So, remember how I was talking about how I wanted a 10 gallon community tank in my living room? I did one better… we bought a 20 gallon tank. It’s so big, I love it!

Today we added the first few fish to it.

I’m working from the living room today so I can observe. They are obviously still in adaptation mode, but I need to make sure that nobody gets bullied. I did my homework and found a list of fish that can be (relatively) safely housed with a male betta, so I’m keeping an eye on them to make sure he doesn’t start picking on the other fish.

Their initial reaction was a bit different than I’d have expected. Here’s a photo of the tank before I put any fish in it:

So, the betta immediately swam into the big tree decoration. He’s come out a couple of times, but mostly is camping out inside, in the dark, far away from the other 5 fish.

I got two mollies, a white molly and a dalmatian molly (mine is more black than white). The white one initially was hanging out near the surface, and ate most of the food I put in there. Now he’s exploring a little bit more, but still spending more time near the surface than anywhere else. The dalmatian one has been exploring pretty thoroughly and likes to follow the bottom feeder around. Now the two mollies are spending more time near each other.

The neon tetra was initially cowering behind the tall plants (literally, he looked like he was shaking) for a while but is now out and about.

The guppy seems the best adjusted so far, he’s been exploring the whole time and is now content to hang out with the tetra; they’re BFF’s hehe.

And, the cory catfish, in true bottom feeder fashion, is playing with the gravel at the bottom of the tank.

So far everybody looks happy but the betta; I prefer hiding in the dark to attacking other fish though, so we’ll see how he does when he’s done playing in the dark.

Once these fish are established, we’ll pick up a few more; either of similar types or more of what we’ve got.There’s a few other kinds that can co-exist with a betta as long as he’s not snarky. If he seems really docile, I might try some angel fish - they’re labeled as “use caution”, so they may or may not get along with the betta, depending on individual temperament.