Betta Fish Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

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.
 
See less See more
#32 ·
Good to hear you upgraded her. Female bettas tend to be quite active and curious things so I always do advocate for the biggest tank possible for them.

If the new tank is bare, it may be making her nervous. Bettas generally like to have a couple of areas of cover that they can retreat to if they are startled or feeling overwhelmed. Otherwise she may just be taking a little longer to get settled.

Thanks for the comments on my blog. I am a big wild betta enthusiast so am always trying to get them out there.
 
#33 ·
This is quite a helpful thread! I am going to start a sorority very soon in a 29 gallon tank that I have along with a 10 gallon quarantine, both fully filtered and heated. I will get my bettas at my local petsmart because that is the easiest way for me. I want to start off with 6 and at some point end up at 10-12 but what should I do if I only see 3 individuals I like? (I definitely want red, blue, and white/cambodian that I always see there) Wont that be a bad number? Additionally, I want to add live plants, and I want to make sure they don't contain diseases, etc. What are some easy live plants to take care of and how do you make sure they aren't contaminated?
Thanks,
Hyper27
 
#34 ·
I would be leery of adding only three females even in a large tank. I had a 45 gallon and I once put in two females that had lived together previously in a sorority.

Within five minutes they had hunted each other out and they fought (and inflicted a fair amount of damage) until I removed one of them to a breeders' net.

Even with a lot of space, if a betta is feeling combative, they will still seek each other out and fight.

Some people can have a sorority of three females and never run into any issues, but they are the exception more so than the rule.

If you only see three females you like, I would keep them in quarantine or separated until you find at least three or more females. IMO three females is not a sorority but a disaster waiting to happen.

Easy to care for plants include java fern, anubias, vallisneria (will give you some height), water sprite, wisteria, anacharis, bolbitis and crypts.

Personally, I prefer to use fast growing plants such as water sprite and wisteria in sororities, as they fill in quickly and provide a lot of cover at all levels of the tank. However, they do require at least low-medium lighting to grow, and I am not sure just how easy you wanted to go.

To make sure plants are safe, you can either do a dip with them using diluted bleach or potassium permanganate (not sure on the ratios for these so you will have to google) or just keep them quarantined for a couple of weeks prior to adding them into your sorority.
 
#35 ·
I got my four new females on Wednesday from Chard56 and put them and the two females I already had in six QT tanks floating in my ten gallon for warmth so they can all see each other. My two that I already have have been in QT for over two months because I could not do just two in a sorority, obviously, but they've been next to each other so they could see each other. Those two seem really aggressive to the new girls, flaring at them a lot. They did that to each other but calmed down a bit. They sometimes try to "get at" each other through the glass (all 6 of them do) but those two were flaring. A couple of the new girls seemed like they were trying to attack ME through the front of the glass.

Am I just overreacting or could this be a bad sign? I'm planning on releasing all of them on April 1st.
 
#36 ·
Since you said they calmed down after flaring at each other, they may well calm down after flaring at the others, too. My girls had a fair amount of flaring at each other in the bags, and then again when they were released, but it's been a week now and everyone is settled.
 
#37 ·
Thanks... They will be next to each other and able to see each other for about two weeks before I release them so hopefully that will be long enough for them to get used to the new girls' presence.

Also, what bags should I use to put them in when I get ready to release them? I don't know where people get shipping bags and all I have are ziplock bags but I'm not sure how well those would work... I'd rather use bags than cups because they are easier to clip to the sides of the tank and cups take up a lot of room...
 
#38 ·
I know the cups take up a fair amount of room, but maybe lower the water in the tank a bit so they can ride under the hood? I like the cups because they (if they are the cups that bettas typically are purchased in) have lids with holes for air flow already in them. I'd be worried about putting the girls in sealed bags!
 
#40 ·
I'd rather use bags but I'm not going to seal them, I'll just leave them open and clip them to the sides so they don't tip over.

One reason I would rather use bags is because their QT tanks have small openings and cups would be hard to fit in there to scoop them out. I just don't know if ziplock bags would work well because of the shape. I don't know what else to use.

I don't have school or work Monday so that's when I'm releasing them. It will be 1 week and 5 days in QT. I know that's not very long but Monday is the only full day off for like longer than a month. May 20 will be my next free day, lol. Plus when I bag them before releasing them, I'll need some room to rearrange decor in the tank so cups would likely get in my way x_x
 
#41 ·
I'd rather use bags but I'm not going to seal them, I'll just leave them open and clip them to the sides so they don't tip over.

One reason I would rather use bags is because their QT tanks have small openings and cups would be hard to fit in there to scoop them out. I just don't know if ziplock bags would work well because of the shape. I don't know what else to use.

I don't have school or work Monday so that's when I'm releasing them. It will be 1 week and 5 days in QT. I know that's not very long but Monday is the only full day off for like longer than a month. May 20 will be my next free day, lol. Plus when I bag them before releasing them, I'll need some room to rearrange decor in the tank so cups would likely get in my way x_x
Yay! Sounds like a fun day off of work. Let me know how the girls are getting along. Also, let me know how the bags work out and what kind you end up using. I've never tried that and want to see how it works out.
 
