10g Female Betta Sorority :D

[Jrf456]

Hi guys! I'm planning on starting up a 10g sorority soon. I'll have 6-7 females.

I was given some help by another member, and she advised me to ask information from others too. Thank you KoiMaiden!

So.. The questions.

1. How long should I cycle the tank? Can I cycle with the female bettas in it? If I do a fishless cycle, do I still need to change the water if it doesn't have any fish in it yet?

2. Is 7 females good? I've read it was fine.. But I'd like to hear other opinions.
No, I cannot get a bigger tank, 10g is already pushing it.

3. Should I add all of the females to the tank at once? Is there any room for any other fish with 7 females?

4. What kind of water changes would I be doing for this 10g to keep them happy and healthy?

5. Would maybe 2 ADF be okay in the tank? I've always wanted some.

6. How do I feed them so all of them can eat?

7. If I happen to get an aggressive female, will the pet store be able to let me swap her for another? I'd love to keep her in an extra tank if that did happen.. But I still have 4 boys and one older girl I don't plan on putting in!

8. Is one cave enough? I have this really long bridge tunnel like cave that used to be in my 5g. It's got two big caves on each side, and in the middle it has a tunnel cave but it's just opened with columns. I was planning on getting 1 more little dorky tank ornament for fun.. But was wondering if this is enough for hiding.

9. What are some good non-messy and inexpensive real plants? I hate when the water turns green from the plants and little plant shreds go everywhere.. Are there any good non messy and inexpensive plants? Nothing that will give my water a green tint.. Lol.

10. Do I need to quarantine real plants? For how long?

11. How long should I QT a new female?
Thank you very much.. If you'd like to add more I'll be thrilled! :)

[Jrf456]

I love when no one replies to my threads xD

[Jrf456]

Oh.. And this is probably stupid.. But can I mix tail types? :3

[emeraldsky]

Originally Posted by Jrf456

1. How long should I cycle the tank? Can I cycle with the female bettas in it? If I do a fishless cycle, do I still need to change the water if it doesn't have any fish in it yet?
Cycling is different for everyone, im not too well versed in it, but its safer for your fish if you do if before putting your betta girls in.

2. Is 7 females good? I've read it was fine.. But I'd like to hear other opinions.
No, I cannot get a bigger tank, 10g is already pushing it.
5 is generally the max for 10g, if you have more they crowd each other and cant establish territories.

3. Should I add all of the females to the tank at once? Is there any room for any other fish with 7 females?
Females need to be added all at once, in order of least aggressive first. There is no room for other fish, but in the future, if you get a bigger tank, all other fish need to be put in BEFORE the bettas. Anything added afterwards will be seen as an invader to their territories. If you add other fish/new betta girls after your sorority is established you have to take all your girls out and redecorate the tank, it allows new territories to be set up and new girls/fish wont be seen as invaders.

4. What kind of water changes would I be doing for this 10g to keep them happy and healthy?
Not too sure on this personally, itll be a lot less if you cycle it first though.

5. Would maybe 2 ADF be okay in the tank? I've always wanted some.
Im going with no, 5 betta girls will fill the tank, BUT I could be wrong on this. If anything, go with one. You may get an aggressive girl as well and she may pick on or eat the ADF

6. How do I feed them so all of them can eat?
One pellet at a time right in front of each individual girl, to make sure they all get their share. If you have a piggy, put her in a breeders net while you feed.

7. If I happen to get an aggressive female, will the pet store be able to let me swap her for another? I'd love to keep her in an extra tank if that did happen.. But I still have 4 boys and one older girl I don't plan on putting in!
Its different for each petstore, youll need to talk to yours and see what their policy is.

8. Is one cave enough? I have this really long bridge tunnel like cave that used to be in my 5g. It's got two big caves on each side, and in the middle it has a tunnel cave but it's just opened with columns. I was planning on getting 1 more little dorky tank ornament for fun.. But was wondering if this is enough for hiding.
Oh goodness no! Sororities need to be incredibly covered, plan on having a at least once cave/hiding place for each girl with some extras thrown in. You can NEVER have enough hiding places for a sorority.

