Building a Betta Sorority Tank

It's been a long time (very, very, very long time) since I last posted. Only recently, I had the time again to get back into fish keeping. 99% of us don't have the whole day to spend for fish keeping. Time-saving, effort-reducing and productivity-increasing have become the rules of the game. Keeping in line with that, I decided to set up a betta sorority tank again. This was how I have always done it until I became very busy and had very few fish left.

So, what is a betta sorority tank? It is a tank of female bettas. Just google "betta sorority tank", "female betta community tank" and other similar keywords. You'll find article after article about setting one up. For this article, I just want something free-flowing. I'll simply list down my experiences and some points on how I do things.

Tank.
1. I don't use tall aquariums and I always choose horizontally-shaped tanks.
2. Gravel or no gravel, it doesn't really matter.
3. I make sure that there are many different hiding places for the females. These are places where they can retreat and rest between fights. Hiding places I've used are coconut shells, driftwood, pots, clay tiles and live plants. There are other things you can use.
4. I don't use any aeration or filtration for any of my tanks.

Number.
1. For me, the minimum number of females for a sorority is five (5). If it's less than that, keeping them separate is manageable too.
2. I allot 1-2 gallons per female.
3. I haven't read an article yet that says it's alright to add new females to the sorority but I have done so in the past. Yes, there is the fighting but I've seen it mellow down in a few days.

Tankmates. I've had placed different tankmates for my female bettas. These include corydoras, rainbow sharks, guppies, angelfish and even goldfish. The females get out of the way of the bigger fish and ignore the bottom feeders. They do show some aggression to the guppies. The long fins and colorful patterns remind them of other bettas. In my experience, this does some good - the female bettas get distracted and show less aggression to others of its kind.

On breeding. I have taken females out of the sorority to breed them and then put them back afterwards. There is not much fuss with the females. They do remember tankmates but there might be some nipping as a reminder. It is as long as the returning female is in good shape. If not, then she might not be fit enough for the tank.

Feeding. I feed my sorority tank as I would any other tank. I drop the food in two or three places (only one if I'm rushing). Leftovers are cleaned up by the bottom feeders and the snails in the tanks.

That's about it. I just wanted to share. I hope you can find this useful in addition to whatever else you've read in your research.

Happy Fish Keeping!