Re: blue betta

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Hey Nikki = )

Tynk, first sorry for so many questions.....how many female betta's can
you
put in a 39-40 long? and have them get along, i dont mean for water
quality,
well that to, but how many can live together and be happy? have you ever
had
any problems (like male attitude) with them between eachother? also do
they
thrive in the same conditions as males, 80 degrees, anything different
from
the males except they can live together? i am going to get them this
weekend
I'm pretty sure, i have seen the white female betta's they are very
pretty.
also do they need a lot of hiding places and do they do better in a
planted
tank? I was looking up info but every thing on them is centered around
breeding.
If you have a extra few minutes sometime can you let me know
again thanks Nik

Let me start by saying never, and I mean NEVER be sorry for asking so
many question before doing in this hobby.
You have no clue as to how good that is of you right now. Before long
you'll see what I mean though.
Until then, ask away and as often as you need with your chin up. = )

Also let me say sorry if this gets long, but when it comes to Bettas
there is nothing written in stone, except for one thing. They're all
differrent! = )~

Because of this, many people will take the short route and say, "No,
you can't house a male with females...ever." Or, "A male will kill any
females not ready to spawn, so you can't keep them together."
Now it's very possible to have a male that is overly aggressive and
needs to be on his own. Period! If put with others, it could very well
rip a female to shreds.
But then again for the majority of males they settle quite qucikly and
fit into the Betta hierarchy. Being a male doesn't always mean you have
the "alpha" place in the hierarchy either. I've had many females hold
that place.

There is also a chance that a particular female may be overly
aggressive and would attack the male.
I've had females that would kill any male put into their tank. I've
recently had a single female that would shred up all males except for
one particular male. They would have made an interesting spawning pair
if he were worthy, but he was not. Although she was a lovely long
finned female. She was simply too aggressive with any other male to
spawn her.

The last batch of females I had that 98% died of some sort of (I
believe to be viral) disease were only fine with certain males.
No Crown tails, as they would be shredded (my poor One Eyed Jack found
that out. He's now healing nicely on his own.) He was in and out before
this disease came in, so he got lucky.
I now have a new veil tail male in the 75g with the surviving females.
So far he's fine.
I'm hoping the suriving girls aren't carriers. That once it's over on
the individual fish, that's it. (fingers crossed)

Now figuring out how many females can live in a 39-40g (us gallons
correct?) will depend on the fish, your tank habits, the decor, and
also the max size of the female must be taken into consideration. A
female can (although not in my hard water) get as large as a male, just
minus the long finnage.
You can occasionaly see huge...monster females in shops. These are
usually old breeders who are getting up there in age. These ladies need
either a calm tank or no male in their tank. These girls fill with eggs
so fast and huge with a male around that I've seem a lot become egg
bound.
This is why I keep these old gals without a male around.
Egg binding is rather rare. However, I've noticed a pattern with the
old breeders dropping dead fat with ripe eggs (when a male was arund).
So if a person had a tank that had a resident male and several females
and you wanted to add one or more of these huge females...either don't
or remove the male. (IMO)

