I Need Help With A Betta Sorority!

I have been an owner of bettas for a long time now and I want to have a betta sorority tank. I need some help with how to do this because there is a lot of conflicting information about these sort of tanks on the web. If anyone has any information or experience with this please help me out! And yes, I know these are dangerous and very risky.

 

sassymomma successfully keeps a betta sorority. A 20L works best medium to heavily planted or decorated. It's also best to add all females at the same time to prevent territorial issues.

 

Mine didn't work out. We bought 7 BABIES from Petco that were all very submissive. After 5-7 weeks one went crazy and almost killed another and beat the heck out of a few others. I removed the bully and after a week, the one who was on BAD shape started chasing the others. Within a couple days the rest were ripping each others fins apart. They are all separated now. Stinks, we had a huge, awesome biotope vivarium with tons of plants in and out of the water. I'm actually in the process of breaking that tank down right now. Going to redo it as another amazon blackwater tank as we have a few of them and really enjoy them.

Good luck with the sorority. Be SURE to have a backup plan incase things go south.

 

I have two planted tanks, 29 gal & 40 gal breeder that are working great for a few years. About 6 years ago had one sorority and they beat the male up bad, no males in the current tanks. All of mine were real young when I got them. I find that the veiltail and crown tails tend to be the boss fish but the plakats will not be pushed around by any. If you don't add them all at the same time when you add a new one keep it the cup with air stone propped in the tank. After a few days the ones in the tank will adjust and get bored swimming around the new girl, that is the time to add her.

 

I've had a sorority for a few months now. The trick is to get a calm, large female that can be the top of the pecking order. She keeps everything calm but won't hesitate to put any of the young whipper snappers in their place if they try to pick a fight. Sometimes you have to be able tosay goodbye to one though, no matter how pretty she is if she keeps picking fights.

Never put males in with them. They get all constipated and eggbound. And that's IF the male doesn't chase them around tearing them up.

 

Thanks everyone for the help this will help me out with setting it up a lot!

 

I bought 7 females and tried to get as many different colorings as I could find, and roughly the same size (smaller females: veil tail, crown tail, a koi, and one larger "baby girl"). I actually used large mason jars as temporary housing and kept them about 4-6 inches away from each other while I went through the process of setting up and cycling my tank(with super-frequent water changes, of course.).
Of course on the day I was set to add them to my tank, I found an 8th lady at the store I simply couldn't resist. For several weeks all seemed well, until my steel-ish blue veil-tail that was part of the original 7 got picked on, I believe because she is the most shy of the bunch, so I removed her to heal and de-stress and she will not be returning to the sorority.
7 seemed to be the magic number for me, and I have a 20 gallon tank that is moderately decorated with silk plants that are a few different heights. I also put them in after I put in my 8 pepper cories, and I think the active cories often help to distract the ladies and diffuse aggression. Aside from the shy one I had to remove, the others seem headstrong each in their own right but not so aggressive that they feel the need to chase and fight.
The first day I added them all, there were a few face-offs, flaring, and chasing. I watched them closely and used my net to "shoo" them away from each other if they didn't seem to want to back down. After that, I only noticed a few fin nips, and now they have all seemed to find their balance and any nips are fully healed.
Honestly, I think the majority factor of a successful sorority is luck. It's hard to determine personalities from their cups at the store. And really, any pet I've brought home including fish, seem to change in personality from the store to home anyway.
As has already been said, always have a back-up plan ready.
Best of luck~

 

Sigh... they aren't easy.

I have one of four girls, in a 20long. I had 6, but one was actually a male, so I removed him. The other died of some natural cause( I had had her from before in a separate tank). I would suggest no smaller than a 20l. Mine is extremely planted, so much so that you cannot see all the way through 60% of it. They will always chase each other. If feeding schedule or water changes, they get more aggressive. I would suggest you get adults. That way you know their adult personalities. Go for it, but do your reasurch.