# The making of a Sorority Tank



## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

I wanted to post this in hopes that is helps other people. I will post pictures of the tank soon so you can see my set up.

I decided to do a sorority tank and did a lot of research…apparently that was not enough!

My set up is as follows: I got a 29 gallon tank with a simple halogen light, a Whisper filter made for a 29 Gallon Tank and a 150 water heater along with a thermometer. Basic fish tank set up.

For Decorations I bought a big tree-like resin décor that has about four holes in it for fish to hide in. I bought another one that looks like drift wood. I also bout about $70 worth of fake plants. There are tons of plants in each corner making it so the fish have PLENTY of area to hide in. Literally I could probably have bought about 15 fish and they would all have a spot to hide in.

I had all of the chemicals(PH kit, Nitrtite etc kit, conditioner, aquarium salt) and food.

So I set the tank up and let it sit for a week. Two days ago I bought the fish. In that tank 10 of them should have fit but for some odd reason I decided on 9. I bought all different kinds, which was a mistake.

1. A light, almost pink colored veil tail.
2. A dark blue, beautiful female Round Tail.
3. A silver and red veil tail.
4. A dark purple veil tail
5. A ghost/cellophane colored veil tail.
6. A pink veil tail with red fins(this one has been floating at the top from day one, more info below).
7. A dark blue, black in the shadows veil tail.
8. A pink, almost white veil tail.
9. A dark silver, almost gray veil tail.

My isolation tank is really small, half a gallon, but I bought it incase any betta’s got out of hand. It has a separator that I actually had to utilize. I feel bad because they are still in a cup sized tank but it will only be fore two more days.

Number 6, the pink with red fins, was a floater from day one. She just floats at the top. She doesn’t have trouble swimming she just seems to prefer to hang there. I came down this morning and someone beat her up because all of her fins are torn, plants would not have done that. I put her in half of the isolation tank to recover. I will not be buying her a bigger tank until I know she recuperates since she was a floater and her fins are torn. I have been adding half a t-spoon of salt and will change the water daily until she recovers.

Number 2, probably the most pretty of the bunch, was an aggressive one. I had to take her out of the tank after ten minutes. She would challenge any Betta she got near. She would nip at them and worse, she would lock up(almost like they are mating) and them proceed to slap the other one with her fin. It is a round tail so I am wondering if it is actually a male Betta that the pet store was too dumb and mis-labeled it. No harm no foul though, I will be buying a tank for my desk and be putting him/her in it alone. She had a chance to be with the rest but was too naughty haha.

So that is two betta so far that I have to separate form the tank. The blue one I will be buying a separate tank for. The other I am going to keep in the isolation tank because 1)She has been sick/floating at the top since day one and 2) her fins are torn so I will be adding salt to help keep fin rot form setting in. If she survives the next few weeks(I plan on changing her water daily) then I will buy a tank for her too.

Below are the two tanks I am considering. I am leaning towards the hex tank honestly, it is a bit bigger.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3107806#prodTab1
or
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752369#prodTab1

Would I recommend a sorority tank? Not really. Not unless you have other tanks you can drop them in if they mis-behave. I am kind of regretting it now because I am worried I will come home and they have killed one another. If it happens I plan on getting a male betta and trying some cories out in the tank. I honestly think this is the route I should have started with >_>

P.S.-This is not my first fish tank, I had two set up years ago and had to move. The move was too much for my fish and they started dying for no reason except maybe the stress. I now have a 10 gallon tank with a single bright red and blue male veil til which I have had for a month now. I also have the sorority tank. In the past I had an Angel Fish in the 29 gallon and some gold fish in the 10. I decided to get Betta because, like goldfish, they are fairly easy to take care of and with a filter I only need to do weekly water changes. I don’t have the time to perform more changes then that :-/

If people are interested I will keep an update in this thread for anyone who wants to start a sorority tank.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Thanks for the info.


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## dukie1346 (Mar 22, 2009)

Yeah, I still don't know if I will start one or not.


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## IonBaller07 (Mar 29, 2009)

Good luck with the recoverys and the rest of the girls, cant wait for pics.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

Well come bad news...one of them passed away. The only "good" news is that it was the one that was a floater form day one. I have a feeling she was just slowly dying in her cup befor eI even bought her :-( I won't be getting another one to replace her though so :-/

The others seem to be doing well. They are really coloring up! The dark purple one has some red in her fins and she seems to be the dominant one. If some of them get too sloce to her spot then she chases them away. One that was dark gray with red fins is getting more red in her body. 

The whole "dark colored bettas are more agressive then light colored" is true imho. The Dark ones(puple, gray and gray/red) are the ones that seem to get an attitude if another Betta is hanging around them too long. The light colored ones are very mellow.

