Hi, folks.

We recently turned a cycled 20gal goldfish tank into a tropical tank.

We just placed 4 female bettas in there to join some neon tetras, 3 cory cats, and 3 silver hatchetfish. The tank has lots of floating cabomba and anacharis, and also some large java ferns.

Two of the bettas were siblings, but the other 2 are strangers.

In their encounters so far, two have reacted submissively (showing horizontal stripes and retreating) 100% of the time. Two both want to be boss, and have flared and postured at each other but there have been no attacks. They sometimes get close to each other, both head to tail, but no contact is made. Of those dominant 2, sometimes one goes away with stripes, and sometimes the other.

Usually, the 2 most dominant sneakily spy on each other and the submissive ones through the floating plants, keeping a distance without having confrontations.

Are we doing OK for Day 2? Or are fights just waiting to break out? I don't know what to worry about and what to feel reassured by.

Meanwhile, our male betta has made his first bubble nest ever in his 2.5gal tank about 3 feet away. When he isn't making bubbles, he's staring at the other tank. I had no idea they could see that far! (Or maybe it's just a wierd coincidence?)


Advice?

Thanks,
Caroline in San Jose

Hi Caroline:

You are doing better with your females than we did, we had three and the fighting started right away, we had to divide the tank into three sections before anybody got hurt. Our males are always watching the female tank and the bubble nests just keep coming. Our tanks are about a foot apart but we think the males do see the females.


I think the female bettas are underrated and we have not seen many at our lfs.

Maybe putting dividers in for a while would help the females get used to eachother and to establish their territories and such? I dunno. My LFS has TONS of females.

Technogold, were your females from the same litter? Did you put them in the tank at the same time?

I've read that it works best with siblings who grew up in the same tank together. But I found only 2 siblings. And then I found the big turquoise long finned one you'd take for a male unless you look closely... And the very submissive unrelated purply red one who ought to get along with the others...

VxShady, I thought of dividing the tank, but I don't want to because of the other fish in the community tank. Any bettas who can't get along in the community tank will be housed separately though. We still have a couple of small tanks and filters in reserve.

But I do hope this will work out. There's something very satisfying about a community tank with several female bettas.

Caroline in San Jose

I personally would say that you are doing great for day 2. Female bettas will continue to play little games on each other. I find that mine will hide in a cave and wait for someone to swim by and then swim out at them. There has never been any fin nipping or damage, though. Mine all get along very well.

I would just leave them to sort things out. As long as there is no physical damage, I would just let them work it out. It seems like the pecking order is already being established :-)

I love my female bettas and currently have two tanks of them.

Touchofsky, how many are in each tank?

I think I might need to add one or two more submissive ones to take some of the heat off the two that are in there.

Thanks for the feedback,
Caroline in San Jose

I have 7 in one tank and 4 in the other. I have read that a number of 5 or more is the best, although my tank with the 4 in it has been peaceful, so far.

Here is a picture of a few of the females