Sorority Was A Huge Mistake!

[GuppyGoddess]

Yesterday I had rearranged my 10-gallon tank put the five new girls in along with my original (after acclimating - of course), and they went bizerk attacking each other. Three had many fin wounds almost immediately and the other three had none (including my original, Lilly). That night I went online and read tons of stories about how some had success and others thought they did, but months after the girls had been together, things would turn for the worst and half the females would end up being beating up to death during the night.

So, well, during the course of the night, my girl Lilly was attacked and had a nip out of her fin. Of the other two who hadn't been touched, another had a nip in the fin. . .one of the six is left without any marks.

It's just not going to work because I don't want to spend each day studying their behavior for aggressiveness. I'm upset that I spent so much time on this, plus confused my kids by returning yet more fish! Also, I'm not even sure if the fish are resellable AND my tank may have even been contaminated by disease one or more of the bettas may have.

I feel terrible about being irresponsible. So, I'm keeping my Lilly (of course) and put her back in the 10-gallon by herself and added stress coat and some aquarium salt. The other one without any marks is staying and being put in a small 2-gallon (because my son really wants her - he immediately named her). She also has aquarium salt and stress coat. For her small home, she's getting a heater and a filter of sorts - found a mini one at Petsmart. I'm not buying her a bigger tank *right now* because my husband is having a very difficult time understanding my continual rearranging/rebuying/spending of $ over this hobby. Seems I can't just have a few fish and be complete and he's annoyed. I'm kind of embarrassed about it, actually.

Three of the other are being returned.

There is one more I want to keep, but I guess it's not feasable.

Oh well. . .my long-winded sorority story.

Hopefully everyone interested in considering a sorority will have better luck than me.

 

[aly_starh]

There was going to be initial aggression, for dominance.
But seen as you have removed them, if you put them back together, you will have to go through the whole aggression thing again.

 

[kizno1]

theres always going to be aggression to start with but after they have sorted it out they will be fine. if you do get ride of them then why not put 2 divider in the 10g give one female 3g the other female 3g and the male the 4g

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Yes, the aggression part *at first* wasn't my problem. It was just too disturbing to read that some had success and then suddenly the fish killed each other months later.

Also, having my Lilly attacked kind of put a damper on things.

Right now, I'm sticking with the plan of taking some of them back. Later (or during) the holidays, I'll look into getting simple 5-gallon setups for the two in the 2-gallons.

My goal now is to make sure Lilly's fin heals.

 

[kizno1]

ive had mine for 3 months and there all fine i know loads of people that kept them and they have been fine.
you ca get tanks of ebay and carboot sales for a few £ have a look at them.

 

[Honeythorn]

Right now, I'm sticking with the plan of taking some of them back. Later (or during) the holidays, I'll look into getting simple 5-gallon setups for the two in the 2-gallons.

Ebay, garage/car boot sales, free/classified ads, all good places to look. Failing that plain clearseal tanks aren't too expensive ,and if you don't want to bother with getting a hood or light to have live plants, then a piece of clear perspex cut to fit ( with notches in the edge for wires and a few holes in the top for air ) and silk plants will work just fine alongg with the usual sponge filter and heater.

 

[Rezatii]

Awww, I'm sorry it didn't work out. Unfortunately a lot of aggression is expected at the beginning, I know Jasmine had trouble with hers especially, and Emma who had stow away boys from memory. If I were you I'd divide the 10g for both girls, it's big enough for 3 sections so put in some dividers and your alright, then you'd just need one heater and filter, much more cost effective you an tell hubby

-Rezz

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Right now, I'm sticking with the plan of taking some of them back. Later (or during) the holidays, I'll look into getting simple 5-gallon setups for the two in the 2-gallons.

Ebay, garage/car boot sales, free/classified ads, all good places to look. Failing that plain clearseal tanks aren't too expensive ,and if you don't want to bother with getting a hood or light to have live plants, then a piece of clear perspex cut to fit ( with notches in the edge for wires and a few holes in the top for air ) and silk plants will work just fine alongg with the usual sponge filter and heater.

Yeah, a store by me has the 5-gallon for $13.99 US dollars with a $16.00 glass cover fit to size and leaves room for heater and all that. I always leave about a 3/4" gap so my fish can breath. None of the fish seem to have a problem with that. Re: my dh. It's not the cost that's the issue, it's the buying of "yet more fish equipment" that's bugging him. I just need to tone down my love of the hobby. Some indian almond leaves are coming in the mail. Hopefully my bettas enjoy those to distract them from all the chaos.

 

[kelly528]

Aww! So sorry it didn't work out!

 

[kizno1]

Right now, I'm sticking with the plan of taking some of them back. Later (or during) the holidays, I'll look into getting simple 5-gallon setups for the two in the 2-gallons.

Ebay, garage/car boot sales, free/classified ads, all good places to look. Failing that plain clearseal tanks aren't too expensive ,and if you don't want to bother with getting a hood or light to have live plants, then a piece of clear perspex cut to fit ( with notches in the edge for wires and a few holes in the top for air ) and silk plants will work just fine alongg with the usual sponge filter and heater.

