Wrs2's 20 Long Betta Sorority

Thanks to the PetCo dollar per gallon sale, today marks the start of my sorority!
I've had most of my girls for a while now, but I didn't want to put them all in the sorority!
Delores has some weird growth on her, I've tried meds but nothing works. TBH I think it's just scar tissue that keeps growing, but that's neither here not there and then Anabelle is too small still.

So, let's meet the 5 main players! (3 of them are sisters, idk how that dynamic will play out...)

Patricia.
She is one of the sisters.



Marigold.
She looks a bit mustard gas, but not that great of one obviously! She was supposed to be in a water garden, but I didn't want to put her outdoors and risk her, so she is cast in the sorority.



Kali.
She seems to think she's the boss... I will have to keep a close eye on her!
If she doesn't work out, don't worry, I have a back up plan all ready!



Penelope.
Another of the sisters.



Poala.
Another one of the sisters. I am not sure if I am feeling the name, but I wanted the sisters to all be P names haha.




In the tank with them is an Albino Bristle Nose Pleco, 1 Guppy and 10 Endler fry!

I want to add more fish to the tank to distract the girls from each-other.
I have 6 harlequin rasboras that I may put in. TBH I feel like if I over stocked it a bit it may be better than being under stocked because it's a sorority, but ho knows!

For filtration it has an Aquaclear 20 and a sponge filter.
Too hot for a heater with the summer, but I would need a 100 watt one for the winter right??


And the full tank!
It needs more plants, but I have a bunch of rocks that I want to add. They aren't all the same type, so it may look bad, but oh well! I will probably be redoing the layout in a couple of days once Iget more plants.




It also needs a better light because shocker, the one that I had but haven't used in oh say.... 7 years, didn't work :lol

 

You aren't really stocked. Before putting in rasboras I would add at least 3 more. So add either 3, 5, or 7 more so it will be even.

 

Rasboras or bettas?

 

Add more betas. You want an even number so none get picked on. Make sure to add lots of plants.

 

If I add 3 or 5 or 7 that would be an odd number, so if this was your tank, how many would you have in total?

 

If I add 3 or 5 or 7 that would be an odd number, so if this was your tank, how many would you have in total?

Well I've had betta sororities and am in expert with them so I would keep more together. And you have 5. Adding three will be 8 adding 5 will be 10 and adding 7 will be 12.

 

OMG I am a teacher, I should know how to do math better I think I was reading like 3 or 5 or 7 in total, not as more. It must be my exhaustion from today!
I will look for some more girls this week. Petsmart was out, I got the last 3 at my LFS and I don't think Petco had any either when I checked.

 

OMG I am a teacher, I should know how to do math better I was reading like 3 or 5 or 7 in total, not as more. It must be my exhaustion from today!
I will look for some more girls this week. Petsmart was out, I got the last 3 at my LFS and I don't think Petco had any either when I checked.

You have all adults right? I would look into dumbo females or koi females that are adults. Getting younger ones will just make the older ones bully. And yeah haha!

 

Yes they all look to be adults. One of the sisters is a bit smaller than the others, but the other 4 look to be right around the same size.

 

Ok then look into adult females. You can look into veil tails!

 

I was looking for them at Petsmart today, but they were out! I am not sure when they get them in. Usually I would ask, but the girl that was working there is overbearing and I didn't want to deal with her haha. I have to go back tomorrow anyways so I will ask then.

Would you add other tank mates? I know from what I've read and seen online that adding tank mates can help distract aggression.
I had a small sorority many years back in a 55 g community tank, but that was so much bigger and so long ago I can't even remember what was in the tank with the girls.

 

I have added babies or young adults to my tank and they seem to integrate well. As far as tank mates you can if you want. Slow dull fish seem to be the general consensus of what works. I went with glowlight tetras and emerald cories but I think the emeralds get a little big for your tank if kept in large numbers.

 

Tbh I’m not a huge fan of Cory catfish. They’re kinda ugly imo haha

 

KhulI loaches are another option.

 

Wish you luck! Last sorority I saw was on Instagram with 3 female bettas in 1 gallon bowl with 1 plant.

 

At least this one is with in what's acceptable in the hobby. With 5-9 females it has a high chance of success.

 

Thanks!
I know I need more plants and a better layout. I hate fake plants but need to get a better light. I have some java fern that I plan on stealing from another tank tomorrow!

 

I reread the whole post. As far as under stocking being bad I'm so under stocked its not funny. Lol. I probably have a 29 gallon stocking in a 75 so not sure how much water "you need to be overstocked for aggression" holds. The odd or even thing again not sure I have had odd or even at different times with no issues. However I do feel 5 is the minimum with 7 being better. Even in the big tank 3 was too much chasing, 5 it calmed down some then with 7 it al but stopped. Also I'm no expert just a fellow hobbyist. Lol.

 

Tbh I’m not a huge fan of Cory catfish. They’re kinda ugly imo haha

Don't say that! Because I breed and love mine. Hater -,-

 

That looks like one of the best betta sororities of all time!

 

I heard some where that you get off

Don't say that! Because I breed and love mine. Hater -,-

lol. The dwarf ones are cute but the larger ones look like bugs IMO. I also am not a huge fan of loaches, they kinda look like worms to me haha.
TBH I don't think I really like any catfish. Maybe ottos, but I've never had much success with them.

 

I heard some where that you get off

lol. The dwarf ones are cute but the larger ones look like bugs IMO. I also am not a huge fan of loaches, they kinda look like worms to me haha.
TBH I don't think I really like any catfish. Maybe ottos, but I've never had much success with them.

