Safe number of betas in a tank?

[vixie1600]

Just to update everyone, we have introduced the two we've decided to place in the tank successfully. We're keeping a very close eye on them, they've decided where their territory is now that they've explored a little. There was a little flaring at first when they were establishing boundaries, but they're ignoring each other now. We'll monitor them for the next few days to be sure there won't be any issues. We've also decided that two is enough in the tank, they seem to have a pretty good boundary line set up, they each get a side of the tank and that seems ok. We get the feeling that four would be too many in the tank. We'll be adding community fish to the tank here soon so our plants have enough CO2 to live!

Thanks for all the advice from everyone, even the ones telling us not to!

[Chicklet]

To soon, I wouldn't bet on it,
I've had them go for days thinking all was fine,
Then you get the results in


I even had one pr go for several weeks great, then the mood hit them and all hell broke loose.

[2brown347]

Can you post pics of the tank?

[vixie1600]

Originally Posted by Chicklet

To soon, I wouldn't bet on it,
I've had them go for days thinking all was fine,
Then you get the results in


I even had one pr go for several weeks great, then the mood hit them and all hell broke loose.

That's good to know. We'll keep an eye on them for longer than a few days then. So far so good still. We've still got our backup tanks at the ready. If they can't live together one of the boys is going to be one lucky fish and live in the big tank, and the others will have to deal with the divided ten gallon tanks. I'm hoping we won't have to resort to that, I'd like for our boys to have as big of a home as possible if we can manage it. If I could I'd have four 75 gallon tanks!

As for pictures, I'll see what I can do! I'd prefer to post pics of a more...established...set of tanks rather than the 'just started' tanks we have going! We added the first round of community fish to our tanks. Don't want to add too many new fish at a time and shock the tank. Mostly we just added the 'base' fish. Bottom feeders and algae eaters and the like. We did get 6 hardy schooling fish though I forget what they're called at the moment. We've been testing water conditions every few hours to see how the tank is adjusting. We found our ammonia was a bit high, so we added some treatment for that. Our Ph is a little on the alkaline side as well, so we're slowly adding treatment for that (Don't want to go too fast! Might end up with dead fish otherwise!) Go figure, the smaller tanks are fine on all counts, same water source! We also added our decorations to the big tank. I still want one more smallish decoration for the big tank, and some cave type decorations for the smaller tanks. The small tanks just have a few plants in them right now.

The bettas are quite curious about their new tank mates! So far I haven't seen any fin nibbling or nipping. A few displays here and there. Mostly at the schooling fish, silly bettas! Our lab mix likes to watch the fish too. He's been trying to lick and sniff the fish all evening. He really likes the catfish (probably cause they're at eye level for him most of the time)