Sorority

[beanz8]

Hi

I posted in the main section a few weeks ago about wanting to increase my numbers in my main tank. I currently have

5 kitty tetra
4 glowlight tetra
6 panda corys
2 juli corys

The tank is 180l juwel vision.

My main tetra numbers will be upped to 8+ each, and i was going to look into Male guppies as i dont want any breeding but i am finding it hard to find some that i like and i do love my Betta Jazz who sadly had to be moved into his own tank and he wasnt happy.

So i was wondering would it be possible with my current (and future) set up to add some female bettas in my tank - the ones in my lfs are always so friendly swimming to the front of the tank.....or should i stick to something else.

 

[The_Betta_Lady]

female bettas would go fine with the fish you have listed, I would just start to worry a little about the amount of fish in that size tank. Gerneral rule of tumb (most commonly given advice) is that the fish should be stocked 1cm of fish to each ltr of tank. So if a fish is say 4cm you need to give it 4 ltrs of tank, sharing the ltrs out to all your fish. Hope that helps and makes sense lol.

 

[beanz8]

Once I add these fish I wouldn't be adding anymore. How many girls would I need? I have read I should aim to get the number I want to start off with? Is this correct?

 

[lilfishie]

if there is a problem it will be with male guppies but they 'should' be ok you ideally want a group of 5 to start with but the more the better really, i have about 20! with more to come

 

[beanz8]

If I went for the girls I wouldn't get the guppies, I'm struggling to find any I like anyway! 5 would be good, are they easy to add too? I know they will establish their own order, I guess adding 5 would minimise any territorial issues.

 

[lilfishie]

ideally you want to add the original 5 at the same time, others can be added later usually best in 2s/3s

 

[beanz8]

Excellent thank you, now I know how to spend my birthday money! Any other tips would be appreciated as well

 

[LadyDragon]

I haven't tried it...
I was planning on it after reading other forum posts about experiences with it and why the experiences are what they are. Apparently the females need to set up territories, and one female will be dominant. They need to be in numbers of like 5 or more: they say if you have 3, the dominant 2 will gang up on the most submissive and kill her. So bigger numbers keeps the picking on any single individual down. Just give them enough cover to set up ther own ornaments in the tank, and so they can have hiding places.

What stopped me from doing it, is the fact that all Bettas are extremely individualistic, some will get along and others just can't be trusted under any circumstances. ALSO the many stories I found (it seemed to be the norm actually when I was surfing my google search results on Betta sorrorities) about Bettas who go along good for over a year, until one day one female just decides to kill everyone!

The reasoning for this (from what I gathered) is that as they get older they develop as stronger and stronger territorial instinct. Most successful sororities seem to be groups of siblings or females of approximately similar age. So they will sometimes have peace until one reaches a stage of maturity when they want to move up on the totem pole... Or has a hormone spike, or some other biological gear kick in that we aren't aware of.

Anyway I only have 3 females, they are sisters, but so amazingly different in personalities (and apparent stages of maturity as well.), I would hate for them to one day slaughter eachother because someone had a PMS flash and decided to randomly go on a homicidal bender or something. ...or decides she is ready to spawn and wands to clear out her territory (or expand it) so she can have more space.

Anyway, as much as i would love to keep my Betta girls in a sorority like I do my Mollies, my research led me to believe that Betta sorrorities are a short term option. I don't mean to discourage you, if it works out for you to do it that'd be wonderful! I just decided after digging through the net, that it probably want the best option for my situatuon. Good luck!

 

[The_Betta_Lady]

There would be enough going on in this tank to stop any thing like that happening. I had over 20 girls together in one tank, and I swapped and changed depending on which 3 I was breeding etc and over all the females and all the years I had them only 2 of the girls were too aggressive to keep together with the rest. If they grow up in this environment with lots going on then they have lots to distract them. I would add 5 girls like has been said but pick your girls carefully, if you are getting them from an LFS make sure they are ones that don't show aggression to the others and if from and breeder, just tell them you want to keep the females together and if they are "quiet". When I added new girls I used to do a 100% water change and shift things a little then put all the girls back at the same time and the new ones just merged in. Can't wait to see your setup

 

[beanz8]

ok thank you its good to get opinions

What signs of agression should i look for, i noticed when i looked in my LFS last time at the girls some were fin nipped and some had nice tails - would the nicer tailed ones be the more dominant girls?

 

[The_Betta_Lady]

I would say so yes. Just look out for chasing, nipping and if a female flares or not. You want the ones that come in close proximity but ignore each other.

 

[beanz8]

Thank You

 

[lilfishie]

also be sure to check there not PK males! an awful lot are appearing in female shipments recently i brought 5, 2 of which turned out to be male, and i was avoiding obvious males

 

[beanz8]

whats the best way to check?

 

[lilfishie]

if you look at the link in my signature above the guppy it tells you what to look out for