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canary Newbie

canary

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Hi all,

I’m completely new to fish keeping, Bettas and forums and I’m looking forward to learning lots from you all. You have already answered some questions and I’ve learned some great stuff from browsing through the forum. We got our first fishtank two months ago. We established a planted community tank (30L) with a marigold Swordtail, a black Molly, a Bristlenose, a Leopard Cory and a male Betta. After a couple of weeks the Molly became really dominant and started to head butt everyone else so we took it back and got a couple of female Bettas. We weren’t, and still aren’t, sure whether you’re supposed to keep males and females together in a community tank (we got conflicting opinions from the LFS’s) but everyone seems to be happy and active. We sadly lost our first Bristlenose after the first month and a half when we did a big water change. No one had told us about chlorine when we bought the tank and until then I think we’d just been lucky. Anyway, that’s been the only glitch thus far and we are really happy with our little family.

I’d like to get another male Betta (already addicted :wub: ) to keep in a smaller tank with maybe a Bristlenose or a snail and a little plant. The male Betta we have is a metallic green plakat (maybe? I’m hoping some one can tell me). If/when we get another I’d like to get something with longer fins like a CT but all I seem to see in LFS’s are VT’s and some shortfins. Looking around at the awesome looking fish other people have just makes it harder to know what I want :) . We move to Melbourne in October but if I can’t hold out I might have to scoot down and see what’s available down there.

I’m also interested in digital photography and look forward to discussing this, and maybe passing on some tips, with some of you on the forum.

Here are some photos I’ve taken of our fish. (I probably got a bit excited and went overboard)

Our fish

I have lots of questions and would love to know what people think of our fish.

Particularly, I’m interested to find out more about female Betta’s. What colour would ours be considered? When we first put them in they got horizontal stripes, what does this mean? And one of them has vertical red stripes on her cheeks which sometimes get bright, why?

Don’t hesitate to correct me if I say something wrong or stupid :sad:

Looking forward to talking with you all and learning heaps.

Cheers,

Erin.

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Siamese Junkies Newbie

Siamese Junkies

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Hey Erin, :cheer: Welcome to AAQ, its good to see a new betta lover has joined the ranks. Me and my fiance are both starting out at betta breeding, we are just conditioning both the male and female before we do anything else. You will get all the help you need in the forums, everyone is so helpfull here and are more than happy to lend a hand. :) Catch you in the forums, Sean, Sopheap, Oscar :fish: & Lee :fish:

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Chuckie Newbie

Chuckie

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Hi Erin! Welcome.

We weren’t, and still aren’t, sure whether you’re supposed to keep males and females together in a community tank (we got conflicting opinions from the LFS’s) but everyone seems to be happy and active.

Well, the odd person will shout me down but basically keeping males and females together rarely works. Looks like you have hit the jackpot and it's all going ok for you, though.

Particularly, I’m interested to find out more about female Betta’s.  What colour would ours be considered?

I would describe them as "multi's" menaing that they are a mixture of several colours rather than being any particular colour. Form the pictures the colours seem to include royal blue and red. You may even describe them as "wild type" although I believe that wild-coloured splendens are more a green + red rather than blue + red. Clear as mud hey? Sorry!

I love the thick masking on your male!

When we first put them in they got horizontal stripes, what does this mean?

They are fear stripes. They usually go away as soon as the betta is comfortable in its surroundings.

And one of them has vertical red stripes on her cheeks which sometimes get bright, why?

Perhaps also related to the wild-type colouration. Does she also get dark vertical (not horizontal) bars at times? If so, that's a typical female betta reaction to a male they are interested in.

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canary Newbie

canary

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Thanks for the welcome everyone, Lilli, our females generally appear to be dark brown. Occasionally I see the horizontal stripes (like the other day when one swan up the gravel vacuum :cheer: ) I've never seen vertical stripes on our females, I've also never seen the male building a bubblenest. Not sure if the current at the top breaks it up or he just doesn't build one. What is masking? I see it mentioned occasionally but have never seen an explanation. Is it the black on top of his head? I also notice that our male has a white chin/throat where as others I've seen in photos seem to have colour. Would this just be his particullar spread of colour? As opposed to some drastic deficiency or poisoning in the tank we don't know about. Fiona, I'll try and post some info about how I take the photos when I get a chance. I was interested in digital photography before fishkeeping so I've been lucky in that respect and it hasn't been to bad to take photos. But I still only use a few of the ones I take. I think that's just the nature of photography. At least we have digital photography these days and don't have to get them all developed :fish: cheers again everyone, Erin.

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Figure_8 Newbie

Figure_8

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Hi Erin - Welcome to AAQ! :)

Dunno about the multicolours but isn't that an ovipositor on the green one in this shot?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

While that can be a good indication that a fish is female, don't get it set in stone in your mind that all fish with an ovipositor are female. I've had quite a few males with a visible white dot down there too :dance: I've even had a female with 3 ovipositors, but thats a different story again :)

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canary Newbie

canary

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Thanks for all the feedback everyone, :P We're pretty sure the green betta is a male, just from the way he interacted with the females when we first put them in. After the initial interest however he has gone back to cruising around the tank and admiring his reflection. They are all getting along great at the moment and the females don't show their fear stripes any more. They feed from our hands now and if you stick your finger in the male will come up and rub along it like a cat :P . They have such great personalities! Fairly certain the two multi's are female. Can't see it in the photos but they have eggspot's and they seem to bloat up a little bit once every week or two (I am guessing this is egg production?) Anyway this is all supposition :whistling: . Once I get another tank and another male I might be able to be a bit more definative. boughetto, I'm afraid the two photos you pointed out are of the same betta. She(?) is the only one with the funny stripes on her cheeks. Thanks though :) cheers, Erin.

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Bren MacFish Newbie

Bren MacFish

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The wild type female plakats I've had haven't had the white tipped ventrals and have been killing machines! And they used to leap out of the water and bite at water changes. Perhaps your planted tank has enough room for them all to run and hide when they need to, or maybe these are young and haven't gone hormonally nutty yet. I have some red CTs for sale if you make it down to Melbourne. There's some other threads in classifieds and gene pool about them.

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Mishy Newbie

Mishy

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Welcome Erin.. That's a lovely green female you have in your avatar... I wanted to ask... can i use it for a tatt? Still looking for inspiration (for those who knew, the last design I had in mind, turned out looking mongaloid (sp?) looking..)

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