Yeah, a store by me has the 5-gallon for $13.99 US dollars with a $16.00 glass cover fit to size and leaves room for heater and all that. I always leave about a 3/4" gap so my fish can breath. None of the fish seem to have a problem with that. Re: my dh. It's not the cost that's the issue, it's the buying of "yet more fish equipment" that's bugging him. I just need to tone down my love of the hobby. Some indian almond leaves are coming in the mail. Hopefully my bettas enjoy those to distract them from all the chaos.

well its ether buy the equipment or get ride of it because the tank is way to small.
you can get heaters and fillters for a few £ at ebay evan at your lfs mine do little air fillter for £5 or normal once for £5.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Right now, I'm sticking with the plan of taking some of them back. Later (or during) the holidays, I'll look into getting simple 5-gallon setups for the two in the 2-gallons.

Ebay, garage/car boot sales, free/classified ads, all good places to look. Failing that plain clearseal tanks aren't too expensive ,and if you don't want to bother with getting a hood or light to have live plants, then a piece of clear perspex cut to fit ( with notches in the edge for wires and a few holes in the top for air ) and silk plants will work just fine alongg with the usual sponge filter and heater.

Yeah, a store by me has the 5-gallon for $13.99 US dollars with a $16.00 glass cover fit to size and leaves room for heater and all that. I always leave about a 3/4" gap so my fish can breath. None of the fish seem to have a problem with that. Re: my dh. It's not the cost that's the issue, it's the buying of "yet more fish equipment" that's bugging him. I just need to tone down my love of the hobby. Some indian almond leaves are coming in the mail. Hopefully my bettas enjoy those to distract them from all the chaos.

well its ether buy the equipment or get ride of it because the tank is way to small.
you can get heaters and fillters for a few £ at ebay evan at your lfs mine do little air fillter for £5 or normal once for £5.

Didn't I report you to the mods before for flaming me? One mod has said that regular water changes ensure a healthy betta and many breeders keep their stock in small containers to avoid fins being ripped.

Do you know the meaning of counterproductive? Well our exchanges on this forum display that.

Please do not respond to any of my posts again!

 

[kizno1]

haha are you being seriouse awww are you getting upset coz someone said your tank is to small.
and loads of people have said its to small why do you only say im flaming?
and 2g is way to small bettas can bearly trurn round in thatin the wild they live in rice padies will hundreds of liters to them self.

 

[jasminekiddell]

As rezz said i did have alot of trouble with fighting, when im next on my laptop (im on the computer now) ill show you a picture of my 2 females, Angel & midnight in a mess after they'd been fighting. Now in this situatuion i dont think you've left it long enough because for the first 4 hours after adding all females i had 4 hours of very violent fighting it was hard to sit back and watch them fight but i knew it was part of the heriachy etc so i left them and for atleast 3 days i had fighting but its what i expected. Now i've still got 10 girls and im sure its been oover a month and i do hav fish with nipped fins but its only normal sorority behaviour. I see it as the longer there togetehr the more used to hother they'll get. Its hard to see your favourite fsh be torn apart but it happened to Angel my favourite fish but i did my research before hand and knew what to expect.
Rezz knows and quite a few others know that i had aggressive fighting which ws much worse than others bettas in some ways. Also im happy my sorority has gne so well sicne i have 4 females who are 3 months older than my youngest.
Sometimes things just need a chance, but goodluck with your bettas.

 

[Amberleaf]

What happened at first when I first started owning Bettas, I only had Tropica in a 5-gallon tank. My Mom and I decided to get two more female Bettas. We released Aqua first -- Tropica chased her around the tank for a little bit, and then they started fighting. I had to quickly release Aqua into the 2.5-gallon I actually had set up beside it (and I had been planning to use it -- however, my Mom was all like, "One tank; that's it," or whatever, so I gave it to her to put in the living room later). Aqua explored, and then, we saw Tropica going after Taffy (who we had released while Aqua and Trops were fighting). My little sister and I got her out of there quickly, but she flopped out of the net and landed on my knee, and fell into my bean bag chair! We dived after her and absolutely *THREW* her into her little cup, and then we put her in my Mom's tank downstairs. Later, Aqua came in. They were the best of friends. <3

Now, after my disastrous sorority results (won't bother to explain, at least not right now), we put Queenie into the tank. Aqua flared at her every day randomly for quite a while -- it was quite funny, actually! She would just randomly, and slowly, come up behind Queenie and *FLARE*. XD All three of them were the best of friends until Taffy died, recentlys. Now, Aqua and Queenie still like each other a lot! ^^;

Even if things don't go right at the start, they *might* improve as time goes on!

 

[JustKia]

Maybe with all the trouble you've had with fish recently it's time to take a step back, look at why the problems have occurred and see what you can do to prevent future problems before you think about more fish. For your sake, the kids sake and not leastly the fishes sake.