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Important tips to a successful sorority

87K views 112 replies 57 participants last post by  firewood04 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I've seen a lot of threads on sororities asking pretty basic questions and although I know that there is a thread already dedicated to this, it seems kind of disorganised and the OP doesn't cover as many areas as I think it needs to.

I had this floating around on an unfinished site of mine so thought it might be helpful to those thinking of starting up a sorority tank.

Feel free to add any of your own experiences to this post. I think I covered most of the major areas where people run into trouble but if you think something is important post it up.



Introduction to Betta Sororities
Your first question might be, ‘What exactly is a betta sorority?’ In short, a ‘sorority’is a group of female Betta splendens housed together in the same tank.

A sorority is usually one of two things: a brilliant success, or a spectacular failure. There is more to a successful sorority than just putting a group of females in a tank together and expecting them to get along.

Below, I have outlined a list of steps that should hopefully help you on your way and tilt the odds of success in your favour.


Any sorority tank should be a minimum of 20 gallons​
Female bettas can be as aggressive and unpredictable as males. Domesticated splendens have been selectively bred for generations, and were never really intended to live peacefully with others of their species.

Therefore, it is important to provide each female with enough space to get away from an aggressor, and to lessen the event of territorial flare-ups.

I usually ensure each of my females has at least 2 gallon of space per fish. However, you may want to increase this minimum if you have particularly big or hostile females. Unless your females are very young and it is only a temporary solution, I would never recommend a sorority tank be anything less than 20 gallons.

Finally, an ideal sorority tank is one that is wider rather than taller. You will often find the more dominant females will spend most of their time near the surface and may bully the others when they come up to breathe or feed. Therefore, it is best to give your females enough room to spread out.


You should provide as much cover as possible
By blocking the line of sight from one end of the tank to the other, you can drastically lessen aggression and prevent chases from happening.

In a sparsely planted tank, there is nothing to prevent one female from chasing another around for as long as she wants. As you can imagine, this is obviously stressful for the fish being chased, and usually once the fish is caught, there is nowhere for her to escape from an attack.

Ideally I like to see most of the tank covered with either artificial or live plants. You want plants that provide cover at all levels of the tank. It is no use having lots of very short plants at the bottom, when your females are chasing and fighting up top!

I found my females rarely if ever went into hides such as terracotta caves or PVC pipe tunnels. Other people may have different experiences, but I have found the most favoured hiding places were in amongst the plants, particularly up near the surface.


You need a minimum of four-five females
A successful sorority is often one that is over rather than understocked. Indeed, you will find it very difficult to maintain long-term a sorority that has only 2-3 individuals. Generally the most dominant individual(s) will attack the weakest until she is either dead or extremely stressed.

To avoid this from happening, you want to have enough females that any aggression is dispersed rather than targeted at the weakest female. Some people are much more conservative with the stocking of their sororities, but I feel that the more females you have, the less prolonged aggression you will see.

If you cannot purchase or house any more than 2-3 females, I would advise against a sorority. It is only be a matter of time before you see the results of poor stocking, in the form of disease, injury and even death. An alternative solution in these instances is to either divide up a single tank, or house each female separately from the other.


It is best to choose the youngest females possible​
Older, mature females that have lived alone are more inclined to react with extreme aggression when placed in a sorority environment. While most tend to adapt and become part of the community after an initial introduction period, some will continue to act aggressively and will need to be at removed.

Younger females (siblings from the same spawn are often the best candidates for sororities particularly if they have yet to be separated) are usually much less territorial and aggressive. There is usually much less serious fighting between individuals while sorting out a hierarchy, and they tend to be much more flexible with the introduction of new tankmates.

However, one danger in choosing young females is that you will end up with a male plakat instead. This has happened to me once or twice, and for those without separate accommodations, can be quite the headache.

Females tend to have a rounder body shape than males, and in light coloured females, you should also be able to make out the ovaries as a small yellowish triangle behind the intestines. Male plakats will often have longer ventrals, a pronounced beard, possibly a fuller caudal, and generally a sharper angle to their anal fin. While they may not have a visible eggspot, it is not uncommon for younger males to have an ovipositor as well . Therefore, the presence of an eggspot alone is often not a good determinant of gender.
The best advice I can give, is that if in doubt, don’t purchase.


Ensure that your water parameters are nothing short of perfect​
Living in even the most peaceful sorority environment is often quite stressful for a female betta. She must not only compete for food and for territory, but also must deal with the close proximity of equally territorial and aggressive fish.

Stress in fish is one of the number one causes for outbreaks of disease. While poor water quality may not kill your females outright, it can compromise their immune system, leaving them vulnerable to diseases a healthy fish may otherwise have managed to fight off.

