Can you really keep multiple female Betta together?

I am curious about keeping multiple female Betta together, if/how it is done. Currently I have a male Betta in a 9 gallon, I just added a a mystery snail but other than that he is alone and will stay that way. I want to get a larger tank in the future and was thinking of doing female bettas. I have seen them together in the fish store so I guess it can be done but I am not really sure.

Would 20 gallons be large enough for this endeavor? Any advice?

 

I am curious about keeping multiple female Betta together, if/how it is done. Currently I have a male Betta in a 9 gallon, I just added a a mystery snail but other than that he is alone and will stay that way. I want to get a larger tank in the future and was thinking of doing female bettas. I have seen them together in the fish store so I guess it can be done but I am not really sure.

Would 20 gallons be large enough for this endeavor? Any advice?

Keeping a female betta sorority can be done, but I wouldn't recommend it at all for anyone outside of experienced betta keepers with emergency isolation tanks on standby. Female betta can be every bit as aggressive as males.

I've seen it successfully done in heavily planted 40g & up tanks, with females born & raised together. There are those here who keep sororities but I believe they do so with a lot of experience, under special circumstances & with wild - perhaps plakat - betta. My few forays into unintentionally keeping sororities of commercially bred betta due to unexpected surrenders, have not been successful.

I'm afraid fish stores often display what seems to be popular experiments in fishkeeping, that are neither practical, reasonable or ethical for long term fishkeeping. For example, betta are also displayed in cups or minuscule tanks, incompatible fish housed together & dozens of goldies are housed in a single 20 g - all the time. What a fish store does is often due to those fish being transient, rather than long term residents & doesn't represent the best fish keeping.

I wouldn't recommend a betta sorority but there are so many choices for a 20 g community of non-aggressive varied or single specie fish!

Hope it helps.

 

I breed and raise bettas, currently I have 3 (planted) tanks with multiple bettas in each. One 29gal houses the sorority sibling females I plan to sell, another 29gal holds my mixed gender juveniles, and a 36gal holds my personal favorites and breeder females (not all related either). Every now and then I end up with one or two females that are just not suited to living with her sisters, be it because they are too aggressive or too shy. Overall I'd say my sororities are quite peaceful with the rare nipped fin and occasional fin flaring display.

I would not just go to the store and pick out random females for a sorority. Most the time these females have already been separated from other bettas (the cupped females) and they do not adjust to being with other females too well. Either get a group of fry to raise up together (and separate out the males) or buy a sibling sorority group from a breeder.

A bigger tank, preferably well planted, and several females to spread aggression along with some dither fish will likely do okay. That being said, many sororities fail when one fish falls ill and spreads whatever disease it has to the other females. My first few sororities when downhill because of this. I think the stress of a sorority setting with the pet store females led to illness (mainly dropsy) and wiped out most the girls.

 

I've never tried but I'd bet more fail than work.

 

For the best outcome go to a breeder that has female betta siblings and maybe it can work