Can I?

[Meggie :)]

I have a ten gallon that houses 1 adult female balloon Molly, 1 kind of adult female ballon Molly (about as long, just not as fat as an adult yet...maybe 7, 8 months old? Idk..) and 3 baby ballon mollies (maybe 4 or 5 months old, so still pretty big ish...and they all have quite a belly on them! )...oh an plus a pretty large ghost shrimp, a cherry shrimp almost as big as the ghost (very large for the average cherry) and two assassin snails....the tank is planted with a large pece of driftwood...

My question is, could I put a female betta in there? And if so, could I just have one or would it be better to have more than on... Just love rescuing bettas from those sad little cups and will rescue one at any chance I have!

Also, if I can get one, how do you pick out your females at the store?

Thank you all in advance!
Meg

 

[HannahBear77]

i would think it would be ok with those mollies but idk because i havent tried mollies with mine yet

if you want more than one female betta you should at least have 5 or more
i just go and look at all the bettas and pick out what color i like the most but i end up with 2 in my hand and ill have my mom pick and pick the opposite of what she picks

 

[Meggie :)]

Wow 5? With lots of water changes that would still be overstocking, right? Bettas dont have that much bioload do they? I've heard that 3 can work sometimes too? How many do you suggest for this tank?

And lol that's really funny

 

[HannahBear77]

i didnt know how big your tank is, but three could work i have 3 in my 15 gallon that i got from the pet store with my sunfish and they get along fine but i also got lucky and mine arent mean towards each other at all, but its only because my sunfish is an aggresive fish as well and can dish it back at them,

 

[Meggie :)]

My tank is ten gallons...what do you think? And if I got a little overstocked but it worked, I would do lots of water changes to keep it clean and healthy...and I wouldn't be getting large females...I think I'm a bit partial to the small ones

 

[HannahBear77]

even adding 3 bettas to your 10 gallon i think would be over stocking your tank already

 

[Nova]

Female bettas need to be in groups of AT LEAST 5 but more is always better, the smaller the number the more likely it is one female will be singled out and picked on. Females bettas are one of those species that do better when you overstock them a little. The more you have the more the aggression will be spread out. In your tank I would only put one female, because 5 would be WAY overstocking.

 

[Meggie :)]

What do you think I should do? The babies are still pretty young and I probably won't keep all of them once they grow up...could I getvone female? Would tha work? Or is there ANY way in could pull off 3 small ones?
thank you so much for all your help!

Oh, just saw your reply, nova...thank you!

 

[HannahBear77]

i agree with nova, i only get away with having three for right now is because my sunfish is more aggressive than my bettas and they see him as the leader of the pack i guess you could say
if you really want more than one female betta you can always get a separate tank for them to live in later on down the road, but i think you could at least get one to put in your 10 gallon

 

[Meggie :)]

alright, thank you so much! I will pick one up today

 

[HannahBear77]

your welcome!! and good luck picking one out i picked 2 up yesterday when i went out with my mom for my 15 gallon i think it is a very hard processes cus you just want to take them all home

 

[Meggie :)]

oh, one more thing, i have a pretty strong current from my filter, but I have a huge hunk of floating hornwort in front of it which calms down the flow alot...would I still be able to get a female? If she was small would she eat any of my fish/shrimp?

If anything goes wrong I have a spare two gallon...

 

[Nova]

The current should be fine, you really only have to worry about a strong filter with long fin males. She might think the shimp are tasty, I have bamboo shrimp in with my girls, and they're BIG, but they did eat the cherry shrimp I had in there last year. I saw a group of females tag team a mystery snail once and pull it out of its shell... It all depends on the temperament of the individual fish!

 

[Meggie :)]

the cherry shrimp is big...about ______________ this big...or bigger...it's pretty big

 

[Nova]

As long as their are hiding places, I really think that you'll be fine!