55 Gallon and ♀ Bettas

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
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#1
I have two female bettas currently sharing a 10 gallon tank separated in half with an opaque divider. I read females could live together, but failed to realize that you needed atleast five or six for this to work out well. Also, I have a 55 gallon tank with mostly platys, one guppy, and a pleco, as well as some assorted tetras.

My question is this: if I were to put the two females into the larger aquarium, would there be enough space for them to establish their own territories and not fight. I know cover is important in any betta sorority, and I have what I'd call a moderate amount, but could get more if I needed to in order to make this work. Also, besides the one fantail guppy, which I already read can be risky, are there any other problems common with putting those types of fish together?
 

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beckyd

Large Fish
Mar 16, 2009
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#2
Most likely, those fish are fine with female bettas. Females are less likely to be aggressive with fancy guppies. However, you still cannot have only two. Odd, but true. I thought the same thing and put two females in a 75 with mollies and guppies. They were fine for about a week. Then the more aggressive one beat the tar out of the other one so badly I couldn't save her. You always want one, or four or more. Never two and never three.

I have succeeded at it and have had 5 females in a heavily planted 10g for awhile now. The key is to shake up their territories. Do you have a sense of which of your two is more aggressive? I kept my girls separate for a awhile and guessed who was going to be more dominant from their behavior. Then I planted their tank and added 3 females that were not my most aggressive, all at one time. I watched them for maybe a few hours, then added the fourth and most aggressive one. Awhile later I saw another one I wanted. Before I added her, I cleaned the tank and basically got them all distracted and put her in there with them. The little queen bee chased her a bit, but they all settled nicely. I even successfully added a 6th after nursing her back to health in a spontaneous Walmart fish rescue. I used the same tactic. The Walmart fish turned out to be the sassiest of all. Even with an over-populated 6, they were fine. I'm down to 5 because sassy little Walmart fish managed to jump out a 2" opening over the filter. Anyway, the moral of the story is how to introduce them and that numbers are more important than tank size, within reason. You could certainly add five ladies to your 55 depending on your current population, but I want you to know what I have going in my 10g.

Here are some pics. The plants are a bit thinner than they have been, I did alot of gardening and pruning last weekend. But I wanted you to get a sense of how many plants make them happy. Its easy for them to have a little privacy, but as you can see, they don't really stay away from each other.

There is a decent amount of sorority info on here. You are doing the right thing by researching it. This is how I figured it out. And I'm glad I did. Its a pretty and interesting tank. Good luck:)
 

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ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
858
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#4
Well, before knowing about the need for atleast 4, I put the two (a red and a blue) into the 10 gallon, and they were fine for about an hour. After that, the blue one proceeded to go after the red one, and I had to put them back into separate jars for the night before I could get a divider. After putting in the plexiglass and putting them back in the tank, I noticed the blue one had some shredded fins as well. I'm not sure if these were like this when I bought her, because if they were not then I'm not sure who the more aggressive of the two would be. There's a tiny gap in the divider where it doesn't quite meet up with the glass, and though neither fish can fit through it, I'm pretty sure they can see each other sometimes (or atleast smell each other?), and the blue one spends most of her time trying to find the red one through the barrier. Is it safe to assume she's the aggressive one?
 

Feb 27, 2009
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#5
I'd say so. I have a friend that keeps two females in a 10 like you do, but she had to add a 2nd divider. Now she basically has a 2inch 'dead space' between the two. With only one divider, they tore each others fins up all the time.
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
858
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#6
The craziest thing involving my bettas just happened, coincidentally. I had to drain most of the water out and drive two hours with the tank in the back seat, checking on the fish every few minutes. They did fine until I got to my destination, where I went to get the tank out of the seat. Both fish were on the same side of the divider. This has never happened before, so I just assumed the divider had come loose during the trip. It's just a piece of plexiglass being held in place with two make-shif suction cup holder, and the bottom is just wedged into the gravel. A bit of a quick-rig, but it hasn't failed before. Even stranger, in the time it took me to cary the tank inside and put the hood back together, one fish had got back into the other side of the tank. I'm not sure how they switched sides all on their own, but it makes me a bit nervous there's something I'm missing in my divider, and its prompting me even more to get the sorority going in this ten gallon now before moving them to my 55 back home.

