Community Tank With Female Betta's

[Jully]

The annoying glass mirrors:

Hello, recently I had a few posts about my 55 gallon aquarium. I introduced my male betta Re to the tank, the only problem was it really bugged him since the tank has inside mirrors that cover the whole glass and the biggest problem is I cannot remove the mirrors since they are in the inside.

Anyways, I wanted to know if I were to get 4 female bettas [Maybe more, I do not want to over stock.] 6 tetras and an African dwarf frog. Will the female bettas be bothered by the mirror like Ren or will they be fine because they are in a group?


And how many fish do you recommend me getting for a 55 gallon aquarium, this is my moms tank and because I didn't get her anything for her birthday, I want to make it special she use to be a good fish keeper until when we were replacing our counters with marble counters we use to have a HUGE hexagon aquarium that had these two beautiful cat fish type of sharks, tetras, and so much more that lived since I was small Anyways the aquarium would stay on the counter until one day the guys who were putting the new counter in, the old one split in half the table and old counter, the fish went flying, we were missing our biggest cat fish shark, and the rest didn't make it after a few days, it was sad. Ether way, I want to make it special when we visited Pet Habitat to get Moons new 3 gallon tank my mom looked at the Betta and had her eye on a few veil tails and was saying and pointing "Wow how beautiful is this little boy." She wanted one, I knew she did I wanted her to buy it but we already spent over $200 and are 55 gallon tank was small, I want to get her a blue female and maybe a few other colors, most likely blues since my mom loves blue and loved them.

My questions:

1. Will 4 females [maybe more] be bothered by the inside mirrors?

2. How many females and tank mates are recommended and how many to get for a 55 gallon tank?

3. If I get 4 female betta's with the SAME color will this effect them, causing them to fight or nothing really will happen. I ask this question because it's like them looking in a mirror.

4. Will the mirrors stress the females out and make it look like the amount of them doubled?

Thank you, and sorry 3 is a stupid question, I just want to make this the best tank my mom ever had without the fish dying, the Pet store now these days always gives her the wrong advice when sometimes she goes to buy fish, she hasn't had fish since maybe years so she can't remember much but still knows what she is doing.

3.

[PaintedOaksOki]

I believe in a 55gallon tank you can easily keep 10 females. I honestly have no idea about the mirror though sorry.

[Jully]

Yeah, maybe :) I want a lot of Betta's but the thing is I don't want them attacking each other or something goes wrong since I do not have any extra tanks for them if something does go wrong. I am thinking of getting:

• 4 - 6 Females
• 6 Neons
• 3 - 4 cories.
• 1 Dwarf frog [Still a maybe since we do NOT have a lid for our tank.]

[PaintedOaksOki]

If you don't have a lid you may want to be careful as some bettas are jumpers. I'd recomend 6 females to spread the aggression out. You'll have room for the females themselves. I'm no help in any other department sorry! :/

[Jully]

Haha, it's okay. The LPS we have never jump, the only betta that jumps is my CT but that's because he will ONLY jump for food, but that's when there is food attached to the lid and he see's it but he can never jump out the water, when he jumps he can barley get out of the water. If they are jumpers I will lower the water level, or get a screen.

I just want to know if the mirror will bother the 6 females.

[thekoimaiden]

Originally Posted by Jully

• 4 - 6 Females
• 6 Neons
• 3 - 4 cories.
• 1 Dwarf frog [Still a maybe since we do NOT have a lid for our tank.]

You can certainly add more fish than that to a 55 gallon tank. For female betta, you should do at least 10. This will help spread out the aggression more.

For the tetra, do at least 10. Tetra are schooling fish and get their nippy reputation from being kept in too small numbers. (They have a min requirement of 6, so to keep them like that is the equivalent of keeping a betta in a 1 gal tank.) Tetra do have some squabbles, but with enough around, they won't turn on your betta. You could even do as many as 15. In the wild, these guys like in shoals of fish a thousand strong. The more neon tetra you have, the more beautiful they will be.

For the cories, again I would bump up the numbers to 10. These are another fish that live in massive shoals in the wild. They will be much more cute and active in large groups. You could also look into an algae eater like the bristlenose pleco.

As for the mirror, I recall another member here was struggling with that question, too. She wanted to set up a sorority but was worried about the mirror. If you do want to try it, stuff the back with as many plants (live or fake) and decor as you can. Hide the mirror from them as best you can.

[Jully]

Okay, so thekoi, should I get 10 of each type of fish, I might not get a dwarf frog. Okay, I'll try my best.

[thekoimaiden]

That sounds like a good plan. I think you'll find in the 55 gallon that you could even add another school of fish like x-ray tetra or harlequin rasbora.

I would forgo the frog. That tank is a little deep for him.

[Jully]

Okay Koi, I will go with the females 10 of each, hopefully I can find some usually when I go to Pet Habitat they never have females, and if they do it's rarely or they are on the bottom shelf so no one can see them, if they don't have them I'll check out King Eds, they carry a whole lot of bettas.

What do you recommend me to do to introduce them, they usually come in bags, I think they'll put them separate in a bag so just float them for 10 minutes, add the tank water in their bags and then after 15 minutes let them float in? Or figure out a way to put them all together. Thank you.