In poor water conditions, when one female becomes sick it is usually quickly spread to every other female in the tank as well. This is why it is important to monitor your water parameters and ensure that they are always within an appropriate range. Any readings less than ideal demand an immediate water change and a look at the way the tank is being maintained.


Aggression in sororities​
The question I often hear from most of those new to sororities is "What is too much aggression and when should I intervene?"

You have to remember when dealing with bettas, that aggression is a perfectly natural behaviour. However, this does not mean that your sorority tank should look like a WWF wrestling match.

It is common for there to be some fighting when you first introduce your females. This could be anything from posturing, body slapping, flaring, chasing and biting. This usually settles down within a couple of days although it is perfectly normal to see occasional flare-ups.

For me, the time to intervene is when there is more than a couple of minutes of sustained fighting between two females in which obvious damage is being done. I separate out whoever looks to be the aggressor, and put them into a breeders' net that sits in my sorority tank. I find this is often the best method of introducing particularly aggressive females as by the end of the week, they are generally accustomed to the other females being nearby and less inclined to over react when reintroduced.

I also intervene if it is obvious one female is being continually bullied by the others. If a female is starting to lose a lot of condition, or has severe fin and scale damage it is time to pull her from the sorority. It can be difficult to understand why certain females are targeted by the others. Just because a female is small or less aggressive does not mean she will be the one bullied. Therefore, it is important with a sorority tank that you find the time each day to check on your females and see that everyone is in good physical shape. I speak from experience when I say it does not take long for things to suddenly fall apart.

Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes or issues. I went through it in Word but may have missed some of the less obvious grammatical errors.
 
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#60 ·
My Sorority Tank

I have a sorority tank of 5 females. I love this tank. I researched for weeks as far as how many females to add to tank, hiding places, other possible tankmates, you name it. Even people at the LFS tried to tell me I couldn't do it. Well, I did and so far (knock on wood), my tank has been a success.:welldone:

This article is amazing. I had not found this article while researching but I will say that I sat my tank up almost exactly like this article describes to do. I do believe that a lot of cover and hiding places are the absolute key to success with a betta sorority tank.

I have 2 oto's and corydoras (tiny cory) in the tank to eat any uneaten food and to eat algae. (I also feed my cory and oto fish an excellent diet). Everyone in the tank is living happily together.

I have a heater in the tank, filter, air stone and I always have clean water in the tank. It's a 10 gallon tank but will soon be a twenty gallon.

I also believe that feeding a sorority tank (and all betta fish) an excellent well rounded diet keeps them much healthier, especially in cases of stressful situations, such as aggressive fish being housed together.

They tell you to feed your mating bettas frozen blood worms, brine shrimp and such two weeks before breeding to get them into tip top condition. My reaction to this is to ask why wouldn't you feed them the best possible diet every day??

Excellent diets for the betta do help their immune system and helps keep them healthier during stressful times.

Constipation you say? No problem with it. Once a week I feed them blanched cucumbers, zucchini, or unshelled peas. (all blanched) My oto's love the veggies too. Once a week, my babies fast.

Their diet and frequent 20% water changes must be working because Mr. Blue blows a bubble nest one day and once it's gone, he blows another!! He's a happy boy. My males have 3 gallon tanks with filter, pump, and heaters. I will NOT keep a betta in a bowl.

I want to thank for for posting this complete how to article. It took me rummaging the internet and reading many many articles on how to's for a sorority tank and then putting my own thoughts and ideas together with what I read to get my sorority tank............When all I needed was this one article. It's wonderful. Thank you so very much.

My Sorority Tank
 

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#61 ·
I have a male and female betta. They both been in the tank together for a little over a month now. Today I don't know what happened to my babies. They are not liking each other now. My female has been eating the males tail. So I had to remove him so she don't kill him. She is also full of eggs. How can I get them use to each other again.
P's. He is missing the middle part of his tail. When he not with her he look sad.
 
#62 ·
Nicole, it is not recommended to keep male and female bettas together.

Bettas do not get lonely. They are a fairly solitary fish by nature and it is much less stressful for your fish to be kept alone than for you to try and force them to live together.

If they are behaving this aggressively now, it is most likely going to escalate until you have an injured or dead fish on your hands.

For the best interest of your fish I would suggest you keep them separate from now on.
 
#63 · (Edited)
Hey everyone!

