How do you know when female bettas have established a "pecking order"?

Question

i have 5 female bettas, i got them yesterday.. when i feeed them they all eat at the same time.. so should i continue feeding them or do they need time to make a pecking order... just wondering.. i feed them Hikary Frozen Dried Blood Worms 3 times a day.. any help..

After they are eating (when all the food is gone) is when they start fleyring at each other and chasing each other around the tank.

Answer 1

As far as the pecking order is concerned you really don;t need to worry about it unless one fish is really getting beaten up badly, then as saber recommended remove that fish to a bowl for a while to recover.

As far as feeding my suggestion is slightly different from others in that I suggest feeding twice a day, once with flake and the other time with a special food, like the bloodworms or brine shrimp. something like that and mix those up if you can. Bloodworms one day, brine shrimp another, the daphnia...wherever else, but you get the point.

MM

Answer 2

You can feed them normally. It will take at least a week for a pecking order to really form. It might be a good idea to buy a breeder box, or other in tank isolation box. If one of the betta gets beat up too much you can box it. If one of bettas is too agressive you can box it. The advantage of in tank isolation is they still can see each other.

PS- Feeding 3 times a day is over feeding them. They will happily eat themselves into a early death. Feed them once a day, and skip one day a week. Short of live food blood worm are the worst thing over feed. Keep in mind that blood worms are a great food, but you might want add freeze dried brine shrimp, a flake, or something to the mix.

Answer 3

I had 2 Deggus and they always fought over the food, even if there were 2 dishes... dunno what a "Betta" is but maybe that's just how they act.

Answer 4

if they are all eating then you are ok