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Female Tank


divy

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i have a 20-22litre square tank and just wanted to know it will be good to hold 4 females in there with a handfull of java moss as cover?

ive had 6 females in there before but they were silbing females that have been in the same tank since they were born

cheers

divy

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Umm I'd be careful. It will depend I guess on what the girls are like if there that aggrassive or not

I have currently 5 shreaded little girls. :D

I purchased a 22L tank for my 'girly' tank so I could put them all together (at that stage I had three girls) - was then told that five would be a better number here... so went out and got two more girls .... at that stage I was very 'nervous' and at the first sigh of fighting/fin nipping I pulled out all but the two Dt's from the tank... as I believe they (Luna and Hidie) are actually siblings, as they stuck together, and never seemed to fight one another, I let them stay togther ... The other three girls where placed individualy into a 'four' beta container that could hang inside the tank. After about a week - of feeling mean having the girls all 'copped' up like that I decided to try putting just Jaffa back 'out' into the tank to roam free with the two Dt girls.

Seemed to go fine, so I decided after a few days to try putting Shark-bait in as well.... 30mins after she was let out - she was being put back in as she and Luna had gone so far as to 'lock lips' (!!)

In this time I added to the girls - Rock came home from the pet store as she looked so small and doicle I figured she'd be 'safe' enough to just stay away from the bigger girls and they would leave her alone as she was so tiny.... - She got her name for a very good reason. I'm actually starting to wonder if she's a boy in girls clothing haha she's a tough little nut - should see her chase the girls two times her size!

So anyways - last week I had enough of the whole extra side container taking up so much room and the fact that the girls in there where always banging on the sides trying to get the food on the other side (even though they had food above their heads the nutters) ... I decided to 'hell with it' and threw all girls into the tank together, and figured unless I saw them locking lips - I would leave them to sort it out.

Only one doesn't have any nips out of her fins (Rosie). The others all have varying severity of fin shreading... I took Shark-bait out on Thursday night when I got home as she was the most server and I wanted to isolate her and let her rest a little bit (she's lost a big chunck out of her caudal fin (over half) - up to her body line :o) As each day passed there was less and less fins. Up until this weekend Rock and Jaffa also didn't have any fin damage, but when I got home today I found Rocky whith half a tail and Jaffa with a range of splits & nips .... and I couldn't take it anymore. LOL

Now I have Rocky in a beta cube on her own, Rosie, Jaffa and Shark-bait in the 22L tank (I am watching SB and if she's overly nasty - she'll be coming out of there and going into a single beta cube also) Hidie and Luana (as they are my favs and I want to breed them with Gus when I move) are hanging out together a spare 8lt tank I have.... keeping an eye on them to make sure they play nicely together as ever since I added all the girls in one tank I have noticed Luna and Hedie flaring at each other. :( - hopefully they go back to being best of buddies haha.

I know long winded story there... but wanted to share my experience with it all :D

Ohh and in the 22L tank I have lots of 'fake' plants, a bridge and a tunnel - so they did have plenty of 'hideing' space as well..

edited to add: photo of the tank with the stupid container thing in ... and with out Rock or the Tunnel in the tank - the tunnel is in the space between the bridge and filter.

IMG_3755.jpg

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Yeah...nah. I wouldn't. Not in 20 litres, anyway. Whilst the moss might help with cover, 20 litres just won't provide enough "run away" space for a fish that might be being bullied.

The presence of that Java Moss will only serve to take up even more of the already rare personal space...

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I would just like to say I have done this successfully, hence my suggestion that it be given a try. Everyone has different experiences with stuff like this.

What's the option if if doesn't work? Where are these females now living, and are you now wanting to put them into the 22L tank? Eg are they new arrivals from O/S you need to organise a home for, or are you just sick of doing WCs on jars they are already in? The worst that can happen (provided that you monitor their behaviour) is that they get a bit ragged from nips and you have to separate them. But nips will happen in the spawning tank anyway.

I guess it largely depends in whether you can hack watching the pecking order establishment. I was always content to see a bit of spatting (locking lips wasn't a matter that concerned me much, I have to say, it was hardly a deal breaker) but of course I wouldn't let them actually damage one another in the sense that they'd need medical treatment.

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Well I guess, that's where experience comes in to it.... knowing what is 'pecking order establishment' to what is 'get them the hell out of there' ... I have no idea. I was willing to let them nip and spar ... but with fins so far gone that they are back to body lines, tails either over half gone or looking very 'stumpy' - and I did leave them at it for over five days before I took any action (except for SB as she looked like she was actually hurt/cut - hence why I took her out to rest and make sure she was okay). And the Lip locking thing really freaked me out as I hadn't seen that before ...

For my sanity I think I'll hold out on trying again until I've moved and have a bigger tank

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there coming from o/s and i need to organise a home for them when there not in the breeding tank

i figured one tank for them would be better and look better then putting them in my 2 6litre tanks that are divided

ill give it a try and keep a good eye on them but if it dosnt work ill have to put them in the 6litre tanks

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I've kept up to 35 females in trhe one tank, and no fights what so ever. As crazy as it ever got was some flaring when there were new introductions. There were 2 females though that just could not live with other girls and they lived alone, they also proved to nasty to breed, they were just plain mean lol

I think you should give it a shot definetly.

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Floating plants are the go. I have lots of wisteria and crypts floating around, it's like a jungle up there. The girls like to be at the top of the tank not the bottom. I have had girls rip each other to almost no fins and since adding the floating plants it's very peaceful. I have even added new girls with very little fin damage.

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more is more when it comes to keeping female bettas together. Controlled overcrowding means that aggression is spread amongst a great number, so no one betta suffers the brunt of the aggression. Better that 3o0of them have one nip each than 3 of them having 10 nips each. having a bigger tank isn't necessarily the answer - but of course it has to be big enough to accommodate the fish, lol!

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I think the large number was the main factor towards limiting the agression. The tank was standard 3ft, feeding them was always an adventure; trying to make sure everyone got an equal amount and no one ate so much that they exploded.

That said I found that nono of them really developed any eggs while they were in such a large community and it took longer to condition them once removed.

My theory was that because in the wild the dominant female gets to breed and no true dominance was really established (or maybe it was just one dominant girl and I never shose her to spawn lol) and so the others didn't egg up. Once removed from the community and being conditioned I think it took a while for them to be rid of that mind set. I could be wrong but I think that's why. I've had smaller girl communities before and I was able to condition groups of feamels that way but not with so many.

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ok well my bettas avrived today and the 4 females in the 22l tank are doing well, there is a little chasing and nipping here and there but its slowing down,

i think if i add more cover for them it will be even better

there is one female who i can tell will be the dominate one (blue dragon) shes alot bigger then the others

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I know it's easiest to keep females together - but personally I'd really advise against it.

You run a huge risk of having a disease go through them for starters. Does ANYONE quarantine their fish before throwing them into a tank with other fish?

Jarred females are not easy to get back into a community situation, there is a high risk of aggression and damage.

Cheers, J

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