Sorority Woes

[Imber]

Okay I have a 29g planted tank that has been running with 5 cories with the expectation of turning it into a betta sorority. Well I decided to add my 7 girls to it a little bit ago and I'm getting some pretty nasty aggression from 2 of them.... They are biting and the one has already taken a pretty sizable chunk out of the other's fins and when they lose sight of each other they seem to go after someone else. Is this normal? I'm really concerned that they'll hurt each other and I can't salt because of the plants. I read that it would be kind of spotty for the first couple of days until they established a pecking order but I wasn't expecting big bite marks in fins in the first 10 minutes. Should I seperate the trouble makers? Thanks!

Oh and I forgot to give the history of the bratty girl. The one that seems to be the aggressor used to be quarantined in a divided tank with one of the other girls. One night they breached the divider and one was all beaten up and the other one didn't have a scratch on her. I just figured that one was a fighter and one was a victim, but the victim from that fight is the one doing the aggressing now. This was months ago and she is all healed up(well was until a few minutes ago when she got a chunk taken out). Now I'm wondering if she's aggressive but just really bad at it and baits others into fighting and gets her butt kicked.

 

[zoekin8yg]

If you have just added them you will get some fighting until they have established the hierarchy, keep an eye on them. If it carries on or is really bad then remove the more agressive girls. I think you can add melafix with plants, although dont forget for bettas you need to half the dose

 

[Imber]

Okay thank you for the advice. I just added some melafix for them. I added some more pots for them too as they weren't really using the slate caves and all trying to hide in the floating anacharis together. Some of them are so sweet and staying out of the fray altogether. It's just a few of them that will fight the bully back. The one is really the instigator though. Also, a few of them seem to have small manes like males. Is this normal? They all have oviposters and show breeding bars, etc. so I'm 99% sure they're girls. I just didn't expect them to have such impressive flares!

I did my research before and read all about the pecking order establishment, but I guess I just didn't realize how brutal it would be. It makes my stomach hurt everytime I see a chunk come out of their beautiful fins.

 

[goldfishgeek]

hi, sorry can I just briefly hijack the thread, why do you have to halve the melafix dosage? I thought it was a very gentle med?

must remember that!
and good luck with the girls

GFG

 

[zoekin8yg]

you halve the melafix because at the higher doses it can affect their gills/labarynth organ Im not 100% sure on the details, just what I was told on here!

When I moved my girls into their new tank I was shocked like you at the flaring, they all have the manes as you called them as well, they dont really fight as such but they do show aggression, and flare at eachother. Im sure after a few days they will be ok, just keep an eye on the most agressive one. They will claim a bit of the tank as theirs after a while and they should settle down. Some girls can be very agressive though even worse than some males!

 

[jollysue]

I would add more very tall plants and/or floating plants. The caves are good for the bottom, but they want to also have territories around the surface. If you need to, use some tall soft artificial plants until you get more live stuff going.

MelaFix and PimaFix will kill Bettas at full strength. I have lost a few that way, when I kept them in community tanks and forgot and dosed the tanks. I have also lost both my Aggassazi red tail appistogamma boys that way. While the Fixes are a mild medication, they are still a medication that can kill some fish. I also killed a 12" (w/o the tail) frontosa Pimwe Cichlid with an accidental overdose of MelaFix which did not fase the Synos, who were the ones I wanted to dose.

Medications must always be used sparingly and thoughtfully with a plan. Wish I could learn that lesson.

You can use some salt with plants. I would not keep Bettas w/o using some salt on occasion. They are often subseptible to fungal infections which are easily treated and prevented with a small addition of salt.