Newbie On Sororities

[emeraldsky]

(Hope this is in the right section!)

Hello all c:

I have a 50g tank and I'm looking into hopefully putting a sorority in it. I'm not new to owning Bettas though I've never had a female before so I was hoping for some advice or links to some helpful guides or something, anything so that I dont go about this blindly, I really dont want to cause an awful environment for my fish just because I dont know what I'm doing.

I know most of the basic stuff, mostly from reading threads on here, but I havent really found anything on tanks this big. Frankly, I'm not even sure if it's a good idea to have a tank this big for just a sorority ^^;

A few specific questions I would have would be how many females should I put in?
I know 5 is the minimum, but I have a lot of room and just 5 might look a tad sparse. Granted, Im going to have a lot of cover in it, like plants and stuff, but a number would be helpful. I'd love to have a massive amount of them but I really want to do what's best for the fish.

What are some good things to put in a tank besides plants? (Ill be using fake ones I think, with gravel substrate) Ive seen flower pots and coffee mugs. Im hoping to keep cost to a minimum, though I dont mind dishing out some cash so my girls can be happy

So basically, any information or tips would be appreciated.



ALSO
If you feel a sorority would be beyond my current expertise, please let me know? I'm actually quite worried about doing something wrong and dont want to end up killing everything ;A; I'll freely admit I'm still a bit of a newb with bettas but I come on here all the time now and I'm learning new things everyday (You guys have gotten me hooked!)

[mjoy79]

Hi Emeraldsky. Welcome :)

Here is a thread on sorority basics: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=29402

I'm jealous! I wish i had room for a 50g tank. I assume it would be ok to put up to 25 girls in there - since I've heard 2 gal per fish. But I could be wrong if thats too many.
I would put lots of plants and places for the girls to hide if they need to get away from each other. I've read to make sure there isn't a whole lot of room for chasing. Hopefully that thread will help. Or someone with more experience than me.
I have only a 10g with 5 girls in it, but I love it. Girls are so much fun and cute!

[emeraldsky]

@mjoy79

perfect, I'm actually on page 11 or your thread right now LOL, its very informative!

I'm really excited about the tank, I just get permission to set it up again since I moved. 25 sounds like quite a lot actually, so I think I may have less than that, at least for now.

I know my self well enough that I'll soon have 20+ though X)

Im definitely looking into plants and other things to put in, I have some stuff from the first time but not all of it is betta safe so I'll probably have to go and rebuy a lot.


Im looking into real plants as well, though something tells me theyll die if i put them in, the green thumb gene was not prominent in my family X)

[mjoy79]

Awesome :)
Just so you know thats not my thread. But I did read it before I set up my sorority! Can't wait to see pics of yours!!

[emeraldsky]

ah, wll thank you for posting it regardless ^^

Im actually finding a lot of the information that I needed, right after I posted of course
-headdesk-


Id love to get more opinions from people more experienced with sororities though ^^



Hopefully I can get some pictures when I get it going, I'm looking into breeders right now so hopefully I can get some that are siblings and lessen the tension :)

[Thunderloon]

I've had fourteen girls in a ten gallon with no nipping of fins... but what happened is most the girls couldn't remember more than about 7 or 8 of each other and they formed two gangs! While normally only the challenged and her immediate greater or lesser would respond to a flaring, with the two gangs several of one gang would respond to a flaring challenge.

Be careful not to duplicate girls, in a healthy sorority the only common violence comes either from a lack of sleeping room or from exact copies being added. I had a blue girl with a metalic sheen I named Sheen attack and kill a new girl with the same color combination simply because Sheen knew her own colors.

In a 50 gallon I'd think you could easily have and assortment of twenty five or so girls without much trouble. They do get about two inches in size
The main limiting factor I've noticed that may show in a 50 is the low from-wall depth ratio of narrow tanks tends to reduce the "feel size" for most betta.

I think the main concern you will have with a 50 is having enough water circulation without any firm flow. It'd probably be useful to have a couple 5g sponge filters with long lift pipes centered at each end.

The other concern is simple. Don't get all your girls at once. Having a large number of them die off around the same time can be rather depressing. Set up a couple criteria for selecting girls and stick with it, make the criteria the theme of the tank. I always select on personality foremost then look for unique colors next. Take your time, once you've got six or seven girls in you can add new ones at your leisure.

DO stringently follow the quarantine process and teach the girls what to eat and DO avoid crown tail females, I've never had one live long in sorority because they clean up all the waste food and pop.

[emeraldsky]

@Thunderloon

Oh wow, thank you for all the info!

I will be sure not to duplicate colors, all the threads Ive seen with doubles has ended badly it looks like. Thatll stop my from getting all mine at once, even if I did want to ( I dont :P) Unfortunately my petco has a limited supply of females and my petsmart doesnt even sell them anymore :/

Ill be sure to look into sponge filters, thank you c:

[Thunderloon]

If you talk to your petco manager you may be able to get them to send a few extra girls to your store... quite often they already select girls per store based on unique colors (mine once got seven cambodian with red fins but they all had different ray colors). The breeders that supply my local petco have been excellent at selection.

[emeraldsky]

Ill have to have a word with them when I have my tank all set up :*

thank you for the tip, my petco only had about 4 girls and all looked the same so hopefully talking to them can get me a little variety ^^