2 New Girls In A 10 Gal Tank! Need Proper Introductions

[Betta_Mom]

hi!
my friend and i just purchased 2 gorgeous young girls at our lfs. if i can sort out my camera, i'll post a few pictures up on here of them.

they are both on the small side. one (Merle) is a dark indigo blue with an almost black head and slightly lighter fins. the other (Delilah) is a light sort of perrywinkle blue with little dark blue specks in her light colored fins.

i have them currently in a 10 gallong tank together (i plan i buying a tank divider, or getting them their own smaller tanks later on)

do far there hasn't been any nips, jsut some major stare-downs and circling and frantic fin flapping

Delilah, the lighter one, has been the more submissive one and since the introduction, has been "wearing" her vertical stripes (going from nose tip to tail) especially whene Merle is near her and flaring her fins at her and puffing like a male. generally Delilah will stare back, but not flare or puff, then swim away.

does anyone have any advice on this?

i'm planning on trying my first spawn with my friend. i have 2 girls and 2 boys, and she has 3 boys. so the girls will have 5 boys to pick from! : lol

should i seperate the girls? its been almost 2 hours and no nipping or anything.

thanks guys! i'll post some pics asap!

 

[Monty2451]

Honestly, add more females. In a 10 gallon tank you could easily have 6 females and they would all be much better off as having more females helps disburse the aggression in the tank. Just make sure there are plenty of plants and hiding places for them and all will be well. In the mean time, just keep an eye on the 2 girls, if the other seems to keep constantly harassing the other, a temporary separation may be in order until you get more females.

 

[OldMan47]

I think Monty has it right. I have 5 girls in a 10. It is full of cover for them to escape each other but more often they are swimming around near each other. When I first set it up a couple of months ago, they all got put in at once. They went through a period of making threatening stances at each other and swimming around each other as if they were trying to scare the other one. Since the firast week went by, they almost ignore each other most of the time. Once in a while at feeding time they will still threaten each other with their stance but they are not nipping or damaging each other. They are a healthy active sorority tank tank without real aggression problems. My tetras in other tanks treat each other worse than these girls do.