# Betta Sorority help



## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

I am hoping to get a betta sorority going soon. i have one betta fish in a bowl, and i have a 10 gallon filtered tank. I was wondering how many female bettas i should get initially and how to introduce them. Should i put my current girl in and then float all of the others cups in at the same time, or slowly introduce them to my girl one by one? any tips on sororitys? I heard you are supposed to have at least 6, or have an odd number. i read somewhere you shouldnt have an even number. Should i start with 6 or not? i also read that you should quarantine your new betta fish, but while im doing that, there wont be enough in the tank? please help with whatever you know.


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## crowntail lover (Apr 25, 2009)

When you are looking for the girls try to get some that are about the same size as your female you have now.. it will help them by not being picked on so much when you do add them in with her. 
The best thing to do when adding the girls into the 10g is to add them all at once.. Because if you added 3 before the other 3 than the most likely thing to happen is the new girls get picked on because the others already established dominance.. same goes as if you were adding one at a time.. or 2, 3, 4, or 5..
Also. Make sure to have plenty of hiding places for your girls so they can get away from eachother a bit.. 
And keep an eye on them in the beginning just to be sure everyone gets along okay. And if there is a girl that always seems to start all the fights and is picking at everyone then you can go ahead and remove her for a day, kinda like a time out, and then you can add her back in..this will just calm everyone down. 
And always have a back up plan as to where you could put a girl if she just cant handle being housed in with others females. Because some just cant. 
Well, I hope this helps. If you have any questions let me know. :]


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## shinybetta (Jul 3, 2010)

My females are all very happy; No fights! Allow hiding spots on the top of the tank for less dominant females to breathe easier. Shrimp are good for cleaning as the females get messy when they eat. Mine love caves that have holes on both sides and they love floating anacharis plant. My females do good with any number. I have succesfully kept three together, though it isn't recommended.


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## crowntail lover (Apr 25, 2009)

shinybetta said:


> My females are all very happy; No fights! Allow hiding spots on the top of the tank for less dominant females to breathe easier. Shrimp are good for cleaning as the females get messy when they eat. Mine love caves that have holes on both sides and they love floating anacharis plant. My females do good with any number. I have succesfully kept three together, though it isn't recommended.


 I agree! I actually have the same type of set up.. My three girls kinda love eachother. haha


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## rooroober (Dec 12, 2010)

I have 4 girls and 3 albino cories in a 10 gal and they live peacefully...for the most part ;0) but it defiantly took awhile before it was a peaceful tank! I have LOTS!! of plants and hiding places! My tank is plum full of stuff! I think it all depends on the fish...more is best but it "can" work with less than 6...but not recommended! I love my sorority tank!


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

Thank you for all your wonderful answers! From what it looks like right now i cant get any more fish until monday, with christmas and all that. So i put my girl in the tank. I just had to. she kept staring at it from her old bowl. on monday, we are going to put her in her old bowl and rearrange the furniture, then we are going pet store searching all around town for 4-6 healthy active vibrant girls. Then, we will add them all at once with our current girl not going first, so she wont reconize it. is this right? Also, we were wondering if the species of betta fish matter. can we mix crowntails and half moons? and so on? Are they the same or do we need to make sure that they are all the same type? We have an extra bowl that we could place 1 or 2(with a seperator) uncopperative girls in. Thanks!


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

I got a picture of my girl.


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## baylee767 (Nov 5, 2010)

Yes you can mix different tail types. And so long as you take your girl out and rearange everything before putting anyone in I think you'll be fine.


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

good! the pet stores arround here dont sell many bettas, theres a huge fish store sort of by us but it takes awhile to get there but they have a GREAT selection. maybe some day i can get one from there if we go. so we are going to pet stores a lot closer in hopes of finding the girls we need. we may have to go to quite a few to find 4-7 girls that are healthy and active, i dont want a sickly betta fish to contaminate my girls!


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

can you tell what kind of betta mine is? I think she may have been a half moon but im not positive. As for the color do you think shes a turqoise?


