My girls are very unruly. Flaring and fighting, fortunately they heal up quickly.

I finally got some nice pictures of them squabbling.

You can see their fins are fairly torn. So far they have healed up pretty much all the way back overnight (for the past few days). Also they're all eating well and none of them seems stressed out or hiding all the time etc. so Im continuing keeping them together for now. Ive got seperate 2gal bowls all lined up though in case I need to seperate them.

Wow u got some very nice looking females there! love the colours!

I also have a tank of females, and luckily most of the time they get a long well. There are still torn fins and stuff, but very occasionally

Ur tank looks beautiful, with all the plants & rocks! and u got corys also! If I may know, how big is ur tank? Mine's about 13-gal, and I'm thinking of geting a school of corys, do u think the tank's too small?

Thanks I really enjoy my tank. It is 30gallons. I've got 5 female bettas and 5 cories in there.

Full grown cories can get around 2-3" long and you need atleast three of them so I don't know how well they'd fit in your tank. Depends on how many girls you've got in there.

I got 4 girls in there (if one is healthy enough to be out back in with their mates ).
Are there any smaller cory variety? albinos maybe?

trust me, i just had a "cat fight" in my tank, those arnt torn fins! Brat and Mercadies are lucky they HAVE a tail!

Gorgiose girls

I used to have two sisters, their fins were always terrible =x

Beautiful girls, they are so interesting to watch.

Beautiful bettas

O.o I had NO idea females flared.

They build nests as well.

Beautiful girls, I have a thing for plakats. By any chance are those wild crosses? Aquabid has been sporting wild crosses like mad lately, they're splendid!

Your girls are absolutely beautiful I am on the look out for girls too as I have a 15 gallon tank not in use right now.I hope I can find girls as pretty

lovely bettas!! i love the colours!!

d_golem - there are pygmy cories but Im not sure Id trust them with bettas. They are neon tetra sized and don't quite behave like normal cories. Panda cories tend to stay smaller than some of the other ones. Rarely go over 2" if I remember correctly. You could probably get away with 3 panda cories in your tank if you make sure to not add anything else and keep up with your waterchanges when they grow.

magickzzl - Eeek! it sounds as if mine are being nice and well behaved now in comparison o_O Hopefully it'll go well with your bettas.

maries - bettas are facinating to watch. I had no idea it'd be this fun. I mean I've had bettas before but seeing them interacting with one another in a larger tank is great.

glitterfish - thank you

PitchBlackMoore - they flare lots and one of mine (the alpha betta, illyria) has built a good sized bubblenest. I'll post a photo of it.

TamtheLittleBlackMoor - It wouldn't surprise me if 3 out of the 5 I have were wild crosses. They are a mixed red and blue colour (like you can see) with a fairly dark body. I think it looks like the wild colour that's been mentioned. One of them is a darker blue with almost no red and the last one is pale, almost white with red and blue fins. Plakat bettas are gorgeous I find.

I mean so many people want only the huge finned ones (which I do understand) but even comparing short finned females to alot of other fish out there, they are gorgeous! so I don't see why they can be so hard to get at fish stores and alot of people don't seem to like them.

coyote ugly - Im sure you'll find pretty girls (I haven't seen an ugly betta yet)
Good luck with setting up your 15 gallon tank.

tinkerbell - thank you

Here's illyria with her bubblenest:


and flaring at Snow white:


Snow white and Illyria are the only ones Ive named so far. The three who look wild coloured haven't told me their names yet.

Plakat girl's colours don't normally extend down to their bodies and they don't normally build nests that large... altho it's not unheard of and I think I can see an ovipositor on that one. Just bear in mind tho that you may have a confused immature male on your hands (sometimes they have ovipositors as well).

You might get away with that if all the rest are female and they are settled but the ventrals on that first photo of the red plakat look reeeaaaaally long... and I think two males in a tank of females will eventually end up badly for one male.

Shops are always getting it wrong when it comes to male plakats.

Hmm, now that you mention it they do have very long dorsals as well as ventrals for females. Someone I knew once had a betta bought as female, ovispitor and all, but it ended up being infact a male plakat.

Thanks for the luck I just saw some females last week but they had grayish color I hope I could find beautiful colored females someday

NOooo!!! I was *so* careful to screen for oviposters when I was getting them because I know fishstores can mess up easily.

The one that built the nest is definately not a wild cross though, I think. She does have a very wide and fairly big tail (like you can see) but she has a black head and a metallic blue body. The ones that I think are wild crosses are differently coloured. Two of them are the ones squabbling in the first picture.

I had no idea males could have oviposters. *tears hair out*

Coyote Ugly - Don't give up on greyish looking females. Often bettas don't show their best colours right away, they can look pale and washed out. I once had a male I bought and he was ugly when i got him. Yellowy brown muddy colour. After a few days he was a solid black with blue fin rays. Gorgeous boy.

You can see him here: http://www.sigridurvala.com/tanks/donjuan.html

Hey guys... I have had girls who build bubble nests that put my boys to shame.. and currntly have 3 girls will finnage longer then my old plakets EVER was.

As far as I know, Oviposters are the BEST way to check, but not fool proof. and bubble nests and finnage are impossible ways to tell...

My plaket boy I had thought was a girl and lived with my old batch of girls for 9 months before there was real trouble.. as long as their getting along decent (for bettas anyway) I say leave the mystery baby.

just my opinion

Well so far they've done less damage to each other than my two plakat who are definitely girls have done to each other and there seems to be a lot of hiding places in your planted tank.

Just keep an eye on them. It's the two in the first picture with the long ventrals that got me worried but if they both have ovipositors it would be quite unusual to find two confused males.

Do they ever stripe or bar?

Ive observed them quite alot. The three "wild" coloured ones all have long red ventrals. They've also all striped up on occasion and one of them have gotten vertical bars. They all have oviposters (although on one of them it's gotten harder to spot because her ventrals are big.

Snow white the cambodian betta has the smallest fins of the lot and an easily spotted oviposter. She's also the least agressive (but big enough so that she's not at the bottom of the pecking order).

Illyria the blue monster has never striped up or barred. She's the one with the biggest tail and she built the bubblenest. She has an oviposter though. Big white and easily spotted.

My tank is heavily planted with lots of hiding places so I'll keep them together atleast until they get into a serious fight or if someone seems to be getting too stressed and/or stops eating well.