Alrighty, so it's been a few days since I got my 3 gals and plopped them into the tank.

I think the green/blue one is the boss, but it seems like whenever she's not looking for food, she seems to be constnatly chasing off the other 2. The other 2 (when food isn't present) seem to be really terrified of her. Darting away as quickly as they can if they spot her nearby. Now is this normal in a sorority? Or normal for one recently started?
I'm just a bit concerned b/c of how much I'm seeing the chasing and such, but this is my first sorority so not sure if this is just normal behaviour?

If this is normal... is this something that's always going to occur to this extent? Or will it cool down once they're used to eachother more and finally sorted out the ranks.

bumpin b/c I'd like an answer.
All I've seen today is the green/blue girl chasing the other 2 away. If this behaviour continues I'm gonna move her to the community tank. I just need to know if this is something that's normal in sororities and if it's nothing to worry about.

is there pleanty cover in the tank? mabey get another 2 or 3 females, the aggression will be then spread out and hopefuly no serious bickering. u sure you havent got a pk male by accident? it happens

This is normal for the beginning. But you should definitely have many places for your girls to hide when they want a retreat.

Yep... I made sure to get a ton of plants and another cave like place before I got the girls.
There are plenty of places to hide, but the green/blue one, she's pretty persistant when she's chasing them.
I've seen what I thought might be nipping, but I think when they do bicker with eachother, they're more nudging than anything. I haven't seen any actual nip injuries on fins or anything.
When the pink one doesn't dart away, they do that sorta circle dance thing or will kinda swim into eachother while flaring.

Yeah I'm sure it's a female that I got heh. She has the ovi spot and looks totally female. She's obviously just a bit more aggressive than the other 2.

When my poor Raj dies.. I might take out the divider and get 2 MAYBE 3 more females. It depends if they have any boys that catch my attention. Or I might just move the divider over more and get 1 more female. Give them about 7 gallons of the tank while giving a male 3 gallons. *shrugs* who knows.


Anywho! I'll try not to worry so much for now about this since it hasn't gotten more physical other than the chasing and bumping. Thanks a bunch you 2 for responding!

I'd try and up the numbers (depending on your tank size) I've got 7 females in my sorority tank and half of the tank is a thick hornwort forest for them to hide in. You will get a bit of aggression while they sort out who's boss etc. But as blue_betta said, there might be a possibility that a plakat male snuck his way in looking like a female VT. I'm still trying to figure if one of mine is a pk male... I hope s/he isn't lol.

Sounds normal... your green/blue is asserting herself as the dominant one. Once she's satisfied that the other two are suitably intimidated by her, the chases will get shorter and shorter.

Oh, the pink one is challenging her a bit! She will probably end up in the #2 position, then.

and possible gang up on and kill the bottom one....

id get 2 or 3 more females in there pronto

The pink one actually doesn't bother the little one too much though. *shrugs* Looks like the green/blue one is fine with the pink one. They're swimming around eachother just fine. Maybe a very short dart at her, but not the persistant chase she's still doing with the little one.
I'll seperate whoever I have to if things get out of hand. I'm usually always at my desk (where they're at) so I can keep a close eye on them.

I would get more if there was more room, but they're only in a 5 gallon space at the moment. I'd move the divider over more to give them more room, but I'd feel bad taking away space from my Raj, so 3 is gonna have to be ok for now.. hopefully.

Ok update... well it appears now that the pink one and the little one are now competing with eachother.
The little one definitely knows the blue/green one is in charge. Haven't seen her flaring at her at all, but she's been doing the flare/circling thing with the pink one all morning. I just saw her chasing the pink one as well.
Pinky doesn't seem to be intimidated at all.

Actually very interesting watching how this all plays out heh.

Well you are braver than I am. I only had my girls together for half a day and couldnt stand it any longer

personally i would never dream of having less than 4 girls together because the agression is not spread enough and from 3 you are more than likely to end up with just the one left. This isn't always the case but most of the time it is the outcome sadly. I would say get another one or two and i wish you the best with it and that they all settle down ok

It was trial and error when i first started mine... I have a 40 gall with 2 end sections that have been divided off (5 gall either end) I had 10 girls in the middle sec (the remaining 30 gall) but had to take two out that were being really aggressive. These were put into an end section each and the remaining 8 get along fine. They have occasional hormonal spats but nothing serious... They often all hang out together like this:::::



Larger numbers do work better

Good luck

Believe me, I would love to get another, but I just don't feel it's fair to put another fish into a 5 gallon space.
Maybe that will change if I see a female I must have though heh. Who knows. I could start to slowly move the divider over a little bit every day.
Raj has slowed down quite a bit and isn't using his half as much as before so giving more room to the more active fish I guess would be fair.

I dunno I dunno I dunno................ I think I may start doing that..........................

Maybe get your male his own tank and turn the 10 gallon into a sorority? That way you could get 6 or so females. The larger the number the lower the agression tends to be.

Well.. I think I might turn this tank to a sorority when Raj passes.
Getting another tank is out of the question atm.... but I don't think Raj is going to last much longer anyway unfortunatly

Tomorrow I'll be doing a water change and will be moving the divider over a few inches. And maybe this weekend.. or maybe tomorrow depending where we go and eat.. I'll get another female or 2.


Thank you everyone for the suggestions/advice!

I have 5 in a 10 gallon tank and do not see any one that thinks she owns the tank. I varies a lot from day to day. There is always some flaring and minor aggression but I see worse chasing between tiger barbs than I see between my girls. None of them are very old but all came in their own little cups from the store. They are in a very heavily equipped tank, I hesitate to call it planted because so many of them are silk. They seldom hide from each other but are often all 5 in the same very close area. In a tank that is 20 inches long, they are all within an area about 4 inches in diameter much of the time. Its not always the same place in the tank but they don't seem to even try to avoid each other.