female betta with shrimp and snail?

[Darkstar824]

hello I am thinking about getting another betta in addition to the one I already have my second betta I am wanting to get a female this time and put her ina 3g with some shrimp and a snail. (the other betta goes by himself) is this a good idea, I am not positive if the female will eat the shrimp or attack the snail. also, 2 more questions 1- are female bettas less aggressive than males or their temperament about the same? 2- are female smaller in body size compared to the male betta? I know their fins are shorter but what about the body? I saw one in the store the other day that was a female and was smaller, but could have been a little baby. I dunno. Let me know. Thanka!!

[radiant sea snail]

Hey there, I don't know much about female bettas so someone else will have to answer that question.

As for the snail.. I'm figuring you want to get an apple (mystery) snail. I have 1 mystery snail with my male betta in a 10 gallon. My biggest worry was that my betta was going to try to hurt the snail. The betta does not pay him any mind, but the snail is so messy. He leaves poop all over the walls of the tank and anything he crawls on, which is everything. Plants, real or fake, the bubble wand, you name it.

Just a heads up since you are aiming to house them in a 3 gallon. Adult mystery snails are not known for keeping things clean.. just sometimes eating leftover food on the bottom. I've been doing much more frequent water changes since I got the snail.

www.applesnail.net. This site has great info and a forum. The forum also has a section about other snails and good tankmates. Good luck!

[Darkstar824]

thanks for the info on apple snails (I didn;t know they could get that big! Still want 1 or 2 though. ) I think I will try and put the female betta and a snail 2gether and if the snail gets attacked by the betta I will move the snail to another small tank. No biggie. Still not sure about the ghost and/or cherry red shrimp though,

[TowBoater]

Hello. Females are generally more timid and are generally smaller. Mystery snails or Apple snails are very dirty and get very large, I have 5 in my 55g that are around the 3" diameter. Bettas are carnivores. If they are interested, they will eat it. You can try it, but the betta may eat the ghost shrimp, they are sold as feeder shrimp here and I buy them for that reason. Not many survive if any in my tanks, never placed them with a betta though.

[Darkstar824]

alright then. No shrimp with the betta to be on the safe side. I will do just one apple snail in the 3g with betta See if everything works out otay

[TowBoater]

That snail will get to be a pain. You can try a ramshorn, they don't get as large. Try the snail in a larger tank, he will get very large and just like mine do in my 55g, get right were you can't see anything well.

[Darkstar824]

I;ll take a look around at my LFSs and see what I find that is convenient for me
(snails that is)

[Chrona]

Depends on the shrimp too. There are some species of freshwater shrimp sometimes kept that will spear and eat the betta, lol. Ghost/Cherry shrimp are definite nonos. Amano shrimp should be ok, as long the particular shrimp isn't too small/young.

[TowBoater]

lol, all mine has is mystery (apple), ramshorn, and them little long shelled snails.

[Darkstar824]

Depends on the shrimp too. There are some species of freshwater shrimp sometimes kept that will spear and eat the betta, lol. Ghost/Cherry shrimp are definite nonos. Amano shrimp should be ok, as long the particular shrimp isn't too small/young.


i haven;t heard of amano shrimp b4 then again obviously I'm no expert
what about other fish? would cherry/ghost shrimp get along with an endler LB male? I also want to get one of those too in a small tank
(separate of course from betta)


having some symptoms of STS-small tank syndrome, hehe

[TowBoater]

Lol, just wait until you get BTS and then MTS.

[Darkstar824]

I think I may already have a minor case of MTS already lol

[TowBoater]

Lol, man it can get bad. I went from a 5g all the way up to 55g with 7 diff. tanks in one month.

[radiant sea snail]

I'd really hate to discourage you from getting a snail cause they are amusing and I'm pretty nuts about them myself.

But people recommend 2-2.5 gallons of water per mystery snail (type of apple snail). That in a little tank with a betta... that's a bit cramped for space and it will get filthy so fast. I'm battling the filth in a 10 gallon so I know.

Are you going to have a filter for your tank? If you want to keep your betta in that tank, that's fine. But I'd wait until you got a bigger one to go for the mystery snails or other big snails.

Contrary to popular belief, not all snails will keep your tank clean. These adult mystery snails live to poop.

Here are some pics of my mystery snail.

[Darkstar824]

maybe I can get an apple snail for my 10g but it might be cramped in there too I;'m afraid. Right now, it isn;t I only have 2 gupps, and a cory in there so far, I am hoping my little female gupp will drop some fry soon. I have a 5g to put baby fry in case you;re wondering since that is just a quarantine/fry tank. MAybe a ram horn or smaller aquatic snail would be best I hadn;t realized that mystery/apple snails got huge like that, i knew they got big but as much as 6" in diameter? Way too cramped for a 3g tank. I will have to check around see what I find in the snail department, at the pet stores.

[Darkstar824]

oh, btw yes the 3g will most definitely have both filter and heater I found a small 6"? heater at an all fish store yesterday. I was beginning to think I would never find any that were smaller than for a 5g and up. Hope that answers your questions.

[radiant sea snail]

So far I've heard that apple snails can get to the size of a golf ball.

But it's not just about the size of the snail in the tank. It's about the waste he creates. Adding a snail to the mix will mean extra water maintenance, especially in a small tank. A snail may be better off in the 10 gallon.

Like I said, I don't want to discourage you from having a snail at all. It's just been a learning experience in the short time I've had my own snail.

