My first sorority!

[Xeek]

Well I've been preparing my 16 gallon tank for some time now. Today I finally put together 7 females. Lots of aggression, but it has slowed down now. The newest one I got today got a big nip and I had to put her in a QT tank, because she simply can't take anymore. All the other bettas have no nips and there has always been a winner before fights start (one runs away).

Lights are out for the night. Hope tomorrow shows improvement. They look tired. It's putting my nerves on end waiting for them to work things out. So that leaves 6 girls in the tank with small cory tank mates.

I do have an 8th female, but she's very young and too small to join in all this fun. She's watching it all under the protection of a breeder box.

Any tips at this point in the game?

[moonsand0wls]

Originally Posted by Xeek

Well I've been preparing my 16 gallon tank for some time now. Today I finally put together 7 females. Lots of aggression, but it has slowed down now. The newest one I got today got a big nip and I had to put her in a QT tank, because she simply can't take anymore. All the other bettas have no nips and there has always been a winner before fights start (one runs away).

Lights are out for the night. Hope tomorrow shows improvement. They look tired. It's putting my nerves on end waiting for them to work things out. So that leaves 6 girls in the tank with small cory tank mates.

I do have an 8th female, but she's very young and too small to join in all this fun. She's watching it all under the protection of a breeder box.

Any tips at this point in the game?

Introduce all of the females in the tank again, don't add a girl with them already in there. She will most likely get bullied, hence the nip, because she's new and they've started to claim their territory etc.

[Xeek]

The baby and the nipped one may have a chance to live together out of the sorority. They're both very mellow. I've only been lucky to see this work once with 2 that I had together before the sorority. I might try that with them and leave them out of the sorority. The baby needs to get bigger though before I do anything with her.

The sorority looked calmed down this morning. They are shoaling and only one female is still displaying her gills (must be the alpha). I need to work on my intake and return nozzle flow as the current is too high for them to venture where all the nice big leaves are. One of the females enjoys pretending to be a cory and play with the corys.

[rubinthebetta]

Good luck with the sorority! As for putting the two girls together, maybe put them in a divided tank with removable divider and see how they react and if it's good, remove the divider. I think that may be a better plan than putting them in a divided tank and then put them together in a different one...less stressful the other way.

[Xeek]

They are doing extremely well. 6 together but only 4 in the picture I attached. They seem to mostly shoal together.

I want to add 2 or 3 more to the group. They are not making use of much of the tank. I've bought some filter foam to cut up and make some custom shapes to help block water flow. This hopefully will solve the extreme current up at the top and also the suction of the intakes which make them accidentally pancake against it on occasion (they get away from it after a second of recovering).

Also pictured is Edward (Scissor Hands). He is getting along with everyone just fine and minds his own business. The bettas mostly ignore him. I did notice once, one of the bettas flared at the crawfish. His response was to put both claws above his head and slowly move towards the betta. The betta swam away. He's about the same size or bigger than the bettas so I'm not worried for him. Any betta trying to nip at him will get a pinch.