If these girls do well for a month I will be buying probably 3 cory cats to throw in there to clean up all the food they drop, they seem to be real slobs >_>

The blue round tail Betta seems to be doing alright. She is not active at all(mainly because she is in a half gallon tank). I am ordering a tank online so she is stuck in there for probably another week. I feel bad but if she played well with the others she would have a 29 gallon to have fun in  Now she is going to live in a 3 gallon :-/

also the tank is getting abit cloudy. I have a feeling I didn't rinse off the big ornament enough(I didn't realise it had three holes I didn't clean)so I will be doing a 50% water change this weekend just to play it safe. I am changing the blue betta's water(who, since she could not play well with others is effectively named Drama Queen, props to you dramaqueen for having the same name haha) DAILY. It has a little gravel in it so I throw that in a strainer and pour hot water on it and scrub the bowl with hot water and a rag. So far the water hasn't gotten cloudy yet


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Haha! So I have one named after me! jk. I hope my user name doesn't imply that I can't get along with others. lol


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

Dark bettas are LESS aggresive than bright colored ones. IMHO


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

MrVampire181 said:


> Dark bettas are LESS aggresive than bright colored ones. IMHO


I dunno, I had to take one dark blue one out and only the dark gray and the dark purple one fight.

So the light on my tank died....I tried another bulb and it didn't work. I know my Aquarium supplier so they are giving me a replacement which comes in on monday. I am cleaning the tank this weekend so Monday will be the perfect time to take some pictures


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

I put some pictures up(along with my other tanks) here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?p=209794#post209794

So far no more tail ripage or any major fights I have seen. I cleaned the tank today and all of them were curious to what was going on and circled the siphon but that is about it haha. The rest of them seem healthy and only butt heads every so often


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

So I lost another one. Again it was without warning; no torn fins or red spots. nothing on the body itself to make it look like it is sick.

This time I did a 100% water change and washed off all of the decorations, substrate and filter. I have to basically start the cycling process again(though I took some substrate from my other tank and thre it in this one).

So ou of the nine one needed to be seperated and two have died. One of them looked half dead sinc eth eminute she wa sin the tank and this one died for seemingly no reason :-(

Oh and I threw 5 cories in there to clean up the bottom. When I did a water change I was surprised how much food they let fall to the bottom, since they seemed to hungry every time I fed them...and all I did was put three pinches of flakes :-/

Oh and they are an oddity. The seperated female and male betta only like Betta peletes. This tank won't touch them nor blood worms, they will only eat flakes :-/


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I'm so sorry you lost another one.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

Thanks. The onyl good thing out of it is that it happened jus tlike the last one, no signs of fighting and no signs of disease. It seems liek they were just a bad batch from PetSmart(which is no surprise, they treat their females badly compared to the males).


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Are the females at your Petsmart housed together? Ours are in their own cups.


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## AngelicScars (May 5, 2009)

Angelmonster said:


> Thanks. The onyl good thing out of it is that it happened jus tlike the last one, no signs of fighting and no signs of disease. It seems liek they were just a bad batch from PetSmart(which is no surprise, they treat their females badly compared to the males).


Now that you mentioned that, it seems that way at my local one as well. They are sort of put to the side, as if they aren't as beautiful or important. :-?
Now, there is another Petsmart further away that has a whole shelf just for them, seems to care about them a bit more.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

At my petsmart they are all in the cups of blue liquid. Ther eis a whole shelf for Bettas. At the bottom they have their small bowels they try to sell and above that a nice little shelf of supplies(liek food, conditioner and meds. I like that it is all right ther e. Above that they have three shelves full of male bettas. Veil tail and Crown Tail.

Then they have half a shelf for the females, all pushed back in the dark, all swimming in blue water full of particles. IT is really sad :-(


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

Well ANOTHER one passed away, I am losing them so fast now :-( I took all of them out of the tank and they are back in their cups. I gave them salt baths and now they are in their cups with some semi-salty water. I have them under a lamp and they are staying there overnight. Everythign from their tank is soaking in salty water too, even the tank itself >_< Tomorrow I will set it up again and if this doesn't work I don't know what to do.

Like the last ones there are no signs of sickness nor damage done by another Betta :-( I am down to four now! The one that is in its own tank is doing fine, as is my male. I have a feeling the original one had some kind of infection that is spreading to the others :-(


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I'm so sorry to hear you lost another one. I hope the rest will be ok.


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## Vikki81207 (May 27, 2009)

I'm so sorry you lost another girl. It's so sad


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

It is, especially since they seemed to have been doing fine together as a group. There were some little fights but no fin rips or anything major :-( If they all end up dying 1)I am boycotting Petsmart. 2) I wont do another sorority and probably won't put a betta in there either. It is too big for a single betta.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

Well the final four have made it through the night. One of them still looks like it might die(very lethargic) but I am hopeful! They are still in their cups on the windowsill getting plenty of sun for warmth  This morning I took everything out of the salt bath and now they are in a bat of water and vinegar(the fake plants and substrate, the filter and heater only got a rub down ). They are sitting in there while I am at work and tonight I will be rinsing the stuff off very well before setting the tank back up :-(


