# Female bettas in a 20L tank (5g)



## Mew_chan (Jan 28, 2009)

I have a roughly 20-25L(roughly 5.5gallons) tank which I wanted to use to house a female betta eventually with a few other fish hopefully, so on Friday I sucked it up and decided to buy a young female from a good aquarium I found... When I got to the shop I inquired about how many females I would be able to keep in the tank and the lady gave me this little nugget of information:
“The golden rule when keeping females together is to have 3 or more, if you have 2 they act like males” 
So is this true? I decided to buy only 2 of the females to see how they would go… since I am starting up a new cycle and didn’t want to put a big strain on the fish… at the aquarium they were kept in a tank all together with a few angel fish… so far they have been in the tank for roughly 4 days now and they seem fine and happy… at first they were gliding everywhere side by side and having a good nip at each other but that seems to have settled down now and they don’t seem to do it anymore…and now their colours are starting to show more…. There are plants and a rock structure that looks like an old tree trunk for shelter (it takes up about ¼ of the tank… I was wondering if I should add one other female to the tank or is it just too small to house 3 females? Otherwise I would like to add 1 bottom feeder and no more than 4 small schooling fish probably hengali Rasboras… (I was hoping to transfer some of the fish from my current tank to lessen the load on it.. see sig.. same sized tank)
I have been doing regular water changes and all levels are low… I have failed to cycle the same tank once already using fish (zebra danios) but I think I know what my mistake was now and I don’t plan on making it again… I changed the water and let it run after their deaths….
See link for any info about my previous failure:
what-killed-my-new-fish


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## Cacatuoides (Feb 2, 2009)

personally i would only keep one betta (i like males) in a 5.5g i would say it is possibly to small for 2 female bettas, but DON"T GET ANYMORE!!! Your tank would be way over crowded if you got 1 more fish much less 5!


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## Mew_chan (Jan 28, 2009)

Hey I was only asking... I just didnt want to have them nipping at each other all the time if it could be avoided by adding a third female... I do wonder if that thing about them acting like males is true.. since one of my females shows vertical bars occasionally and I doubt that she can see my male in the other tank... or is it normal for females to show vertical bars without a male present?

And I wasn't buying any more small fish... I wanted to move the fish from my other 5 gallon which is wayyy over stocked (I was a silly and listened to the guy at my LPS who said I could have several fish in my tank as long as they are different level fish.. I now know better but am stuck with them) So Im going to halve whats in my first tank (7 hengali rasboras, 2 bristle nosed cat fish) so that I only have 4 hengalis and 1 cat fish in with otto my male betta... and 3 hengalis and 1 cat fish in with the girls... 

I know this is still over stocked but at least both tanks will have a somewhat even load once they are split up... I do intend to buy a larger tank eventually now that I got the fish bug (  haha) but at the moment I just dont have the space...


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## vintagetankgirl (Feb 25, 2009)

I would recommend getting two more females for your Sorority. A well cycled tank can handle a higher bio-load (being "over stocked"). 

Edited Direction words to keep from confusing others: The Horizontal lines mean the girl is frightened or angry. Vertical lines are shown during breading. 

I currently have a 5 gallon Hex tank with 4 female Bettas and they are doing very well. Girls will form a pecking order and with only two fish none can be established. 

You can go to my blog to read more, I also have pictures of my girls and links to sites talking about Female Bettas. 

I would not move the Rasboras as they will be fine in your 5 gallon. I don't know much about bristlenosed cats so I wont comment on them further than asking how big they will get? Their size may make them a problem in a small tank. Of course once you get a larger tank I would put the Rasboras in it and increase their numbers for a bigger impact!

In regards to overloaded tanks, the "rule of thumb, 1 inch to 1 gallon" is an outdated way of keeping newbie fish keepers from going fish buying crazy. A better rule is to stock what is eye pleasing, you won't want to have fish on top of fish. 

The *important *thing to remember is to keep the Nitrates below 20ppm, and of course the Ammonia and Nitrites at 0. This may mean more water changes for some tanks than others. It is also important to fully research all fish to make sure you can provide what they need to survive and check for compatibility when mixing different fish.

My blog is here: http://vintagetankgirl.blog.com/4585602/

Please don't hesitate to email me for more info. I love keeping Bettas and am partial to the girls! 

Good Luck!
DB


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## Mew_chan (Jan 28, 2009)

Thanks alot vintagetankgirl Your post was really helpful. They arent really chasing each other around the tank anymore and just sort of hover around each other all the time. I had moved a few of the rashboras over and 1 cat fish but I think I might move the rashboras back to the other tank and just keep the cat fish in... then maybe get 1 other girl... (they have some really colourful ones at my local pet shop) 
That is unless someone else yells at me not to get anymore fish? (I am so torn about what I should and shouldnt do...)

I often notice the bars when I first walk in the room after they have been undisturbed for a while, they loose the bars at feeding time though.

I think you may have your directions mixed up though since other sites say vertical baring indicates readiness to breed and horizontal bars mean fear or anger (I googled it and all the sites that came up were saying the same thing). 
I think I agree with this since I had to move the girls into a bucket yesterday to change the tanks gravel and then when I put them back into the tank they were both pale and showing horizontal lines. They quickly regained their colour though. 
The tank looks much better now with its new arrangement (more hiding places) and the gravel looks more natural (better than the nasty multi coloured gravel I had before)

I have never had a problem with ammonia or nitrates in either of my tanks... I test twice weekly and do frequent small water changes of about 10% every second or 3rd day... the only problem I have had recently was when I forgot to turn the filter on again after cleaning the tank and it was left off over night until the afternoon the next day... there was a slight ammonia spike then.. but I did a few 20% water changes and it seems fine now...


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## vintagetankgirl (Feb 25, 2009)

Oops! You are correct on the Horizontal and Vertical line mix up! I have always had to think about the sun setting to remember which one is which! 

Since your water parameters are good I would definitely add another female Betta. I love watching mine interact with each other. Two (Eden and Roxy) have paired up to help each other get food from Lil Miss Piggy Frances. 

I would love to see pictures if possible!

B


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

although it has been awhile since i have had a betta in any of my tanks; i doubt that their personalities have changed any since i last had them a bit over 30 years ago.i haven't messed with them because they are more hassle than they are worth. i was breeding them for awhile..a couple of fish are easy.. but when there are 1000 of them; it gets a little crazy..after a certain age, the males have to be separated... there were jars everywhere... 100% water changes every other day.. but the females were kept together in 20 gallon long tanks.. i have never kept only 2 females together.. always been a bunch of them.. never had a problem with the groups.. i think you will be fine with 4 or 5 females together.
as for the bushynose plecos.... they don't get any bigger than 6 inches;but are a bit of a slender fish.
and don't let anybody bully you neither...(not even me)....lol


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## Mew_chan (Jan 28, 2009)

I kinda would like to try breeding some eventually but hopefully once I have everything under control and my knowledge is a little better.

maybe I will try get another female... It cant really hurt... and I can always separate them if things get bad...


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## vintagetankgirl (Feb 25, 2009)

I just realized that one of the links on my blog was not working. Here is the updated link (I've changed it on my blog as well). 

http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/316/

Amber's pictures are amazing. I actually don't hate her set up even though it is all very far from natural looking! Her girls are beautiful!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!


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