Oof I would kick you outta my house quickly with that comment

 

July 16 UPDATE

I added some more fake plants. Still hate them but it’s what I have at hand, as well as an Anubis and Java Fern.

Couldn’t find any girls today. The stores said they should have more in tomorrow so I will check back then!

 

I got a new girl for the group!

I haven’t added her yet as I am waiting to find 1 more as I will likely add my Elephant Ear Delores to the sorority as well!

Tomorrow I plan on tanking out the female Endler fry and moving them to my water garden which was their original intended home. One if the rasboras died, which makes 2 in 2 weeks, so I will not be moving them to the tank with the girls until I can figure out what the issue with their tank is.

I also ordered some live plants that should be coming by the end of the week! If not then on Monday.

I hate the layout still and am thinking about getting difffent drift wood. Still need to get another light as well!

Also, how do you all think Amano Shrimp would do in the sorority? I have one in with a male betta and it’s fine but that is just him alone and not 5 - 8 girls to hide from!

 

They would do great IMO! They are big and can handle them own selves.

 

That’s great!

I wanted to get them from trinsfish as they are super cheap there, even with shipping still cheaper than the LFS. I just want to wait and see if I can find any discount or promo codes first!

The pleco I added poops so much! It’s a low level tank so it’s not really going great siphoning it out so I need to try and find a way to remove it.

 

Went to Petco to get more girls. They had some stunning koi females. But here is the best part... they are clearly girls they have the egg spots BUT they are labeled as male koi bettas.... Again... they’re like double the price as the girls. I’ve told them multiple times how to sex them and that they are always in the wrong cups but they don’t seem to care.

 

Finally got 2 more girls, so with Amethyst that makes 3 + 5 previous girls = 8 girls!
Here they are....





Still no names! I want something cool and Japanese maybe as they are Koi patterns!
Top girl looks better in person! I also love the colors on the 2nd, it's different from the typical koi coloration!

I also added some new plants... A bunch of Anubias BarterI Nana, Abubias Nana petite, Hygrophila Salicifolia Blue (which it like $9 a bunch at my LFS! Insanity!!) and dwarf hairgrass.
I have some dwarf sag, Ludwigia Narrow leaf, Lidwigia repens red, crypt wendtiI green and crypt wendtiI bronze coming as well!

I also ordered some sand blasted grapevine that I may add to this tank as well. Though I may be saving that for a sparkling gourami tank that I want to setup! When all the plants are in and all planted I will post a finished version of the tank photo.

Still thinking of a schooling fish, maybe a bottom dweller and some amano shrimp will be nice additions.

Current stock - 20 Gallon Long

8 female bettas
1 male guppy
4 endler fry (I moved the other 6 to my grow out tubs)
1 Albino BN Pleco

 

I went with glowlight tetras to add some movement.

 

I went downstairs to check on them one last time before bed and Marigold was swimming around funnily. She has a slight in her analfin(?) but it’s small and she has no other signs of being attacked. I took her out of the tank for the night. I hope she will be fine. I also hope the addition of the new fish didn’t mess up the chemistry of the tank. The 5 seemed to be doing very well together.

ETA: I went back to check on her and she’s gone! She doesn’t look like she was attacked and when I was watching them she seemed fine and no one was bothering her do I don’t know what could’ve caused this! I feel like if I left it at the original 5 she may have still been alive! I am definely not adding more girls to the tank but aomw dither fish and way more plants! I will have to place an order to get way more to break up the lines of sight so that this doesn’t happen again! RIP Marigold. :*( I feel like a failure!

 

This morning all is well with the other girls. Maybe a bit of posturing but that's it! No one looking attacked or beaten up.
I still don't know if this was a mistake or not to start this sorority but I am still hoping that Marigold's death didn't have anything to do with the others beating her up and that the others will be fine!

 

This sorority is going awful! I should have just stuck with my original 5!
Last night I found that Amethyst was looking rough. Her dorsal fun was almost completely gone. I put her in a different tank and she seems okay now. But this morning one of the sisters is dead and one of the original koi girls is sitting on the bottom of the tank barely moving! The two remaining sisters look good but the other girls all have nips. I don’t know if I should add some other fish to the tank to try and salvage this or just give in and break the sorority up before it goes into total carnage!

 

I am officially done! This thing went from 5 great days of relative to 24 hrs of murder house carnage! One girl will stay in the tank. One will go in my other tank. I will set up a spare 5.5 and divide it for 2. One looks awful and idk if she will mend so she will be in the hospital for now! This was just too much stress for me and obviously awful for these girls! My 20L will not be a peaceful community tank!

 

Okay, so I am maybe an idiot, but I want to try this thing again! Hopefully with fish that do NOT have a parasite, or an infection that will end up killing them all!

I currently have 5 girls. One of them is a bit bigger than the other 4 though. I will be getting one more so that I have 6 in total.
I am doing a QT, but I really don't understand the point of it, as I don't have 3 separate QT tanks (I've had 2 of the girls for over a month now - funny enough one was a baby when I got her and in a month is bigger than the baby boy I bought in April - but I digress). I haven't taken them out of their cups yet, I am just doing daily WC. If I am not giving them any preventative medicine, which I am not, I really think I am wasting time by QTing them. I say this as, if I don't give them meds, and they have something, it can flair up an any point once inside the sorority making the whole QT pointless. Anyways, I will also be getting a school of some sort of rasbora. I have one poor Harlequin left after my others from the LFS died on me, so I will probably just get a few more of those.

Any suggestions on how I can make this work now? They tank is very heavily planted now, though the foreground isn't.