# Blue betta Females Viciously fighting



## Chicklet (Feb 9, 2009)

Just thought I'd post a few pictures of some of my FEMALE betta's in a 20 gallon tank fighting Viciously,
By the time the fight was finished We had some pretty beat up females, Some ended up dying!
So don't be fooled thinking Females are docile or don't fight as viciously as males do...
I had Females even turn and end up killing some males...
The pictures really don't show you the half of the fight, These two kept Biting each other and ripping finage badly, They'd take a break then go right back at it, They ultimately had to be separated as they would not stop!
They swam around the tank many times locked in a bite, and came out tearing fitting to kill each other, If another crossed their path they ripped into them too. Oft times had all six going at it at the same time...
and Red females are much worse!
So don't be fooled thinking any two Betta's will be compatible, 
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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

They are not called "fighting" fish for nothing.


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## dukie1346 (Mar 22, 2009)

Aww, that's sad that some of them died. Guess they really got mad at eachother.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Its their nature but some CAN live together under the right conditions.


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## Chicklet (Feb 9, 2009)

Think it goes a little deeper then "being mad" as dramaqueen pointed out these are "fighting fish"

Just thought I'd post these pictures, Hopefully make some newbies to betta's stop and think before Buying their male betta's a female, Males and female fights are just as deadly and can happen all to quickly!
If your gonna try it, Be prepared by having another tank on hand, you'll very likely need it/


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I think you have a good idea there, Chicklet. We occaisionally get people who post stuff like "why are my male and female fighting? The petstore guy said its ok to put a male and female together" .Yes, females CAN live together but, like I just said, only under certain circumstances. There has to be a large enough tank with lots of hiding spots and the females should have the right personalities for it.


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## Chicklet (Feb 9, 2009)

yup and their is no way of knowing each betta's personality until you get it home and put it with another betta, 
and be prepared to have to buy alot of females to find one that doesn't want to fight. 

Size will tell you nothing, It's when they mature the real trouble starts,,


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

People think that females aren't as aggressive as the males but some are just as bad, if not worse. I've even heard of people trying to breed a male and female and the female beats the crap out of the male.


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## Ariel1719 (Mar 29, 2009)

thats so sad ! =[ i tired puting pebbles in with lucifer when i first got them
and oh is she a tough cookie. it would have been a close fight, but i love them to much to just kill them like that, so now theyu are happily alone in their tanks =D


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## Nataku (Feb 22, 2009)

Ah, this is something I have been contemplating for a bit now while I'm working on setting up a 10 gallon for some females, as I haven't seen many folks on the forum yet with much experience with lots of females, and unfortunately, there's nowhere near as much information on the females around the web as there are males. This is a very informative post! Thank you for posting this information, I was curious to know if females would take it as far as the males, and I guess that's a resounding yes.

Have you had any successful sororities? How many females were in them, and what tank size(s) did you try them in? Is there a specific size or color range you have found to be more successful than others? Is there a particular decoration (live or fake?) they seem to work well with, or does in not seem to matter? How does feeding times work with multiple bettas in the same tank? I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with all these questions, I just haven't seen many people who keep sororities and am deathly curious.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I wonder if it would help any, if, before setting up a sorority, you could have the females, in separate containers, of course, in full view of each other. Then that way, they could get used to each other before putting them together.Would that work?


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## Chicklet (Feb 9, 2009)

I don't think there's any hard and fast rules to keeping betta's together,
I had 20 gallons, 10 gallons, 5 gallons, and 2 1/2 gallons I used mostly.

You never truly knew what to expect, Some tanks fought and seemed to settle down for weeks, Then boom came home to a disaster strike,

A calm male for weeks with 4 females, walked away for abit and remember I made dog biscuits, Came back and a red female was finishing off a beautiful male crown tail, I was shocked, was my first male casualty,
another group of about 8 females, The red females had been younger when I put them together, Thought they'd grow together and so it seemed to be working out good for quite some time, Then it turned deadly in mins, I had to do some fast separating and still ended up loosing several they were beat up so badly.

It took me alot of experimenting with different females to get a few that have remained together good.
The more you put together the worse your odds seemed to be, 

I found red females the worst figters, Many would actually hunt down a female and not stop until she either killed it or ended up dying herself.. Didn't seem to make much differece with lots of hiding places or not,,,
The Deep blue females were the second worst figters, Seemed for me the lighter colored the females the less troubles....