I was wondering if I could get a little advise on speedy healing for tail nips? I just set up my sorority a few days ago, and it's doing well. I have six cuties in my sorority. I have three girls who've been fighting for the top of the hierarchy. These three are the only ones with slightly tattered fins. I haven't been overly concerned with their fights, because chases only last a few seconds ( lots of places to hide and escape) and it's been mostly flares and tail slaps. I do feel bad about the tattered fins though.

I have Melafix that I've been putting in the tank as well as a tad bit of aquarium salt. I'm also feeding them freeze dried blood worms and some pellets. I toss some pellets in there because they sink, and the girls who like to feed at the bottom will get some food. Is there anything else I can do for a speedy recovery on their fins? I feel bad, because I imagine it hurts, and they have such beautiful fins =(

I do have a little breeder's net to hang in the tank in case someone get's too aggressive or too weak.
 
#65 ·
I used Searchem Stress Guard to help my Kisa recover after a breeding attempt. It's been a week and the clear regrowth is almost fully there (just needs a little more on her caudal), and the color is starting to creep back into her fins.
 
#69 ·
I once had two females together in a tank. The first time they saw each other, they both flared, but that was it. They had a 6.5 gallon tank to wander through and basically ignored each other. They just got fed at opposite ends. However, they may not have been very representative of the average female betta, since they had been kept together with about 30 other females in an overcrowded tank at the pet store. Chances are they already knew each other and just went "Oh, you."
On the other hand, I once tried to keep three females together in a 5-gallon tank, and it was a disaster. The first two, who were similar in size, seemed fine with each other, but the third, who was very tiny, turned out to be vicious. She attacked the other two almost immediately, which set both of them off. So it was a three-way betta war. I ended up having to separate all of them because after that, none of them would tolerate any other fish.
Now I keep my females in adjacent tanks. That way they can have their little territorial fits without hurting anyone. After a while, they figure out that they can't get to each other and stop flaring.
 
#70 ·
I've had my sorority up and running for some time and besides some flaring and nipped fins when someone gets a stick up their butt, all seems to be well. However, my tank is only open in 3 spots at the front so I can feed them. The rest is packed so thick with myrio and rotala that sometimes my girls can barely swim.

However, I have 8 in a 20 gallon long.

Bakara and Shepard are my alpha girls. Everyone moves for them.
Tali is next in line as far as I can tell, she's the main aggressor.
Jack is always an aggressor and her and Tali get into spats often but never more than a nipped fin or chasing.
Aria is next.
Liara falls below that then Silas and Domino.

Domino is usually hidden, partially cause she's small and also because she's at the bottom of the pack. She eats with my cories and just follows them for food.
 
#72 ·
For future reference, disregard my above post. The best tip I can offer people wanting to start a successful sorority is....don't.

Sororities balance on the tip of a needle and the slightest thing can plummet them into failure. Adding in other tankmates puts it on an even thinner needle. My tank was vastly overfiltered, planted like a jungle that I had to clip weekly and was on a weekly water change schedule. The entire tank crashed in the course of a month. First, 90% of my plants started melting, and I lost two cories and Domino.
A couple weeks later I replanted (or tried). The following day, I noticed Shepard with columnaris. I lost 9 female bettas to acute columnaris and watched most of them drop in 48 hours. I lost most of the tank in the course of a week despite dosing with Kanaplex. While it feels good at first to get so many out of the cups at the store, in the end you aren't doing them a favor. If you want to get so many out, I'd suggest a fairly large tank(say a twenty long or larger) and divide it. You won't be able to house ten in the 20 long like you could with an undivided, but the stress will be diminished and the chance of losing an entire tank to stress induced illnesses will too.
 
#73 ·
I agree Crossroads. It can be an extremely delicate balance trying to achieve long-term success with a sorority. Sororities do seem much more susceptible to sudden outbreaks of disease than those bettas kept by themselves, or in a community setting. I think it's just the constant stress of a sorority environment that causes these collapses, and it's why I really don't advocate sororities as much as I used to. I find people also get lazy with their sororities and forget to check their water parameters as frequently, skip proper quarantine procedures, or ignore signs of increasing aggression or early symptoms of disease. You simply cannot do this with a sorority. They are not really tanks you can set and forget.
 
#74 ·
Guilty of a lot of this.

Community tanks, particularly those with peaceful type fish, are fairly sit back and enjoy at your leisure. Can't do that with a sorority. Mine were doing good for a while. Out of no where a few started to pinecone with no symptoms other than that. They were still swimming around, flaring and eating. Had neons and platys in the tank and they're still alive and fine. No idea what happened. I supposed it was from bullying that I did not witness that could have led to internal damage and then pine coning?

Sororities so pretty to look at but... you can get the same effect with a bunch of guppies with less stress.
 
