# 40 gallon female betta sorority stocking ideas



## Bettacrab (Jun 30, 2013)

I need suggestions in stocking my 36 bowfront aquarium. 
I already have 4 female bettas, 2 ghost shrimp, and Otto catfish.

I was planning on getting maybe 3 more bettas, 2 pairs of guppies, and a male dwarf gourami.

But I also want some sort of non-nippy schooling fish and a center-peice fish, are there any sharks that can be kept with them?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I highly do NOT recommend having schoolers or any other fish in with your girls. Especially a Gourami which are extremely nippy with Betta's, they are cousins and they do not get along.

Sororities are already very stressful for the girl's, with the addition to schooler fish which are also pretty rambunctious at times, it stresses them out even more. I had a school of 7 Neon's with 9 of my girls at one point in a heavily planted tank and the Neon's stressed the heck out of the girl's. I ended up having to rehome them because it was getting ridiculous. Also as far as sharks go, the smallest one being the Rainbow I believe and getting up to 4-6 inches, they can get really territorial so I would not suggest any sharks with them either since Betta's are very territorial themselves.

Yes, however, bumping up the girl's numbers will be great. I would also not get the guppies either, guppies can get very nippy too and then the girls would probably nip the boys as well. The girl's would probably be fine but not the boys. So in all, I really just suggest you don't get other schoolers or centerpiece fish for the sake of the sorority. Mine fell because I had three German Blue Ram's which are much more calm than Gourami's even and they brought on so much stress to my girls that I ended up with like three diseases and everyone died.


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## Bettacrab (Jun 30, 2013)

Thanks for the advice. This makes sense because once it got a small school of neons and they all got ick and died. How many bettas do you recommend. I just thought it would look better with different swimming levels. 
I love my sorority to peaces (I've had these 4 females for 7 months) but I'm seriously considering giving them up since nothing apparently can live with them. 

I am just saying though, that I have kept my guppies and Chinese algea eaters with my fish before, they were all fine. I gave my guppies to my brother though.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, any sorts of algae eater's or bottom dwellers like cories they can live with, those are fine since they occupy very different levels of the aquarium. So you could get a nice big shoal of Corydoras Habrosus which are IMHO, the cutest cories on the planet lol So that's why the CAE was fine with them as well. Guppies occupy the same top level as Betta's, while they may have been fine with just the four of them, if you bump up the numbers it could create much more stress is all with new girls so, especially adding them all at similar or same times would be bad.

For the girl's you could easily go up to 10 girls and be extremely comfortable! Make sure you QT for _at least_ two weeks of course, if you can go a month though that's much better since they don't always show signs right away. Try to get healthy girls instead of the sick ones. I also suggest floating the new girl/s in the tank for at least a week before they go in, this way the older girls can get used to the new one(s) without anyone hurting each other. I do this as part of their QT period as well.

With my girls I used to use their old PetSmart cups since they have the hole in the lid for easy feeding. I would also anchor the cups to the side of the tank so they didn't go under the filter and get pushed under so they could get out. I would also acclimate them to the sorority tank water and when came time for water change which was every other day in those cups, I would take out a spare, scoop up water and put the girl in the new cup so no acclimation needed since it's the same temp and everything. Then back floating she went. So I would do that for at least two weeks, sometimes more depending on their attitude 

But if you went with 10-12 girls you could get a nice big shoal of 9-12 Cory's in there depending on the type. Or you could get more Oto's if you only have a few as well as more Shrimp if you wanted too.  I think that would make for a very nice tank!


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## Bettacrab (Jun 30, 2013)

Thanks for all the advice, I havn't actually set up the 36 bow yet. I have to get some more plants and sub mix before I can. It will be setup around Christmas. 
It will be an upgrade for the females 10 gallon tank. I actually got it for my algea eater since they get big, but he got a hole in his stomach and died 

Here is the females current setup
-4 bettas
-2 shrimp
-2 ottos (I just took one out of another tank and added it to the 10 gallon)
-1 african dwarf frog



My favorite female.... Yang (female crowntail dragonscale)

Close up on scales


Before I knew about proper fish keeping the tank had
-5 bettas
-4 neon tetras
-1 cardinal tetra
-1 algea eater
-6 ottos
-10 ghost shrimp
-1 afd
-4 guppies + fry

I rehomed all fishies after I learned real care...
Surprisingly the water was crystal clear and nitrite and ammonia readings were 0, probably becuase they were all babies


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Sorry to burst your bubble but she's not a dragonscale, just has heavy iridescence. My Copper boy was like that as well. She is beautiful though! Reminds me of my old girl Lady Deathstrike who was a Copper Bicolor with red fins, a lovely HM girl!


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## nicktide (Dec 10, 2013)

Some fish that I think compliment bettas are upside down cats. Used to keep hatchet fish with my girls as well. They stayed in the top so they never competed


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Hatchet fish are nice but both Betta's and Hatchet are top dwellers, you want to stay away from Top-mid dwellers if you can with a sorority. Each sorority is different but for the most part, they're all the same types of stress. I really just want to save you the heartbreak of a sorority failing since I've been there and done that. If you are very careful in adding fish and you know what you're doing, that's a different story but most schooling fish I would stay away from. As I said, cat's are great along with Oto's, shrimp if your girls don't kill them, same with snails if you want one or two.


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