One more thing, if you choose to go for the really small species of snails.. watch out! Those guys can multiply till it's out of control. With apple snails it's different, as it takes a male and a female and you can remove the eggs to avoid babies. But I've read several stories where people have had to bleach bomb their tanks to get rid of those tiny snails (not apple or mystery snails) that have reproduced themselves into the hundreds.

[Darkstar824]

I 'll see about ramshorn snails I don't think that;d be a problem with them, someone correct me here if I am wrong, but probably one apple snail for the 10g though.

[TowBoater]

Ramshorn needs 2 snails as does apple snails. It takes 2 apples to make babys, mine breed constantly but no babys appear at the top rim of my tank at all. This is a pare of them and a full grown albino cory just to give you an idea of the size, that cory is 2-2.5" long.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/tessamax/DSCF0278.jpg

[radiant sea snail]

They're beautiful, Kuli Loach. Is that an ivory and a golden or an ivory and a jade?

Mine finally did something cool last night. We got to watch his little mouth work the side of the tank while he crawled up it.

Then my betta kept puffing up at my husband!!

[TowBoater]

I have no idea, I just picked them out because they were moving a bunch.:hmm3grin2orange:

[radiant sea snail]

Same here! When I picked him out, my little snail was crawling up a castle all the way to the top, then down it, then up the side of the tank. I had to stay by the tank so I wouldn't forget which one I wanted cause he was moving so fast.

I thought he would be an exciting snail. Oh well. I still like him, though I have yet to name him. I thought about "Beelzebub" for a name because his blue/green shell covers his dark, dark body. Now I want to name him that because he makes the tank so nasty and rarely does anything cute, lol.

[TowBoater]

I just have mine in there to have them. To tell you the truth, I have only named 2 of my fish, my betta and an albino cory.

[radiant sea snail]

I still haven't named my betta. But I'd like to since the last betta I had was called betta blue and he never had an official name.

Darkstar, let us know what you decide.

[TowBoater]

Same here but I hate to become attached to my fish. I will probably once they get large knowing they are adapted well. It is like naming calfs and such in the pasture and then taking them to the sale knowing they are going to feed lots.

[radiant sea snail]

I know what you're saying, Kuli. But I have been known to name even wild critters, like a wild young eastern cottontail that we had to rehome after his original home was destroyed. We named him Fable. :luxlove:

It's nice to have a name to remember him by.

[TowBoater]

Yea I guess, I just can't stand for stuff like that to happen. I have named a deer that I saw in my crosshairs while hunting "supper".:28: No I guess it just goes out with time, we have a goat farm and we have like 60 nannys and 3 billys. All the kids go to sell and then most are for food. I just got out of naming stuff for that reason, it bothers me.

[Rue]

I have 3 female bettas in my 25g along with 1 male and other community fish...

The ones in the stores are usually very young...they get remarkably large...almost the size of the males (and I have 2 females that are even a bit bigger than my one male)...

And as much as I luv my Mystery Snails...they are prodigous poopers!!! I do a 50% WC every week...and that's probably not even quite enough...

[Darkstar824]

names of my fish

NightFrost-my male betta

Catty-the albino cory

Amber- the pregnant guppy
Blackie- the other female guppy

[radiant sea snail]

Darkstar, have you made any decisions regarding the expanding of your aquatic family?

[TowBoater]

Yea, have you? And I have baby apple snails in my tank now.:c5:

[Darkstar824]

I am but b4 I add any more fish, I have to wait for the water conditions to go back to where they should be . Ammonia and nitrite were too high but now the ammonia has gone down some. Gonna check again today. B4 the ammonia had gone down to 1.0 but the nitrite was still high at 2.0 bad I know but I have been doing lots of water changes first 20%, then 25%, then 30%, and then 10% and I will check again to see if I need to do anymore. Also, added amquel to the water. I just don;t want to add more to the tank and have them die on me form toxicity, btw my other fish are doing fine, but my cory has some strange lookin lump on her underside I cant figure out what though. I have already asked a question about it in another fish forum, waiting to hear back, about the problem. if any, Oh, and I will post some pictures since I took only about 100+ photos, no really I did. went a little camera crazy with my dad;s digital camera.

[TowBoater]

Glad to see you aren't adding any more fish. Yes the tank needs to be cycled before adding any fish but you are doing right with the water changes. When they both get to 0, you are ready.

[radiant sea snail]

Kuli, did your snails have babies?

[TowBoater]

Yup, they are dropping but not many are making it, my severum likes them.:9: If they make it, they make it, I will give them to my LFS as store credit, if they don't, it is a good treat for my fish.

[Darkstar824]

ammonia level is down to 0 last time I checked now have to wait on the nitrite now b4 adding more fish

[radiant sea snail]

Darkstar, have you decided what you're gonna add?

I did some reading, and while it's true that a particular species of apple snail can reach up to 6 inches, it's not the mystery snail variety. All mystery snails are a type of apple snail. But not all apple snails are mystery snails.

The scientific name for mystery snails is Pomacea bridgesii.

Pomacea maculata is another type of apple snail. This particular type can grow to be 6 inches.

Hope this helps.
Just remember, even though a mystery snail can only get to the size of a golf ball, it does create a lot of waste.

[Darkstar824]

just more guppys and corys, i decided no snails right now. about 6 or 7 gupps and 3 corys and that's it. in the 10g.

[radiant sea snail]

Thanks for letting us know!

I actually did just expand my snail family. I bought one baby light striped purple snail on Aqua Bid and received 2! So I have 3 mystery snails in one 10 g just for them.

You should see all the poop that these babies create!!!