Betta Sorority Tank Plans

Hey everyone! New forum member Adam here.

QUESTION:
What is the maximum number of betta in a sorority, or is it determined just by bioload and tank makeup?

FULL INFO & BACKGROUND DETAILS:
My husband and I have one 75-gallon US (283 liter) community tropical tank running in our home as well as a Fluval 5 gallon peninsula-style tank for our extra betta (male). My spouse loved the fish tank I set up earlier this year, so now we're getting a second tank for my husband and he'll be taking the angelfish he requested as the hero fish in my community tank, and setting up his own angelfish show tank. This leaves me with a school of clown loaches and options for how I want to redesign and stock the 75 gallon we have now.

I love aquascaping and always kept planted community tanks in the past, so what I'm considering doing is building a Dutch-inspired aquascape (I *will* break the rules which is why I say 'Dutch-inspired' instead of just 'Dutch style') to house the existing school of clown loaches (they're only at the 2.5"/ 6cm growth stage - these adorable goofs have a while before they get big). For the top part of the tank's water column and for a set of fish that are active during the daylight hours, I'm thinking of building a betta sorority.

I see lots of advice for betta keepers, and a lot of it seems like the common sense/easy mistake/beginner-level information on the boards. I've kept larger tanks for years, all planted, most community tanks, and always with a solo betta rescued from the LFS cups-o-death as a good luck charm for the tank. In 10 years of fishkeeping I've only ever had one betta take issue with a community fish, so I've been lucky by some accounts. I even successfully kept a male betta in a gourami tank once before reading they would attack each other -- never an issue, so I'm lucky, but also good at aquascaping to give plenty of territory and sight breaks in the larger tanks.

My main outstanding question regarding sorority tank members has to do with numbers and bioload. I over-filter (2 Fluval 305 canister filters gets me between 10-12x tank turnover per hour and I do daily 20% water changes more or less regularly) but maintain a sluggish current so long-finned species like bettas and angels do well. All of the advice on Sorority tanks focuses more on the beginners and minimum numbers needed to trigger the sorority mentality in the fish, as well as pointing out that it takes a larger tank to do so, 20 gallon long plus).

What's the maximum number (within tank bioload and avoiding overcrowding) of betta in the sorority? Is there an upper limit where they'll split off into warring Houses and wage all-out warfare on each other, or provided a densely-planted tank (about 50% plants) with lots of small crannies and territorial boundaries will any number be fine? I'm aiming for about 10 in the 75 gallon tank but will bow to nature's impulses if that amount causes issues.

Thanks, and looking forward to the forums!

-Adam

75 gallon planted community tank: 6.4 pH, 5.5 GH, 4.5 KH, 79 deg. F; 3 young adult angelfish - albino pearlscale, black velvet super veil, premium coverage red koi pearlscale; 4 baby angelfish - golden, yellowcap koi, electric blue marble pearlscale, Philipine blue ghost pearlscale show veil; 25 Cardinal tetras (being rehomed soon down to 6); 6 Rummy nose tetras; 6 young clown loaches; 2 Siamese Algae Eaters; 1 female betta

5 gallon planted betta tank: 6.8pH, 5.5 GH, 4.5 KH, 78 deg F; 1 red male delta betta

 

Hello and welcome to FishLore!

I’m not sure about betta sororities, but I hope someone more experienced comes along.

 

betta sororities require a minimum of 20 gallon which can hold 5 females. I'm not sure how much a 75 gallon can hold as I'm not too good with stocking

 

I think 10 is the max you can keep together, but 75 gallons is a lot so I'm not sure. You probably would be able to keep 10 bettas, especially if you planted it like you said.

 

From my experience, you could also add snails and possible shrimp (I have nerite snails and ghost shrimp with my bettas and no problems, but this is not always the case)

 

I don't think there is an actual max amount you are able to keep if you have a big enough tank for the amount you want

 

Someone did a betta sorority with a 75 gallon tank here in this forum can’t recall his ID. I think he had 13 or 14 bettas in there hope he will show up

 

There was a youtube video with a guy who had 30 betta girls living together in a happy pack, (he was definitely overstocked...) you might try looking him up... I really want to have my own sorority in the future!

