I Need A Lot Of Help

[barb-e]

I have two female bettas and I just don't know what to do with them. I keep asking my mom but she knows nothing about fish so i've turned to you guys.

My original plan was to have 2 female bettas and 3 cherry barbs in my ten gallon. But now i'm afraid that my bigger female might be aggressive towards my other betta. Whenever i move the paper from between their bowls they flare at eachother and it freaks me out .

So then I came up with two other plans.
1)Buy one more female betta and put all three of them in the ten gallon together .
2)Put my smaller female in the tank with the cherry barbs and keep the other in her bowl .

I keep thinking of all the things that could go wrong with either of the three plans. What do you all think I should do?

HELP

 

[Betta91]

Flaring isn't always bad, it can also be a mating dance. If you're worried, you should probably only stick to having the one male in the tank or multiple females. The better choice would be the multiple females because males tend to sometimes get their long fins caught in the filters.

 

[*Fishkies*]

If they never take a break from flaring at each other i'd say only put one in the 10gallon tank and leave the other in the bowl.

I mean it may be different if you try to put them togther, i'm not sure. You could always put them together into the 10gallon tank and watch them for a few minutes and see how they get along, and if nothing is going wrong then maybe after all you could leave them together. But i'd be sure to watch them for a while if you try that. Some females just won't ever get along with another female.

Good Luck!

 

[Booboo puppy]

Most of the folks will advise that 5 is the minimum number for a successful female betta "sorority". At a minimum, you should add one more female and move things around in the tank so that the three of them are all starting at the same point when determining territories. You will need lots of plants and hiding spots so that they can get away when they want/need to do so.

I had one female that fought with every other female within minutes of putting her with the others in a sorority tank. She was moved to her own 2.5 gallon tank where she was active and appeared happy.

 

[barb-e]

I guess I should of anticipated that everyone would give me a different answer. Thanks though. Any more ideas?

 

[DarkEntity]

If you have a community tank move one into that and leave the other in the 10 gall alone. The other option is to create a sorority tank as described with a minimum of 5 females. When doing this make sure to completely re arrange the plants, wood etc so that there are no defined territories.

 

[barb-e]

The only tank I have is the ten gallon and the bowls my bettas are in now. They aren't in the tank yet. I would be adding them at the same time so I don't think i'd have the territory problem. What about my cherry barbs though. If they have already set up their territories would this be a problem?

 

[barb-e]

Um...anymore advice??

 

[GoldfishAttentionSpan]

What about dividing the ten gallon, but I'm not sure how to do the barbs then?

 

[Dan-25]

ill probably get some grief for this but hey -

why not just try the bettas in the tank and see what happens if they start to flare and fight then at least you will know to keep them in seperate tanks - but on the other hand if they get on with each other there will be no problems.

just try it at least it will put your mind at rest.

i have recently put two females with my single female and they flare at each other every so often and sometimes they get on.

but being male ill never understand females.

Dan

 

[barb-e]

I tried putting them together this morning. At first they were swimming together and they would flare every so often but then they just attacked each other, twice . Both of their fins are a mess. I'll be keeping them in bowls from now on and maybe later I upgrade them each to their own little 2 gallon tanks . I'm thinking of other fish to put with my cherry barbs now. Oh yeah. One of the bettas had the nerve to nip at my little cherry barb boy . (Don't feel guilty. I actually did all of this before I read your post)