2 females in a 5 gal

[guppy_man]

hi i have a 5 gal tank with a 1inch female betta in but i heard that you can keep female bettas together so i was thinking with all this room i have left i might go and get another female betta from the same tank as i got the other one from
would it be ok?.

 

[BettaMomma]

No.
Been there, done that - they will NOT get along.

There's a natural pecking order that will be established - one will be the "queen bee" of the tank and her responsibility will be to keep the "others" in line and just generally be a haggy snot to them. And, since there would only be one other fish in the tank, that one will live a horrible life.

Don't even try it - I did and I paid for it. The littlest one that was in there had to be in a quarantined 1/2 gallon tank for several weeks alone to recover from her wounds and emotional scars.

 

[guppy_man]

what size tanks do you keep all your bettas in??

 

[BettaMomma]

My girls (all 6 of them) are in a 10G tank.
I have another 10G tank that's divided - 2 of my boys are in there.
4 of my boys are each in a 2.5G tank
2 of my boys are each in a 1G tank

 

[RandomWiktor]

The generally accepted value for tank size and # of female bettas is at least 10 HEAVILY planted gallons with 5 females. This lets them establish a heirarchy, gives them space to escape one another, and offers places to hide. One on one, they will kill each other in almost all cases, and even in a 10 gallon with 5 individuals, peace is not guarenteed.

I'd say just let the betta girl be alone in the 5 gal; she'll appreciate the space. Bettas aren't especially social, so they really don't mind being kept alone. In fact, being so territorial, they probably prefer solitude.

 

[Kiarra]

If you wanted two females in a 5, you could always divide it so they couldn't reach each other.

 

[Elise]

I had the same experience. With two fems in a 5 gal. One killed the other. I have two in a heavy planted 5 gal now, but that will be changing shortly as one girl just attacked the other. I even tried the trick of taking the least aggressive fish in first right after I rearranged the tank so the tank became hers and then put the aggressor in...that only worked for a while. I say split the tank, my bettas in my split tank love each other.

My tanks are:

1 gal w/ rescue female betta still recovering

5 gal w/ two female bettas (also very temporary)

2.5 split w/ two males