starting a sorority -- quick help?

[maggiegator]

As I said in the sorority sticky, I've started a sorority. Kovu got ousted into a 2.5g, and the ladies are in the 10g. I started with letting them all just bob around in their temporary Petco containers so they could see each other without interacting. Once they got over their initial excitement, I released three. Two of them, my two veiltails, are just calmly exploring the tank.

The two crowntails are having a showdown. The one that seemed to be most aggressive is the one that is still bobbing in her temp. tank, and the other crowntail is in the big part of the tank, but she's swimming around the aggressive one. They're both displaying like crazy. The one that's bobbing, who seems to be the most aggressive and who I think will be alpha, keeps flaring her gills so it almost looks like she has a little mane. They start with displaying at each other head on, but then will turn to the sides and wriggle at each other.

Is it normal for them to be displaying at each other like that? I knew there would be a little arguing over who gets to be boss, but I didn't expect them to display quite like that. And I'm kinda nervous about letting the super aggressive one out of the temp. tank, because I'm afraid they'll start actually fighting once they can touch each other. I have a quarantine tank at the ready just in case, but I'm nervous to let the girl out at ALL.

Does all of this sound relatively normal? Should I just let the last one out of the temp. tank and just watch what happens?

[maggiegator]

Okay, so here's an update. I released the last fish into the tank and just let them all battle it out. Surprisingly, neither of the two super aggressive females ended up the "winner." They focused on each other, and then the one who had been circling the container of the one who was last to be released was the one who kept picking fights. Well, she made the mistake of picking on one of the veiltails, and actually chose the one who is the biggest girl in the tank. The other veiltail has avoiding all the fighting and wants nothing to do with it. But the aggressive crowntail and the big veiltail were having a fight, and the veiltail was pretty vicious. She kept grabbing the crowntail by the mouth, covering the CT's mouth with her own, and I had to break it up a couple times. The CT eventually left the VT alone, and I'm tempted to call her Nemo because she's now only using one of her side fins. I imagine the other one got injured in a fight, but I hope it's nothing super serious. She gave up on fighting and is now hiding. So at the moment, all is well. I'm going to Petsmart tonight though and might come home with more (I've read I can have up to 5 or 6 girls in a 10g) so I might have to deal with this all over again, hahaha. And I need to think up names for them....

[thePWNISHER]

Fun update. I hope all is quiet now and they can be a big happy family for ya.

[neonqueencobra]

If one of your females is constantly hiding bring her out of hiding and inspect her. One of my females did this and she was being pulled apart by one of her tank mates.

[thePWNISHER]

Any updates on how your tank and girls are doing?