New female bettas

[Terry]

I'm getting hooked on bettas, and bought two females today. They looked pretty sad at Walmart, so I bought two in case one doesn't make it. I am assuming by the comments I've just read, that they can stay together. If I am wrong please correct me. ALso, can the males and females ever be together? I don't know much, as you can tell, but I am a willing learner. Is there a site where I can go to find out more the male-female interactions?

By the way, Dartanion has picked up his appetite. I probably did a wrong things by trying to bribe him to eat with red grubs, which he loves now, but I haven't been able to get the Hakari beta gold yet - so he sort of endures the flakes but detests the Wardley pellets.

I haven't named my three new bettas, I need to get to know them a bit first. The females are very slow and quiet. My new boy is a rowdy one!

Thanks for answering! I'm enjoying my new venture with bettas.

[Brandi]

Hi Terry,

Yes, sometimes female's can live together. Just watch them and make sure they don't fight. They might pick on one another to establish dominance but if it's more than that you'll want to seperate them. Some female's are just too aggressive to live in groups.

Also males and female's are only together for breeding. The female's can get pretty beat up even during breeding. After breeding the female is almost always removed right away. If there's a female in there that the male isn't interested in they'll usually just pick on them and beat them up.

[AmberD]

In my personal experience, keeping 2 females together is not a good idea. 1 is good, or 3+ as well. But I found that when I put two together, they were good for less than a day (they came from the same community tank) when one decided to dominate the other one. Normally in groups, the girls will form a pecking order, but in a pair, there is a dominate one and a submissive one. And anytime the dominant one takes her aggressions out on someone, it's going to be the submissive one. It's too much of an extreme (in my opinion), whereas if there were 3 or more, any tensions would be spread out among a group.

No matter what, it's important that the tank have a lot of plants and hidey holes, so if one is being chased, she can find a place to hide and rest.

Good luck with your new girls
Amber

[Terry]

Thank you for advising me on co-habitating females, but my two "sickies" never made it 24 hours after bringing them home. I hadn't even gotten them into a tank yet - (I wasn't planning on getting them and didn't have water ready - good lesson).

I am curious as to their condition. In the tank at the store, they seemed to be at the top of the tank constantly. Then in the bag they sent them home in, one was really quiet (she died first) and the second was almost hyper-active, and seemed like it was doing a dolphin swim ( tail propelling, and the upper body coming out of the water), and seemed like she wanted out of the water. I went back to the store to replace them, but the females were not in good shape either - some dead and others doing the same thing, floating on the top. Is this characteristic of females? How do I know how to buy a good females?

[Jenny]

floating at the top is likely to be swim bladder disease. It is often caused by overfeeding, or to rich of a diet. With sbd the swim bladder gets infected and either overinflates (fish stuck at top) or deflates (fish stuck at bottom) It is usually not fatal and the best treatment for it is fasting for a couple of days, and then a very light diet for a few more.

As for choosing a healhty female, it is the same as with the males. Look for one that is swimming comfortably around (not listless or darting around), has good color, not swollen, and has no sign of other diseases.

[Terry]

Thank you, Jenny.

I am still interested in some females -- so will continue my search.