Betta Solority In 53G

[AshleyNZ]

Hey there. Have just been offered some females for free and I was wondering if could set up my 53g tank to accommodate the. I have a few questions, but I like hearing from people with experience.
1. How many females can / should I get, but keeping in mind I would like other fish in there too.
2. What schooling fish could go with females?
3. Could cory cats and a bn pleco go in there?
4. Do the betta need to be feed separate from the other fish?

Any other tips and comments are more than welcome

 

[LyraGuppi]

1. How many females can / should I get, but keeping in mind I would like other fish in there too. ~ Perhaps 9 or 10? I always go to small, tho.
2. What schooling fish could go with females? ~Personally I would just do bettas, but I wouldn't know this answer.
3. Could cory cats and a bn pleco go in there? ~ I'd not do the BN Pleco, they poo..alot
4. Do the betta need to be feed separate from the other fish? ~ No, not necessarily.

 

[AshleyNZ]

The filtration is good enough for the bn plec so should be fine the if waste is the only issue

 

[attibones]

In the past I kept BN plecos with my sorority. They did just fine. I feel like you could get away with that, though some corydoras are a little bit more difficult to keep with bettas.

There are two schools of thought on sororities: light stocking or overstocking. I had in my twenty gallon sorority sixteen females. If you go with overstocking, you could do about forty females (plus any catfish). If you chose to under stock, I would go with no more than twenty. Either way you will need plenty of vegetation. It should be like an overgrown forest in the tank. Then you should also have several caves for them to use.

You wouldn't need to feed separately. You would just drop sinking pellets for the plecos or cory cats and floating food for the females. When feeding frozen foods, you would just add extra for the catfish as both BNs and corys like meatier foods.

 

[Wildbetta]

1. How many females can / should I get, but keeping in mind I would like other fish in there too.  Sororities are best "overstocked" so I would recommend around 40 female bettas if no other fish are in the tank (this is not considering bottom feeders like plecos or cories but other shoaling fish species). You have to be careful when adding other fish with bettas (even females cause they are aggressive and can form a sort of "pack" mentality) and I personally am not fond of keeping other fish with bettas. If keeping other shoaling fish, I would put the max female bettas at about 25.

2. What schooling fish could go with females?  Care should be made with this decision.  The other fish should be kept in a shoal large enough to keep to themselves and not nip at the bettas.  They should be able to live comfortably in the temperature range the bettas need (78-82F). Unfortunately I do not really have any recommendations on particular fish since I don't keep shoaling fish.

3. Could cory cats and a bn pleco go in there?  Yes to both of these.  Actually these are some of the only other fish I have kept/will keep with bettas(basically types of catfish). Your tank is plenty big enough to house a BN pleco and a group (of at least 6 of the same species) of cory cat.  Just take care of temperature requirements when choosing the type of cory cat to add to the tank.

4. Do the betta need to be feed separate from the other fish?  In general, no you will not have to feed the bettas separate.  Depending on what other fish you have in the tank will make a difference in this though.  If you have only bettas and some sort of bottom dwelling catfish then you would only need to add some bottom pellets for the catfish and then the bettas will eat their surface pellets.  If you have some sort of shoaling fish species, you will have to really watch how much the bettas eat while feeding since they will normally outcompete the other fish species.

 

[AshleyNZ]

I think i've decided against this idea now, just because I feel I am not experienced enough quite yet. So I will stick to males from now on :3
Maybe someday.