Right now I have 2 females in a 2 1/2 gallon tank that gets along great, Took me a long time to get their compatibility worked out, I tried adding other females I have and its a no go, So they remain together with no troubles. I do have another bunch, 4 females in a 10 gallon with lots of hiding places that seems to be doing ok, But again it took some time to get the 4 thats compatible with each other, Its usually easy to see the pecking order, 

I won't ever experiment with my male bettas again, just to risky and I feel so sick when I loose one of them....

The best I ever came to was no more then 4 females to ea 10 gallon tank.... 
and of all my females I only have the two that will go peacefully in a 2 1/2 gallon, I could get no other two to go for that small a tank.... 

Feeding time well you knew who the boss was..,


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## veganchick (Jan 10, 2009)

thats sad, how cum u didn't seperate them?


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## Chicklet (Feb 9, 2009)

I did separate, sometimes it made no difference, the damage was done,
the two females in the pictures are alive and fine, But I've had others not so lucky, damage can be done rather quickly despite your efforts to separate them


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## Nataku (Feb 22, 2009)

DramaQueen - I have quarantine tanks, and I intend upon quarantining all of them before they get introduced to each other in the main tank (even though most of them will probably come from the same store and probably would all have the same disease(s), but that's neither here nor there) so I'll stick them next to each other.

Thank you for all the information Chicklet! 
This gives me some new things to think about certainly while I'm planning out a soroity of my own. Although if it doesn't work out and I get females that just won't get along, I'm not too terribly worried, I have enough tanks to separate them in, and I can always divide the tank just like I've done with the males (I've been pondering the possibility of splitting a 10 gallon tank in four parts instead of the usual two, by my admittedly poor math that would give them each about 2.5 gallons). Although I'm hopping it won't come to that.


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## Chicklet (Feb 9, 2009)

That's one reason I don't mess with that to much any more, Despite my saying I'm not gonna let it bother me, It does!

One thing outta it all, When I buy a new female I can usually tell the real devils just by observing them when there alone for a few weeks, 
& no I don't think it's something I could explain, Its just the body language or something, and I'm usually right. 

Just something I always had abit of a nack for since I was young..
Grew up on a big farm and loved to just observe the animals inter reacting with each other,
Got so I could tell you who had a problem or so..
My husband can't figure it out...
I don't mess with big animals to much anymore, Went into his Turkey pin one time, Couple mins and I pointed out three turkeys, Told him they were gonna die, He said no way, a hour later he had three dead turkeys,
Don't understand it and can't explain it, just knew.


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## Chicklet (Feb 9, 2009)

I wish you luck, Nataku


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I always thought that the more females you have together, the more it spreads out the aggression. I guess that's not necessarily true.


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## fishyinpa (Dec 25, 2008)

oh wow...sorry about the ones you lost...i was contemplating a female tank but that kinda makes me not want to even try! i think i will leave my bella by herself. 

i did notice at my lfs a tank with females,and most haven bad fin damage. there were red in there and their fins were fine. i felt bad for the other ones getting picked on.


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## Chicklet (Feb 9, 2009)

I have read on the internet where there is some strains of Betta's that don't fight and you can even keep the males and females together in pairs, But I ain't never found any around here like that..


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## Chicklet (Feb 9, 2009)

> i did notice at my lfs a tank with females,and most haven bad fin damage. there were red in there and their fins were fine. i felt bad for the other ones getting picked on.


I wouldn't judge based on fin damage, Actually If I looked at mine, The fighters usually had bad fin damage too,
The ones that didn't have damage are usually females that no one picked on and was least aggressive to other fish and or good at avoiding the fighters...


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## fishyinpa (Dec 25, 2008)

ooh...hmmm...that makes sense!


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## LaniBaby (Apr 14, 2009)

I know that some breeders will take several females out in a group from a grow out tank. They've grown up together and will occasionally be able to peacefully cohabitate. you can see if there are breeders that are willing to sell you a group of females that are already acclimated to one another.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

The breeder at bettatalk.com sells groups of females that are acclimmated to living together.


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## sunkissedinCA (May 7, 2009)

i'm glad i read your post, i was thinking about getting another female betta fish as a companion for the one i have, but i'm definitely going to avoid that right now.


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## alexx (May 3, 2009)

i think we know they're not called fighting fish for nothing.


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## splendenfighter38 (Jun 7, 2009)

guess they should not cheat on their man!!! LOL desperate housewives underwater!!!


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