i have 5 ghost shrimp,some mts, some pond snails andsome assasin snails in it since before i got the females..
heres the story on the girls, i started with 5 females.. 2 veiltales from petsmart,they were on sale for 1 dollar each.. then i went to petco to check out the fish there the same night and i got 3 crown tails for 4 dollars each..
1 red vt
1 black/blue vt
1 light blue ct
1 cambodian ct
1 blue/red ct
so home i went and i added the 5 girls... they were all same size except for 1 red veiltale almost half the size bigger than the others.. from the start one of the crowntails was swimming slow and very shy and seemed very weak or maybe even sick.. i watched them for an hour.the big vt chased everyone except the small cambodian ct,the cambodian seemed to be shy and no one bothered her..
the big vt seems to hate blue fish and chased the blue ct alot..
the next day i woke to find the weak blue vt dead with her belly eaten away,so i removed her and did a 50 percent water change and i cupped the big red vt.this left me with 3 females in the tank and the bully floating.
the next day i noticed white spots. so i treated the 3 females for ich, it seems to be gone so i added them all back in and the big one still bullied even after 4-5 days cupped. ill be returning her..
the remaning 3 females get along ok for the most part these last 2 days, a little chasing,there was some nipping but thats mostly stopped now,the chasing is slow chasing now,more like just pushign someone away from their turf,they dont dart all over the tank like they did when the big vt chased and nipped them.. so for now the 3 females living relatively good together,ill get 2 more females tonight or tomorro
heres a chase
i cant get a good pic of my vt in there as she stays up top in the frogsbit all the time
I think you need taller plants, and a lot of them. Their line of sight needs to be broken up and they spend a lot of time near the top. I'm sure the floating plants can help, but if they're swimming under them, they can see every other fish in the tank. That was probably the reason for all the chasing.
Yeah, sometimes just stocking up a tank ridiculously with plants can be a HUGE help. This is what my sorority looks like, as of a re-aquascaping two nights ago:
It's not pretty and perfectly aesthetically-balanced-- actually it kind of looks like I just threw plants in there and hoped they wouldn't die-- but the girls love it. The tank is a fifteen gallon and only houses four girls, which gets a little risky, but because it's so spacious and well-planted I have zero problems with fighting.
(Pardon the girl in the corner, she's a recent adoption and I'm literally in the middle of getting her tank set up. The other girls don't seem to mind her chilling there for a bit.)
im all out of plants for now,thats all i could afford so for now it will have to do. hopefully they can all get along good enough untill i can get more taller plants in a couple months time,ill keep updated if anything happens, i started out with cheap pet store fish as this is my first sorrority and if i do unfortunately happen to lose a female or 2 at least i wont be out of pocket too much.its all learning as i go
hopefully tonight i can get to petco/petsmart to buy 2 more girls,with 5 in there total i should have better success than just leaving 3 in there.. hopefully i get peacefull fish.ill report back with pics and info when i add the new girls
I'm watching your trials with "baited breath" (pun very much intended!!)
I have 2 petco females together in a 5 gal. They just started fighting a few days ago after months of perfect peace. Since people on this thread told me that trouble was on the horizon, I got a great deal on a 29-gallon. I started cycling it with plants/rocks from the 2 girls tank, plus water treatment foe heavy metals, chlorine, etc. After a week with great test results, I added 5 albino cory cats (canaries for my coal mine). One died within 24 hours. I returned the fish and bought 2 more- they are zipping around like crazy! This morning I awoke to a white patch on one girl's head (Gilly) and "Angel" (her tankmate) was chasing her around for the first time ever! I immediately tossed Angel into the 29 gal and started wound treatment on Gilly.
I've planned my sorority very carefully: I went on Aquabid and bought 6 females, carefully choosing the colors: I have a pineapple (!), a denim blue color, a white one, a "fancy" multicolored, one an orange and pale blue mix, and a solid blue "Dumbo" girl. I want them shipped from Thailand Monday and Express shipped from the US shipper overnight. My reasoning is that (hopefully) all the fish will have been used to being housed in close quarters, and will have had less stress than Petco fish. Many on this site "rescue" bettas from cups (that have been sitting around for weeks) but doesn't this just encourage Petco? If I chose 6 females from petco, chances are 1/2 will die quickly (I've purchased 4 females from Petco and 2 died within 2 days; I'm left with the 2 I have). Hopefully, by submitting my girls to one huge transition instead of 2 or 3, they'll be healthier...
Stay tuned! I guess I'll get my girls Wed. or Thurs.-
Hopefully you have good luck with them girls , I bet they cost you a few quid with all that shipping and everything.. 2 girls in a 5 gal was always gonna be risky, they will live your 29 now..
Update..... I went to petco last night . Got a beautiful bright red veil take female. She looks healthy so after two hours floating I introduced her, my dominant crown tail swam around her for maybe 5 mind flaring at her but they both stood their ground and then swam away without a chase or a bite. I've watched them thus morning for half hour and all was peacefull even during feeding . I think they have accepted her , ill keep my eye on them closely over the next week.. She's the same size as the other three do maybe that helps, the fish I returned to petsmart was much bigger and I think Maine that why it was a bully, ill add pics of the new girl soon,
I cost me a bundle! But compared to the stress of buying 6 girls from Petco only for them to keep dying- then having to return them (then the stock is more picked over) only to have another die... well, this may be a disaster, too. I just can't handle falling in love with a fish in the store only to find it is sick/dead a day or two later. (Plus, I can't leave Petco/Petsmart with "only" a fish! I have to buy a plant, an additive, frozen food, food for my cat $$$)
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