Male & Females in community tank

[ladynaoko]

Tomorrow my rainbow fish is finally going to the lfs.
I've always loved female fighters and I was reading in one of my books today that they can be ok in community tanks with a male - is this true? if so I intend to get 2. The tank has bogwood and lots of plants to hide in, but I thought it would be best to ask you guys first. I don't intend to buy any more fish for my tank but if the females could work I would consider getting them.

 

[slamster17]

i have a betta i wanted to breed but i think hes too old and hes is in a tank right now with 2 females with no problems so its really up to the fish.

 

[ladynaoko]

well, Steve is the most laid back Betta I know so hopefully it'll be ok.

 

[jacblades]

even if steve is very laid back, he probably hasnt seen a female in a while and would probably jump at the chance to harass one.
slamster has had his bettas together with a divider for a while and after the divider was removed, they were tired of/used to each other-but this is not the case with evry betta.

how big is the tank and what else will be in it?

 

[ladynaoko]

that is very true jac *nod*


The tank is approx 21.5 uk gallons and contains the following -
- 4 female platies
- 3 kuhlii loaches [Freddy, Jason & Chucky]
- 1 male betta [Steve]
- 4 Schwartz Corydoras Catfish
- 1 male Neon Blue Rainbow [going to lfs - bullying other fish 7/04]
- 3 Clown Plecos
- 7 White Clouds

I am aware that I'm overstocked, I was just considering getting them to have something else "pretty" in the tank once that rainbow fish goes. If you guys don't think it will be a good idea I'll leave it

 

[rollntider]

I probably wouldnt do it. I have a community female tank and they are like a bunch of mollies. The females are awesome.

 

[jacblades]

eeek-i odnt know how many us gallons 21.5 uk gallons would be

if you know you are overstocked though-dont do it.
even if you werent overstocked, i wouldnt do it anyways...

 

[the skunk]

it can be done.

 

[jacblades]

it can be done.

it would help if you elaborated some...

 

[wrs]

if theyre another kind, but its very rare to get a betta splendor ( i think thats spelled right, lol ) thats wont attack the females. I know that my male and female CT were together for like an hour once, and noone did anything to eachother, but he used to be a whimp and shes a very strong betta. so maybe if steves a whimp and you get some really strong girls it would be okay. but I dont think you should try it.

but if you do try it, get a 10 or 15 gallon tank, just the tank, you could make a top for it, and get four females, other wise theyll fight. ok.

 

[ladynaoko]

well I decided not to do it... but I came back from town this morning to see 4 females in my community tank

Turns out my mum thought she was doing me a favour and the place she got them has a crappy returns policy and won't take live fish back

One is REALLY nasty to Steve, so I borrowed a breeding trap and I put it in there for a while. Steve is having much joy harrassing the other females flaring and chasing and generally freaking out.

In a leap of faith I moved the lot of girls into the breeding trap and put it in Buxton's tank and to my surprise he didn't even look at them. There was no flaring, no chasing through the glass etc so I put two in there with him - and he's ignoring them. I've been watching them for a good hour and nobodys even flared - and I put the one that was bullying Steve in there. Looks like she just didn't like him.

I'm going to try keeping the other two in the trap in the big tank to see how Steve acts now that the "bully" has gone and if he decides to chill out a lot I may put them into the tank properly in an hour or so to see what happens. If I still get a bad result I'll put the other two in with Buxton and see what happens from there.

 

[ladynaoko]

well, I finally came up with a solution -

As Buxton is so calm around the girls, he's gone into the large tank with the girls. Steve has been moved into the smaller tank and has settled in well.