Sorority Tank

[Nobodynotime]

Put together a tank today. A 10 gallon with a divider about a third of the way down. 1/3 was for my male betta floyd and on the other side I put betty and 3 other bettas I just recently got. Betty, who is a little bigger than the rest, is picking on them heavily. Will this subside as the fish become a little more acquainted with each other. The tank actually looks pretty darn cool. Dragons and buddhas and such.
She is a little swollen and also has faint stripes going up her is her behavior possibly b/c she is in heat or what not? Thanks

[s72450]

Is your male able to see the females? This will stress them both out if they can.

I currently have a sorority tank up and running and it's heavily planted with a nice piece of driftwood in the center. The key to a successful sorority tank is hiding places, sometimes the girls do pick on one another and they need somewhere to rest and heal up.

I have other fish in with my girls and that seems to have made a huge difference. I have four females with two albino cories and four zebra danios. The danios are very active as are the cories which give the girls something to watch and they hardly interact with one another and whe they do I've noticed it is friendly, no nipping at all. I would highly recommend putting some other fish in to take the pressure off them of fighting for tank leader.

If your female continues to nip and pick on the other females then you need to remove her and put her in her own place, she is going to be too aggressive. Keep an eye out on the girls.

[Nobodynotime]

Well as of this morning things seemed to even out and they are all pretty much keeping to themselves. I'm going to go get some mondo grass to provide some more hiding spaces and a few fish to keep them distracted. It sounds like a corii is the way to go. Thanks a lot

[Gemstone]

methinks...that tank is too small.............personal esxperience..

[s72450]

Well as far as mine go, they have the entire 10g to themselves and all four girls are very small. My setup seems to be working thus far, but I continue to watch.

That's one thing with a sorority tank, always watch because things can look fine for days or even weeks and then they'll get aggressive. I have a poor female who got beat up very badly when I tried this before, she is still recovering from fin damage and could hardly swim there for a few days. Just don't forget about em in there.

[mac]

Hi,
I have had a odd experience with keeping female Bettas and a male Betta together. I have three females and 1 male in a planted 15 gallon tank. Never have any trouble. The Girls swim around the male and chase any of the pencil fish away from him. Also the male never fights the females. And the females never fight much with each-other. This set-up has been like this for about 9 months. never had a problem.

mac

[Nobodynotime]

Me thinks they are doing fine since I put a couple guppies and some new plants in there, hell, me thinks its better than the cup size tupperware container they store them in at the pet store. But hey, what do I know.....

[mac]

Me thinks they are doing fine since I put a couple guppies and some new plants in there, hell, me thinks its better than the cup size tupperware container they store them in at the pet store. But hey, what do I know.....


Hi Mate,
Great post. Great point. I hate it when you see the poor fish in a 1/2 liter tank.

mac

[Kayla-Bug]

Hm, when doing a sorrority, you want to make sure you go with AT LEAST a 20 gallon because there will be aggression, even if they're acting fine now. They will up and do things you wouldn't think they would have done. And Gemstone is right. She was just trying to help. If you want whats best for your fish, I would get them a bigger tank and MORE females. Good sorrorities are 20+ gallons with several females so the aggression will be spread out.

[Nobodynotime]

Thank you Kayla that was much more informative! I will try my best to get a bigger tank but for right now they seem to have their concentration on their new friends in the tank (not in a bad way), and are keeping to themselves. But of course I will monitor their aggression over time and as i said it seems to be one female thats causing the ruckus so I may just remove her. Let you know how it goes

[Kayla-Bug]

No prob, and definitely keep us updated, I love sorrority tanks! Even though I've never had one of my own because of my females where always super aggressive... my females would beat up the males! :laugh1blue:

[Nobodynotime]

Well the addition of the guppies really seemed to help so far! There are'nt any new nicks on the fins of the smaller bettas. The smaller ones are actually hanging out together in a little pack, almost schooling with the guppies (looks kinda cool), while betty (large female) roams around ignoring them. Safety in numbers maybe? Who knows, but I might end up taking her out.

[Kayla-Bug]

If she ignores them like that then she may not mind the other fish as long as they don't bother her. I had a male that was like that. He was in with some Black Mollies at the LPS so I got some for a 10 gallon and got the little guy and he was fine with them as long as they didn't come over to him or try to nip him. He knew what fish he didn't like though. Fish larger than him, he didn't like. He would flare and bite at larger fish.

[Nobodynotime]

Yeap just little guppies in there and a cory as a clean up crew (thinkin 'bout gettin 1 more but don't want to over do it) its a very colorful tank! Wish I had a camera. Is that a half moon betta as your avatar? and if so is it one of yours b/c I dig the pure purple.

[Kayla-Bug]

Cool. And getting another Cory would probably make the other happier but I am not sure if it would over do it or not. Yes, it is a halfmoon betta but it's not real. That's what a true purple would look like if there was one. If my super delta hadn't died, I was going to try and see if I could get close with him to purple since he had purple in him. But sadly, he passed away.

[Nobodynotime]

Wow he is beautiful! I am sorry to hear he died, that would've been something if you could've gotten close... don't give up!

[Kayla-Bug]

Thanks! I was really upset when he died. And don't worry, I've already been on the look out for some good females and a new male!

[s72450]

It's hard to find a certain color, I've been looking for a yellow male for awhile now and don't even come close.

As for another cory, I'd go ahead and get one, just make sure is the same kind. I had two in my sorority tank and one died and so I went back to get another mate for the one I had and all that they had were Albino cories so I got two of them, well they ignore the other guy and he's still lonely. My LFS doesn't get new fish in for another week so I hope he does okay until then. I know they loved playing with one another while the other guy was still alive.

[mac]

It's hard to find a certain color, I've been looking for a yellow male for awhile now and don't even come close.

Yes it can be hard to get the right colure fish.



As for another cory, I'd go ahead and get one, just make sure is the same kind. I had two in my sorority tank and one died and so I went back to get another mate for the one I had and all that they had were Albino cories so I got two of them, well they ignore the other guy and he's still lonely. My LFS doesn't get new fish in for another week so I hope he does okay until then. I know they loved playing with one another while the other guy was still alive.

IMO and I think many others opinion I would get many more than one Cory. The reason these fish are schooling fish and like the company of their own.
Also I would get the smallest variety of Cory for your tank, like Dwarf Corys or the Pygmy Corys.

mac

[Kayla-Bug]

It's hard to find a certain color, I've been looking for a yellow male for awhile now and don't even come close. I see yellow males all the time. The color I am looking for however will be almost impossible to find. But you could get a Pineapple male, they're yellow and have black on the body, kind of like the lines on a pineapple.

http://www.aquabid.com/uploads/fwbettashmp1227851401.jpg

[s72450]

I've not started buying online yet, still a bit scared to do so.

Sucks that you see yellows all the time, I have a Greek name thing going and have Aries and Zeus and would love a yellow "Apollo". All my females are named after greek goddesses as well. I'm lame like that, but I think it's original.

[Kayla-Bug]

Buying online isn't that bad. I get stuff off of here all the time. And I even see yellows at Petco a lot of the time. They have been having REALLY good stock here lately...

[s72450]

The local PetCo recieved a new shipment today and should be out on shelves tommorow so I'm going to check there.

I hear alot of complaints about PetCo, but I've had wonderful luck with the fish from there. Every fish that I get from the LFS ends up dying and all the ones from PetCo thrive. I'm not sure why because my boss always gets her fish from the LFS and they have no problems but mine always go belly up it seems.