Planning first ever Betta sorority

[Betta Fan]

I’m in the very early stages of planning my first Betta sorority tank (bought a 65gal long tank + heater, light, filters etc). I am not new to Bettas, but I’ve only ever kept solitary males. I’ve heard a few horror stories from people who tried a sorority in smaller tanks (a 10gal- yeesh), and would love some more insight from people who have experience with this.

My goal for this tank is to have it be a heavily planted, possibly dirted with a sand cap. Substrate recommendations would be greatly appreciated, hoping to keep it somewhat affordable. Currently in my 20gal solitary betta tank I have a clay based substrate layer, capped with sand + gravel, which I find works well, but I hear so many different opinions regarding substrates.

A few of my local fish stores stock groups of female bettas together, so I am planning to get a group of 5 all from the same tank. My hope is that by doing this (and adding them all simultaneously, of course), the risks of aggression will be lower.

I haven’t heard any stories from someone who did it the “right” way, with a proper tank size and adequate coverage. Whether a success or fail, I would appreciate insight from people who have tried this in a large tank that’s been adequately prepped for a sorority.

I am willing to part ways with this dream of mine if it would put fish in any distress/harm, and just plan an entirely different community.

 

[Innesfan]

I haven’t heard any stories from someone who did it the “right” way, with a proper tank size and adequate coverage.

That's because most betta sororities fail. Some would say all betta sororities fail eventually. That said, starting with a 65g and doing a jungle-dense planting may give you a shot or at least forestall the inevitable. Housing it with true sisters from the same spawn that have never been separated is the other path to greater success. That was true in my case many years ago. Also, are you saying your total planned population is 5? It is recommended that many times that number--nearly to the point of overstocking-- will give you a better outcome and disperse aggression.

 

[Gertrudae]

Does it have to be Betta splendens? Try getting Betta imbellis or B. smaragdina. You can keep them in mixed groups, and they will reproduce in the type of setup you have planned.

 

[Betta Fan]

I’m not opposed at all to increasing the number of fish if that would help disperse any aggression. My LFS seems to have about 20-30 bettas from what appears to be a sibling group (I have to inquire further about this), so increasing the amount I get at once would be doable.

I’ve seen a few people say this, that it is doomed to fail no matter what you do, and if thats the consensus I’ll scrap the idea entirely!

 

[Betta Fan]

Does it have to be Betta splendens? Try getting Betta imbellis or B. smaragdina. You can keep them in mixed groups, and they will reproduce in the type of setup you have planned.

Does it have to be Betta splendens? Try getting Betta imbellis or B. smaragdina. You can keep them in mixed groups, and they will reproduce in the type of setup you have planned.

I was looking into getting Betta imbellis, they still have the striking colours and personality I love, and I’ve heard better things about them in groups. Luckily they are easy for me to source in my area as well.

 

[Archerfish]

That's because most betta sororities fail. Some would say all betta sororities fail eventually. That said, starting with a 65g and doing a jungle-dense planting may give you a shot or at least forestall the inevitable. Housing it with true sisters from the same spawn that have never been separated is the other path to greater success. That was true in my case many years ago. Also, are you saying your total planned population is 5? It is recommended that many time that number--nearly to the point of overstocking-- will give you a better outcome and disperse aggression.

Spot on @Innesfan. Back in 2005 or so, I visited the Iowa home of Dr. Gene Lucas who was a famous betta expert and breeder. I spent the day with him and came away much smarter than when I arrived! While touring his fish room and discussing breeding and hybridization, I came across a tank full of male bettas. It was simply astonishing. He told me they were all siblings. It wasn't a case of them living a non-aggressive life, rather, it was being raised together and having enough to space and quantity of fish to prevent any one of them from being singled out. It was really fascinating. Dr. Lucas was a remarkable, kind man and I am grateful for his contributions to our hobby.

