panicFREAK Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 So i went to my lps to get another female betta today. They had some really pretty ones in there so i got one. Oh and they all had horizantal stripes aswell. Now i have it floating in my tank in its plastic bag, and 'she' just flared at my male betta. Im thinking the 'girl' i got is really a male plakat or something. Theres no oviposter but i couldnt really tell that when it was in the tank at the pet shop. And it has a beard thing when it flares aswell. Ok i got some pics. Please excuse all the plants in the way and my horrible photography. The second pic really shows his/her fins. I cant get one of it flaring though. But see the problem is i have no more space for a male, unless i take my 2 girls out of the breeder net and let them roam free in the 80L and then put this new betta and one of my other males in the breeding net. Oh and the net is divided aswell. Should i take a chance and put the new one in with the females? :cloud9: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc777 Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Looks like a male going by the length of that anal fin. Same happen to me when i first got into bettas. Saw this marble white "female" was nice and big for a female, i drooled thinking how many egg she could lay. After a little while i put her in the males tank (in a clear container) she was flaring like mad. I thought this is weird but went hey it must just be a fiesty female. when it came to the stage of putting her into the tank..... well lol the male got snapped and then i realized ummm thats no freakin female lol. Although i dont know if i ever seen a male with those stripes before? unless its still colouring up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted July 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Gosh!! Ok so i have NO IDEA what to do. Im panicking like crazy because its going to be really cold in brisbane for the next few days so im going to have to find a way of putting my new betta in a heated tank. At the moment i've got it in a jar and its stress stripes have now gone. I fed it some pellets a couple of minutes ago and it ate them as if it had'nt been fed for ages. I think if its a male, hes still only young because hes nowhere near the size of my other males. I have got a 10L tank set up thats unfiltered and unheated and the temperature in that tank at the moment is 15 degrees. Should i put it in that for the time being or keep him in the smaller jar thats probably about 1.5Liters? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc777 Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 No possible way to get an old plastic bottle and have him in that and float it in the heated tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted July 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 :cloud9: Yes!! I have an old coke bottle i can use!! How would i set it up for him? And does it matter what size it is, eg 1.25L or 2L?? Oh and should i be ringing the pet store? Im friendly with the owner so i might see about talking to her. Thanks for ur help :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc777 Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Not sure how to set it up, just make sure you clean the bottle good. 1,25 should be big enough. put holes in it to let the water through is a good idea but make sure the holes are not too big, and dont crack the bottle. Make you have the lid off to let air in. Im still wondering whether if it is a male or female. I only ever seen females with stripes. Wouldnt get to worried though. Can you see a white dot where the anal fin starts? if you can see a white dot then its a female. this is where the eggs come out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted July 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Ok i just had another look for a oviposter. There seems to be a really really small white bump. Much smaller then i have seem on other female bettas. Uh Oh. I just got it to flare and its beard is pretty big. I shall see if i can get a pic of it flaring. Gosh this is so confusing ( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc777 Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Stop stressing!!! lol some females can be aggressive. Usally if there not full of eggs its hard to see the dot. if you put it in the bottle near the males it should start producing eggs and the white dot will be obvious. You could always put it in with the females and see how it goes. keep an eye on it, if it attacks them and chases them it is likely a male if it sits by itself ingnoring the others and only flares at the females when they come close then its displaying more female behaviour. If stays close to the females and doesnt chase then its definately a female. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted July 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 ok. ill TRY to stop panicking!! As you can see, my username is very true Ill leave it in the glass jar for the moment, go and watch tv or something and try to relax. Then ill see how it goes with the females and yeah. Otherwise i really will go ( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Even if it is a female, it doesn't sound too friendly. I'd leave it floating in its coke bottle for a few more days. The fact that it is flaring with a big beard seems like a good sign that you might not want to mix it with your other girls. I *think* it has a young male look about it, but I am utterly hopeless with sexing so wait for some more opinions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celeste84 Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 the beard thing isn't a real good sign of sex as all my females flare their beards at each other quite often LOL however you may try shining a torch from behind - you may be able to see if it has