other fish.. as long as they dont have competitive colouration its usually all good and usually tetras have a torpedo shaped body so they should be quite capable to manuver out of the way.. the very first fish ive ever owned was 3 white clouds and a betta is a small 1 gal tank.. they were fine (tho i had no filtration meant i have to do a lot of water changes)


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

No long flowy fins. They're these guys here:










Think they'll have enough space in the Chi? The Edge tank is a 6 gallon but it's got more swimming space as rectangular rather than vertical.


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## athena (Apr 22, 2010)

I wouldn't worry about the tetras. They can get away easily if the betta chases them. Your tank also has plants in it which they can hide and take a break if need be.


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