Sorority woes...

[ninjafish]

This is long, so I apologize...

Today I finally got my check and headed to Petco to get everything needed for my first sorority. A shiny new 15 gallon, heater, filter, live plants, hiding places, gravel, the works. I also picked up 4 new girls, in addition to the 2 I had at home.

So I got everything set up, and eventually put the girls in. Awesome, right? No. ALL of them, besides my little CT female who was probably too scared, began to fight within 5 minutes of being in the tank, and none of them were backing down. It just got worse and they actually began damaging each other's fins, so I took them out and now each of them is in a seperate salt bath, and my CT is alone in the tank.

So, here I am. This is what I feared would happen, and of course it did. What did I do wrong? The only thing I can think of is that I bought females of similar sizes..But I thought that's what you were supposed to do? I bought a female a while back who was larger than most females, and I liked that because she looked happy and robust so I bought other females matching her size. Are they more aggressive or something because they're bigger..?

If someone could give me advice, I'd really appreciate it because I feel like giving up on this idea of having a happy sorority like everyone else does.

[dramaqueen]

Here is a sticky on sororities. http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/b...orities-29402/ I hope this helps.

[ninjafish]

Thanks Dramaqueen. I read it before..I guess I just happened to pick the most aggressive females in the store..My luck of course. The sticky says remove the most aggressive female if she doesn't slow down after a few DAYS..but I think they'd be dead in a few hours if I let them keep going at it. And they're also all aggressive..Except my CT..lol.. :/

[dramaqueen]

Maybe the ones you picked don't have the personality for a sorority. If I were you, I'd get advice from ChristinaRoss. She's had great luck with hers and I got a lot of info from her when I wrote the sticky.

[ninjafish]

Ok, that sounds like a good idea then. I think that may be it, but I just didn't know how you test aggressiveness in the store since the bettas are usually all "blah..." in their little cups, haha. I guess there's special things to look for. Thanks, I will PM her. :)

[dramaqueen]

You're welcome!

[ScuitoAmi150]

Maybe they will calm down and you can try again in a week or so. Since you just brought them all home and introduced ALL of them at the same time that could have been a major shocker. I don't know much about this, but I'd try introducing in pairs so they can slowly figure out the leadership instead of having 6 crazy girls fighting all at once

[ChristinaRoss]

this is the nature of semiaggressive fish..........adding them all at once was not the cause of the fighting. its often better to add all at once then one at a time, you would have to keep letting them restablish territory and pecking orders. thats ALOT of disruption to do it one at a time. they will all tend to pick on the single new one added.

i pm'ed you an in depth response ninjafish

[AlexXx]

I <3 Christina

[New2Betas]

Please keep us updated on what you decided to do. I have been reading a lot of people have sour luck with betta sororities in my area (there is a fish club here). I would like to start one soon, but might end up with male guppies instead.