[AtlasArcana]

Hi all! Back in February/March I was hunting for some ID on my wild pair, which were sold to me under no label name. They’ve been doing great and we managed to ID as Coccina. They’re currently in a 20g with chilli rasboras, Pygmy Cory’s and shrimp
In the future I plan on upgrading to a 50gallon, possibly seperating the rasboras out and adding a few coccina to a botanical/biotope blackwater tank, heavily scaped. I’ve spoken to a breeder I’ve bought from previously as most people around here only sell pairsand they’ve agreed that I can buy females and one or two males rather than pairs.
My big question is, what’s a good number for a 50gallon heavy scape with 8 Pygmy cories and a thriving shrimp colony? I’m not at all interested in breeding, so that’s not a concern, and there will be plenty of hiding spots and territory. I don’t want to go too hard to fast and get too big of a group.
My other question is, this breeder sells their bettas as sub adults/juveniles (but not fresh babies) will I have any issues introducing juveniles to an adult pair? Im expecting a little bit of territorial behaviour from males, even though they are fairly placid species but that’s why I want to lean the balance a little more towards females.
Any tips or advice are most welcome!
Here’s a photo of my two from a few weeks ago. Mind the lack of blackwater and the bump on his head which has healed - My House flooded early march and everyone was still recovering from being tubbed and moved after that. He’s okay now!

 

[AtlasArcana]

Minor bump up

 

[AtlasArcana]

Any ideas?

 

[FishandBirdLover]

@NoodleTheMysteryBetta, maybe you can help?

 

[betta4ever!]

@NoodleTheMysteryBetta, maybe you can help?

Or you, @Feanor?

 

[Feanor]

Basically, this size would allow for a big group.

I haven‘t kept Coccinas - only Bettas from the same complex.

I can only tell that mine don‘t make use of the water column. So the gallons are less interesting than the width and length in general. A lot of small structures will provide plenty of territories and hiding places. Leaves, small branches, tunnels, etc.

As far as adding juveniles to an adult pair is concerned, I need to ask experienced friends as I‘m only keeping my original stock and their offspring (you can‘t "avoid" the latter; if parameters are matching and no other fish or snails are preying on the eggs or fry, they will reproduce).

If you happen to get more males than females, the non dominant males will be fine in a well structured set up.

Anyhow, telling very young males apart from females is not easy - especially not once you are netting them. So the breeder will probably only be able to tell you that there‘s like one female in the batch for sure or something like this.

Sorry, not to be able to be of more help right now. You may get more experienced answers in a specialized Wild Betta group.