 

[Innesfan]

Spot on @Innesfan. Back in 2005 or so, I visited the Iowa home of Dr. Gene Lucas who was a famous betta expert and breeder.

Thanks for sharing that. He was one of the giants, especially for bettas. Founder of the IBC among other notable contributions to the hobby and our knowledge base.

 

[GaryE]

When I bred plakats from Thailand, I gave the sibling group to a man with a 65 gallon open topped tank with large Pistia on the surface, and the roots hanging down. He astonished me as he kept the whole group, males and females together, and the tank had run peacefully for over a year before I lost touch with him.

So a sibling group of females should work, but in a large, shallow tank in a large group. One of the problems you have buying Bettas for such a set up is a lot of farms sell plakat, short finned females to screw up 'compeitive' hobbyist breeding of long finned fancy Bettas. The young never look like the fancy parents from those spawnings.

But in many cases, short finned males get mixed in with the shipping, and that's where 'sororities' can blow up quickly. One local store owner told me that his last ten imports of females from Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore had included anywhere from 10 to 25% cryptic males. He would sort them out by behaviour.

 

[plebian]

I've only recently begun keeping Betta splendens (plakat females), but I've had no problems whatsoever. In fact, they've become one of my favorites species. They display less aggressive behavior than several species of tetras I've kept in the past, they are fearless, and they are not fussy when it comes to food. I currently have 7 individuals from 3 different sibling groups. They are housed in a community aquarium with a pair of adult discus and ~50 blue neon tetras.

I believe the key to keeping Bettas is space. My aquarium is very sparsely planted, but it's a 180 gallon (long custom). I actually started with a larger number Bettas, but some of them did not meet my expectations (shape, color) so I gave them to a local fish store. I was keeping 4 of them in a 20 gallon QT for over a week prior to transport, and there were no issues with aggression whatsoever. That changed as soon as I transferred them to a 5 gallon bucket for delivery to the fish store.

As an aside, all my Bettas are from Thai farms.

As for substrate, the reason for using anything other than fine gravel eludes me, unless one is more interested in keeping plants than fish. Even so, many, if not most plants do just fine in gravel and many popular species don't require substrate at all. In any case, there are far fewer maintenance issues.

 

[Gertrudae]

I believe the key to keeping Bettas is space. My aquarium is very sparsely planted, but it's a 180 gallon

They need the possibility to swim outside another's sight. In such a large tank, it's the sheer size. In their natural habitat, bettas live in shallow waters with lots and lots of underwater plants. They like to sneak through this underwater jungle – look at the way they swim: they swim a short distance, look around, swim a little further. Just like any other predator moves through dense undergrowth.

Please don't keep them in sparsely planted tanks! An aquarium is suitable for betta fish if you cannot see through at least two-thirds of it to the back pane.

 

[GaryE]

I'm thinking about this sorority issue. I've never intentionally made them , but when I had lots of young Bettas, I had several as grow outs. They followed the pattern @Gertrudae describes - larger and plant choked. The wild card is they were sibling groups. I never had any aggression worth worrying about.

I've never had any Betta splendens kill a tankmate (shrimp don't count - they're food). I'd estimate that over the 40 or so years I had fancy Bettas in every community, I must have had 30 or more males, as I often had several at once. If I kept them in 5 or 10 gallon tanks, they were alone. In larger tanks (30 inch, 75cm front glass) the tanks were always rich with floating plants - Najas, hornwort, 'anacharis' and such. I've always considered splendens fancy males to be more victims, as faster tankmates sometimes discover how tasty the fins can be. The overbred fish are defenceless with all the drag those fins create.

I won't keep any more fancy Bettas because the fins have crossed a line, in my mind. But no male Betta here as ever killed a tankmate.

Females don't hold territories from what I see. They cruise about, disliking their sisters but not having any incentive to fight if the tank is appropriately sized. But I've watched go pro footage of wild splendens in ponds with deep water, one to two metres from appearances, and they hung out in the plant tangles at the top. The environment was really rich in plants and close to impassable in places around the main male being filmed (he was close to the pond bank). You could see what looked like small barbs or rasboras passing closer to the bottom, but the male Bettas (2 or 3 others appeared) were looking up.

