# New to the site



## bikermahn (Aug 2, 2014)

We started off 5 years ago with a betta in a bowl, when he passed the wife wanted another betta and I figured it was time to upgrade his tank. We bought a 16G bow front complete kit, since it was on sale for 64 dollars at our local petsmarts. Put in seachem fluorite dark substrate, some plants and cycled the tank. Went through the whole nasty diatom stage and then finally the algae. Originally had 1 betta, 7 neons. The cycling killed 4 neons, and the LFS said it would be fine to add a few Panda Tetras to the mix. WRONG! Neons hid behind the filter tubes and would not move, on top of this we moved some plants around and bought a new one from petsmarts, being a newb we added the plants directly without washing or checking for snails. Originally we thought it was so cute, now we have a few dozen snails, we pick out 5-10 every week or so.

We moved the neons to their own tank because I found a 2.6g fluvial on kijiji for next to nothing and put in new media and a heater.

The algae in both tanks was getting a little out of control, after trying flourish excel and burning some of the plans, I decided to try Ghost Shrimps in the 16g, they did great until I found them eating the betta's tail. I promptly took them out cut them up and fed them to him...justice 

I went out to shrimp fever and bought some Fire Red Shrimp 10 of them and drip acclimated them, added 7 to the 16g and 3 to the 2.5g. My betta proceeded to hunt and kill a few shrimp in the 16g tank each night and now they are gone 

But my upstairs 2.6g also has a betta, who just leaves these guys alone, in fact i've caught them sitting right next to each other and not even caring.

I really like shrimp and they do a great job of keeping any algae under control, but I would like two know a few things from some experienced keepers with Bettas and shrimp.

Should I try maybe a different colour shrimp? I also have a bit of a problem with the snails and was going to pickup some Assassin Snails so I don't need to pick out 5-10 snails every few days myself. Its good stress relief but I fear my rate of removal may be less then their reproductive rate.

Will the Assassins live well with shrimp and betta, assuming I find a match of those two that work?

16G Tank:



2.6G Tank :


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*hey*

hey there welcome to the forum and I see u already are addicted and a case of the MTS ( multiple tank syndrome ) it is actually expected . glad u joined love your photos and llook forward to more posts 
cheers 
tom


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## Mykuhl (Apr 8, 2013)

Bettas tend to be individuals, so some will eat shrimp and some won't bother them(as you have already witnessed).

If you are asking if a different color shrimp won't be eaten by the betta in the 16 gallon....I don't think a different color will make a difference as opposed to the variety of shrimp. You already witnessed the ghost shrimp not being eaten but instead being aggressive towards your betta. I can't give you suggestions as to what other type might work, but I think you are better off with no shrimp with this betta.

Assassin snails will do fine with a betta and the shrimp and will do a good job taking care of your snail problem.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Too true. Every betta has its own personality and if yours is into hunting shrimp, the colour of the shrimp won't matter at all. Some of the attraction is in the movement, which is the same no matter the colour. 

Keep an eye out for small blobs of jelly like material on the tank walls, decor or plants. These are the egg masses of the nuisance snails, like Ramshorns, bladder and pond snails. You might see dots in the jelly, those are the embryos. If you see any of the blobs, they're easy to scrape or squeeze off & toss in the trash, it helps cut down on the numbers of new ones.

Once you get the nuisance snails sorted out, if you still need algae eaters, there are some other snails that make great clean up crew. If you still have the assassins, you can usually sell them quite easily. 

A possible clean up crew candidate would be a mystery snail. They get to a fair size, and have some interesting behaviours of their own. They come in several attractive colours, including blue, ivory & gold. 

One caution, the aggressive betta may well harass a mystery snail, possibly bite off their long antennae. The snails tend to wave them around much of the time, and this might well make a betta think about munching on them. Damaged antennae probably wouldn't be fatal to the snail, but it surely won't be happy about it, and they are vulnerable to too much stress, as are most aquatic creatures. Female mystery snails may lay eggs, but because they do so above the water line, you can easily remove any egg mass that might show up if you don't want babies hatching.

Or consider a couple of Nerite snails. They do lay eggs, on almost any surface, but these eggs are incapable of hatching in fresh water. Small to medium in size, but voracious algae eaters. Many have quite attractive shells. Their antennae are very small, thus they don't pose an attraction to a hungry fish.


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