The making of a Sorority Tank

[Angelmonster]

I wanted to post this in hopes that is helps other people. I will post pictures of the tank soon so you can see my set up.

I decided to do a sorority tank and did a lot of research…apparently that was not enough!

My set up is as follows: I got a 29 gallon tank with a simple halogen light, a Whisper filter made for a 29 Gallon Tank and a 150 water heater along with a thermometer. Basic fish tank set up.

For Decorations I bought a big tree-like resin décor that has about four holes in it for fish to hide in. I bought another one that looks like drift wood. I also bout about $70 worth of fake plants. There are tons of plants in each corner making it so the fish have PLENTY of area to hide in. Literally I could probably have bought about 15 fish and they would all have a spot to hide in.

I had all of the chemicals(PH kit, Nitrtite etc kit, conditioner, aquarium salt) and food.

So I set the tank up and let it sit for a week. Two days ago I bought the fish. In that tank 10 of them should have fit but for some odd reason I decided on 9. I bought all different kinds, which was a mistake.

1. A light, almost pink colored veil tail.
2. A dark blue, beautiful female Round Tail.
3. A silver and red veil tail.
4. A dark purple veil tail
5. A ghost/cellophane colored veil tail.
6. A pink veil tail with red fins(this one has been floating at the top from day one, more info below).
7. A dark blue, black in the shadows veil tail.
8. A pink, almost white veil tail.
9. A dark silver, almost gray veil tail.

My isolation tank is really small, half a gallon, but I bought it incase any betta’s got out of hand. It has a separator that I actually had to utilize. I feel bad because they are still in a cup sized tank but it will only be fore two more days.

Number 6, the pink with red fins, was a floater from day one. She just floats at the top. She doesn’t have trouble swimming she just seems to prefer to hang there. I came down this morning and someone beat her up because all of her fins are torn, plants would not have done that. I put her in half of the isolation tank to recover. I will not be buying her a bigger tank until I know she recuperates since she was a floater and her fins are torn. I have been adding half a t-spoon of salt and will change the water daily until she recovers.

Number 2, probably the most pretty of the bunch, was an aggressive one. I had to take her out of the tank after ten minutes. She would challenge any Betta she got near. She would nip at them and worse, she would lock up(almost like they are mating) and them proceed to slap the other one with her fin. It is a round tail so I am wondering if it is actually a male Betta that the pet store was too dumb and mis-labeled it. No harm no foul though, I will be buying a tank for my desk and be putting him/her in it alone. She had a chance to be with the rest but was too naughty haha.

So that is two betta so far that I have to separate form the tank. The blue one I will be buying a separate tank for. The other I am going to keep in the isolation tank because 1)She has been sick/floating at the top since day one and 2) her fins are torn so I will be adding salt to help keep fin rot form setting in. If she survives the next few weeks(I plan on changing her water daily) then I will buy a tank for her too.

Below are the two tanks I am considering. I am leaning towards the hex tank honestly, it is a bit bigger.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3107806#prodTab1
or
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752369#prodTab1

Would I recommend a sorority tank? Not really. Not unless you have other tanks you can drop them in if they mis-behave. I am kind of regretting it now because I am worried I will come home and they have killed one another. If it happens I plan on getting a male betta and trying some cories out in the tank. I honestly think this is the route I should have started with >_>

P.S.-This is not my first fish tank, I had two set up years ago and had to move. The move was too much for my fish and they started dying for no reason except maybe the stress. I now have a 10 gallon tank with a single bright red and blue male veil til which I have had for a month now. I also have the sorority tank. In the past I had an Angel Fish in the 29 gallon and some gold fish in the 10. I decided to get Betta because, like goldfish, they are fairly easy to take care of and with a filter I only need to do weekly water changes. I don’t have the time to perform more changes then that :-/

If people are interested I will keep an update in this thread for anyone who wants to start a sorority tank.

[dramaqueen]

Thanks for the info.

[dukie1346]

Yeah, I still don't know if I will start one or not.

[IonBaller07]

Good luck with the recoverys and the rest of the girls, cant wait for pics.

[Angelmonster]

Well come bad news...one of them passed away. The only "good" news is that it was the one that was a floater form day one. I have a feeling she was just slowly dying in her cup befor eI even bought her I won't be getting another one to replace her though so :-/

The others seem to be doing well. They are really coloring up! The dark purple one has some red in her fins and she seems to be the dominant one. If some of them get too sloce to her spot then she chases them away. One that was dark gray with red fins is getting more red in her body.

The whole "dark colored bettas are more agressive then light colored" is true imho. The Dark ones(puple, gray and gray/red) are the ones that seem to get an attitude if another Betta is hanging around them too long. The light colored ones are very mellow.

If these girls do well for a month I will be buying probably 3 cory cats to throw in there to clean up all the food they drop, they seem to be real slobs >_>

The blue round tail Betta seems to be doing alright. She is not active at all(mainly because she is in a half gallon tank). I am ordering a tank online so she is stuck in there for probably another week. I feel bad but if she played well with the others she would have a 29 gallon to have fun in Now she is going to live in a 3 gallon :-/

also the tank is getting abit cloudy. I have a feeling I didn't rinse off the big ornament enough(I didn't realise it had three holes I didn't clean)so I will be doing a 50% water change this weekend just to play it safe. I am changing the blue betta's water(who, since she could not play well with others is effectively named Drama Queen, props to you dramaqueen for having the same name haha) DAILY. It has a little gravel in it so I throw that in a strainer and pour hot water on it and scrub the bowl with hot water and a rag. So far the water hasn't gotten cloudy yet

[dramaqueen]

Haha! So I have one named after me! jk. I hope my user name doesn't imply that I can't get along with others. lol

[MrVampire181]

Dark bettas are LESS aggresive than bright colored ones. IMHO

[Angelmonster]

Originally Posted by MrVampire181

Dark bettas are LESS aggresive than bright colored ones. IMHO

I dunno, I had to take one dark blue one out and only the dark gray and the dark purple one fight.

So the light on my tank died....I tried another bulb and it didn't work. I know my Aquarium supplier so they are giving me a replacement which comes in on monday. I am cleaning the tank this weekend so Monday will be the perfect time to take some pictures

[Angelmonster]

I put some pictures up(along with my other tanks) here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread....794#post209794

So far no more tail ripage or any major fights I have seen. I cleaned the tank today and all of them were curious to what was going on and circled the siphon but that is about it haha. The rest of them seem healthy and only butt heads every so often

[Angelmonster]

So I lost another one. Again it was without warning; no torn fins or red spots. nothing on the body itself to make it look like it is sick.

This time I did a 100% water change and washed off all of the decorations, substrate and filter. I have to basically start the cycling process again(though I took some substrate from my other tank and thre it in this one).

So ou of the nine one needed to be seperated and two have died. One of them looked half dead sinc eth eminute she wa sin the tank and this one died for seemingly no reason

Oh and I threw 5 cories in there to clean up the bottom. When I did a water change I was surprised how much food they let fall to the bottom, since they seemed to hungry every time I fed them...and all I did was put three pinches of flakes :-/

Oh and they are an oddity. The seperated female and male betta only like Betta peletes. This tank won't touch them nor blood worms, they will only eat flakes :-/