Other than adding the more passive ones first, is there anything I should know? Is there going to be any initial fin nipping to establish some sort of dominance, or will they all go right on to being friends?
 

beckyd

Large Fish
Mar 16, 2009
381
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#7
Yes, I would think the blue one is most likely the more aggressive one. This is what I would do: Get 3 more females. Take your current two out and put them in cups or something else. Rearrange the plants. Now you have 5 in cups. Put the cups all in a row, so they can see each other and you can get a sense of their aggressiveness. Figure out what food everybody likes. Bettas are funny. Some like pellets, some like flakes, and I have one picky spoiled baby who pretty much won't eat anything except bloodworms. Whatever, just figure out what they will for sure be interested in. Then don't feed them for a day. Now that they are good and hungry, put the 3 new fish in the tank. Keep an eye on them for an hour or so. Flaring and chasing are normal. After about an hour, add your two current fish one at a time, keeping the blue one until last. Then feed them. Now you have successfully changed everything up so that there are no territories and distracted them a bit with food. Do all this at bedtime, so you can then turn out the lights after about another hour. Watch them a bit, but then send them the lights out signal, so they calm down.

They will chase, flare, and nip at each other establishing a pecking order. A few nipped fins are normal, just don't let anybody get shredded. If someone does get beat up, remove the victim for some r&r if necessary and make sure the aggressor doesn't start on someone else. If you get one that will not play nice, put her in your 55. You still have enough to establish a peaceful sorority in there and the one naughty one will be fine with your other fish.

As far as the divider goes, I had a pair in a 10 with a divider once. No matter what I did, the male was always ending up in with the female. Why he insisted upon doing this is beyond me, as she was not receptive to him and he would always end up with the beat up fins. I saw her bite him once. He drug her halfway across the tank before she let go! Anyway, after that he got the 10 and she went into the community tank. She is the one that killed the other female I added to the big tank. Who knows, she may have just been a royal ***** and may never have succeeded in a sorority, but she proved to me that 2 bettas is never a good number. Anyway, I gave up on the whole divider thing. I tried one to separate my male and female mollies in another tank. Didn't work either.

As far as long term behavior, what Paige says stands true. She has had quite a few females together before. Mine seem to have a revolving door of who is the toughest depending on personality and who is just feeling crankiest on any given day. They flare and chase, but I haven't had any actual chunks out of tails since the first few days.

Supposedly sibling females are more likely to be fine together if they have been raised together. If you wanted to take the time to get siblings from a breeder, you certainly could to add with your current fish. Personally though, this seems like no guarantee to me and its more fun to mix up the colors:)
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
858
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#8
I've been watching them since the switch up, it's like they've also switched personalities. The red one now is constantly trying to get into the side where the blue on is, and I'm thinking it might be because that's the side the heater is on and the water maybe isn't circulation to the other side of the tank as well as it should be.

This doesn't really give me much to go on as far as who's the more aggressive one.

As far as changing around the plants, there isn't much in way of anything in this ten gallon as of now. I have some micro sword that isn't growing well because I don't think I have enough light, but other than that it's just gravel. Should I go get some pots or something for them to hide in before I start letting more than one fish get together?
 

beckyd

Large Fish
Mar 16, 2009
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#9
Yes. I would add some silk plants too if you can. They need something to make their territory. I wouldn't woory too much about which is fiestier at this point then. If you can't really tell. Just make sure to add them to 'their' tank after you add others.

Another note. Personally, I wouldn't worry about them fighting during a 2hr drive. They are likely to be too bent out of space by the movement to worry about another fish. I think its safe to just drive:)
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
858
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#10
Another note. Personally, I wouldn't worry about them fighting during a 2hr drive. They are likely to be too bent out of space by the movement to worry about another fish. I think its safe to just drive:)
Haha, the way I worded it made me sounds a bit paranoid. 'Every few minutes' meant like once every 30, and I wasn't the one driving.

Do they have to be silk plants, or will real ones work?
 

beckyd

Large Fish
Mar 16, 2009
381
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#11
Oh yes, that sounds alot more reasonable:) It doesn't have to be silk. Real plants are better. I guess I got the impression that you may need more light for real plants from your comment about the microswords. Not a true assumption on my part. I can't seem to grow those microswords either. Maybe they just don't like my water. I have found plenty of other plants that do well in my tanks. I'm sure you will too.
 

ryanoh

Large Fish
Mar 22, 2010
858
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#12
My bettas are, for now, in a better lit tank where the mico sword seems to be growing decent at best. I have a few plants in my 55 (which is soon going to be downsized to a 40 breeder), so they should be okay when I move them over to that and add the rest for the sorority. I've decided to just hold steady with what I've got for a few months before adding any more fish.