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

Do you have any ideas for small hiding spots I can make my bettas? I want places for them to retreat to


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

*Thank you for your helpful feedback. AquaSapphire, the only betta currently, is in my tank. She seems to be fighting against the current of the filter I have in there. Is this OK? Is she in danger of getting hurt?*


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

*AquaSapphire is fighting against the current of her filter in her new tank. I am worried that she could get hurt. Is this OK? Will she be all right?*


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## Malvolti (Nov 15, 2010)

If your fish is fighting the current then it is too strong. Try to turn it down if you can or baffle it (obstruct the flow with something).


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## Panthera (Nov 2, 2010)

Buy some aquarium sponge and rubberband it around where the water comes out. Don't buffer it too much though, you still need to see some rippling on the surface, otherwise the filter won't work. Its kind of hard to tell in the pic, but she's either a Delta or a Halfmoon. Very pretty, love the Turquoise color  

What size tank and how many females are you going to have? Make sure to pack the plants and everything else in like a jungle, the girls like it crowded.


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

Sorry, I was over reacting a bit. She wasn't fighting it, I wrote that when we just put her in and she wasnt used to it. She preferred to stick to the calmer waters. She can rest there. Sadly, my betta died. She was swimming peacefully in the morning, then I came back and she was dead. She died peacefully, like she was sleeping on the bottom of the tank. Do you think she died of old age? We had her for 4 months.


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

Panthera said:


> Buy some aquarium sponge and rubberband it around where the water comes out. Don't buffer it too much though, you still need to see some rippling on the surface, otherwise the filter won't work. Its kind of hard to tell in the pic, but she's either a Delta or a Halfmoon. Very pretty, love the Turquoise color
> 
> What size tank and how many females are you going to have? Make sure to pack the plants and everything else in like a jungle, the girls like it crowded.



Thanks that's a great idea with the sponge! I'll have to try it some time if my sorority needs it. It's not bad though once the bettas get adjusted. Yeah she must have been a half moon. Yeah I really liked the color and I hope to get lots of colors for my sorority. When I get them I'll take pics! We have a 10 gallon tank and we are going to have 5-8 females, depending on how Many healthy, vibrant, female girls we can find (it's hard to get girls around here) be cause not many people want girls so there are not a lot and they are not restocked often. I plan on getting more plants and some small terra cotta pots, and I have a question(I know I have a lot) does it matter whether the plants are living or dead? And how do you take care of live plants?


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## baylee767 (Nov 5, 2010)

Well dead plants are rotton and add ammonia to the tank. Or do you mean fake plants?

If you mean fake or real plants, you only need fake. IMO real look better. For hiding places you can do some of the classic ones. Small flower pot in the gravel, you can buy a piece of driftwood with lots of little holes and nooks, and you could get a few tank ornaments, like the stone tunnels and stuff with holes in them sold at fishstores.

IMO plants can make up 80% of your cover. You still need a few holes for them to hide in the dark, though.


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

Sadly, AquaSapphire died on Christmas (Dec 25th) but now I have three new ones, Ariel, Ailyn, and Nyoko, who I am going to add to the tank tomorrow (I will have a couple more by then) Are there any ways to make shelters without buying anything, other than flowerpots?


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## Sweeda88 (Dec 6, 2010)

Coffee mugs work well. Just make sure you rinse them very thoroughly in hot water.


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## Littlecloud (Dec 24, 2010)

Thank you all for your help! I'm so sorry I havnt posted in awhile. A few days after Christmas, we went around to more then 4 stores to find enough girls. We eventually found 6:
Niyoko: she is alpha, she is red with a green shine to her back
Ariel: she is red with a purple shine to her back.
Ailyn: pale cambodian, large
Emberlin: small pale cambodian
Rosa: very red Cambodian, more red then white
Juno: royal blue, absolutely beautiful 

In late January, ailyn passed away. She was fully intact and peaceful, so it wasn't from a fight. On February 13th, we went to petco to buy our dog a valentines gift (ended up being an adorable pink hedge hog) and came home with 2 vibrant, active girls:
Aphrodite- purply red with green tail tips. Striking and beautiful, prefers to stay away towards the back of the tank
Valentine- all white, shimmery looking valentine. She is best friends with our smallest fish emberlin, even though she's much larger


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