Now forgetting about keeping a male in with females, it's important to
understand what's going on between all the female Bettas at all times.
There is a hierarchy that must be found and kept at all times.
If any changes happen..be it new addition/s, death or removal one one
or more females the order must be figured out anew.
Now Bettas also have territories, or areas they like to be alone in.
This is where the importance of tank decor comes into play.
It's a must. Without it they fight. No matter how well they got along
in a tank with plenty of decor, when it's removed they fight. They
bicker like hormonal teenage girls that brawl.
Add one plant and it's better right away. Well...for the one that got
the plant. = )~
Tank decor takes up room, so you need to add this into "how many can go
in a Xg tank".
I mean if you've filled your tank witrh large rocks and large plants
you have less room for fish. So plan it out.
I like to consider their max size even though in my hard water they
don't reach it. They get about 75% of their true max size. It doesn't
seem to be a problem becauase they live an average 4-5+ yrs if I get
them young or breed them myself. Now if the growth stunting was more
than that it would cause damage to their internal organs and that would
shorten their lifespan.
For you Nikki, you'll have to figure out what kind of water you have.
Is your tap water hard/alkaline or soft/acidic or neutral?
Normal behavior between females (and between a female and a male) will
consist of on a daily basis, posturing or flaring at each other. Each
one will have their own personality. Their own likes and dislikes. Some
may fancy some more than others, or even detest the presence of an
indivudal. This is all evident by their body language.
Betta body language is easily learned if you put the time into it and
the means for it.
Obviously you must need large enough tank.
You can't squish 3 females in a gallon vase. Heck, you can't keep 3 in
a 2 1/2 gallon.
Baby girls are a different story, so they don't count. = )
Females need space. Without it, they bicker.
Never keep only 2 females. It's havoc for the lessor female. The alpha
has nobody else to assert her place with and so the other female is
harrassed constantly. This can stress it to death.
So the minimum is always 3. The smallest tank I would house (only..no
other tank mates) 3 females in would be a 5g tank.
In my 75g I kept 13 females. That's a big tank but I could not have had
one more lady in that tank.
Everyone had a spot and there were no more. Some had larger areas to
themselves, and others seemed to like going all over the tank for 50%
of their time and the other 50% staked out a smaller area. The ladies
that liked to hang out in one area would pitch a fit when one of the
ladies came swimming through but they didn't seem to care.
Those types must be the adrenalin junkies, lol.
The lower the rank (when several females are together) the more often
they are showing submission coloring. Usually the omega (lowest in the
hierarchy) is always showing submission coloring. This is when they
blanch out their body color and look a drab dead color with horizontal
barring running along their sides ( 2 bars).
Usually once the pecking order is in place and everyone knows their
place the femnales color up nicley.
Then you get to see their true beauty.
I try to keep every color you can think of (I'd kill for emerald green!
Not the teal green... kelly green type green with no red underneath it
green. Wowza).
It so niceto have lovely royal blues, solid bright reds, dark reds,
dark blues, steel blues, white, yellow, multi colored, oh my so pretty!
= O
Ah but wait! There's more!
Now you have your choice of color patterns and fin variations.
Some are harder to find than others of course, but there are butterlfy
patterns, delta tails, crowntails, long finned, doubletails, Opaques
(range from white to blue-green, etc but are pearlized. That's the only
way I can think to describe the opaque color variation), pastels, mutli
colored which range from being marbled to grizzled.
The list goes on and on.
Bettatalk.com has a page with all the tail variations and the color
patterns that that particular breeder has come up with.
There's more breeders out there that have equally or better strains
than hers too, so do a search on it. You'll be amazed at what you
find.
Bettasrus.com is another.


Sorry I have wanted to email you, I got ur email, but my little one was in
the hospital, feeling better now, but anyway just trying to get life back to
normal today...
Right now I have One female in a 40 gl long (us) tank, with some hornwort, I
am going to get some more females on Friday. I will email you about the blue
male betta....he is not doing well., as for "all" the other males they are
all doing great..
I had got another male white/red, very pretty, Then my husband got me two
more, humm, I had to find room, 2-5 gl tanks all over the house is getting
crazy, I put one in a 5gl I had and the other I put a divider in the female
tank (about ten gl worth of space) at least till I can get out to the store
which will be Friday, the one he got me was very long fined all white with a
pink tail/fin beautiful. the other is blue/red. I would like to be able to
put more then one male in a tank, like maybe 2 (a bigger tank) but I would
be afraid they would get hurt, I thought about putting my new white/red one
in with the female because he does not seem aggressive, unlike most of the
others, I have two that don't seem to be bothered by the other males, then I
have one who flares at every fish he see's I try to keep him away from the
others (as not to stress him).
how do you know if a female has eggs in her belly, I had not thought about
it but I have a male in her tank with a divider I don't want nothing to
happen to her.....she is still young, not full grown, I will see if I can
get some pic tomorrow.
Nik


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