# Is my 10G good enough for a betta sorority?



## MichelleyBetta (Aug 26, 2014)

Is this good enough for 4 female bettas in my 10 gal tank? It has alot duckweed, 5 small ludwigias, a few beginner plants i got from petco ( I don't know what they are but they're like the skinnier/smaller versions of amazon swords.) I also have 2 small amazon swords, A lot of big hornwort, and willow moss. I also have two small Malaysian drift/sink wood. Oh yea one more thing, some of the plants are miss placed because I just got them today and i'm too tired to fix all of them into place . 

In advance super sorry about camera quality. I took it from my laptop


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## ddbetta (Dec 6, 2014)

From what little I know and my own point of view, I wouldn't place inside the tank more than one female, and only if the tank is set up to breeding specs with a much lower water level (about 5 inches). Otherwise, the male will hunt her down and destroy her. How about buying a mesh or clear barrier and divide the tank? The male would be able to smell her and when they are ready to breed, he will allow her if you remove the barrier. But, that is an entirely other topic. I suggest keeping the males separate from females and other males. Some females fight with each other too. Just my own experience and thoughts... however, I am not an expert.


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## Nova betta (Dec 5, 2014)

it looks ok to me just remeber to have the female live separated but next to each other for at least a week


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## selah (Oct 14, 2014)

the 10G is big enough but right now from the picture it is too bare to have a sorority.. there needs to be lots of hiding places throughout..


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

+1 selah. You need extremely densely planted/decorated tank with a [censor] ton of line of sight break up before considering a sorority.


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## BlueLacee (Dec 8, 2013)

As people above have said, cover is key to sucess


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## kjg1029 (Jun 14, 2014)

+1 to *lots* of cover^!


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## Canis (Apr 15, 2013)

Another +1 for more plants/decorations

After having my sorority fail and reading about so many other's failing, I would not recommend starting one. The number one killer is stress. Stress leads to aggression and disease. You want enough cover so that you can't see from one side of the tank to the other. The water needs to remain pristine, keep up a good water change schedule. Quarantine each fish individually for two weeks at the least to make sure they don't carry diseases over. And I'd recommend maybe 6 or so girls to keep aggression spread out. From my experience, the more you have the less you see damage to one individual fish.


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## Crossroads (Jun 28, 2014)

As someone who has had a sorority, I wouldn't suggest it if you haven't already bought the females. I had a 20 gallon long with 10 females. My tank was a jungle, to the point that my fish couldn't swim at times. My females still had tattered fins and bullied each other. My water change schedule was regular, often and my tank largely over filtered even with the amount of inhabitants. I kept a blackwater tank and kept the tank dosed with Stress Coat+ to reduce stress and keep aggression down. After losing 90% of my plants to a sudden and huge meltdown that took them out within a week, my entire tank crashed and burned within two weeks after the meltdown. I lost most of the tank to acute columnaris within 48 hours. I lost all ten female bettas, roughly five cories and three guppies within a week. The stress will harm you and your fish. I loved my sorority and all the fish in it but there were times I couldn't look at it because it stressed me out.


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## Canis (Apr 15, 2013)

Sorry for your losses Crossroads! It is so hard to lose so many girls at once  Mine also went down due to stress-induced columnaris, it brought me to tears several times as the girls died off one by one. You have to remember the good times though! Sororities bring the biggest joy when they are going smooth, the girls can always make you smile with their silly little antics ;D


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## Kithy (Nov 21, 2012)

Crossroads said:


> As someone who has had a sorority, I wouldn't suggest it if you haven't already bought the females. I had a 20 gallon long with 10 females. My tank was a jungle, to the point that my fish couldn't swim at times. My females still had tattered fins and bullied each other. My water change schedule was regular, often and my tank largely over filtered even with the amount of inhabitants. I kept a blackwater tank and kept the tank dosed with Stress Coat+ to reduce stress and keep aggression down. After losing 90% of my plants to a sudden and huge meltdown that took them out within a week, my entire tank crashed and burned within two weeks after the meltdown. I lost most of the tank to acute columnaris within 48 hours. I lost all ten female bettas, roughly five cories and three guppies within a week. The stress will harm you and your fish. I loved my sorority and all the fish in it but there were times I couldn't look at it because it stressed me out.


I had similar failure with a sorority.

I had girls pine coning out of nowhere, suspected to be from internal organ damage via filter malfunctions/abuse from other girls. It got to the point where it wasn't worth it at all. These days.. I tend to advise against doing a sorority most times. I think having one betta in a community tank is much more enjoyable than dealing with a sorority. A betta sorority sits on a needle point, just balancing there. It doesn't take much for it to tip.


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## Crossroads (Jun 28, 2014)

Canis said:


> Sorry for your losses Crossroads! It is so hard to lose so many girls at once  Mine also went down due to stress-induced columnaris, it brought me to tears several times as the girls died off one by one. You have to remember the good times though! Sororities bring the biggest joy when they are going smooth, the girls can always make you smile with their silly little antics ;D





Kithy said:


> I had similar failure with a sorority.
> 
> I had girls pine coning out of nowhere, suspected to be from internal organ damage via filter malfunctions/abuse from other girls. It got to the point where it wasn't worth it at all. These days.. I tend to advise against doing a sorority most times. I think having one betta in a community tank is much more enjoyable than dealing with a sorority. A betta sorority sits on a needle point, just balancing there. It doesn't take much for it to tip.


I loved every girl in the sorority and the hardest losses were three of the original five: Tali, Bakara and Shepard. I hate to pick favorites but they were. Sadly for me I wasn't watching them drop one at a time. I'd leave for work with some hanging on to the tiniest shreds of life, fighting for air, and the others looking perfectly healthy and come home to pulling them out two or more at a time. After that loss though, I swore off sororities. The sorority tank got sterilized broke down and repurposed to a South American blackwater biotope (sorta...theres a betta in it >>...SHHHHH bettas are TOTALLY from South America :roll Sororities are only fun while they work. When they crash, its heartbreaking and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I'd advise a community or a divided tank 100x faster than a sorority.

Check into a small community with a couple schooling fish types. There's some real fun in that C:


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## MichelleyBetta (Aug 26, 2014)

Thank you everybody for your response!


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