Does a sorority betta need tank mates?

[nic]

If getting a betta that was living in a sorority tank is it better for her to have tank mates (non betta) rather than being solo?

I have a 5 gallon I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with. Current residents are a couple nerites and mts. Used to have a male betta so now deciding if I want to get a female or try something else out. I know options are a bit limited for a 5g...

[venzi]

Hi @nic.  I've owned a betta sorority in a community tank for about a year now and on ocassion I've moved one of them into a smaller 1g tank for isolation.  They have no issues being alone.  I've heard that if you do have a betta sorority that having a lot of smaller peaceful community fish can be a calming effect (e.g. when the bigger fish notice the smaller fish as calm, then the bigger are calm as well), but since you're talking about a single betta, I don't think it really matters either way (as far as curbing aggression b/t bettas).  So it's pretty much preference at that point.

[nic]

Thanks @venzi. I have several LFS and one of them has a small sorority tank. I thought about picking a female from there vs one that is sold in a cup. I'd really like to have some variety but then I'd need to consider upgrading to a larger tank. I'm trying to tell myself I'm happy enough with my 5g and a single fish 🙂 Biggest I could go would only be a 10 due to space but not sure I want to go down that rabbit hole of moving everything and buying new stuff...

[venzi]

@nic  yea i hear you.  I've been meaning to setup another 5g or 10g quarantine/isolation tank, but still haven't gotten around to it yet.  Owning a betta sorority has been extra work in terms of isolating certain bettas at times.  And their dominance heirarchy seems to change over time as well as certain fish at the top may get unhealthy and such.  It's a dynamic structure for sure and I'm at the point now that I don't think I want to maintain a sorority going forward.  I'll prob just keep the ones I have and not actively try to expand them.  I want to try raising some other fish.  I'm currently considering adding some neon tetras when I can and maybe a few otos.

I think the advantage of picking a betta from a sorority tank is that you can pick the strongest/healthiest of the bunch whereas w/ cups it's harder to tell.  But I think if you plan on keeping just the 1 fish, then it doesn't really need to be that strong anyways, since it wont be stressed from other bettas chasing it around. 

Anyways good luck to you.  If you do decide to get multiple female bettas and you need to separate them, I've had luck w/ keeping them in jars temporarily with a daily water change.  I guess the challenge w/ going into winter season is the cooler temps tho.

[nic]

@venzi Thanks. I keep telling myself to keep it simple. I don't want additional maintenance or needing to find more room to put stuff. But there are a lot of cool fish and plants and it's all tempting. Every time I go to the LFS, read something online or catch a new video it has me constantly changing my mind. I've gone from wanting a betta, or pea puffer, to pygmy cory's, or nano fish, or just shrimp and then back to a betta 🤔 I can see how people easily end up with multiple tanks.