9. What are some good non-messy and inexpensive real plants? I hate when the water turns green from the plants and little plant shreds go everywhere.. Are there any good non messy and inexpensive plants? Nothing that will give my water a green tint.. Lol.
Im very new to plants myself, but right now I have anacharis, some swords and anubias. None have turned my water green. Do some research and see what plants will fit what lighting you have.

10. Do I need to quarantine real plants? For how long?
Always, 2-3 weeks

11. How long should I QT a new female?
Always, 2-3 weeks


Oh.. And this is probably stupid.. But can I mix tail types? :3
Yep, in my sorority, I have VT, CT, Spades, and HM.

Hope this helps!

[Jrf456]

Thank you very much! Very helpful.. Would love to hear more too :3

[styggian]

Originally Posted by Jrf456

I love when no one replies to my threads xD

It can take more than 45 minutes for someone with relevant knowledge to even see your post, let alone compose a reply

You'll need a lot of plants. LOTS of them. 7 may be pushing it for a 10 gallon, you definitely wants lots of places for them to hide, especially if they're crowded and stressed.

I wouldn't add any frogs, females can be very aggressive and the frogs have no defenses and could easily become food.

[LittleBettaFish]

I have ten or eleven females in a 10 gallon sorority. Aside from one female who is moving out because of issues with aggression (she continually harasses two of the other females) everyone gets on fairly peacefully.

I have never had issues with introducing females later down the track. In fact I added two the other day and they already know their place in the pecking order. I just feed all the original females in one spot and release the new ones out at the other end. Of course they do show up with the odd torn fin, but none of my females have ever actively pursued and attacked newcomers.

To feed my females I get them to all come over to me, and then I dump a line of pellets in front of them. This way the pellets aren't focused in one spot and everyone gets a chance to get fed. I've found the more well-fed my females are, the less fighting that goes on. I feed frozen foods with tweezers, but do pretty much the same sort of thing.

I never quarantine plants and I have never had any issues because of it. I would recommend quarantining new females however, and giving them a basic treatment for internal parasites as I have yet to get a betta from my LFS that didn't have worms.

The most important thing is providing appropriate cover for your females. My tank is still filling in at the bottom, but at the top it is extremely thick. I use riccia, water sprite, milfoil and wisteria, all of which require only decent lighting and the occasional dose of fertiliser.





This is a picture of my tub sorority I had running for a couple of months until I gave it away to someone on another forum. This still wasn't as much cover as I would have liked, so I used pieces of PVC pipe as hides for the bottom levels of the tank.

I never cycled my original sorority, but instead did daily 25% water changes for the first couple of weeks until my plants had established themselves properly. If you are not confident with live plants, it would probably be better to fishlessly cycle your tank before adding females. Living in a sorority can be stressful enough, and you don't want to compound that with poor water conditions.

My sorority has been running for 7-8 months now and I have never had any issues with it. Because I have a penchant for collecting females, it's handy that I don't need to have individual tanks for all of them. I have a 100 gallon tank sitting on my bedroom floor that is begging to be turned into a sorority.

[styggian]

Littlebettafish, I'm still building my sorority tank (basically adding more shrubby type plants). Do you recommended just letting wisteria and ludwigia floating? I anchored them down, I have this weird paranoia that if I let them float, they'll die, even though they're floaty plants.

[LittleBettaFish]

I let my wisteria float as I like the look of it better. It does have an initial die-off period as it will start to condense itself and send off emersed growth. My albimarginata fry loved hiding up in amongst the thick roots and leaves.

I think ludwiga prefers being planted. I've found some stem plants such as milfoil and ambulia don't take to being left floating like others such as wisteria and water sprite do.

I have found adding a root tab around my milfoil and other stems, really encouraged a good root system and helped keep them buried. That's perhaps the most annoying thing about planting stems, they tend to uproot themselves for the first couple of weeks if you even so much as look at them the wrong way.

[Jrf456]

More please. :D