#75 · (Edited)
Hey guys, I set up a sorority a few months back and today noticed that not only is one of my girls finally showing her true blue colour but it is clear she has some wounds... Should I remove her to recover?



As for parameters pH seems to be at 7.0 which is bad. I don't think I have anything to lower it in a hurry... Would that be urgent for me to get something?
 
#76 ·
Where are the wounds? Do you mean the stripes on her face? Those are part of her natural colouring and nothing to worry about.

Also I have a feeling that blue female at the front may actually be a plakat male. Anyone else think the same looking at the photo? Just the size of the ventral fins, the angle of the anal fin, and the body shape suggests to me that 'she' may actually be a 'he'.

Also a pH of 7 is fine. Don't mess chemically with your pH. It can lead to fluctuations and this can be stressful to your fish. It's ammonia and nitrite you really need to watch out for, not pH.
 
#80 ·
I've been watching a few threads, and after talk with another breeder and friend of mine, feel like it's time for a reminder....

Fish do not have XY chromosomes. No joke. Their sex is fluid. A female can turn to a male, or a male can turn to a female in the right circumstances. This is more common when the fish are still fairly young. Like the rest of us, they become less flexible as they get older...

Please, be careful with your sororities. Watch the fish. Observe the behavior. That fish sold as female may very well have been a female when it was sold, but it might not stay that way. This isn't a male being a "late bloomer," as some might think - sororities are a perfect environment to trigger a real and complete sex change from fertile female to fully fertile male. Once a male is present, all heck is going to break loose in the tank until he's removed. The girls WILL fight over the "new" boy. Usually, the one that switches will have been the alpha female, although not always.

Known triggers for sex change in fish: Being removed from, or having the alpha male removed from the tank. In other words: Jarring time or sororities.
 
#82 ·
Jeez, I never knew that was even possible in bettas. Do you have any links explaining how this works? Going to have to research that a bit...I had no idea that they don't have XY chromosomes. Certainly explains why so many sorority females "turn into" short-finned males. I fear for my girls' feminine virtue now. :lol:
 
#83 · (Edited)
I've been considering a sorority for a long time and just a while ago, the opportunity arose. My dad and I have come to a compromise. I can move my first boy (Dawn) upstairs to my room, as long as I get something to replace where he was.

When I first got the tank, I moved it around a bit, and scratches appeared on the countertop that I did not notice until much later. Therefore, I am not allowed to take Dawn and his tank away.

However, recently my father decided he wanted a tank of fish that can live together. So our compromise is, I can move the tank up, and get a full 20g of fish and plants HE will fund, if I find a way to have a community tank. Of course, I jumped at the chance to add more bettas in there and finally get my dream females. So, I did some research, and have had varied responses but quite a few positive ones.

My idea is to get about 6-8 platies, and then maybe 5 female bettas in a community tank/sorority. My father has already agreed to this, but I am still asking whoever I can if it's a good idea. The females will all be from petstores, so they should be fine with others. I will try to buy as many as I can at the same time and leave them near each other for a while until I put them into the tank.

It was recommended that I add platies first and let them adjust a bit, so I'll probably work on that. After a little while, I plan to add females in cups and let them adjust for a good amount of time (to each other, and to the platies). I know the rule to let them all in at once. I am hoping to get a tank as planted as possible, so the platies and female can hide if necessary.

I guess my questions are:
1. If you know anything about platies, is it a good idea?
2. Otherwise, any tips for the sorority?

Thank you in advance :) Your thread helped quite a bit.

In addition, I plan to watch the tank as often as possible, preferably at least check up on it for several minutes several times a day, and that's when I'm busy. Otherwise, I'll try to spend even hours nearby.

I plan to check parameters at least every two or one day to begin. I plan to make sure the tank is FULLY cycled before beginning, although this is taking up a lot of research on my part (I have never cycled a tank before).

[Side note=what do recommend for cycling besides Master Kit (ammonia in a bottle, bacteria, ect.)?]
 
#84 ·
Platys are great with female fighters :) I have four currently chasing and teasing my girls (and sometimes schooling around them lol). My only complaints about them are the amount of waste they produce... They constantly have a string of poop hanging from them which isn't very attractive.
I suggest getting all one gender so that you don't get overstocked. Mine are all boys so there is a little bit of dominance showing. But nothing overly aggressive. I do think mine are also hybrids. Because two are fat and round like balloon mollies and the other two are tiny thin and zippy.

Goodluck ;)
 
#85 ·
Wow XD
How do you tell the difference between the girls and boys? I've still yet to research that.
I'm planning to get one gender, probably male...once I figure out how to tell.
Thank you! :)
 
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