Thanks to everyone who offered help with my questions. You all seem to have so much experience and I'm new to this since last November.

We miss our first betta "Alfie", but decided to try again. We got a new 1 1/2 gallon tank and a new male. He has a pinkish/white body with blue fins. Very pretty. He has eaten a little, but is still settling in.

Then I got 3 females for the 5 gallon tank. I've been watching them closely and they all seem to be getting along so far. I'm so happy for that. We got a purple/blue one, a red one, and one that has a white body with red fins. So they look quite patriotic in the tank. They have many hiding places if needed, but so far they are doing great. They are so much different from the male. Our first betta wasn't a big eater. The females are very small, but they act like they would eat forever. I'm not feeding them much, but they are doing great with the eating. I'm even able to make sure that each one gets their fair share. They are very active and swim quite a bit.

They are doing okay with the filter, but are you able to keep fish in a 5 gallon unfiltered tank? I thought I read that some people do that. We have a heater too. If I decided to go without the filter, how often would I need to change the water?

You can have a filter in the 5 gallon with the girls Ella. I used a mini whisper filter in mine...there is a way to adjust the water flow on the back of the filter down near the bottom...and they are rather inexpensive too...bout 10$.

The females are a little more tolerant of current as they don't have the large flowing fins that act like water sails in strong currents. In fact, female betta are just more hardy than males in general as far as my experience has been.

Ella, I left you a responce to your PM.... <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Thanks Emg for your help and suggestions. I will try and get my husband to help me post pictures in the near future. I don't really know how to do that.

I'm going to check the bottom of the filter and see if it can be adjusted. The instructions didn't say anything about adjusting it.

It's a slide thing....slide it one way for a stronger flow..the other way for a slower current....