Adding New Female To Sorority?

So back when I first put all my girls together one of my females was more than double the size of the rest of them so I didn't put her in.

Theyve all grown a lot since then and now she's barely half an inch bigger.

Should I put her in with the rest of the girls? If so how do I best do that? I don't wanna mess the tank up and cause aggression cuz as it is it's extremely peaceful.

She was friendly before but she's been by herself for a good while now so I'm not sure if that's changed.

Alternatively I can keep her by herself and upgrade her tank and have it go outside over the summer, which is something I wanna do regardless of if she's the one that goes in that tank.

Opinions? Help? XP too scared to decide on my own lol

 

Use a breeder basket for the first week or so. I rarely have problems when introducing new females this way. The girls get used to seeing each other and when you release them everyone goes about their business.

 

Use a breeder basket for the first week or so. I rarely have problems when introducing new females this way. The girls get used to seeing each other and when you release them everyone goes about their business.

So similar to how you introduce a pair for breeding?

Couldn't get the quarantine container onto the tank so testing it out with s floating jar for a bit then putting her back to her tank.

So apparently I can't judge size at all cuz she's still huge compared to them!

I've always referred to her as my accidental giant (she stopped growing at 2.4 inches so not really a giant lol) cuz shes just a beast but man! Her body is so much thicker than theirs.

All the bettas and everyone else in the tank don't care about her. But she's very interested in them. No one's flaring though. And she's not obsessively checking them out.

Can't take really good pictures but this was the best I could get to show the size difference

 

How many females are in the tank already? If you have the bare minimum 5 females, adding another might cause some aggression while the new girl finds her place in the pecking order. If you have more than the bare minimum, the aggression will be more spread out. Either way, the new girl will have to establish herself as part of the group. And that can be an aggressive ordeal. But I've found that the more females you have in the sorority to begin with, the more accepting they are of new additions.

As for whether or not it will be okay with her being larger than the others... again it depends on how many you have.

For example, I had one female much smaller than the others in my tank and she was relentlessly picked on. But now I have 3 smaller females and no single smaller female is getting singled out any more. I suspect the same would apply with the larger females. Having just one that's larger than the rest may result in her being a bully, but if you have some other fish her size it will help prevent her from becoming overly dominant.

 

How many females are in the tank already? If you have the bare minimum 5 females, adding another might cause some aggression while the new girl finds her place in the pecking order. If you have more than the bare minimum, the aggression will be more spread out. Either way, the new girl will have to establish herself as part of the group. And that can be an aggressive ordeal. But I've found that the more females you have in the sorority to begin with, the more accepting they are of new additions.

As for whether or not it will be okay with her being larger than the others... again it depends on how many you have.

For example, I had one female much smaller than the others in my tank and she was relentlessly picked on. But now I have 3 smaller females and no single smaller female is getting singled out any more. I suspect the same would apply with the larger females. Having just one that's larger than the rest may result in her being a bully, but if you have some other fish her size it will help prevent her from becoming overly dominant.

There's 8 bettas in there already. The queen is the closest to her size with one other that's the same size as the queen. But they're still smaller

I'm aware they'll have to re-establish a pecking order and that it can be aggressive. (Why I'm scared about it)

There's other fish in the tank as well who my girls all get along with so I'm a bit worried about messing things up for them as well.

The only fish I'm actually worried will be a problem is the new one. She could easily kill everyone in here if she wanted to.

 

Just speaking from my own experience with having different size females, you want to have one or two more females the same size as her. It will really help with the aggression. That might mean letting your sorority grow out a bit more first, or it might mean buying another full grown female or two. Either way, if she's noticeably bigger than all the other bettas, it very well could be a problem. Of course, this depends on her personality, too, but in general different sizes work best if you have multiples of each size.

I wouldn't worry about rearranging the entire tank. That's generally not necessary if you float the new girl for several days up to a week. However, adding something to the tank at the same time you add a betta is advised. Not necessarily a full-on rescape, but maybe move one or two items, or add a new plant or two. Just that little bit of change can be enough to reset the territory lines and make for a smoother introduction. Make these changes just moments before you release her into the tank, not hours or days before, and not after.

 

Just speaking from my own experience with having different size females, you want to have one or two more females the same size as her. It will really help with the aggression. That might mean letting your sorority grow out a bit more first, or it might mean buying another full grown female or two. Either way, if she's noticeably bigger than all the other bettas, it very well could be a problem. Of course, this depends on her personality, too, but in general different sizes work best if you have multiples of each size.

I wouldn't worry about rearranging the entire tank. That's generally not necessary if you float the new girl for several days up to a week. However, adding something to the tank at the same time you add a betta is advised. Not necessarily a full-on rescape, but maybe move one or two items, or add a new plant or two. Just that little bit of change can be enough to reset the territory lines and make for a smoother introduction. Make these changes just moments before you release her into the tank, not hours or days before, and not after.

Hmm well she's actually the youngest of them (3 months younger) so I'm pretty sure they won't grow anymore since she's stopped growing. Do you think I should look around for a female or two her size and work on introducing them all at the same time?

She was always extremely sweet. I'm just not sure if females change personalities as they grow like males do.

Okay cool. Good to know I've been doing that right. Anytime I add a betta or something else in with any betta I always add new plants or rocks or something just before putting them in.

The only thing that really worries me about her is her size. I've always been worried she'd be a bully because of that even though she was one of the nicer females. She's by far the biggest fish I own currently

 

There's a species of giant betta. Is that what she is?

