Gang-Land ?

[gahcrazy]

I have a soroity of 5 red bettas. They have been named "The East Coast Bloods" . This is the conclussion i came up with over the last two weeks. This soroity started with 9 bettas and quickly went down to 8. Stripe, thats my lil girl, just wasn't big enough to stay. Funny thing though, I saw her fighting off three of the girls at a time! and was doing a good job at it. So she has been out for like 2 months now. Then there are my 2 blue and 1 purple girls. I tried everything from removing the wounded one(s) when things got bad for them, to removing the trouble makers which only created NEW trouble makers, Then 2 weeks ago i decided to remove the three that was always being chased and biten. This was making me Crazy. Thats when i noticed that the 5 remaining girls were all Red, 1 is sort of purple but still red. Has anyone else experenced this? My bloods chase each other around with a lil niping but nothing like what my other girls were going through.

[gahcrazy]

So no one else has experenced this? O well..

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

How big is the tank? Do you have the tank heavily planted and lots of hiding places for them? Females can be even more aggressive than males and they are VERY territorial fish, as you're noticing. I've also read that if you cup them all and release them back in the tank at the same time, it'll help re-establish their territory.

[beta novice]

very wise advise

[gahcrazy]

Thanks for the advice. yea, iv'e had the set-up for sometime. plenty of plants and room. I was just wondering if anyone else found gangs in tier tanks. I know it's sounds stupid (being fish) but the five i have in the tank now (the last two weeks) are of the same color and for the most part, don't try to kill one another.

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

It's not stupid at all. They've found that darker colored females are more aggressive than the little colored ones. I'd try releasing them at the same time or getting a couple more females to even out the aggression. There's always going to be some sort of aggression, they're very territorial fish. It sounds like they don't have an "alpha" female yet. I don't have a sorority, but thought I'd give my input. :)

[gahcrazy]

They did a study hu? i'll have to look that up. the alpha female seems to change from time to time. Those lil red ones have issues thats true. LOL, I'm done with putting my other females in the same tank with my gang of five! Their fins are all healed and they seem so peaceful now, thanks

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

That's good! I hope it stays like that.

[Zeetrain]

Thats werd that it happened that way but it may just be coincidence. You can try and reintroduce the other females and see what happens. ive heard its best to move things in the tank so they can reastablish new territories.

[gahcrazy]

Everything gets moved around at least every two weeks. Perhaps as they get older some become more agreesive. I have thought about buying more females, but i really don't want to wind up with more small tanks to clean. I have 5 small tanks thats cleaned twice a week. then there is the 29 gal ...