Betta Sorority Tank Plans

All but one of the girls ended up passing away. The only one that survived this sorority failure survived the previous sorority fail. I’m going to give her her own tank. Currently she’s back in the 20 gallon, but I’m making that a themed tank if black and white fish, so she doesn’t fit the color scheme.

 

Ok, lots of fun misinformation and good facts here. For one, sororities are super normal for bettas. The females school, the males don't. 20 gallon is too small for one tho. 55 is good and you can have several. The more the better. Bare absolute minimum would be 5. What happened with your tank is the matriarch(alpha) died. A male will help with hierarchy in a larger tank.

 

Fun misinformation I like that.

 

They did school around at times and I have read that females like being kept together. They seemed to be fine with each other until they weren’t. I think I definitely panicked and make some mistakes and if I just left them alone and did water changes and turned up the tank temp they would’ve done better and more than one would’ve lived from the fight. I’m not opposed to do a sorority again one day, but I think I’d want a larger tank for sure and to set it up more like a biotope tank.

 

When mine die out that will be the end of the harem for me. For people that know about fish Its an awesome setup. For those that don't its a boring tank. To me its just so limiting on what I can add and stocking density. Even trying to add swordtails was a flop.

 

Fun misinformation I like that.

Well they're not totally wrong. Just how you go about things. When I was breeding them I had 12 females and 1 male(2) in a well planted 100 gallon with some small community fish. And didn't lose a single one in well over 2 years. I bought them all at once tho, from Walmart lol. It took over a year for the final one of them to die. Nowadays I don't keep short lifespan fish because it makes me sad.

When mine die out that will be the end of the harem for me. For people that know about fish Its an awesome setup. For those that don't its a boring tank. To me its just so limiting on what I can add and stocking density. Even trying to add swordtails was a flop.

I originally bought them to help control the hundreds of guppies I had at the time. But they did real well with mid and lower dwellings fish.

 

I just down graded my 3 males and 16 females from the 75 to a 55. So it can be done. I have had a few die here and there but nothing I would attribute to how they were kept. Mine were added at different times as baby betta from petco and I also gave some away. So threw the 3 and half years of the set up I can say it was successful. They don't seem to bother the glowlight tetras or the cories but detailed the swordtails in a matter of days.

 

Wow, I thought I could do 2 males I'm my 100, but that lasted a week before I had to move one to another tank and swap them out. But yeah, they aren't fond of other top dwellers. And I will never own another guppy in my life unless I'm feeding it to something. (I heard a rumor guppies could distract the males enough to keep thI'm civil with eachother). This was like 5 years ago tho.

 

Its weird. With the males watching them you would think the tank has dividers. They each have their area and pretty much stay in it.

 

Its weird. With the males watching them you would think the tank has dividers. They each have their area and pretty much stay in it.

That's actually really intriguing. In the wild that's about normal for them, but the water is murky and there's lots of plant growth so they can't see very far. It's like the same behavior in a tank. I wonder if it's actually not too uncommon.

 

The tank looks like a jungle so that might help.

 

In 2 years I have found sororities to be fairly uneventful. They remind me of horses in how they socialize. I find that some of mine prefer to hang in a group and others claim a quiet corner for their own. Usually its the younger or newer ones who do so and they eventually join the group.

I keep my girls in a 125gal indoor pond and there are 15 of them. They flare up and nip a bit but they still choose to be together. During feeding time I drop a cube of dried worms in and they work together to break it down and divy it up. I intentionally overfeed so they don't need to be grumpy and I keep duckweed in the pond so they have fiber. The fiber helps greedy eaters pass their food and we never have swim bladder issues. I find female bettas are more curious and active in a group. I find they do get stressed with a male present. It makes them more territorial. I have not had any issues with fish getting sick but I imagine a stressful event such as a fungal infection could make them act out. It sounds like the op had dirty water given the sickness and algae.

Keeping a betta sorority will clue you in on how much stress your aquarium is putting your fish under. If they are content with their tank they will get along. It might not feel like it because they socialise a lot like the mean girls in highschool but if the movements are calm and the fins are relatively full then its not that different from how horses socialise.

 

Try ich-x. It’s wonderful, and treats multiple things including fungal infections. Most of my fish are Bettas, and all of them but 3 are ones I rescued and treated for fin rot or ich. I have 3 males and 7 females in the same tank, it’s gorgeous! Some of my males are cranky so they have their very own 10 gallon tanks. But yeah, try ich-x. It usually takes about 3 days to see improvement and 5-7 to totally heal the fish of the disease! I swear by it. It’s saved a bunch of lives in this house.

I’ve tried that and it’s absolutely amazing. The fungus my Betta got was gone in 3 days of treatment but I made sure to do the full week but man did it work well. I also used it when my guppies got ich! I have to say, WHAT A LIFE SAVER! They all survived and even gave birth to about 30 babies. I’m probably going to grow up the mutt guppies and sell some!

