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Good Luck? or just a time bomb waiting to explode.

912 views 18 replies 6 participants last post by  ShyDog 
#1 ·
So, I recently got back into betta and aquarium keeping in general ( I tended both saltwater and freshwater tanks for four years in high school) so I do know a little bit about how to keep a good tank running (That and all the wonderful advice i've gotten from you lot :).) So, I came into possession of a 10 gallon, have it rigged with a sponge filter, and a heater. I started another thread showing how I have it planted, and have recently added some other small plants that I hope will grow even more. The responses I recieved to the thread were positive and helpful.

I chose to make it into a sorority hosting 5 girls, 1 snail and 3 ghost shrimp.


Aside from one major fight between the alpha and the (second possible alpha?) things have been relatively stable, the alpha chases the rest around ocassionally and flares when they enter "her" part of the tank, but mostly they have established a good pecking order, and they have all colored up nicely.

I was just wondering..is this uncommonly good luck that everything worked out? or is there just an underlying time bomb waiting to go off? I want to do what's best for my girls, which requires educating myself even further.

(one of them occassionally will revert back to what I can only think of as a show of submissive stripes (stress stripes). It only happens when the alpha flares at her, and she quickly reverts back as soon as the alpha is done.
 
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#15 ·
Naw, sorority habitat is appropriate in here.

Make sure to get a new girl and bring the count to six. The tank will handle it OK once its been established and this will make it 5 girls in if you have to quarantine one of them.

If you were to have to quarantine your top girl right now the other four may well tear each other up in a couple days. Since betta breath in air you can consider the girls as 1 inch fish until they're fully grown (two inch including tail). Raise the count to six or seven as you find girls you really really want, it sucks to have fights start over something as dumb as low stocking.

Don't just run out and grab one... select carefully. You don't simply plant impatients because there's dirt visible in the flower bed!
 
#3 ·
Sounds like it is good, but i couldn't find any pictures of how the tank looks currently, with the extra plants and fish. Feel free to post here. This sub forum is fine. In the most recent picture you posted it was not planted enough, but maybe it is now? IMO, the level of cover is the determination of whether a sorority will succeed or fail.
 
#5 ·
Ok here's an updated version of my tank, since the last photo. The plants are plastic, no metal inserts, tested for rough edges, and tested/watching to make sure they don't bleed into the water.
 
#9 ·
Thankyou! I really enjoyed putting it together

all three of the caves in there are bowls and cups I got from a local thrift store (about 4 dollars total) There's no dye on any of them, and I believe cause their ceramic their good to go? (also the alligator was broken without a price tag at walmart, so I convinced them to let me buy it for less than it was originally marked for :p )
 
#10 ·
I had my first, and only bad betta experience the other day when I started my sorority tank. I had 3 girls, a double tail named Penelope, a crown tail named Pirscilla, and a veil tail named Lou Lou (gf named all 3). Penelope hit a big growth spurt when I was still isolating them but she wasn't all that much bigger than the other two. When I placed them in the 10 gallon with only a guppy in there they all 3 relentlessly chased it for a few minutes so I removed it. Lou Lou and Penelope had it out flaring and circling for a while before Penelope took rank and claimed her spot in the tank. Pirscilla wanted none of it and kept to her side. A full 24 hours passed and everything looked good, they all had their space and aside from Lou Lou's now and again challenging Penelope all was well. Well 72 hours later I couldn't find Pirscilla, I had to look everywhere before I found her cowering on the bottom. I also noticed Lou Lou had a tear in her tail fin and a few nips on the other fins. Pirscilla wouldn't come up to feed, and Penelope was very aggressive over the food. Finally I coaxed Pirscilla out of her hole and she had a HUGE piece of her tail bitten off spines and all.

That's not the bad part, all those nips can heal, what made me so sad was I pulled Penelope out of the sorority and placed her in an isolation cup beside the 10 gallon. I never even thought about the 10 gallon having cycled water and by the next morning I had bacteria over run and she didn't survive. I felt TERRIBLE for 2 days and my girlfriend was really down about it. Lesson learned and I won't make that mistake again!
 
#12 · (Edited)
Pirscilla is doing great now, I picked up 7 new females last night from Petsmart for 99 cents each! Some of them honestly look like half moon males so I need to get their violently blue water cleaned and make sure I know what I have. I went scorched earth on the 10 gallon and am starting it all over. Pirscilla is in an isolation tank with her tail healing up nicely :). I picked up 5 4in terra cotta pots and am considering putting some live plants in this tank. Right now I'm using the neon bulbs that attach to the basic hood. I believe they're 12w each, they seem brighter than my old balast style hood! I'm going to scrub the 10 gallon out hard just in case and start the water cycling while I isolate and treat the new pet store females. All of them look really healthy. The lady at the front told me they get them in every Wednesday and quite a few of them didn't have their feeder holes punched yet so that's a good sign!
 
#13 ·
Sororities can blow up at any time, but normally the longer they are together, the less of a risk it is..

Brian- glad you got more then just the 3, as only 3 you will have one that is being relentlessly attacked, sometimes to death, then the other two will start in on each other. Why 4/5 is the minimum.. but for a 10 gallon, you really don't want more then 5, possibly 6 with live plants, and no other fish in there with that many.
7, plus the 3 you have is quite a lot and highly recommended you not put that many in a tank that size.
 
#14 ·
I'm keeping my original females in isolation for now and I really think I've got 2 half moon males in mis labeled cups! The males they had at Petsmart were TINY! Only the veil tails were fully grown. When I had three it seemed as if they had all taken their territory, then like you said it blew up all at once. This is why I'm putting in the terra cotta and changing the lay out of the tank. I had a TON of plastic plants, and a little roman helmet cave plus giant snail shells for them to hide in but they never really took to them. I didn't know that you should have an actual minimum in a sorority tank till this forum. I've got plenty of overflow tanks available if I have to isolate some, I'm just waiting for a vacation so I can be around to monitor everything, plus I want to see if those odd looking females are really dudes or not ;-)

Also since Penelope passed, I only have 2 original females :(
 
#16 ·
I'm so sorry for your loss of the little girl =( I didn't see that part.
I've come to the conclusion from my own experience and reading from other people here, that girls don't tend to hide in the cave like males do. You may have one or two that do, but mostly they prefer mid-top level plants that are dense. I believe it could be because males will claim a territory and stay there, and so a cave/cover will help them feel more secure. Whereas the females don't tend to stay in one spot as much, and in the wild they are the ones who travel and find a male, lay eggs, and take off again. So dense coverings are preferred rather then a cubby hole. But don't have to remove any caves, because since they are in a tank and can't travel long distances, some may still use a cave as "theirs".

You're doing fine, and being smart, especially making sure you don't have a couple boys in the mix =)
 
#19 ·
Oh something else I forgot that might be a treat. I wanted some kind of "moonlight" that wouldn't disturb my girls at night, while still providing a cool effect.
I found a couple of blue LED strips at walmart and screwed them into the light hood. The light itself is so soft in pitch black that I couldn't even capture it on camera but here's a picture of the set up
 
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