Can you gradually add females to a sorority?

[LittleBettaFish]

I'm always adding new females to both of my sororities. I have only ever had issues with a couple mature females that took exception to each other, otherwise I have never seen any overt signs of aggression towards the newcomers.

I always feed my other females first, and then just empty out the newcomer at the opposite end.

I've had 11 females in a heavily planted 10 gallon tank and was fine. The amount of plants I had served both as a living filter, but also provided enough space and cover for my females.

If you want to include your platy and cory cats, I would recommend up-sizing to a 15-20 gallon. You also really need to increase the number of corydoras to 6, as they are a shoaling fish by nature, and do best in larger numbers.

For the average betta keeper, a maximum of 5-6 females in a 10 gallon is usually advisable.

[cp6445]

6 in a 10gal (with no other fish) has worked well for me. I just set this up a week ago. I had 2 together for 24 hours (not recommended, but mine were fine), then when I got my other 4, I put them in the tank floating in their cups first- I'm not sure this is recommended but it did help me determine who was going to be most aggressive. I introduced 2 at a time over the course of the day, the most aggressive last. I did have to remove 2 briefly, one that got nipped and the nipper- but I was able to put them both back in the next morning.

They were nippy for about 48 hr total but since then have been happy- now instead of fighting they gang up against me with their little faces all together pressed to the side of the aquarium constantly begging for food.

There is a good sticky on this forum re: betta sororities.

Also, one thing for sure with mine was they needed constant supervision for the first 2 days, so I would only set it up when you have a some time to supervise- I would actually have to physically break up a couple of nips gently with my finger, which may be frowned upon by the forum, but it worked:)

good luck!

[vilmarisv]

I added 2 to my sorority about 2 weeks ago and to this day they have not been nipped.
I used one of those plastic breeding containers that have 2 compartments to float them in the tank. I think they were there for 4 or 5 days, not sure but they were flaring like mad at first because they had been living without seeing any other fish for a while. I was particularly worried about how dominant the largest female was going to be because she had been living in a 2.5gal by herself for months but she adjusted very well.