 

[plebian]

Please don't keep them in sparsely planted tanks! An aquarium is suitable for betta fish if you cannot see through at least two-thirds of it to the back pane.

This is simply nonsense. Of the 7 Bettas I have, only one like to lounge in 1 of the 5 plants I have. The others prefer hanging out around the power heads, lounging on the gravel substrate or on the driftwood, or hanging out in the same driftwood cave that an L134 calls home. They spend most of their time casually moving about the tank, mostly near the surface or mid-water, occasionally in close association with one another.

So many myths have been perpetuated by earlier fish collectors who reported water parameters, etc. specific to the location the fish were first "discovered". As it turns out, many (perhaps most) species can be found in diverse habits and water conditions. A classic example of this is Symphysodon (discus), which is almost universally described as a blackwater fish, when in fact they also inhabit whitewater and clearwater habitats.

I can say with complete confidence that my Bettas are happier than the vast majority that are kept in small aquariums better described as "bottles", regardless of the presence of plants.

 

[GaryE]

This is simply nonsense.

Our goal is to increase the chances a person has to keep a Betta sorority of fish that meet up in their tank after purchase. Go with a heavily planted set up and you'll be closer to the natural habitat of the wild fish as documented by many researchers. I've never stepped into a stream and discovered it to be glass lined with silicone edges!

The bottom line is we are in an unnatural hobby. The standard pet store Betta splendens is a beautiful monstrosity compared to the fish it originated from, but we like that and work hard to make the fish farther and farther from its natural roots. We do the same with making odd coloured Discus out of beauties from both white and blackwater habitats. Bare tanks are the natural habitat of manufactured fish, and wild fish originate in different looking habitats.

So it comes to choices, not black and white absolutes. How we plant is one strongly held view among aquarists, as is how some people don't plant. Generally, both techniques work, though my experience of Betta splendens says planting increases your odds of peace. I think it's more practical, no nonsense advice for the question at hand.

 

[plebian]

I think it's more practical, no nonsense advice for the question at hand.

Except you're wrong. Heavily planted tanks are an order of magnitude more difficult to maintain. The only thing you're right about is the artificial nature of aquariums. And still, people insist on trying to make them "natural".

Nature is generally a very unpleasant place to live in. Hence human cities. I'm quite certain the fish I keep live longer lives than they would in their natural habitat. I'm also quite certain that the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of Bettas being exported out Thailand (not to mention Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Laos) will not live as long as they will in my sparsely planted aquarium. That's why they're being sold by the hundreds of thousands--to replace all those that have lived very short lives.

It never fails to amaze me how easily people dismiss facts that contradict their preconceived beliefs. I could present a compendium of facts, photos, videos, etc. supporting my statements, but what's the point. People see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear, and believe what they want to believe. It's called "confirmation bias".

 

[Gertrudae]

Heavily planted tanks are an order of magnitude more difficult to maintain.

So it's not about the fish but your ability to grow plants and that you are not willing to make efforts.

And still, people insist on trying to make them "natural".

Every animal tries to follow its instincts. This can mean "finding a large group of conspecifics and a wide open space where predators can be spotted from a distance" or "hiding in certain structures and defending this place against other fish like itself".

I'm also quite certain that the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of Bettas being exported out Thailand (not to mention Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Laos) will not live as long as they will in my sparsely planted aquarium.

Of course, you can measure yourself against those for whom a betta is just a decorative item...

It never fails to amaze me how easily people dismiss facts that contradict their preconceived beliefs

Where are your facts, apart from anecdotal evidence?

And have you ever seen a short-finned betta in a densely planted aquarium?

People see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear, and believe what they want to believe. It's called "confirmation bias".

So true ...