Thoughts on Marine Betta

[travis32]

I just wanted to put in a quick post on what people think about keeping a Marine Betta in a 55g reef tank with LPS and softies?

Can it be the first fish? Would you reccomend a pair or a single?

Thoughts or experience with marine beta??

 

[PokerReefer]

I have not ever kept a marine beta. My lfs store however has one in a 120 display tank. They have had it for 3 years+ . I go in there all the time and have only seen it maybe 3-4 times. The first time I saw it I was like when did you add the Marine beta in there. The response. "it has been in there for a couple of years " :lmao: . From what I have experienced with thiers. It is very reclusive. Just sharing my experience with them. Very beautiful fish though.

 

[seafansar]

A 55 is a little small for a betta IMO, but you could get away with it. They will eat small shrimp and small fish. My dad's ate his neon gobies and firefish. They stay hidden if the rocks most of the time, but will eventually get a little bolder. Took my dad's fish about a year to swim around with the other fish more. Make a cave or arch out of the rock work. My dad's likes to stay under an arch in his tank looking out the front at people. You also have to be careful about the other fish. They can starve if the other fish are aggressive eaters. They will eventually get less shy and eat more, but at first the food pretty much has to be right in front of their face before they'll eat. Hope that helps! They are really cool fish!

 

[travis32]

Thanks Sea,I've read they're relatively easy to train to eat brine shrimp and/or mysis.

So, if I were to try one, maybe training it without other fish first might be a good idea? Or see if the pet store can train it first.

 

[seafansar]

Yeah, it would be great for that to be your first fish. Let it learn how to eat without any competition. If you're having trouble getting one to eat, try live ghost shrimp. My dad's goes CRAZY for those!

 

[flameangel88]

If it's somewhere around 4" you should be fine. I added a 4" back in Dec 2008 and it hasn't grown much in a 180. It wasn't the first or last fish and it even eat pellets. It's in with angels, butterflies, hogfish and trigger without any problem. Once every 2-3 months it will come out for 15-20 minutes for a stretch. lol

Hopefully Tim will chime in here.

 

[travis32]

I aquascaped my rock fairly chaotic, but, did with one thing in mind, caves, nooks, crannies, for territorial fish. LOL. I have a good have dozen nice little coves at different levels. out of the 6 or so, I have around 2 that are relatively large coves for bigger things. THere wouldn't be a lot of room for one to hide and I'd like it to be my centerpiece fish.

I may have cardinals or goby, blenny, a clown pair, Don't really want any $30.00 fish to become lunch.