Setting Up Betta Sorority

[OneOnion]

Hello, I'm thinking of stocking my currently cycling 10 gallon with 6 or so female bettas. I'd like to know the basic information needed on setting up one of these, like, how to add them into the tank, or if I can have different tail types together, and also if there's anything important I need to know, please tell me. Anything will help, even providing a link would help a lot. Thanks.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

You'll get lots of great advice from here. Many have had successful sororities. My advice would be to have a back up plan if things go wrong. Most females will fight at first to establish a ranking order of domination. The day I brought home five bettas to add to a tank which had already housed my only female betta (Lilly), I took out her and rearranged all the decor and then put all the girls in at once. It was a frightful site and I couldn't bare it. Three of them were horribly agressive and ripped each other to shreds. The next morning, I woke up to find another of the new ones ripped up, and my original Lilly with a small fin nip and one left untouched. It was too much for me, so I had to rehome four of the girls and I kept the first one (lilly) I already had and she's in the 10-gallon and the other who never had a fin ripped up and she's in a 3-gallon.

I think if you can handle them being aggressive at first, you'll be a good sorority parent. If it's difficult for you to watch, you may want to consider a second back-up plan. I had 2 extra 2-gallon bowls sitting by in case the fish did fight, which they did and those helped house a few of the meaner ones until I could take them to the LFS.

 

[OneOnion]

You'll get lots of great advice from here. Many have had successful sororities. My advice would be to have a back up plan if things go wrong. Most females will fight at first to establish a ranking order of domination. The day I brought home five bettas to add to a tank which had already housed my only female betta (Lilly), I took out her and rearranged all the decor and then put all the girls in at once. It was a frightful site and I couldn't bare it. Three of them were horribly agressive and ripped each other to shreds. The next morning, I woke up to find another of the new ones ripped up, and my original Lilly with a small fin nip and one left untouched. It was too much for me, so I had to rehome four of the girls and I kept the first one (lilly) I already had and she's in the 10-gallon and the other who never had a fin ripped up and she's in a 3-gallon.

I think if you can handle them being aggressive at first, you'll be a good sorority parent. If it's difficult for you to watch, you may want to consider a second back-up plan. I had 2 extra 2-gallon bowls sitting by in case the fish did fight, which they did and those helped house a few of the meaner ones until I could take them to the LFS.

Thanks. I'll probably be able to handle it, I know there will be some aggresion in the beginning. But I doubt that I'll be allowed to keep them all in separate tanks if something happens, so there isn't really a backup plan x__x . At Petco, though, there's a nice person who, before when I bought my betta for a shrimp tank, said that if there's any aggression between the betta and shrimp I could return the betta. Maybe they'll take some of the female bettas that are causing trouble back, too?

Also, I'd like to know about the best order in adding the bettas? I heard of different methods, but what's the best way?

 

[aly_starh]

Congrats!

6 females will fit in nicely in that tank. The tank should be *well* planted. (Id say over plant)
When adding the girls into the tank, try adding them all at once, if one is added before the other, she will be the *dominent* one as she was added first, then later this could pose problems.

When you add them in, prepare yourself for an hour or so of strong aggression, initially. This is just to sort out the hierarchy. But, if they go too extreme, and one repeatedly keeps on ghetting bullied, take the rest out and leave her in for 10 mins or so alone, then add the other girls. This will mean the one getting bullied will be dominent, etc. After the dominence is sorted, there still may be occasional tiffs.

Hope that helps, if it made sense

Good Luck!

EDIT: Dont change the tank *objects* around too often, because the whole process of dominence will start again.

 

[soph_betta]

I have a 65litre female tank with at present 8 females and its working very well!

You can see my tank in the journals section! Make sure you have a hiding place for each betta!

Female bettas can easily live happerly togther as long as a pecking order is established!

My personal experence would be to start get three - four, as the more you get the longer the pecking order is going to be and more fights will incure!

Be prepaired for tail and fin damage as I was and its natural that there are going to be fights for the first few days so dont expect everyone to be happy in a matter of hours!

Be prepaied to do lots of waterchanges to help there fins heel quickly! I also half dosed melafix for the first four days to help heeling, but some people prefure aquarium salt.

The best thing that I found great was to have a breeder net or two on hand as if the fighting gets really bad take the aggressive one out and put in the breeder net in the top of the sorority so they can still see each other but cant hurt each other, the moment you remove then from the tank compleatly means more fights when they go back in!

When they are settled say two - three weeks go back to where you are getting them for and watch the tank for 5 mins as you will pick out the highest and lowest ranked bettas and the best place to choose them from is the middle rankings as it wont cause too many fights.

