New Sorority

[JustFrozen]

Some of you may have seen my fishless cycle thread, it was a long one as the cycle took over 4 months and never finished. For various reasons I decided to go with a betta sorority instead of my plans of a tetra community tank.

As for the tank, it's a 25 gal acrylic 3 feet wide. I always read here that if you're unsure about how to decorate it, just still as close to your original vision as possible. I originally visioned something like an exotic tropical island setting. White sand, palm trees, etc.

Here are some pics of my tank, starting with it as a water garden (which it remained to be during most of the cycle):

Next, after sand had been added:

And now, how the tanks currently look:

And here are 5 of 6 tank mates. I'll get a pic of the last one soon. She's very different than the rest

All those were of them in their cups still before going in. I'll try to get some more of them in their new home

 

[woodstock]

Looks cute! Is it possible to get an entire tank shot of the group ?

 

[LilyRose Tank]

It looks lovely JF well done

 

[betta fish]

Very nice tank, looks like you may have a male lurking in your tank though! the fish on the top left of your tank shot looks like one but perhaps this is the fish that is very different from the rest? lovely fish too

 

[waterdrop]

Looks great JF! WD

 

[cheekysbabe]

Looks great!! Well done.

 

[JustFrozen]

Thanks all, I appreciate the positive comments

Very nice tank, looks like you may have a male lurking in your tank though! the fish on the top left of your tank shot looks like one but perhaps this is the fish that is very different from the rest? lovely fish too

I think that is just artifacts in the picture from the camera flash reflections. I'm not even sure what that white band is there in that shot - it's not from anything in the tank.

I'm a bit worried about the horizontal strips on some of them as I've heard they are signs of stress or fear. I've also heard they just occur naturally the same as other color traits. Well, I'm sure the move to the new home was stressful anyway. Only aggression I've seen so far was a short bickering between two of the blue ones, but that was right after they were added when they were the only ones yet in the tank. I've not yet seen any signs of fighting or pecking since they all made it in

 

[JustFrozen]

Okay it's been awhile but here's a couple more pics as promised. Still not great shots, but they are group shots in the tank.

The little white on at the top of each shot is the one I didn't have a pic of before. BTW, this it the same scene every day when they're expecting food lol they just crowd together at the end of the tank and try to convince me to do it

Really great so far, still no bickering, all fins look great, zero ammonia and nitrite. Great success so far!

I'm wondering, since things are going so well, if I could add some more...

 

[keithp]

WOW! Wish I could have a sorority tank like that it would be fun to be able to have multiple females!

 

[BethK]

Happy families! Maybe try adding 1 more

 

[silverrabbit]

You could deffo add some more girls. I know on another Betta forum I frequent, people keep 10-12 in a 3ft tank. As long as there are plants and hidey-holes (which your tank has - looks fab btw) the higher number will spread the aggression well. I have 10 females atm and there is no bickering at all

 

[krista522]

The first female you posted a pic of looks just like my old Dory, miss her

 

[JustFrozen]

Thought I'd update this old thread. Since I last posted there's been quite a few changes to the tank. Its got a lot more members now, and I also had an unfortunate accident involving a piece of decoration - a couple fish got trapped under a plate of plastic and I had to pry them out. One of them only got some torn fins, the other got smashed up quite a bit =( torn scales all over, gashes on the front side, and almost all the fins gone. I almost put it out of its misery but since it was still alive and I couldn't go through with killing it, I decided to try to nurse it back to health. Well, it made a full recovery and is now back to being a happy member of the community =)

I've got 11 in my tank now! And one more on the way that I just got a week ago. She's in a quarantine tank for one more week and then I'll be at 12 (probably stop around that lol - MAYBE one more if I absolutely cannot resist).

Here's a couple pictures of some of the new ladies - I'll post more soon!

 

[JustFrozen]

*sigh* the power had to be turned off while i was not at home and my HOB filter died because either no one was there or no one thought to put water in it when it turned back on

my heater also had to go recently because it was not stopping at the proper temperature. the tank now hovers around 70F

well at least this gives me a chance to get a working heater, a canister filter, and some lights while i'm at it.

some of my fish look really fat, i think i've been over-feeding them and i'm trying to balance it out.