Considering A Sorority - But Have Some Questions!

[Jenste]

I have a spare ten gallon set up - filter, heater, hood with lights, silk plants, sand etc etc...right now it only has a school of albino cories....they can be moved to the guppy tank if need be.

I was considering setting it up as a sorority -
so my questions are:
1.) is a ten gallon tank sufficient for a sorority?
2.) how many females could I have?
3.) if I am unable to buy them all at once, how do I go about adding the new female(s) with out the original female(s) beating them up? is it as simple as taking the original female(s) out, rearranging the decor, then adding them all at once?
4.) could I keep the cories in?
5.) are there any other fish who can live with a sorority?

I have had bettas before...but have never attempted a sorority....in truth, I had never heard of one before this site and the idea has become more and more intriguing to me as I think the females are quite stunning.

 

[Mauricia]

I think that having cories and bettas in a 10 gallon would be overstocked. You could add one betta to the school of cories or take the cories out. I believe people recommend 6 females for a 10 gallon but you don't want more or less. I personally have a 30 gallon sorority with 15 females. I would really try to buy them all at once. You also have to keep in mind some girls are just too aggressive to live with others so you'll have to have a plan as to what to do if this happens, have a backup individual tank or someone to take her. As for other fish, something like cories would be ok for a 20+ gallon but 10 is too small.

 

[Jenste]

ok thanks, as I said I can easily add the cories to my guppy tank...I have the cories in the ten gallon mostly to help keep the filter cycled.

reason I was asking about adding the females separately is the only lfs that I know that gets females only usually gets 1-3 per order....I inquired to see if they could get more and they said at most they could get me three....with a 2 week return policy - I could always take a female back if she is naughty and replace her with another one until I have an established hierarchy


anyone have any tips about keeping a sorority?

 

[Jenste]

would I be able to keep some ADF with a sorority?

 

[Mauricia]

Yeah if you can't get them all at once then you will want to take them out and completely redecorate the tank and then put them back in. If you could it might be ideal to keep the three girls separate until you get the others because 3 girls doesn't offer opportunity to spread out aggression. Hopefully someone else would share and opinion on this, but you could put the girls in breeding traps inside the 10 gallon and that would allow them to have steady temperatures and clean water while keeping them separate. Breeding traps are good to invest in if you're going to have a sorority because if a girl gets hurt you're going to want to separate her so she can heal in peace. Also if one girl is really aggressive you can keep her in a breeding trap for a couple days to let her settle and get used to the others.
As for ADFs, I think they are compatible with most bettas, but I personally wouldn't put them in a 10 gallon with 6 girls because I think that's too high of a bioload. 6 girls is already a tad overstocked, and I really don't think a 10 gallon sorority offers opportunity for tank mates. Your filter might not cope and you may have to do more than weekly water changes, I would guess.