Here's the link:

He is also underplanted, but anyways, more than 10 ladies can live in harmony if chosen carefully and monitored religiously

 

There was a youtube video with a guy who had 30 betta girls living together in a happy pack, (he was definitely overstocked...) you might try looking him up... I really want to have my own sorority in the future!

Here's the link:

He is also underplanted, but anyways, more than 10 ladies can live in harmony if chosen carefully and monitored religiously

Wow! That is a lot of bettas!

 

Abby565 Yeah, when I saw the video I was stunned! I love betta personalities, and seeing them interact within a sorority is really something! But, the tank is overstocked in the video...

 

Abby565 Yeah, when I saw the video I was stunned! I love betta personalities, and seeing them interact within a sorority is really something! But, the tank is overstocked in the video...

Yeah, it is very overstocked. And if you are going to overstock, at least have tons of tall plants and things to break up lines of sight!

 

Ive had up to 15 adults in a 29 gallon no problem, right now I have almost 30 but most are just babies with next to no aggression levels that I bred.
Lowest is 5 in a 10 gallon but as long as no one is getting injured and there is lots of plants you can keep adding until there's an issue with water quality or aggression with the bigger tank.
I believe someone had a group of females in a large tank and said by the math each female had 6gallons. The bigger the tank the more females you can have per the gallons because they have space to run away.
Taking my early example of 6gallons per a female this person had. His fish had no issues in their huge tank but when moved to 2 females in 12gallons they would have issues because there is no space to run away from one another as there was in their bigger tank.

TL;DR
Theres no real number, just watch out for aggression and water quality

 

I hear my ears ringing again. Lol. I'm up to 13 girls and 1 male in my 75 gallon. Along with glowlight tetras, cories and a pleco. With the other inhabitants I'm thinking I can go to 20-25 girls. So I think its more bio load driven than anything.

 

Hello all
It is been some time that I'm considering a betta Sorority, yesterday after finding a fish store with great prices and lots of healthy bettas both male and female I decided to try it.
I heard that sorority can be bit hard and needs some careful planning so I need help to do this right.
First my tank is planted and almost 30 gallon(80(L).30(W).50(H)cm) here is a photo of it:


Is it okay?? How many girls I can put in it? And can my acquascape provide enough hiding place for girls??
Second there is a question about tank mates I have 3 male endlers, a bn pleco and some sort of tetra(can’t ID them so there is a picture) are these fishes compatible with betta girls??


I read some articles about how to start a sorority in this past days but all advices are welcome.

 

They are bloodfin tetras.

The bristlenose and tetras need cooler water than bettas, ideally around 72-73f.

If you plan to do a sorority in that tank you will need to heavily plant it.

 

I can give a bunch of info as soon as I get home
Anyone else, feel free to chime in

 

it's a very pretty tank!! but you will probably want it to look like a jungle. plus as the others said, there are temperature compatibility issues.

 

You wanna put more plants in the middle and on the front. luckdown david1978 anything you guys want to add?

 

I think most of the big points have already been mentioned. Temperature incompatibility, sparce. So yea not a good candidate to add a sorority to. Sorry.

 

Okay bloodfin tetras I understand the problem is how to catch them. But I checked lots of sites including planetcatfish and seriously fish base on them bn pleco need 21c-26c while betta fishes need 24c-27c(seriously fish said 22c-28c but the betta types were kind of different) there are small compatibly between them. Exactly how much plants?? My tank isn’t very low planted can you show me an example picture or something??

 

I have pics of mine on my media page.

 

this is my favourite betta sorority on instagram. they also have smaller tanks for just male bettas that are heavily planted.

Lissa on Instagram: “I did some trimming today. It felt weird I hope the plants enjoy their new homes ”

Lissa on Instagram: “This tank keeps me going honestly. These girls ”

you could always do just a single male or female betta if you work out the temperature issues. what is your tank's temperature at right now? i've never heard of keeping bn plecos with a tropical betta's temperature. bettas like 78-82f, and bn plecos like it much cooler.

 

Okay so I have to turn my tank to a dutch style. It would be hard since I have gravel for substrate and not a very strong light so definitely I cannot turn my tank to something like that. But I have some Tropica under gravel soil and Tropica gravel left from my 10 gallon planted tank it isn’t much but I'm going to use it for my middle part of my tank and then plant some easy to take care stem plants, hopefully it will provide enough cover for middle part of my tank will take some photos tomorrow.