#42 · (Edited)
Hi,

I introduced my Petco rescue Curious Grace (female CT) and Wee (2 month old baby) to my tank. They got along fine. Mostly because I put Wee in a cup inside CG's tank for an hour and noticed that she was not really interested at Wee. Then after acclimation, I released them. As soon as they are in the tank, Wee tried to follow CG around like a kid. But somehow, without any chasing or fin nipping, Wee knew her place and let CG roam the tank without getting in her way.

The tall hygrophilia and the bunch of floating anacharis helped blocked the line of sight and CG was interested in checking out the baby RCS and was apprehensive of the Amano shrimps that are bigger than her. Also the stone decor, shorter growing plants and marimo moss driftwood and moss ball serve as low level blocks, too.

Wee stayed in one corner and CG in another corner, it's like an invisible wall.

So far so good...

CG


Wee


My tank in mid-Jan when Fred was still around, most of the stems have grown and replanted, imagine more taller stems.
 
#43 ·
I have a question that may be silly, but ... I'm going to ask it anyway. :)

Which is ... since there is some level of stress to the fish that is involved in a sorority tank, is it better just not to do it at all? The reason I ask is that I have a new baby Betta - still not sure of gender or tail type, but if it turns out to be a female, I have thought about getting a fifteen or twenty gallon tank and doing a sorority, only because since my initiation into Bettas, I've just fallen in love with them and the idea that I could get five or six of them out of those little cups and into a good home is very difficult for me to resist. I'm still very new to Betta keeping, but I'm willing to learn, and this forum is such a great resource. On the other hand, if this is a stressful living situation for them, I wonder whether it would be better to get that same fifteen or twenty gallon tank, put in two dividers, and then I could have three Bettas in there (the baby plus two more). I wouldn't be able to liberate as many from their little cups, but would the ones I did choose be happier and less stressed than if I went with the sorority idea? Thoughts?
 
#44 ·
I can only go based on what I've read and my own tank. I got the tank for Christmas and it is now home to 11 female bettas (and friends).

I have one girl who stripes up when she sees me watching (but if I glance over at the tank after having not been near it in a while, she's fine) and one girl who stripes up at feeding time. I saw a bit of chasing/nipping early on, which I dealt with by giving the offender (Hi Christmas) a timeout in the floating breeder box for a while. Which caused her to stripe up for the duration of her timeout. I had one girl who was just too young at the start and spent a couple of months in a small tank before being re-added (she's the one who stripes up when watched). I had one with food adjustment issues who had to be removed for a couple of bouts of SBD (but is now fine and hasn't shown any floaty tendencies for a couple of months). It takes some special attention to get going.

At this point, they don't seem aggressive to each other, they all crowd around and nip *ME* at feeding time. One of them has decided she's trying the tetra life and hangs out with the tetras.

This is certainly one of those cases where YMMV and someone else could easily experience a sorority disaster. It does happen. I had a rough start with mine, actually. But I wanted this tank just for this, and now that it's all done, I'm really pleased with my betta rainbow. And fwiw, I get a HUGE kick out of being nipped by the girls at feeding times :)
 
#45 ·
I am still scared to get close enough for one of them to bite me because my blind male is aggressive and he bites HARD (he didn't bite me but he latched on to something well enough that I pulled him out of the water still attached, like a dog that won't let go of a toy, lol.)

From what I can tell, there are very few females who won't work out in a sorority and some who even prefer the company. Since fish can't talk, its hard to tell which ones will work best.

There's a lot of planning involved, too. Unless you have an already cycled filter and/or live plants, I wouldn't start a sorority. A sorority of all rescues might be hard because they need to all be released at the same time with no less than 4 girls. However, in my ten gallon I was able to do a QT set up for 6 girls and its working well for me if you would like to know how I did that.

It is a little stressful which is why water quality is so important in a sorority. I got VitaChem specifically because I knew I was setting up a sorority tank. Its also the only reason I got live plants and a ton of silk plants to fill in until the live plants grow.

However, I don't have my sorority completely set up, yet. My 6 girls will be released into their tank Monday and then I'll have some personal experience to share ;)
 
#46 ·
So I released the girl into the tank today... For whoever asked, I used ziplock bags and they worked great up until the point where I actually tipped the bags and let them swim out, lol. I tried to do all six of them at once and the bags wouldn't stay open and one got stuck in the bag and was quite distressed about it! But even scooping them up was nearly effortless. I did decide to seal the bags, though. They were the regular sandwich size ones and I filled them half full, blew air into them and let them float since it was very temporary.

When I first released them, Ascari and Daihatsu went at it! I think I saw everyone flare except for my EE girls which is surprising! Ascari is doing most of the flaring, chasing, and fin nipping and there's quite a bit of it but no injuries that I can see. Lotus has the idea, though. She found a corner in the back near the bottom where she is content swimming around and she's pretty well hidden so the other girls aren't bothering her.