 

I’ve been keeping cichlids for a while now and I’m used to having aggressive fish but I haven’t had bettas since I was little. I was planning on starting a female sorority in my 20 gallon tank though and was wondering if anyone had any tips?
I like to keep my tank heavily planted and the 20 gal only has 2 snails. I’ve read that you also shouldn’t keep any less than 4 bettas as they’ll still attack each other. Is there anything else I should look out for?

 

Welcome to the worlds greatest forum! When you do start a sorority, make sure to have an extra tank for each one. This is incase problems arise. Or just use dividers too. Make sure they are not attacking each other. A lot of research goes into a sorority. it has to be a heavily planted tank with A LOT of hideouts. These are a few tips.

 

Use sibling females if you can find them or at the very least young females. When I have a batch of youngsters growing out they go into my 20gal. These sisters get along very well. I think there’s about a dozen females in here, 3 of which are not related.

 

Someone has lately been stealing my slogan, but welcome to the worlds greatest forum!! Get a heavily planted tank minimum of 20 gallons.

Lots if hides, I personally use coconut hides, stone, and spiderwood.

A minimum of 5 females is a must, but I have found best success in groups of 9-17. You need to keep them in uneven groups. Preferably pick sisters and do not add any new members if possible if the fish are a year old+.
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Keep back up tanks for each betta if it fails.

If there is any aggression remove the bully immediately. A bit of slow chasing, fairing, and a few nips is normal at first. If is continues more then 72 hours remove the aggressive female.

I feed frozen or live food only to promote natural behaviour.

Keep a peaceful schooling fish to brake it up a bit. I personally have a school of 6 bronz corydoras catfish in my 20 gallon.

I also recommend a few snails to clean up the tank as you already have. I personally have mystery snails.

 

In my experience female bettas that grew up in the same spawn tend to be quite nicer to one another. So i suggest having sisters if your planning.

 

I'm also a new betta sorority owner, however I have a few tips.

1.) Try to make sure that the bettas are the same or similar colors, you don't have to do this, but it's scientifically proven to reduce aggresion

2.) Avoid putting in larger bettas in with regular sized bettas. I used to have this pearl-white gorgeous female betta that was much bigger than than the other females. We had to return her since she wouldn't stop bullying her friends.

3.) Lots of hiding places. Lots.

4.) Personally, I pick the ugliest females I find to give them a chance at life, since no one would probably choose them over their pretty counterparts. They're beautiful in my eyes.

 

I'm also a new betta sorority owner, however I have a few tips.

1.) Try to make sure that the bettas are the same or similar colors, you don't have to do this, but it's scientifically proven to reduce aggresion

2.) Avoid putting in larger bettas in with regular sized bettas. I used to have this pearl-white gorgeous female betta that was much bigger than than the other females. We had to return her since she wouldn't stop bullying her friends.

3.) Lots of hiding places. Lots.

4.) Personally, I pick the ugliest females I find to give them a chance at life, since no one would probably choose them over their pretty counterparts. They're beautiful in my eyes.

I would be curious to see the paper on the color thing! I haven’t found it yet, apparently. Can you link it to me? (Also, have not found color to affect aggression levels in any of my sororities

 

I would be curious to see the paper on the color thing! I haven’t found it yet, apparently. Can you link it to me? (Also, have not found color to affect aggression levels in any of my sororities

I heard this a while ago on an aquarium forum, I don't think if this is true. I also heard that female bettas are less aggressive towards siblings. I don't know if any of this is true.

 

I heard this a while ago on an aquarium forum, I don't think if this is true. I also heard that female bettas are less aggressive towards siblings. I don't know if any of this is true.

Ah, I see. This is the only paper I am aware of regarding this topic, and it does not address aggression levels at all. It found that females, when given the choice between swimming with a group and swimming along, or swimming with a single individual, the females would choose to swim with the group. And when given the choice between swimming with a group of the same color as the individual, or a group of different colored fish, it would choose to swim with the group that was the same color as itself. So they prefer larger groups, and they prefer the same color. However, a final test they did, was the choice between a group of a different color, and an individual of the same color, and they did not find a significant preference regarding this, but they did spend more time with fish of the same color over the larger group of a different color.
I am not aware of any papers addressing aggression between females based on colors, but there is always new stuff being published! So there may be something I am not aware of

 

yes, same color /fin type = less aggression

I just added a young juvenile to my 38 community which has 6 adult bettas about 10 days ago

2 adults are same color fin type, no issues

my elephant ears bettas are same way, they will swim side by side no aggression.

 

yes, same color /fin type = less aggression

I just added a young juvenile to my 38 community which has 6 adult bettas about 10 days ago

2 adults are same color fin type, no issues

my elephant ears bettas are same way, they will swim side by side no aggression.

I have had sororities that were all same color(s), and also sororities where not a single fish was the same color. No aggression issues in either.

I would argue individual temperament and introduction methods play a larger role in aggression than color/tail type.

 

My sorority is a very interesting bunch, and I really only have one betta who is aggressive. The others are very chill. It really depends on the bettas you find. All of mine are just your normal pet store bettas. But, they do have ember tetra tankmates.