Female Bettas In A Community Tank?

[KrystaK]

Link to initial thread: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/424543-female-bettas-in-a-community-tank/
 
So I'm thinking of adding my 5 female Betta's into my 30 Gal tank. The tank already has fish in it, but I'g going to re-home most of them (As the initial thread says.) 
Anyways, I wanted to know if anyone has had any success with keeping any types of schooling fish with Female Betta's? (Or any other fish for that matter.) 

 

[attibones]

If you are keeping just the BNP and the corydoras, it may work, if you add a ton of plants and bump that number of females way up. I'm not sure if it would work, but I do know that they need to be in larger groups to spread aggression (which is why I've got 16 females in a 20 gallon, instead of 8 or so).

 

[KrystaK]

Well I've never had any problem with these girls. They're all peaceful I was thinking that adding them to my 30 gal would just mean they had more space to roam about, so they could have larger 'territories' and be happier.
 
IMO 16 in a 20 gal is way over stocked. I felt 8-10 would have been a big enough number for the tank size. I know there's that opinion that over stocking with females is good, to spread aggression, but you still have to consider the health and well being of the fish. The fact that there are more means the aggression is spread out, but it also means there is more aggression to go around. 
 
Besides, when I had a larger number of females (I had 7 at the beginning. One died due to disease, and the other was the dominant female until the rest all ganged up on her.(Ironically said female was the most aggressive in the tank by far and she was the one to be killed, I think the others had had enough of her tyranny.))
 
Anyways, I posted here, really wanting to know if any other members have successfully kept female Betta's with any other fish (And what kind of fish). I did this with a male Betta and a Molly and it worked out rather well. I was hoping to go with Platy's or possibly a type of schooling fish, such as Cherry Barbs. 

 

[attibones]

Well it's sort of like keeping African cichlids. Their bioload is not too heavy and I have tons of plants and hiding places.

Regardless, I certainly would not keep bettas with cherry barbs. While these are the most peaceful out of all the barbs, they are still zippy and sometimes nippy. Your females would not appreciate any of this.

If you do end up doing this, I would probably go with a more peaceful schooling fish. Maybe threadfins? Or, perhaps, cardinal tetras?