I got a 40-litre tank (about 10 gal) empty because I regret to say that the former residents (hermit crabs) were neglected since like a few months ago. So I decided to give them to an LFS which has an awesome hermit tank so they can be happier there.

So I thought, "What can I put in there? Maybe guppies....", then I remembered about bettas then started researching about them. In the end, I decided to do an all-female betta tank!

Off to the LFS I went, got some supplies, and set up the tank. The next day I went back to the LFS again, and went home with 4 gorgeous female bettas!! The reason for 4 is becoz I've read that it's a bit troublesome to keep less than 3 females & it's better to have more to make the establishment of the pecking order smoother.

After acclimatising, in they went!

They were soooo fascinating They spent the first few hours exploring the tank, then I observed them starting to occasionaly flare at one another, spotted the timid and the (relatively) agressive one, the confident one etc but mostly they all get along very well.

Here are some pics!

The tank

I'm not quite sure what variety the bettas are, I'm a total newbie in bettas. I guess they're mutts, but still a gorgeous bunch of girl!


This is the ivory coloured one with a blackish body. I noticed her body is quite long compared to other bettas.






This one is red & purple-coloured. One of the smaller bettas and I think carries crowntail gene




Now this one is the confident one of the lot (and quite possibly the alpha female ).
She's red & turquoise-coloured and likes to flare her fins a lot!




The latter two getting to know each other

Last but not least, a beautiful turquoise-coloured girl that I think also carries crowntail gene love the colour!








Some group photos!







That's my introduction to my new (and first!) bettas!

Wish me luck with them

awwwww they're beautiful! i tried to do a female betta tank, but it made me too nervous so i separated them i had never had females before and i have to admit i think i might like them more than the males now i just love thier faces, i hope yours do well together

WOW they are all so pretty! and the shop had such variety.. my lfs usually has one tank full of identical sisters! id have to wait months to get a collection like that!

aww! Arnt betta girls the best?

I have a white female who is long bodied like the first one you have there. she's one of my more timid girls

Wow, I love it!
The girlies are sooo cutee

WOW! I love all of them and THE TANK! That tank is so awesome.

Gorgeous! I am so jealous. I think I would put some more plants in there though for them to hide it, just my opinion. They are beautiful fish! Congrats!

Congrats riz!They look absolutely gorgeous I have always wanted a female betta tank but I haven't come across female bettas Lucky you.........

The LFS I got them from is the only one as far as I know that carries female bettas. And the staffs there have become so accustomed with me that when I went there saying I want some female bettas, one of them just said "I'll be quite happy to give you a net and a bucket so u can choose them urself ". Lol I was quite surprised, so I ended up spending like 15-20 minutes just chossing the bettas, arguing with my gf which ones are the best and thoroughly enjoying myself
I hope they will also allow me to choose one of their grade-A black ranchus myself when I do decide to buy one I'll bring a round white basin and closely look at each one of them

Awesome new tank Riz! it's good I see you've got a big coverlid on. These girls are awful jumpers! -Even more so than the males coz they don't have the long tail to slow them down! there was always dried up crispy bettas caught down onthe floor behind the betta tanks in the aquarium that I used to work at, they just love jumping, so, make sure there aren't any jump-holes. I had a female in with a male once, she jumped through a gap, one that I thought 'you've gotta be kidding! through that tiny opening!' so yeah, that's my

Nice fish tho' have fun with them, interesting behavior

Congrats on the new Betta set-up. I'm sure that you'll enjoy the girls,I love mine.In order for that to work though,you're going to have to add hidey holes,and alot more plants because I noticed that your girls are showing signs of stress ,you can see the stripes on them in the pics.They all need to feel like they have a little area of their own in order to feel comfortable.Good luck with them!

Thx mads!

Actually I got 2 lids, and I leave a long narrow gap in the middle where the 2 lids joined. After reading about ur betta jumping thru a seemingly impossible crack, I immediately moved the lids and closes the gap in a couple of millimetres wouldn't want to find a crispy betta in the morning the gap is only 6mm wide, they can't possibly jump thru that, rite?

