Moo

Depends on the Betta to be honest. My one guy would not allow anything else that moved faster than a snail in the tank. Would just attack everything. The girl I have now is chiller, I got some shrimps in there with her and she leaves them alone. You should just check if a fish is compatible with a betta. Usually peaceful fish that aren’t known to nip at fins (Otos, corydoras, kuali loaches, are a few chill ones). Also to only have one betta per tank. Two males will fight to the death since they’re very territorial. Some people do sororities with all female bettas with some success but I’ve seen them go wrong fast when one decides to attack all the others randomly.

I have a planted tank with a bunch of rocks, driftwood, and a bunch of plants for the fish to swim around through. Looks cool and helps clean the water. Then for the set up, I have a 10g, with an LED light, a heater set to around 78, and a hang on the back filter.

If you go to a place that specializes in fish, they should definitely know about the cycle as it’s needed for all tanks. Some people do fish-in cycles where they set-up the cycle with the fish in the tank providing their own ammonia (poop), but I’ve never done it and read that it could be stressful for the fish.

The cycle breaks down the ammonia through 2 stages then when you do water changes, you take out that last stage’s chemical. There’s methods where people use aquarium plants to help filter the water (because they use ammonia to grow) as well.

I don’t know much about those but I’ve heard good things about World Wide Aquarium

Bettas are a good start. That’s what I started with. Only thing different than a goldfish is you’ll definitely need a heater because they’re tropical.

Gotta look into the nitrogen cycle as well for the filter so your tank is “cycled” (which could take over a month to set up). Pretty much getting bacteria to help break down ammonia into something that isn’t toxic for the fish. And goldfish poop a lot and can live a long time in the right conditions.

I got into aquariums over lockdown and had no idea of the cycle before but set up my tank with the fishless method (Adding your own ammonia and checking the chemical levels of the water, once you add a certain amount of ammonia and it’s gone to 0 in one day, your cycle is done). If you put fish in without cycling, the ammonia will build up and is poisonous for the fish.

I’m not sure of any great place in Philly for fish. I tried Monster Pets but they aren’t the best to their fish. I like Aquarium Center about 20 minutes into Jersey.

You can get all the basics like a filter, tank, and such at pet smart