Alright today I bought 3 stem plants: red cabomba,some sort of ludwigia and bacopa Carolinia. For now I float them in my tank going to plant them on Monday after I catch my bloodfin tetras since I know I'm going to ruin my tank during their chace. @minda I just saw your edited post I honestly checked with seriously fish and other reliable sites , bloodfin tetras aren’t temperature compatible with bettas at all but bn plecos have a small temperature overlap in 24c-26c. If you know a site that said otherwise please tell me before it is too late I don’t want to give my bettas white spot or cook my pleco(though with all my efforts for bringing my tank temperature down my water temperature is always at 24c).

 

Today is the day. Going to catch my bloodfins and then redesign my tank and add my new plants hopefully the will provide enough cover, hiding place and space for exploration. I'm going to buy 5-7 female betta the number depends on quality, color, health and of course personality. Will update with pictures from my tank and girls.
Also I have a question as well. I have a single lambchop rasbora for almost 2 years now it was sold to me as a endler. He survived lots of things including columnaris and internal parasites even though he was always alone and stressed. Since my schooling fish is about to donate, can I buy 7 lambchop rasbora or they aren’t recommended with sorority???

 

the only thing in a sorority is bettas and snails and shrimp in my opinion. I don't know about the stocking.

 

the only thing in a sorority is bettas and snails and shrimp in my opinion. I don't know about the stocking.

I never knew about this. I knew that bottom dwelling fishes are okay since I saw lots of threads about it but never seen anything about other fishes. Should I take out all of my stocking out??

 

I never knew about this. I knew that bottom dwelling fishes are okay since I saw lots of threads about it but never seen anything about other fishes. Should I take out all of my stocking out??

I am pretty sure that there are people who keep dither fish in their sorority!!!

 

I got soaked to my bones and my room is wet very bad but I got those bloodfins. Also this is my tank now:

 

I never knew about this. I knew that bottom dwelling fishes are okay since I saw lots of threads about it but never seen anything about other fishes. Should I take out all of my stocking out??

Sorry if I confused you I said in my opinion because with other fish (and with just bettas) there's so many things that can go wrong. I think it's better for just bettas because if there is someone misbehaving it's better to take that one girl out than a whole school. Also midna

they also have smaller tanks for just male bettas that are heavily planted.

how does that work I thought males kill each other on sight!

 

Also midna
how does that work I thought males kill each other on sight!

nooo lol I mean that person has smaller tanks that are heavily planted, and each tank has a single male betta. just as an example for what "heavily planted" entails.

 

Ohhhhhhh. I'm relieved but also sad at the same time because I got my hopes up that maybe males have finally learned to get along

 

In a big enough tank you can have both male and female bettas together. I do.

 

Than you all for sharing your thoughts and informations. Last night I bought 7 females, I acclimated them and put them in the tank so far they didn’t attack to other fishes and no seriousl aggression happened. They have chased each other for time to time but these chases are short and there is no contact between fishes so for the most fights are happening near my pogostemon st octopus. I'm out now will show their photos later.

Here they are:












The seventh one liked to stay at back so no photo of her for now.
Also that double tail has a very big stomach the store employee convinced me that she has eggs not dropsy. How can I tell?? She is very fast and active also she is one of the dominant ones.

 

In a big enough tank you can have both male and female bettas together. I do.

Thanks that's what I thought but not males and males right?

 

Thanks that's what I thought but not males and males right?

You can actually... in a 90gallon + tank. Id love to do this one day.

 

Thanks that's what I thought but not males and males right?

I've seen a guy on youtube with a massive tank with 2 male bettas (and a female thrown in as well). So it's possible, they just need space.

Found it!

 

Thanks for clarifying!

 

I've seen a guy on youtube with a massive tank with 2 male bettas (and a female thrown in as well). So it's possible, they just need space.

Found it!

My fav video! Lol I was thinking about it as replying. Just found a 300 gallon for $250 with stand, ligth and lid. One day...

 

My fav video! Lol I was thinking about it as replying. Just found a 300 gallon for $250 with stand, ligth and lid. One day...

One day indeed.

 

Well I have 3 males and 16 females in a 75 gallon. It looks like a jungle. Its been set up since January of 2016 .