Sorority Was A Huge Mistake!

[GuppyGoddess]

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!

Amber - I sent you a PM.

 

[GuppyGoddess]

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.

Today I discussed the entire scenerio with two seperate LFS employees and both said that 6 females were too many. They both said that if I had put in three, there would have been a better outcome. As it stands, I have both of my males in their own 5-gallons, one female in a 10-gallon and the other two females in 2-gallons each. ALL three of those gals I kept at home were the ones who did NOT fight. In fact, one is prestine, the other two have just light nips. They made sure to avoid conflict, unlike the others who are being "treated" at the pet store as the store recommended.

Not sure of my plan, but *for now* I will be sure everyone has clean water and is fed.

 

[lilacamy931]

It will always be trial and error as to how these things work out, perhaps having them together longer wouldve worked, perhaps not. The point is now to get your 3 remaining girls on the road to recovery with plenty of fresh water and balanced food. I have not personally kept female bettas myself but from all resources that I have read it suggests minimum of 5/6 for the pecking order as lower numbers spread the aggression pinpointed more on individuals. If the 10g has no other fish in it other than one female, i would personally suggest dividing into three and having your three girls in there for a couple of reasons, they will all have better space to live in and you only need to treat one tank (with water changes and the salt)plus bonus of not having to run three individual heaters and filters which will rack up the electricity bill (point this out to hubby if he winces at the sight of two dividers and cheap as chips tubing). I have a 14g for three males divided and it works really well, much less effort than three individual tanks but also the display is nice and they get a little bit of interaction. Those are just my thoughts and hope the girls in the meantime perk up. Perhaps sell some of the equipment from the sorority and 2g to fund what you will need to have them in the 10g, as your being proactive can hubby really complain?

 

[JustKia]

Sorry hun but that is bad advice from your LFS right there.
There are many experienced betta keepers on here and they will all tell you that for a sorority you need at least 5-6 preferably more so that any aggression is spread out and targetted and any one female.
If you were to have 3 in a sorority you will most likely increase the chances of aggression.

I recently set up a sorority too. There's 6 girls in there right now - I did have 8. Out of those 8 I had one aggressor, she harrassed ALL of the other girls but especially 2 of them. By removing the aggressor (thank you LittleMonkey) it's all peaceful in there now.

Anytime you set up a sorority there is going to be several days of fighting, squabbling, fin nipping and what not until they figure out who is boss and who just does as they are told. Each time they are removed, or the tank rearranged they need ot resort the pecking order so you get a bit of squabbling.
The best thing to do is put them in, let them pretty much get on with it. If you see one being more aggressive than the rest, pop her into a breeding net/trap for a while and see if the rest of the girls sort themselves out.
Keep the water meticulously clean and add a small dose of aquarium salt (makes the water less habitable by bacteria and so helps keep any secodary infections at bay) and any nipped fins should heal nicley in a week or so.

Mind you were you 100% sure they were all female? Given that the LFS has suggested only having 3 females in a sorority I wonder if they also failed to separate males from females properly. Females have a clearly visible white ovipositor, although getting the little madams to stay still and turn the right way round so you can look can often be a challenge.

Plenty of plants/decor also helps minimise fighting as they have plenty of places to retreat and it breaks up the line of sight, so the weaker ones can move out of the way of the aggressors - flight rather than fight.

 

[jasminekiddell]

Absoultely agree with above ^
Trust me 3 girls wouldnt work, yes its been succesful for some people but no in the end its going to turn nasty. When i got my first female Angel, she seemed lonely all by herself and seena s she was from a sorority i thought she'd enjoy friends so i took the risk of trying 3 females just tos ee if it'd work and it didnt. The 3 girls, were all from the same home and lived togetehr i beleive but still they did mouth locks to eachother which was so bad not even my 2 hands would seperate it they bit eachother to shredds and this was all in the space of 10 minutes! Now i gave it a chance but just in those 10 minutes i knew 3 girls wouldnt work so i put them in seperate tubs. Then i bought 7 more girls and when all fish were together only 2 fighted which was 2 from my original 3, but the fighting wasnt half as bad as when it was 3 of them after about 3 days the fighting stopped and sicne then my sorority has been really peaceful apart from the odd nip and flares.
I beleive its down to the fish, and the setup. As JustKia said she had to remove one agressive female so sometimes yes its down to the betta. After my first experience with those 3 girls fighting i never thought they'd get along again but they did!

