female betta help

jamiejay09

jamiejay09

Large Fish
#1
Dec 14, 2009
421
0
0
England
#1
hello all,

as some of you know i have 1 female betta called ruby who i love sooo much.. anyway im going to my dads this weekend and there is a FS that sells female bettas. and last lime i was there they had a really pretty white one with black tips on her fins. so my question is -if i was to get her would i be able to put her in the tank with ruby or as ruby is on her own will she be territorial and kill her or harm her ??

thanks for any advise :)
 

ValRasbora

ValRasbora

Superstar Fish
#2
May 2, 2009
1,202
0
0
Atlantic Canada
#2
you need at least 4 female bettas for there to be peace: 1 single betta is fine on her own, 2- one will beat up the other, 3- the two bossier ones will beat up the peaceful one, 4+- they can establish a pecking order.

I would say you'd need at least 2 gallons per female betta- thus you'd need at least 8 gallons, 10 gallons preferably. Plus Ruby's tank is already her "territory" and the new betta would be and intruder. So of course Ruby would have to defend her territory!
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#3
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#3
It really depends on the female bettas, to be honest. I put Alice and Jane in a 1.5gal together (it was temporary, but still...) and never had ANY problems at all. I would say get the pretty little female, see how she and Ruby do together, then if it doesn't work, you can always move the new girl to one of your other tanks (since it appears they're mostly peaceful). In fact, the new girl (or even both) would be okay with the molly fry as long as the molly fry are old enough to not be a snack (my girls tried at first to catch the guppy juveniles in their 10gal, but soon found out they were too big to eat and now leave them alone).
 

jamiejay09

jamiejay09

Large Fish
#10
Dec 14, 2009
421
0
0
England
#10
will do :) thanks for your help. im so exited :) ive been wanting to get another female for a long while :) Ruby is reaching 7 months old now and i have found her the most interesting out of all my fish.. she has such a funny personality, shes always really moody when i turn the light of at night and when i turn it on in the morning she goes crazy coz she knows im going to feed her soon :) ive always found female bettas more enjoyable to keep than male bettas for some reason :) what do you think ?
 

jamiejay09

jamiejay09

Large Fish
#12
Dec 14, 2009
421
0
0
England
#12
lol i have seen some very pretty males :), i have never seen a femal like the one im *hopefully* getting :) shes stunning :) im so exited because you dont usually get any colours apart from red and blue in england :)
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#13
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#13
jamiejay09 said:
will do :) thanks for your help. im so exited :) ive been wanting to get another female for a long while :) Ruby is reaching 7 months old now
Click to expand...
You mean you've had her for seven months, right? I didn't think they sold bettas before they reached at least 3 or 4 months old (it used to be older as mostly what you bought in pet stores were retired breeders...which is a lot of the reason why they didn't live as long).

As far as males versus females personality-wise. Most of my males have great personalities, they just don't move as much as the females...unless they're little Alec and then he's all over the place. I do love the look of a nice betta sorority though. They are very inquisitive fish (females more than males, I've found).
 

beckyd

beckyd

Large Fish
#15
Mar 16, 2009
381
0
0
#15
Jamie, the new female sounds lovely. Post pics. I would strongly recommend not putting them together though. This is my story: I had a gorgeous female in her own little tank. Then I picked up my 75g. We were moving and I didn't want to set up the 75g until after the move, so it was sitting empty. Well, my mollies and guppies went breeding ballistic and I had to use the 75 until I could rehome about a billion youngsters. So, I set up this big tank with nothing but little fry and put her in with them. She loved it. Then I had a spontaneous purchase of another female. I was planning on adding more, but they had 75gallons! Seemed like enough for two 1" fish to work with. They were fine. Followed each other around and seemed like buddies to me. About 3 weeks later, I wake up to a severely mangled female. No doubt that the other one royally kicked her butt. I removed her to a hospital tank, but she died within 24hrs. I am not kidding. I went to bed and all was well. I woke up to a fish that looked like she lost an argument with a food processor. It was ugly. My cat would have done less damage. I will follow all the sorority rules from now on, no exceptions. Four or more. Its working for me. I have a great 5 female sorority going now, but I learned the hard way.
 

bassbonediva

bassbonediva

Superstar Fish
#16
Oct 15, 2009
2,010
0
0
Northern Arizona
#16
It really really really just depends on the females. I know I sound like a broken record, but it's true. I can pair of my three females any way (Alice/Jane, Alice/Esme, Jane/Esme) and they are fine. However, with my previous females, there were at least two (the original Victoria and Bella) that I would not have put together or alone with anyone else if my life depended on it.
 

Newman

Newman

Elite Fish
#18
Sep 22, 2009
4,668
0
0
Northern NJ
#18
oh you're guaranteed 100% to see more than even the slightest bit of aggressiveness. the question is how fierce will it get before you separate them.
remember the "ripped fins is normal missing scales are not".
 

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