A good tip when you are introducing bettas is once you have aclimatised the new one or two have ready some bloodworm or brineshrimp (food they really love) and when you drop the female/s in also drop the food in as the other bettas will be so interested in food they wont bother the newbie and she gets chance to have a sneeky look around without upsetting any one!

 

[OneOnion]

Sounds clear enough, I guess. But what if when I go to Petco to buy my fish, I only see one or two that are actually moving or 1 or 2 that I like? Should I buy them and leave them in the small cups doing daily water changes until I go back a few days later and see if they have any new ones? Also, my mom is worried that they won't get along and one might die, so what's the average percentage of people setting up one of these, and it fails horribly? And what are the chances of a betta actually dying when it's set up?

 

[aly_starh]

If you find only 1 or 2 that you like you can surely buy them, but when you do get the others, take the existing few out, pop in the new ones, leave them for a few minutes, the put in the old ones. This will in turn have less trauma on the first group in terms of aggression.

When setting up the sorority, no betta will die aslong as you keep a close eye on them

Also, you can keep any tail-type together.

 

[soph_betta]

If you can only get one or two then get them if you like them and pop them in to breeder nets in the top of the tank, at least then you wont need to be doing daily water changes on such tiny cups and stressing the fish more due to the fluctuations in water quality every day.

This way also they can see each other without attacking / getting aggressive with each other and probably be easier to get on once released in to the tank.

I have not had a female die on me due to aggression or fights yet and as long as you moniter for the first few days you shouldnt get that unless there is a much weaker/ unhealthy one.

 

[OneOnion]

Thanks. Anyway,

In case you haven't seen it, here's my plan for my ten gallon(which will house the bettas)!

 

[Haych]

that made me titter looks like a kids paint by numbers!

i'm currently in the process of setting up a betta / sorority so have ben reading this

 

[Amberleaf]

Here's some advice from meh. ^^;

All righty. So, at Petco, they keep the Bettas in small little cups? This is both a blessing, *and* a curse. In a way, it's bad for the Bettas to keep them in such small cups like that, but at least you don't have to worry (as you would have to if the Bettas already happen to be living together in a store) about a set-up hierarchy beforehand! ^^;

I just set up a sorority today. Since I was moving around some fish, and my male Betta was going in the tank with the females along with some platies, I had to move the females beforehand. This was carried out by a *lot* of buckets. Mr. Wimpy Fish was in a bucket, both females were in separate buckets (EACH), and all the platies were together. ^^; I had taken out some ornaments beforehand, and, since I couldn't let them stay in the buckets for too long, I put them in the tank. Later, when I went out to PetSmart (where I get all my female Bettas from, because they all live in small little cups there; read above), I put them back in the buckets, added the ornaments, and went. I got 5 beautifully gorgeous females there. ^^;

They couldn't see each other, so it was ideal. Also, the tank was a bit different. ^^; When I got home, I floated the cups (with the tops *OFF*, because they will sink if the tops are on), in the tank, and, after a little while (I had to do high-class creeping to get up the stairs, because it was my Mom's idea to get the females, but we've spent over $200 on tank stuff in the last *WEEK* alone.... ; We got our new 55-gallon tank, thoughs, so that's why ^^; But, yeah, we had to make sure that my Dad *DIDN'T* know about these new females.... ^^; ), I poured the females in, letting the water from the cup out into the tank water (blehs, it's fine; you wouldn't buy sick females, anyways, so there's nothing dangerous *in* the water of healthy females.... ^^; ), literally just *ONE AFTER THE OTHERS*. ^^; I also poured Queenie & Aqua out of their buckets in quick successions, and.... No issues! ^^;

Two females had been spazzing, glaring at each other and flaring from in their cups while they were floating in the tank's waters (for temperature equalization), so I released them just a bit earlier than I had *intended* to. ^^; They looked like they were going to fight, but thens, the dominant figures of Queenie & Aqua came in....

You'll do just fines! ^^; I did, after alls. Luckily, my females never really fight. ^^; >

 

[OneOnion]

Haych: Lol, yeah. I got the idea from another member's planted tank journal... I tried looking for it but couldn't find it though. And yeah, I've seen your thread about the tank you're setting up, great idea! Hope it goes well.

Amberleaf: Thanks, especially about how you poured them directly into the tank. I was about to ask how people transferred theirs from the cup into the net, because I used a net when I transferred my male betta, and he kinda got stuck in it for a second .

Anyway, I can't wait until the tank's done cycling. I think I'm at least 1/3 or halfway done with the cycle, and it should be done(including the week you just watch and see it's ok) right before Christmas.