I was surprised that Ascari is so aggressive because she seemed the calmest in QT. Mercy, my purple girl, seems to be holding her own very well but she doesn't actively go looking for other girls to attack like Ascari - she doesn't take Ascari's attitude, though.
 
#47 ·
I hope they settle in soon! Your EE girls sound so sweet. And if you have any pics of them all in, we'd love to see :)
 
#48 ·
They have already settled down! Still some slight chasing but some of it almost looks like following, lol. Stella and Lotus (the EE girls) are still pretty mellow, which surprised me because they did most of the flaring in QT!

After a few hours of letting them sort out things on their own, they seem to be minding their own and not getting super aggressive when the other girls are close to them. The more dominant ones (mostly the dragon girls and the purple girl) seem to give everyone the "look" and they swim off, but the dragon girls really stand up to each other. They kind of look like dogs when they stare at each other and growl before they fight, but without the fighting.

Even though I left them alone, I don't see any new fin damage at all. Mercy, my purple female, has an itty bitty piece missing on the tip of her tail from shipping. The conflict and heavy breathing seems to have vanished now. They are cute to watch. Sometimes it looks like they're giving each other kisses!? (Not locking lips, though.)

I had to baffle the filter more because the outflow was pushing them downwards! They kept swimming into it on purpose like "wtf!?" LOL.

I have pictures of each of them individually, one of the tank and one (bad) picture of four of the six in the tank. I'll no doubt get more better pictures with my actual camera, though. I have to go dig those up because I'm on my phone.
 
#49 ·

Lotus


Stella


Kuraokami (Okami)


Daihatsu


Ascari


Murcielago (Mercy)




And the tank:




Stella, Lotus and Mercy have better pictures because they were actually taken on my camera, not my phone :p

The live plants are in the front of the tank and silk plants in the back to fill in because I obviously do not have enough live ones yet for sufficient cover :p
 
#52 ·
Awesome, Ayala! I finally decided to get my girls out of quarantine too, but was so entranced by them I forgot to shoot video. They'd been in there three weeks, but on Friday, one of them got a chunk bitten out of her tail and I decided it was best to get them in their real home since they seem to be getting ready to establish territories.

Since it's a planted tank, they spent the entire night exploring and hunting for scuds.

I didn't see this in the original post, and Ayala mentioned turning DOWN the filter, so I thought I would mention it... One trick I learned from Chard56 (who I got all of my girls from) is that high filter flow helps mitigate aggression -- the water flow can interrupt an attack by forcing the two to have to swim hard to stay in place.

Videos of my girls instead of pictures:
Quarantine tank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riWjLu2ushc
Display tank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTMGM6IMaC8

I still haven't found good names for my girls yet, so I'm still identifying them by body features.
 
#53 ·
The thing with the outflow - my girls do that too! They will "ride" the moving water all the way from the back to the front, and then often peel out, go back and do it again! I imagine they are doing the fish equivalent of yelling "Wheeee!" as they go.

It looks nice and I'm glad they are settling down :)
 
#54 ·
Got a question for you all. I had to take my sorority apart because one of my ladies ended up being a boy. I got a female to replace him with last night. While I acclimated her & put her in her QT tank she was fine. A little stressed and kept swimming all over the place, but no stress stripes or anything like that. I put her QT tank by the other girls so they could get used to the site of each other & that changed. She lost all her color and very prominent stress stripes showed. All the sudden she clamped up a little and seemed to try and make herself as small as possible. She's twice the size of my other ladies, but it was obvious the site of them really upset her, so I blocked her view of them & when she didn't start relaxing I blocked her view of everything else overnight. This morning the stress stripes are gone, she's swimming like normal, no more clamped fins or anything. When she see's the girl it's the same reaction, so I've isolated her again. Am I handling this correctly or is it better to leave her where she can see the other ladies. She's in QT for 2 weeks and the sorority won't be going back up until then at the earliest, so I can take it slow if she just needs some special attention and time to relax.

What I know of this females past is this - some lady had 5 bettas and for some reason had to get rid of them, so she gave them to the pet store to sell. Being as she gave them 5 bettas at once and said they were all female I think she tried a failed sorority. When I bought the boy from the tank all the females were hiding behind the filter and absolutely colorless. So she's been rather stressed lately anyway.
 
#57 ·
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 10 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 1 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 10 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.
Great thread! I had two females in a 55 gal before and 3 in a five temporarily without problems. I think it really depends on the individual fish though
 
#58 ·
Started my sorority 2 days ago. I started with 10 females in a 15G. I will pull out females if they're not doing well in this setup. So far they all look healthy and good, none of them have stress bars or paleness (some of them actually turned more colorful!). There's some minor chasing and 2-3 nips that happened, but in general they don't flare at each other much or harass others around them.

These pictures were taking right after I fed them, which is why they're all up top. They don't seem to mind feeding together either.




Lets hope it keeps up this way >.<!

Thanks for this awesome guide : )
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top