 

There's a species of giant betta. Is that what she is?

I always thought she was but Ive had a really hard time confirming the size ranges for it to know for sure.

She's definitely a monster betta but I'm not sure if 2.4 inches really classifies as a real giant?

 

I would look for another 1 or 2 females her size and introduce them together. Again, speaking from my own experience with having an odd small one. When I had just the one small one, it was a disaster, so I removed her. Then I got a second small one, and I introduced them both to the tank, and that worked a lot better, but I still had concerns. Then I got a third small one and that achieved balance.

 

I would look for another 1 or 2 females her size and introduce them together. Again, speaking from my own experience with having an odd small one. When I had just the one small one, it was a disaster, so I removed her. Then I got a second small one, and I introduced them both to the tank, and that worked a lot better, but I still had concerns. Then I got a third small one and that achieved balance.

Okay, thank you! I think I'd feel a lot better about it doing it that way. Hmm.. now to find girls the right size lol.

Sadly the ones my local stores have are all stunted. At least every betta I've gotten from them have been.

I actually kept that female by herself because of her size too. She's less than half the size of everyone else but she's my oldest xP

 

I feel that. Betta cups are terrible for growth. Have you looked at your local fish stores, though? As opposed to the big box chain pet stores? Sometimes, local fish stores will keep their bettas in the same tanks as community fish (like there will be a betta in the neon tetra tank, and another in the corydora tank, and so on), as opposed to cups or jars, and sometimes (rarely) you'll find a fish store that keeps the females together in one big tank.

You also might want to try shopping online. I know it's scary to shop for fish online, but most of these online sellers/breeders have excellent customer service and they really go above and beyond to make sure your fish arrive alive and in excellent condition.

 

I feel that. Betta cups are terrible for growth. Have you looked at your local fish stores, though? As opposed to the big box chain pet stores? Sometimes, local fish stores will keep their bettas in the same tanks as community fish (like there will be a betta in the neon tetra tank, and another in the corydora tank, and so on), as opposed to cups or jars, and sometimes (rarely) you'll find a fish store that keeps the females together in one big tank.

They're actually worse than the chain stores. It's horrible. Their other fish are better but their bettas are horrendous.

One of the petcos father away from me keep their females together but.. their fish are so sick. I made the mistake of thinking I knew enough to get fish anyways and treat them because they were the only place I could find cories. We got a total of 16 cories between the two of us. Spent an insane amount of money on them and all but 2 died within the first 3 days because they were so horrible.

I'm trying to look online but no one really lists how big they are and the ones that do are all way too small (I know theyll grow but they're smaller than the ones I got were at the same age so xP that's not gonna work lol)

 

Best of luck to you on your quest. All of my bettas were purchased locally, some from the fish store, some from the big box stores. So I don't have a good online seller for bettas to refer you to. Maybe one of the other members here can give you a referral.

 

Best of luck to you on your quest. All of my bettas were purchased locally, some from the fish store, some from the big box stores. So I don't have a good online seller for bettas to refer you to. Maybe one of the other members here can give you a referral.

Thank you! I did some digging and found the breeder I got her from so hopefully they have some larger girls available soon.

 

I'm a little annoyed. Someone decided to dump her out of the jar and into the tank.

So obviously no one bothered adding new things or rearranging. (No one in my house knows anything about fish)

One of my girls has a good tear. Some others have minor tears. Everyone's calm and no one has gone after anyone since I woke up to find they dumped her in.

So I dunno. Hopefully it remains peaceful and that's all that's gonna happen.

I'm really mad that someone did this when the tank is in my room and no one ever really sees my fish. I don't know why they thought they needed to "help" while I was sleeping.

But at least no one's dead.

So far it seems the queen kept her title which is cool. I think the 2nd lost her position though since she's the one with the biggest injury and is acting more submissive than usual.

And like usual when I walk over they stop everything they're doing to climb over each other trying to get to me.

I was playing with them (which I've never really done with the giant) and a few minutes in and the giant girl started swimming into my hand and playing as well which was cool.

 

Stinks that someone stepped on your toes like that, but the good news is those tears in the fins were probably going to happen anyway. You still got a few days of float time for her, so that's good. But no matter if you float her for a few minutes or a few weeks, they're still going to fight and chase and fin nip while they establish the new pecking order. Yeah they might have been more calm had you gotten to float her a full week like you wanted, but if you aren't seeing any jaw locking or carouseling or tail-as-a-blunt-force-object-being-used-to-beat-you-with-ing, then I would call this a successful integration. Just watch them like a hawk for the next several days.

 

Stinks that someone stepped on your toes like that, but the good news is those tears in the fins were probably going to happen anyway. You still got a few days of float time for her, so that's good. But no matter if you float her for a few minutes or a few weeks, they're still going to fight and chase and fin nip while they establish the new pecking order. Yeah they might have been more calm had you gotten to float her a full week like you wanted, but if you aren't seeing any jaw locking or carouseling or tail-as-a-blunt-force-object-being-used-to-beat-you-with-ing, then I would call this a successful integration. Just watch them like a hawk for the next several days.

Yeah that's true. I actually haven't seen any aggression since I got up. The queen has given a few dirty looks when someone did something she didn't like but no one's nipped or chased in the past 6 hours. And all of the other fish haven't been bothered at all. So yeah I do think this is pretty successful so far.

Most of the damage should heal in a couple days aside from that one, but it's still nothing I haven't seen when introducing a pair for breeding.

Might just freshen up their water more than usual this week to help them heal. They just got a water change yesterday though