Male with females

I've had a group of betta for about 8-9 months now. They were all bought as tiny juveniles, and two turned out to be male. One was re-homed to Star, and I decided to see if I could potentially keep the other, more placid male with the group of females.

Generally things have been good up until now- he occasionally flares and chases them, but I've never seen him do any damage. The dominant female is more bad tempered than he is. But over the past few days I've noticed one of my females has become sick- what started off as a few nipped fins has rapidly become much worse, despite me doing daily water changes. I've managed to bring her back from dropsy once, but she's never been as strong since. Sadly I don't think there's any chance of her surviving this, and so once my OH comes home I'll as him to euthanise her, as I think it's the kindest thing for her.

But it's got me thinking now- could the stress of living with a male have made her condition worse? I've wanted to up the number of females for a while now, but haven't dared in case I upset the balance of the group. It's a 60 ltr with 6 females and 1 male, and 2 Ammano shirmp.

Unfortunately I'm having to move back home to North Wales in a few weeks, and although I would ideally like to separate the male to his own 35 ltr, I doubt that mam is going to allow me to bring 3 tanks home (she's not happy about the 2 I already have set up coming back), nor will my OH be over the moon about it.

So I've been thinking of other options. One is to rehome the male, which I really don't want to do, as he is absolutely stunning, and has been the most placid male I've ever had. Eventually when we move out of my parents again (hopefully no more than in a couple of months time), I will be moving him to the 35 ltr, and his temperament makes me hopeful of being able to keep something else with him- maybe shrimp or Celestial Pearl Danios.

Once the male is moved, I'll up the number of females to spread out any aggression between them, and maybe get some pygmy cory's, or something along those lines.

The other idea is to temporarily divide the 60 ltr into two sections, one for him and the other for the 5 females. Does anyone think this is doable for a few months? Or am I pushing it too much? I was thinking of giving 2/3's to the girls, and the other 3rd to the male. At the same time, I might try and convince Bryn to allow me to set the 35 ltr up for the male in the next few days, which I will try and sneak past mam when we move, hopefully without her noticing until it's too late.

Any ideas?

I think a divider would be ok because its only for a short time if mam says no to the other tank.

Spare tank currently has a poorly bronze corry in it, so divider it is, although he seems to be behaving himself. I lost the female betta, but she's always been very sickly.

Will work something out with the divider in the next few days