Worse than cups

[ral]

Female CT's are now available all over the place. But the way they are kept is terrible. Saw 5 in a 20 gallon tank with torn and nip fins and damage ventrals.

Decided to take them home. Apparently they were delivered last week, 100 of them a dumped all together in a 20 gallon. I guess, in that confined a space, even female betta's are prone to agression.

Placed them in my spare 1G's , the 250ml's (I know it small but there are meant to be short term storage tanks) and a jar until I figure out how to house them permently. Two of them seem pretty agressive, a blue/red and blue CT. They are side by side and went at it for about 20 mins so I will place a divider, until one of them seems to have clamed down, the other one is still hyper.

Think I will call the hyper blue/red one Rita (sound like a moody female name) and the blue one Rica.

Beside them, a third girl is ignoring them a happily munching on her pellets. She is a nice one with 3 vertical stripes. Think I will call her Lieca.

Still got to think up names for the other two. Both of them seem more relax, one of them is really tiny.

Gave them some additional salt and a mild anti-bacterial.

My male and female CT's, Marvin and Bea, are coming home tomorrow. My GF and I decided to hold off on breeding since she has some personal matters to take care off, so that will give me a total of six female CT's and one male being added to my current 11. Talk about population explosion.

Bea was an import and is a fair bit bigger than the LFS CT's.

Thinking of a female community tank. How big should it be so that they dont fight each other?

And to think I have a visiting 2.5" flower horn too in a isolation tank with the Cory's.

 

[Joby]

Good on you for getting those poor girls. Salt and a little melafix will work wonders on their fins and they should be back to full glory soon.

I had a few problems with my female community but then I found recently that one agressive female was in fact a plakat male since removing him things have quietened down a lot but I also lost a female recently so there's only 3 of them in a 25US gallon with some cories and khulies. I think the rule of thumb is at least 4 of them to even out the agression.

If you do a search on here you'll see what other people have done with theirs. I think Freshmike had quite a few in his tank and next to no problems with agression.

Good luck

 

[ral]

What worries me more is that two of them seem to have almost completely lost their ventrals.

No biggie getting them all. They gave me all five for a total $2.

They have a hundred more coming in this weekend they said. Hope they spread them out a bit

 

[squeeker]

You think that's bad... I've seen 30 females in a 2 gallon

They were finally moved to a 30 gallon, heavily planted, and wth only 15 left, there is still a lot of aggression. I think with females, the more room the better.

 

[ral]

30 in a 2 gallon.

Sigh.

 

[SRC]

whoa..30 fish period is unfathomable in a 2 gallon...jeeze...they woudln't even be able to move . Poor fish.

Good on you Ral for taking them in. I'm just glad all the store that actually carry betta's around here take halfway decent care of them, or I'd be covered up in more myself lol.

 

[cutechic]

I've got 4 girls in a planted 10g, but only one is a CT. The smallest STs were placed in the tank first. A few weeks later, after they had established territories, I put the CT, who was larger, in the tank. Because she was a 'foreigner', she didn't attack the other girls. And since she was larger, they didn't attack her. If you have some large or aggressive females, try to add them at least a few days after the smaller ones are added.

In a tank with many hiding places and heavy filtration, minor nips should heal almost before you notice them. Having a slightly stronger current than normal will deter aggression. I generally have 2 HOB filters in my 10g.

I would have no more than 6 females in a 10g, and that's only with heavy filtration. You would probably be better having them in a 15g or a 20g (long, if possible).

And while I was searching for my pics, I found one of freshmike's female community setups: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...640&hl=cutechic

 

[ral]

I have held of the community tank for a bit and placed them each in their own little beenie. Two of the five females have built bubbles nest and seem more agressive than the others. Would not be the first time I bought a female only for it to turn out to be a Plakat. One of the females I got for a friend of mine awhile back, well kept on growing and now it is clear he was a small male Plakat.

If they mistakenly dump a few males in a female community tank, I can imagine that havoc would ensue.

Will feed them frozen foods for a bit and see how many develop the distinctive female belly.

 

[cutechic]

I've had that happen with one of my 'girls'. She started terrorising the other girls, and I discovered 'she' was actually a male.

 

[ral]

Well the two more aggressive females both seem to have the white spot (oviposter), but it is not as prominent as the others... lemme watch them for a bit. Well if they are males, than I would not mind having one or two more Plakats

 

[ral]

I was checking out the larger tanks. Okay, the 20G is just taller than the 15G so no point getting the 20G I guess. I would have to set up 6 different territories I guess so each female can find a spot where she can stay hidden from the others when she needs too.

Anything bigger would be impossible. Not sure where I would set up even just the 15G. But have the females in small containers where they can all see each other. Hope this helps them learn to get along.

I was thinking, placing a placing a piece of driftwood horizontally across the tank would give me two territories. Have to figure out how to further divide the tank to give me six different territories.

 

[cutechic]

My girls have nevere really established territories. As you can see, I just threw in several plants and 3 pieces of driftwood, so the girls can hide wherever they want. The smaller ones like to hide underneath the driftwood

Is it possible to get a 20L? That way there'll be more room for the bettas, and they won't have to swim up so far to get some air.

 

[ral]

I have one worry, maybe I will only throw in 4 of the females in the tank. I am starting to suspect two are males.

They do have small white spots vidible behind their ventrals, but I ma not sure they are females. Two of the girls, Rica and Rita are teribly aggressive, especially to each other and build nests, and have longer finnage than the other girls. The ladies in the adjoining tanks are showing vertical lines.

I guess only way I can confirm if they are females is to feed them frozen foods and see whether they develop the disticntive female belly shape.

I am not sure if I understand your comment about the 20L. The 15G's and 20G's they sell here have the same lenght and width. They only vary in the height. Since I wold probably only place 7-8" of water, I guess there is no point getting the 20G.

Gotta move them out of the small containers both for their sakes, and mine (frequent water changes)

Reading my ealrier posts I realized I am getting repetitive. I guess I am getting anxious to move them to a better environment, but at the same time worried abotu the prosepct ofthrowing a male in by mistake.

 

[cutechic]

You'll notice pretty quickly if one of them turns out to be a male. Try watching them flare- the males' gills spread out much further than most of the girls'. When I had the male in my female community, one of the girls got her fins torn, but it wasn't serious. However, if you're pretty sure they're males, you may as well just keep them isolated.

The 20 gallon Long holds the same amount of water as the regular 20 gallon, but it is longer and shorter/ shallower. The 15 gallon Long is longer and shallower than the regular 15 gallon. If that makes sense?

 

[ral]

Yup, it makes sense, but I don't think we have 20G longs here. I can see about having one custom made, but space would be a major problem.

Starting to think I may be better of just putting 4 or 5 in the Community tank.

Four of them, will flare at each other occassional if they come face to face but none seems to be interested at going at each other.

Rita flares at everybody and she does so in a persistant manner like she wants to get at the other fish. Rica is okay with the rest, but if you play her and Rita side by side they will flare at each other no end.

Maybe I could just add one female every day or two and see when any problems start up?