Will my girls kill eachother?

[BrookeLea]

Hey guys. I've never tried this before, but other people do it, and my mom has done it. I wanted to do it, too, but now I'm nervous. I put my three females together in a heavily planted 10 gallon tank. At first, everything was fine. My VT and CT were just circling around eachother and my CT and HM were sort of brushing up against eachoter. Then the flaring started between the CT and HM. At first it was only flaring, then the CT turned viscious and I got really nervous and bagged her. Now she's floating in the tank in a bag, and the VT is sort of chasing the HM around the tank, but not constantly. She's actually pretty much just ignoring her now. What should I do? Should I just release the CT back into the tank and let them sort out their differences? I'm just scared that they'll kill eachother. The CT is also very heavy with eggs. Do you think that makes a difference? Would it help if there were more than three in there? I went to three different fish stores today and none of them had any females. I'll post some pictures of the girls and the tank after I post this so that I can get some quick answers. Please help! I'm very worried!

 

[Seahorse]

Yes, I would have at least 5, 6 would be fantastic!

With 3, two will gang up on the last one and beat her up 2 is just as bad though, because they will just beat on eachother!

So get more lady friends asap, and they can establish a heirarchy (which will involve a bit of nipping and pushing at first!).

Until then you might want to separate them!

 

[BrookeLea]

Thanks! I just divided their tank into three. I wish I could find some more females around here, I just don't know where to look. I think I'll be making lots of phonecalls tomorrow if I can find a phone book. Does anyone know of anyone on here that could sell me some females that would be able to get to me pretty quickly? I'm in Louisiana.

 

[Bettabelieveit]

3 will be fine, it's actualy recomended that you have an odd number of them. but don't overstock, 5 at the most they will niip at eachother and duke it out some, they have to establish the order of the kingdom! but after that they mellow out, with the occaisonal tif. have fun

 

[Seahorse]

Really? I swore that 3 females would be trouble, what with 2 ganging up on one... that is how the heirarchy made sense to me anyway.

 

[Skylar]

Better to have even numbers of females because if you have an odd number such as 3 then the other two will pick on the lower ranking. I'd say 6 is the best number for a happy sorority. That way the aggression is spread out amongst many fish.

 

[Seahorse]

Knew I wasn't going crazy, thanks for confirming my thoughts, Skylar.

 

[Kiarra]

Even or odd doesn't really matter in all of my observations. What matters is that there be 4 or more, preferably more.

 

[Synirr]

Even or odd doesn't really matter in all of my observations. What matters is that there be 4 or more, preferably more.

Yep, 4 seems to be the magic number.

 

[cerulean]

unless of course, you happen to also have a girl similar to our Amidala who hates all other fish and wants them all dead and will do what she can to make it happen continuously, never stopping. 2 inches of vicious attitude so she's alone, what a %$%@! it would be interesting to say the least if i could hear her talk

 

[BrookeLea]

After not being able to find any females...I've now found FOUR that I can't pass up. Seven sounds like too many to put in a 10 gallon, and it's also an odd number. Should I just pull the most aggressive or the weakest and put her in her own tank?

 

[Joby]

I now have 9 in my 25 (US) gallon tank and they are getting on so much better, never heard about not having an odd number before, I've always had an odd number LOL!

If you take out the most agressive one, then someone will take their place for sure as they have a pecking order. I guess if your water changes are kept up to date it could work

 

[basia]

I have 3 females and they are ok together.

 

[BettaMomma]

Hmm.
You could give it a try, and see what happens. They say 6 is about the limit in a 10G, but if it was me, i'd probably give it a try. Then, if someone's getting picked on mercilessly - you can pull her out and give her a tank of her own

 

[abstract]

what does even or odd matter, geez IMO you're all weird for suggesting to either keep even or odd numbers lol....2 is obviously bad, so is 3...but how is 5 different than 6 if you really look at it? to say they should be in even or odds has absolutely no backing...it seems that everyone agrees they should be in groups of 5 or more, so what's with confusing people w/ even and odd?

EDIT: just noticed someone already made a similar comment lol