 

[tricia73au]

I did have 9 girls in one tank, 2 were so bosy, so now they both live alone the 7 that are left I've had no problems with. They are all happy little campers. I did put in extra plants and a small log to give more hidie holes, and not sure if that made the difference. The two females who now live alone, flare at the males through the glass dividers.

Both are crown tail females, wonder if that makes any difference too?

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Sorry hun but that is bad advice from your LFS right there.
There are many experienced betta keepers on here and they will all tell you that for a sorority you need at least 5-6 preferably more so that any aggression is spread out and targetted and any one female.
If you were to have 3 in a sorority you will most likely increase the chances of aggression.

I recently set up a sorority too. There's 6 girls in there right now - I did have 8. Out of those 8 I had one aggressor, she harrassed ALL of the other girls but especially 2 of them. By removing the aggressor (thank you LittleMonkey) it's all peaceful in there now.

Anytime you set up a sorority there is going to be several days of fighting, squabbling, fin nipping and what not until they figure out who is boss and who just does as they are told. Each time they are removed, or the tank rearranged they need ot resort the pecking order so you get a bit of squabbling.
The best thing to do is put them in, let them pretty much get on with it. If you see one being more aggressive than the rest, pop her into a breeding net/trap for a while and see if the rest of the girls sort themselves out.
Keep the water meticulously clean and add a small dose of aquarium salt (makes the water less habitable by bacteria and so helps keep any secodary infections at bay) and any nipped fins should heal nicley in a week or so.

Mind you were you 100% sure they were all female? Given that the LFS has suggested only having 3 females in a sorority I wonder if they also failed to separate males from females properly. Females have a clearly visible white ovipositor, although getting the little madams to stay still and turn the right way round so you can look can often be a challenge.

Plenty of plants/decor also helps minimise fighting as they have plenty of places to retreat and it breaks up the line of sight, so the weaker ones can move out of the way of the aggressors - flight rather than fight.

Yep, all were girls. All had ovipositors. I was sure to look. . .and I purchased them from two different stores. The only female that actually flared is one of the ones who NEVER attacked and still has healthy fins.

I'm happy with the decision I've made to keep my original female and one of the others (the one who flared) and return the rest.

I think it's irresponsible to purchase fish knowing they'll go through a phase of attacking and ripping each others fins, especially that now the fish risk infection.

 

[JustKia]

But then no-one would ever purchase any animals to be kept together.
If you add a new cat, the chances are your existing ones will be rather narked for a while and there will be some scrapping (maybe very mild, maybe quite serious) until the new and old assert their place in the pack.
If you move your horse to a new livery yard, or buy a new horse and turn it out with your existing horses - there will be an amount of time where there will be squabbling, maybe kicking and biting, until everyone asserts their new place in the pack.

As responsible fish owners it's a case of doing what you can to minimise trauma - Making sure the tank is big enough for our fish to live in safely, safe water conditions, providing hidey places, plants/decor to break line of sight, etc, etc.

It's totally your right to decide what fish to keep and what not to keep - I'm not even going into that.

What I am saying is that trying to keep 3 female bettas together is asking for more trouble than keeping 10 together. And that the info given to you by that LFS is not correct.
Whoever you choose to listen to is up to you - people here are just trying to help you make an informed choice.

Of course, if you're going to keep them all in separate tanks (or divisions of tanks) then it doesn't matter as they won't risk fighting injuries.

Please stop being defensive when we're trying to help. Yes, I know sometimes people tell you stuff you don't want to hear.
Gawd knows I've come across it and had to decide whether to heed the advice or not. I've gone against the grain and successfully kept a male betta with 3 females for an amount of time. That doesn't mean I would recommend it, it doesn't mean it's going to work for anyone else. I tried it because I knew I'd be on hand if anything broke out and I had somewhere to move them to if it didn't work. But the fact there remains that more often than not such a situation is going to end badly. It's the same with the sorority situation, 3 is more likely to end badly than 6 or 10 or 50.
We truly are not trying to poke holes in your fish keeping or opinions or whatever it may feel like, just trying to help you make an informed decision.

 

[Amberleaf]

I have 2 female Bettas living together, and they love each others!!!! ^^; 8D