Is this normal or should I be alarmed?

[spuddybuddy]

Please help! I'm getting so many different answers to my questions I don't know what's right any more and I'm concerned for my finnyfriend "Spud." We bought a 2.5 tank for him and then got a few tankmates. 2 ghost shrimp, 4 neon tetras and 4 whiteclouds. One person says it's too many fish for the tank and someone else says it isn't. First we're told that we can house neon tetras with our betta and now we're told we can't. This morning we found one of our fish literally in half. (We still don't know where the tail is.) Did Spud do this? Do I have to worry? I don't know what to do anymore and it's becoming extremely frustrating!

[bettons]

the answer is too many fish, and aggression which explains why your neon is missing a part of its body. Don't get frustrated, this can happen to the best of us .

[abm]

Hi, and welcome,

I'm running out the door but my first observation is that your 2.5 gallon tank is tremendously overstocked! I know next to nothing about tetras and whiteclouds, but you've got enough fish in there for a 10-12 gallon tank easy.

I would get the betta out of there, put him in a heated smaller tank (1 gallon will do in a pinch) and then do some research on how many of the others can stay in a 2.5. If you've done any research at all about bettas, you know that they don't make friends easily, and in a small tank you've got way too many distractions. Possibly the shrimp could stay but....you get my point, I hope.

I'll add to this later. Poke around this forum and you'll learn a lot about tankmates and such for bettas, also about overloading tanks and the inherent dangers therein.

~abm

[abm]

Hey Bettons - jinx! Same answer, same time!

[bettons]

anotherbettamom said:

Hey Bettons - jinx! Same answer, same time!

;D

[kent1992]

Hey, decide if you wanna keep a betta or neons or white clouds. Either way, you have to take out 2 out of the 3 species. Meaning, you can either keep 1 betta, 4 white clouds, or 4 neons. Right now, it's is way overstocked and you gotta bring the extra fish back to you pet store. I'd suggest keeping just the betta + the 2 ghost shrimp.

[bort]

would the person who told you it wasn't over stocked by chance be the guy that worked in the pet shop?

[crazkat]

kent1992 said:

Hey, decide if you wanna keep a betta or neons or white clouds. Either way, you have to take out 2 out of the 3 species. Meaning, you can either keep 1 betta, 4 white clouds, or 4 neons. Right now, it's is way overstocked and you gotta bring the extra fish back to you pet store. I'd suggest keeping just the betta + the 2 ghost shrimp.

That's one set-up that I have going and it works great. Just make sure the shrimp are bigger than the betta's head so they have a lesser chance of being eaten. My betta's a female, so that might make a difference, but it's still a nice set-up