what to use for a female group tank

[3neko]

*waves* Hi. I was thinking about setting up a nice female betta community in one of my spare 5 or 10 gallon tanks. I would probably use some nice plastic plants and those flat decorative colored marbles. (I use them in one of my 2.5 gallon tanks already.) I was wondering what type of filter would be good? Would I have to still do complete water changes, or only partial? How often would I have to siphon the poopie/leftover food out of the rocks? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[AlexsDaddy]

I would go with that spare 10 gallon you mentioned. Anything smaller and you wouldn't be able to put enough females in there to get a pecking order for aggression. The magic number for a female tank seems to be 4, but I wouldn't put any more then 6 or 7 in a 10 gal. make sure there is a lot of hiding places and tall plants to break up the open areas so they don't have as much room to fight. An over the back type filter can be used. It'll creat a stronger current and should help to keep the aggression level down. If you cycle the tank before you get the bettas, you will only have to do partial water changes to keep the nitrAte level down. I do my wc's on my female community with a gravel vac. That way I clean the gravel and change the water at the same time. If you don't cycle the tank, when you do a partial water change all you are doing is diluting the ammonia, not completly getting rid of it. 10 g's is a lot of water to be changing a couple times a week. HTH!

 

[3neko]

Okie dokie, thanks.
I used to have one of my males in a 5 gallon with a whisper filter. I didn't cycle it. About once a week I'd empty about half the water while I siphoned the rocks. I guess that wasn't enough because he got finrot, and I ended up putting him in a 2.5 gallon.
How do you cycle a tank? What do you have to do?

 

[newfishies]

there are several pinned topics in the beginner's sections for cyclikg with fish and without fish (using an ammonia source)

 

[3neko]

Ahhh, interesting. Thanks.
So even if I changed the water regularly, would not cycling be a bad thing?

 

[ral]

Okie dokie, thanks.
I used to have one of my males in a 5 gallon with a whisper filter. I didn't cycle it. About once a week I'd empty about half the water while I siphoned the rocks. I guess that wasn't enough because he got finrot, and I ended up putting him in a 2.5 gallon.
How do you cycle a tank? What do you have to do?

Since you will only have one fish in the tank, you can let him cycle it himself. I cycled 4 betta's in their own tanks and all seem to have gone well. Except one. A halfmoon I have did not seemed to get too stressed by the filter and got finrot. A plakat took his place. The Rosetail Halfmoon seems fine is his filtered tank, but he was smaller finnage.

Use small water changes rahter than large ones. For example, rather than 50% in one week. Change water in small 10-15% increments. In a 5 gallon. I would start with one a 10-15% every other day for a week or two, than go down to a change every three days and so on an so forth.

The problem I found out with cyrcling small tanks is that while beneficial bacteria will eventualyl reduce amonia and nitrate levels to below detectable amounts, there are not enough plants to cut down nitrate levels. So in my smaller 2.5G tanks, I just do 10% water chnages to keep nitrite levels at bay. In well planted 5G tanks I have, I do small changes just once a week and let the plants do their thing. Its a Cory tank though, and smaller than what people would say is acceptable, but they are thriving in there, a bit too well... so looks like they are getting a larger tank soon.

Ahhh, interesting. Thanks.
So even if I changed the water regularly, would not cycling be a bad thing?

Yes, unless you do 100% water changes on a regualr basis. Four females in a 10G. Maybe 100% one a week.

 

[3neko]

Thanks! That info and whats on the beginners threads have really helped!
I wasn't too keen on moving around 10 gallons of water every week. I've also read somewhere that it isn't good for the fish, but maybe I was wrong.