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

Well I am sad and pissed at the same time. Sad because I think what is killing my females is dropsy >_< I went to clean the tank and looked at my bettas yesterday and one has the raised scales >_> Angry because Petsmart sold one to me that had dropsy :-/

Maybe by the time I got to the betta the scales went back down on them but this is the first one showing any signs of having an actual disease. I decided to leave them in their cups and am giving them daily water changes and salt baths. I know nothing can stop dropsy if they have it but just incase it is some kind of infection I am going to treat them daily. They said it can take 15 days to kill them so I decided I am going to buy three 2.5 gallon vases for the three showing no signs and they will be vase betta(no I will not make them eat a plant I put in there). The fourth one will remain in a cup until whatever she has goes away :-/

I really really wish the others showed signs of this so I could have prevented the last three from dying :-(


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I'm so sorry your fish are sick. If its dropsy, all you can do is make them comfortable and I know you are already doing that. Good luck.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

Thanks. The one looks half dead already(was pink with red fins and now is basically white all over). I am buying big vases and those small heaters for the other Bettas. If they all end up dying I will buy more bettas but will NOT be putting them together!

In the end I consider the sorority a failure and purely blame Petsmarts horrible treatment of their female bettas.


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

Angelmonster said:


> It is, especially since they seemed to have been doing fine together as a group. There were some little fights but no fin rips or anything major :-( If they all end up dying 1)I am boycotting Petsmart. 2) I wont do another sorority and probably won't put a betta in there either. It is too big for a single betta.


 
No tank size is too big. I would just try using females from a different source.

My first sorority had four females from petsmart. About four months later two were dead (uknown disease). I bought another from walmart and she died about 3 months later (NOW theres a shocker :roll. Now I have the original two, another one I bought after the first one died, and a new fat little girl from walmart. Still just my first sorority.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

Yeah I know, i just don't have the room to house 5-10 gallon tanks for all of them. I have seen plenty of 2.5ers floating around on this forum. I will buy little pad heaters and plan on doing water changes(full) two times a week.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

Sad sad day, Two more of them died befor eI got home :-( That means only three are remaining. One was the one that was in the tank for an hour so I think she is safe. One of them is bloating so I think she is a goner, I do not have high hopes for the other :-( I even went out and found three gallon vases andheaters for all of them! Looks like I will be getting some new male bettas this weekend after I do a thurough cleaning.

R.I.P. Betta Betta Betta Sorority. Sorry Petsmart gave you dropsy :-(


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Oh, that is so sad! I'm so sorry!


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## BakaMandy (Jun 16, 2009)

D: Aw man... sounds tough. I want to start a small Sorority, but it sounds really tough... ):

I wonder if a successful Sorority tank lies partly in their health and how they were raised? Obviously stores like PetSmart, PetCo and Walmart probably get all their fish from fish mills or something, and probably grow up in really rough conditions. The employees generally know nothing about the fish their selling too, and take horrible care of them too... so it's a cruel environment.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

I m half tempted to save my 29 gallon and mate one of my female with my male betta, raise them and sell the male fry(whent hey are old enough). I could then keep the females as a sorority tank. I just don't knwo if I want to go through all that trouble or just throw cories, neons and some other generics in there haha.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

And another died in its new 3 gallon tank. Damn PEtsmart, this is making me really angry now. I am down to one survivor out of 8 >_>


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I'm so sorry about your fish!


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## RoseyD (Jul 12, 2009)

I'm sorry about your bettas too. 

I bought my girls from Petsmart this past weekend - over 2 shopping trips on Saturday - I picked up 7. and 5 of them are going strong. - I've got the 5 spread out in 3 tanks - the largest one is solo. - And, I'm trying to get my large 20 gallon tank prepared so that I can set up a sisterhood for them all, with lots of plants for hiding. 

My limited experience with them is that they're really complete loves. They don't do what I want them to. I bought them betta pellets and none of them will eat them - so I keep feeding them the dried worms and brine shrimp - and they really go for that stuff... 

I need to research though if they're not eating the 'betta' food is ok or not. ARe they getting proper nutrition by only eating the dried shrimp & blood worms? 

Anyway - I would recommend that you don't give up on bettas. There are some healthy ones out there that need a loving home, still - find them and save them, please, you know they'll thank you for it. 

Your Petsmart sounds horrible... such is the case that Bettas always seem to find their way into the tiniest, unhealthiest positions in stores. No animal (& fish) deserve such cruelty.


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## Angelmonster (May 27, 2009)

I am not giving up on bettas, I just won't try another sorority tank. 

Nutrition...try flakes. My sorority wouldn't eat the pellets either but they went crazy if I pinched the flakes into tiny pieces.


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## rb500 (Jul 12, 2009)

I was concidering a sorority, I've heard people have success with them but I don't know now. I can't afford to buy a bunch of smaller tanks if it goes wrong. I was thinking about buying them straight from a breeder so they would be sisters and nicer to each other, but do breeders fish cost more? and I don't even know where to find a breeder. Any help?


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

The breeder at bettatalk sells females that are acclimated to living with each other.


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