They're sooo interesting! They observe stuff longer than goldfish, and seems to scrutinise every detail of the tank with great interest. They seem...y know.... "smart" & "cunning", unlike the bumbling and happy2 goldfish

littleone78, I've put a couple of PVC pipes in there for them to hide in but they seem a bit cautious with them and I have only seen one betta briefly went in, then went back out again

I've thought that the stripes were a sign of stress, stripes seems to be the universal language for stress (ever noticed the fish in tanks in chinese restaurants? stripes galore )
The girls are calming down today, the stripey one in the pics is now almost black, although the turquoise one is now showing some stripes. I just hope that they figured out that PVC pipes=hidey hole soon enough

Love the girls. I just bought a male who is red an neon blue. One problem though, he will only eat freeze dried blood worms. Not sure if that is nutritional enough for him. Any ideas?

cant see them at the mo (college puter) but it sounds lovely
congrats on the betta tank

Dang how did I miss this topic?? :|


very pretty girls!

i can see them now!! they are gorgeous!!
i love the turquiose

Great idea for a tank.

You have a couple of plakats in there, the girls with the dark bodies and red fins... they will probably dominate the others and grow quite long. Actually, has the one with the green irridescence got an ovipositor?

The ones that show crowning on their tails are only carrying a gene for that much crowning, they aren't true crowntails because their anal fins are straight.

Thx a lot yabbie for clearing that up I'm still a little confused on the varieties of bettas.

Btw what is an ovipositor and how do u recognize it? I've read somewhere that to identify a female, the belly is a bit cream coloured and got some white dots or sumtin?
in short: how do u identify a female/differ from male & female?

Where the ventral fins hang down is where you have to look. Those are the two skinny front fins that hang down when they stop and tuck up when they swim.

If they are really long, that is an indication that you have a male (there are a small number of fish without ventrals as this is easily caused by dirty water as babies). If you see a white outey belly button there between the ventrals and back just a little, that is a female ovipositor (a small percentage of males have this too). If the female is old enough to swell up with eggs the area around the ovipositor will become reflective or lighter in colour.

Usually males have better colours than females too, particularly in the body and only juvenile males will get the sideways stripes when they are threatened, normally that is a female thing.

Thx yabbie

one of my fish (the white one) has no ventrals but all fish got ovipositor and their ventrals are not long so might be safe to say that they're all females

Oh good.

You know, I know people who'd kill to get hold of that pale metallic turquoise green girl... it's a pretty rare colour for bettas.

Oh really? can u say to that people that i'm willing to part with my turq girl for a million bucks?

Btw, I'm not sure if my red/green plakat girl is really a girl. Sure she got an ovipositor and her ventrals are not long, but she's clearly the top fish in the tank (although not that aggressive) and I've never seen her bar or stripe!

I have two plakat girls who both think they're top of the tank, I separated them after one lost an eye since even then, neither would back down.

Hmmmm, the person I know who really loves greens lives in Perth too...

There's quite a bit of these green females, if u know where to look for it

Update on the tank

First time set up, about 2 weeks ago



The tank now! Look at how fast the hornwort grows! and that's after I've broken up some of the reaaaally long stalks, spread them out, and donated some into the goldie tank

i love what you did with it. a little river! that is so neat i have a little "pond" in one of mine, when i poured the water in it made a cirle bare bottom and i thought it looked cool but yours looks much better you're giving me some ideas now

Thx kristysweets!
What I would like to do now is to find a small boat/fisherman ornament and put it in the river! That'll be sooo cute!!

that would be so cute! i hope you find one

You are sooo lucky to have such pretty girls

since you inspired me, d_golem, i thought i'd show you my new pond

http://kristysweets.net/temp/pond1.jpg
http://kristysweets.net/temp/pond2.jpg

Oohhh very very nice!! I like how u put the pebbles around the "pond" u gave me inspiration

Thanks!

Awesome! The tank looks very nice D..... Such pretty girls too!

The tank's coming along nicely,and the plants have grown alot allready.I've never kept a complete tank of females myself(wasn't able to purchase enough at same time) but I heard that the real trick to keeping everyone healthy/happy is doing a tank full of plants,so you may want to buy a few more until it really gets going.Right now there's alot of open area.I've been told that to much open space will sometimes keep aggression high because there's not enough cover to make area's their own.Just a tip that I thought to pass along. Keep up the good work!

Thx so much for the info Devs.
Hopefully in a few weeks the plant grows some more so i can re-arrange the tank and make some thick clumps of plants

Nice tank set up and beautiful females you have there