Violent Female Bettas?

[42kdn]

My females chases each other and nip at each other (All 6 of em!) and they never hide, is this normal? I have about 1/2 of the tank planted. And still they don't hide.
When ever i come over to the 10 gallon tank, they are always out in the open with my guppies and 2 swordtails! I sit and watch them and they chase each other or they just swim in the open areas. They don't attack the other fish but themselves only. One betta has a tear on her fin, and one likes to hang all by herself and sometimes stare at the bronze corydoras at the bottom.
I bought them from an aquarist store and they all lived in the same big tank. I didn't see any rough-housing when they were inside the tank from they were bought, though.
What should I do?

Jon

P.S. What is the right size of a female betta for her to start mating?
I don't know what my fish's ages are.

[sawcat]

Females can be just as violent as males. They're trying to set up a pecking order. I don't have a sorority tank, so I'm not sure how to encourage them to be better behaved. I know someone who's been posting about their sorority issues here community.livejournal.com/bettas/ if you want to go back through old posts and read.

[bcroft]

my roomate had 3 female bettas in his 10 gallon. They never got along, one of them ended up with almost no tail and the other ended up being a double tail lol. He had to get a seperate walmart betta keeper with a divider for them.

[skarloeysmom]

I friend of mine bought 3 females for a 10-gallon tank for her preschool class on the advise of a Petco person. She was given the impression that they were "really easy" to take care of. Within 3 days two of the fish had practically no tails left and one even had what looked like 2 bloody-looking vertical wounds near its head. She didn't know what to do with them so she ended up taking them back and got some white clouds and a snail instead.

[hellann]

Hi!
We have a 10 gal with 3 female Betta and some otos and ghost shrimp. Live plants, 2 fake logs to hide in and gravel.

Our girls took awhile to establish their pecking order. Mainly because Bob didn't agree that Aqua should be top fish. Emmy just got ripped up for quite awhile and they still pick on her from time to time.
The one thing I'm thinking of from your post, is that it doesn't sound like they have their own section of the tank to hide in.
Bob immediately claimed the right side next to the heater, Emmy claimed a left corner where we had built up the gravel around to make a little cove and Aqua gets the front and basically all 'air' space except right above their spots. So, even though Aqua is Alpha female, Bob and Emmy have the right to chase her out of their special spots and not have too much retribution about it. Aqua might give a little defiant chase and swim through, but then she stays away.

With that many females, I would suggest fixing the tank up so that you are creating areas they can claim. Use gravel and make a gravel bar that makes a little sunken area in the corners, use your plants to partition off some areas, get logs or other prefab pieces and place strategically. Our logs are actually stacked. They can't see each other when in them and they have their own area away from 'home' to hide in.

Good luck!

[hellann]

Oh, one other thing...6 girls in a 10 gallon does sound a little cramped...
I know they start out smallish, but they Are going to get bigger... I don't know if returns are still an option or if you can get a bigger or another tank, but if you have that option, I would go for it.
We did (foolishly) try to add a fourth female to our 10 gal. She disrupted everthing (of course). Even I felt upset to see her in there. It was just crowded and there was no where for her to claim. And her personality was not a fit. She is now happily ruling over 2 ghost shrimp and an oto in a 2.5 minibow.

[hellann]

I just re-read your post... the 6 Bettas plus other fish too! Ouch. It may not be just the other Bettas attacking them. The other species may not like them.