20 gallon betta - cory community - pushing it

[Haeclark]

well...sorry to hear you decided otherwise...perhaps there were just too many females. Not enough places to "chill down" away from other Betta's it sounds to me.

On another hand, my 4 females are still doing great with Blue...today being the 1 week "annaversary" of adding the 3 newist betta female...May 1st is Blue Bandit and Red Petite Mermaid's 5 month "annaversary" of being placed together!!! xD [I cant believe it's been that long already!]

Second to last water change I did I had more treated tap water then I would have preferred as I couldn't get the distilled water I usually cut it with that time, so they were showing signs of fin rot, but that's about all. They have a few rare moments still every now and then when one just wants to be alone, and lets the other know, but all is peaceful still.

I added more tank decorations as well [Zebra aquarium rock - 20 Ibs], making more "caves" and hiding places. They all seem to love it. I'm considering giving away some of the over populated guppies, as the greedy piglets keep stealing my Betta's food...not to mention the non-stop breeding! [I just found out recently that female guppies can store sperm! Meaning they can instintly become pregnent after birthing! Water rabbit?]. I already took out about 10 of them, and the Bettas still reacted positivly. They seem to enjoy the extra space and not being "bombarded" by the guppy drones at feeding time!

My new gals havent figured out to come to the top for the good flakes yet...theyre still roming the bottum for fallen flakes. I posted a few pics on their blog [link below], more to come.

[Chicklet]

I believe its the females I have,
I also have some other tanks I tried with less females and more hiding places,
but I always end up with the same aggressive behavior towards the male, just takes a little longer for it to come out, but it does.,
Once I get it down to about 3 females things tend to change for the better towards the male, But even then only certain females work...

It's mostly aggressive tail grabbing that builds up until they riddle the male,
Mostly the bigger females,
I have actually watched them hunt the male down,
I have put plenty hiding places, plants etc, They still search until they find him and once they do they don't stop.

I am convinced males and females of any amount is a definite end in disaster, So I'm just not messing with it any more....

I have several lots where 1 or two females are with a male & it seems to work, But even then its certain females, Some just won't leave the male be no matter what...