Well like for me, I was just familiar enough with betta physical signs to know if someone was going to be a jerk or not...so after a few hours I felt comfortable. There might not be any issues at all. I say go ahead, and if you're uncomfortable, jar whoever's aggressive up for the night in a "time out" which I explained above :)
hmmm i just set it up and transferred more plants from vacant aquariums...lets hope it works. Shes nipping a bit and chasing but not overly so...shes found herself a little zone of " I'll kill you if you set fin in my turf" But she won't chase them when they leave that zone...is this ok? I've only ever owned males...never females. So this i new.
Anyways the Tank is heavily planted, 20gal with 6 females now.
Yeah, the "alpha" often won't bother anyone, they just like their own space and if any of the subordinates get out of hand they tend to swim in between and put a stop to it. Just keep an eye on them for a little while.
Extreme aggression would include: Jaw locking, constant chasing or nipping of one or more individuals, flaring constantly with biting, biting at the eyes..
ok so only slight nipping still. She roams around and tries to nip others but nothing around the eyes. I've noticed the old alpha doing the same. I made sure I completely rearranged the plants so no territory was established when I introduced her. So far so good. Lets just hope that it continues to calm down like it has. If none die by tomorrow is it safe to assume that they are relatively getting along.
im afraid to do live plants. im afraid it will be dirty and stuff. i also have sand and so i do the gravel vacuum once a week when i change half of their water, cant i still do that if i have live plants? idk, i just dont know too much about live plants and i dont know how to do it correctly. can someone help me? i also have sand so will the live plants in sand be a problem?
Plants actually help keep the water clean and are not messy themselves unless roots or leaves die... Some plants like camboba can "shed" because they have needles and get messy. I use amazon swords because they have big leaves for girls to sleep in and dont shed. If/when their leaves die they are easy to remove and the roots that die are easily sucked up when you do your gravel vacuum. I have no experiences with sand, if the sand is deep enough they should stay, or if the plant is like they will stay.
You can also look into duckweed, water lettuce, and other floating plants, as they don't leave messes, get light easily, and still keep water clean and won't disturb your gravel. Just make sure you leave surface room for them to get air!
My bettas love floating plants. It inst too difficult to vacuum around the plants, just do it lightly. Also if using sand you'll need to stir it around once in a while to make sure nothing builds up or you could have some issues. I use trumpet snails. If you take plants like anubia, java fern, java moss and so on, they should be fine in sand. Some people actually put a nutrient rich substrate beneath the sand or mix them together. So they can have both sand and nutrient dependent plants.
my sorority seems to be getting along. maybe I can go to bed soon.
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