Chipita was absolutely mauled :(

ThetaSigma said:

My sorority experience says that the more girls the better. Whenever I have small numbers, they turn into little demons and rip each other apart, but with my current number (13) they completely ignore each other. I have a bigger tank though. When my sorority was in a ten, there were actually twelve. I had a huge died off due to columnaris though, and the surviving girls and newer girls aren't in the ten any more. It's currently empty. I may use for non-aquatic animals in the future.

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Wow, that's a lot!!! I was worried about ammonia buildup even with my past-tense 4 girls and 3 ADFs. Right now there are no problems, but the one fish Danielle I believe seems to be the problem fish. Cecile is #2 in aggression, and Violet's kinda normal. I don't filter the tank so I do a 50% WC every 2 days, and usually 75% on Saturday, 100% every other Sunday. It's not heated in the summer since my room gets really hot.

I'd get as many more girls as I can have filterless. My tank is stocked with java moss (takes up about 25% of the tank and the fish and frogs looooove sitting in it as it's not bunched up), anacharis, and what I think I remember to be hornwort. Also I just kinda hate using filters since I have a tendency to break them (3 filters have been broken in my house since January).....anyway, sorry for bothering you, you just seem like you know what you're doing!!

Also thanks all for replying

Bikeridinguckgirl14 said:

I don't think there's much you could do, if I were you I'd be one step away from flushing the rest of the girls down the toilet so congrats on your self control. I would say it'd be best to add a couple more girls (I wouldn't add just one) or if you could divide the tank somehow and starve the perpetrators for a day! I want to say I'm sorry for your loss but I'm probably more angry at your other girls than anything.

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Honestly that is a ridiculous statement. There is a reason these fish are known as 'Siamese Fighting Fish'. They are an aggressive and territorial species and you have to accept that even females are very much capable of causing serious injury to each other. This is one of the risks of a sorority tank and why some people are not comfortable with this method of keeping bettas.

Personally, I would not keep only three females together even if they don't seem to be behaving aggressively at the moment. I mean you have seen just how suddenly things can go wrong in a sorority environment.

If they were my females I would probably divide them up. Without a filter, your tank is essentially uncycled, relying on water changes and live plants to keep ammonia levels in check. I never like to see sororities in anything but a cycled tank because it can be so easy for something to go wrong, your water quality to take a turn for the worse and your females exposed to potentially harmful levels of ammonia/nitrite.

Can I ask how you are breaking so many filters?

Also remember if you get more females you should quarantine for at least a couple of weeks even if they visibly appear healthy. Otherwise you run the very real risk (have seen it multiple times on this forum) of introducing a serious disease or parasite into your tank. However, this means unless you separate them, your three females are going to have to be alone during this time and there is the potential for further fighting.