Finally did it - my new female betta sorority

[sammiesam]

Hey guys,
So I have been pining over getting a betta sorority for years now and this weekend I just decided to go for it. I got 5 females from Big Als on saturday, it was easier to acclimate them to each other since they were already all in the same tank, from the same brood I am assuming.

I watched them in the bag while I was acclimating them and figured out which ones were the most aggressive and dominant and added the most passive fish to the tank first, let her roam around for 5-10 mins before adding the next most passive and so on. This seemed to work and kept aggression down to a minimum. My two largest ones spat for awhile but it seems to be an established hierarchy already.

Anyways, I am super excited to have female bettas. I attempted to get some pictures for you guys. My camera is horendus so sorry for the crappy quality but at least you can sort of get an idea for what they look like.

So this one is of Pea and Eleanor - the two smallest girls. Pea is absolutely adorable, she wiggles at me and follows me around if I am watching them. And her and Eleanor are best friends and hang out all the time.
Funny thing too, Eleanor is obsessed with the yoyo loaches in the tank. They hide in those shells, and she sits ontop of the shells and stares at their tails sticking out in fascination. It's rather cute


This is Molly - the flash brought out way more turquoise that she actually shows in regular light, she really looks more like a incandescent bright royal blue with the lighter stripes. Very pretty.



This is my largest Female - Ruby. She's the most dominant and kind of a mean girl but only if the other guys get into her space. Shes almost double the size of pea


Ethel is my last female, the second largest. But she has been hiding ever seen she lost the battle for dominant fish in the tank and didn't like the camera so I couldn't get a picture of her. She looks similar to Ruby, but is probably a little darker in the body and a bit more blue.


Anyways, these are my girls and I love them so much. So glad I finally just did it.

[parker002]

Have you ever kept bettas with yoyo loaches before? We had a few problems with nipping. Granted, it was a single loach and a male betta but he didn't have particularly long fins. The loach seemed to be attracted to his coloration more than anything.

[Carl]

Sam; what size is this tank/aquarium?

Good luck with your Betta sorority!

Carl

[Suzie Q (Lori)]

Awesome Sam!!! Beautiful girls!!!

[sammiesam]

parker: I have kept loaches with male bettas before and have never had a problem. The loaches I have are pretty tame and good with the other fish. Mind their own business and just hang out with each other. I have no problems with my silvertip tetras more so than any other fish with nipping

Carl: the tank is a 20 high and there's not alot in it right now, just the 5 new bettas, 2 young yoyos, a silvertip and a pork chop rasbora. I have alot of plants and stuff for them to hide in and it's been a couple days and haven't seen any aggression cept for the inital settling in.

Thanks suzie, I am super excited to finally have some females.

[parker002]

That's awesome. We've never really had any problems with nippers in either tank, outside of this one loach. He still chases white clouds once in a while.

I love the looks of your fish. I may have to do a sorority tank now!

[babygeige]

Looks great! I finally got around to having a sorority tank myself. It's fun watching them interact with each other, although there's always at least one with some tail damage. Fortunately, that's as bad as it has been, so I'm pretty pleased.

Best of luck with your new girls! They're cute!

[sammiesam]

thanks babygeige - I haven't seen much nipping at all since I got em and they all look to be fattening up a bit better, they were pretty scrawny. I find it interesting how territorial they all are and how they all own specific spots in the tank, also makes it easy to find them as I know where to look for each one ha ha

[sammiesam]

Hey Parker,
So I was watching the tank yesterday morning and found something that I thought was hilarious. My largest yoyo loach hasn't nipped at the bettas or anything but when they first got into the tank, my largest betta girl decided to claim this log cave I have. Well turns out that worm (the loach) didn't like that at all and chased her out of the log. And when I was watching he was sitting in the cave with his head poking out and any time any of the bettas came near it he would pop out and scare them away.

[Carl]

Watching such interaction between fish is what makes fish keeping interesting and worth while IMHO

Carl

[kagome]

Good thing you a have a loach! A lesser bottom feeder would be terrified of those gorgeous girls!

[parker002]

Apr 22, 2012 10:29:25 GMT -5 sammiesam said:

Hey Parker,
So I was watching the tank yesterday morning and found something that I thought was hilarious. My largest yoyo loach hasn't nipped at the bettas or anything but when they first got into the tank, my largest betta girl decided to claim this log cave I have. Well turns out that worm (the loach) didn't like that at all and chased her out of the log. And when I was watching he was sitting in the cave with his head poking out and any time any of the bettas came near it he would pop out and scare them away.

That's great!

[goldenpuon]

Your female bettas sound like they are very fun and interesting to watch! Beautiful pics of them too. I absolutely love the torquise female's coloration!