any eggs or ovaries that way. also the horizontal stripes show up in both sexes, it's just a sign of stress or submission (when doing the pecking order thing or in a fight between males). there's nothing really about the fins or body shape that gives away it's sex, so try letting it see a male for an hour a day. it'll either get really fit, or fill up with eggs! also watch how the male reacts to it, if it's aggressive it's a good sign it's a male, if it's more "show off" then you can guess it's a female. HTH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted July 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Ok so while i was gone, i put the jar next to one of my other male bettas for probably a little over an hour. I went to check on my new betta and saw that it had stress stripes again. So i moved it away from the other males to an area where there was no other bettas and the stripes went away. I thought that when females flared that it was just there gills that spread out whereas with males they have that extra skin. So females fill up with eggs the more that they see a male? Oh and assuming this is a female betta, would she just be a normal veiltail betta? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 there is an article on sexing bettas at www.ausaqua.net. Males can have an ovipositor, and females can flare quite aggressively. looks like a VT female to me (unless it's a male pk - a bit hard to tell from the photos). does it flare differently when confronted with a mirror than it does towards males? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc777 Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Maybe some more photos underneath the fish if thats possible. I think Celestes idea is good. I think thats the only way. If the fish fills up with eggs then the ovipositor will be REALLY obvious. Then if you still not sure try spawning them you will soon find out!!! lol just keep and eye on them and if it gets to too ugly (sometimes there are a few fights at the start) you can intervene. If that fails it looks like your going to have a fish called "Miscellaneous" lol. Im sure the pet shop will take it back and do swap. I have done it before with my "female" that turned out to be a PK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted July 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 Yeah it does flare differently. It flares at the mirror but it doesnt flare at any of the males. lol. What exactly am i looking for when i shine the torch behind him/her?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 ^^ the long white triangle. See if you can get a picture of that flare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted July 20, 2007 Report Share Posted July 20, 2007 The thing is though, even if you determine that she's in fact female, she's still pretty aggressive towards the other females. Did I understand correctly that you want to put her into the breeding net with the other females? If they were my fish I would feel uneasy about that. I had a dominant female beat up another female so badly that I had to take the injured one out of the female community tank so that I could treat her and allow her to recover from her wounds. And another incident, I had another female who was returned to the community tank a couple of days after spawning. She'd been in a recovery tank for a couple of days but before the spawning had been in a tank on her own for conditioning. Well when I put her back in the female community tank there was the usual posturing which I assumed would settle down. The next day she'd been killed and the other females had eaten her guts out. Not a pretty sight to greet you first thing in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted July 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 ok so i tried the torch thing and i couldnt see any triangle. I managed to take some photos but they're very blurry. These are pictures of it flaring And these pictures shows how much its coloured up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y2jdaze Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 If it was me I'd be thinking I just had a VERY aggressive Girly. I don't think it's a boy. *shrugs* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 A lot of my females are really well coloured just like that. I really can't tell if the fish you have is male or female. I have some females which are jarred because I'm getting them ready to spawn. And they flare at other females in the same way. Sorry, I'm not being much help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 the long ventrals say boy to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 I'd treat it as a boy either way. *sigh* I was hoping the flare would decide it, but to me those ventrals point to young boy and the flare (lack of large dark beard) tends towards girl. Sexing is my least favourite part of bettas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panicFREAK Posted July 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 So today mum and i went to the same pet store and i told the assistant about my situation. She said that when they order females that sometimes males get mixed up with them. She then showed me a male that she thought was a female but wasnt. So i think its possible that my new one is a young male. Its so hard to find female bettas!! Lilli Posted Today, 10:34 AM the long ventrals say boy to me. Thats what led me to think that it was a male aswell. I dont know He/she is beautiful anyway :wub: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettc777 Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 Yeah this is a hard one, im leaning towards a male looking at those last photos. The fish could still be quite young so may grow a fair bit in the next week or so and hopefully will help determine gender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.