Female Betta or Male?

[bettamaster]

Hello! I have a question for you betta experts out there. I have two females who are very colorful and admirable, which I am proud of but there is one misconception; one of the bettas, who is more colorful than the other acts as if he's a boy! She makes bubblenests and flares at the other female, but when the two flare at each other they both have horizontal bars on their bodies! Is the She actually a He? How do you know if it's a boy or a girl? Thanx

[briggs]

Females sometimes make little bubblenests.

If they have a white spot on their stomachs behind the ventral fins then they are female, though if you are like me you could end up with 3 males that have that white spot.

I think lines on the full body is only female, and if a male ever shows the lines its around the head i think.

Females flare at eachother. And of course short fins are usualy female.

[ickyfishywishy]

about the lines, my male betta Bleu gets a line across his entire body when hes stressed but when flaring he gets it only on his head SOMETIMES! so maybe some do and some dont?

[briggs]

I thought only females got lines across their bodies but i wasnt sure. I know some fish its hard to see them because of their colors.

[bettamaster]

OK today I bought a male betta. He's a beautiful red guy, young with flashy fins and I placed him in my betta tank. I put three dividers (the female acting like a male on the left, the red guy on the middle, and the other female on the right.) and waited for the initial reaction of the female. The female and the male (the man acting female) looked at each other and the boy didn't flare at her, but instead put a fine display of his pretty red fins. Wow! But instead the female just checked him out, and there was no barring! The other female didn't have feelings for the boy as well. But a few hours later the man acting girl made this HUGE (I mean HUGE) bubblenest, partly from the delicious bloodworms I fed them and maybe to get the boy envious. But now I am tripping over myself and now I'm wondering, Why aren't the females noticing him? Is the man acting female a boy? Why isn't the boy making the bubblenest and the man acting girl is making one? Is the boy gay too? Aww man. Too many questions pop up and I'm only an EGG! :-)

[briggs]

Can't really tell anything about a fish, especialy a betta after only a few hours. Within the next day or few you'll notice different things

[starlight]

bettamaster said:

OK today I bought a male betta. He's a beautiful red guy, young with flashy fins and I placed him in my betta tank. I put three dividers (the female acting like a male on the left, the red guy on the middle, and the other female on the right.) and waited for the initial reaction of the female. The female and the male (the man acting female) looked at each other and the boy didn't flare at her, but instead put a fine display of his pretty red fins. Wow! But instead the female just checked him out, and there was no barring! The other female didn't have feelings for the boy as well. But a few hours later the man acting girl made this HUGE (I mean HUGE) bubblenest, partly from the delicious bloodworms I fed them and maybe to get the boy envious. But now I am tripping over myself and now I'm wondering, Why aren't the females noticing him? Is the man acting female a boy? Why isn't the boy making the bubblenest and the man acting girl is making one? Is the boy gay too? Aww man. Too many questions pop up and I'm only an EGG! :-)

Bettamaster...it's always a good idea to quarantine fish before putting them in shared water. I use 3 weeks as the minimum quarantine time. Some use 4 weeks. New fish are often subjected to stress. This will help to avoid spread of disease and represents good fishkeeping practice.

[bettamaster]

Oh, I never knew that :-) thanx starlight for teaching me that! What I do when I get new bettas and other fish is that I keep them in the plastic thing they are put in and put a little of their tank water in and let them sit in the tank, bagged for 30 minutes, which I read is called acclimating. It is always wise to listen to a bett deputy's tips! Oh and I also get the new fish to get used to his surroundings so he doesn't really experience much stress.

[bettamaster]

Hey briggs do ya think I got a plakat? Both the male and the man acting female have made two beautiful bubblenests, while the girl on the right watches in awe... Do ya think so or what? Gosh I am getting so confused! Female= Man Acting ?++= PLAKAT? + Weird instincts = male-like female.

She's probably a "femme fatale"

briggs said:

Females sometimes make little bubblenests.

If they have a white spot on their stomachs behind the ventral fins then they are female, though if you are like me you could end up with 3 males that have that white spot.

I think lines on the full body is only female, and if a male ever shows the lines its around the head i think.

Females flare at eachother. And of course short fins are usualy female.

[briggs]

Well, the picture as your avatar is a plakat so you should be able to tell from that really. I think the bottom fin is the giveaway, it's got that curve.

Most females i see in stores are really realyl really young, and an obvious difference in size from the males. You could have a super young male but i dont usualy seem them in stores that small.

If you have a picture of them that would make it easy. Even headshots of males and females look different at some point when they are young.

Don't keep your new betta in the cup when you first get him. Just put him in a nice sized clear container if you want to quarantine. He could be dead by then if you keep him in the cup for 3-4 weeks.

[starlight]

Briggs I'm talking about a quarantine tank of suitable size. This is what's meant by quarantining new arrivals. No one is talking about keeping him in a tiny cup.

[briggs]

Yes, i wasn't repying to your post. I read HIS post wrong thinking he is going to start keeping them in the cups for long periods of time, but in reality he was just saying what he normaly did. Nothing to do with your info. I know what quaritining new fish means.

[bettamaster]

Oh hey briggs I guess my man acting female is 64% gonna be a male, but here are some things to consider

1. The mystery plakat has a white thingy under his fins. Only females have them, right?

2. The betta has horizontal ONLY lines across its body

3. I think the price was different from a female's Whatta ya think briggs?

Plakat or girl?

[briggs]

All 3 of my "males" have the white thing. I talked to an older fellow whos been breeding bettas in Thailand for awhile when i got my first fish, because he had that white spot. He said some breeders add a solution ( I dont know when, maybe after the eggs hatch or before), that promotes male growth.. since that's what mostly sell is male. He said that when they do that that sometimes.. well i dont know how else to put it other then some females "turn into" males. Sometiems its a problem and sometimes the fish grows up fine as a dude.. haha.. but who knows. The white spots on my fish are blatenly obvious, and its not where they poo a la poo from, so that's what it has to be.. though now that I think about it.. someone on the petfish forum told me something else otherwise.. and I'll be damned if I can't rmemeber it.. doh. I will go and look for it.

I don't know much about the lines other then for when they get stressed i see the heads of the males turn slightly grey and there are some streeks.. and when females are around males they etiher get racing stripe s(horizontal) or vertical. One means i wana breed with you the other means no thanks, i dont remember which is which.

Does the bottom fin of the female who thinks he is a male look lik ethe bottom fin in that picture yo uhave under your name?

if the price was different.. then who knows, I bet he's a plakat then. Can you take a picture?

[bettamaster]

I'll try to take a picture briggs. I have to get permission from my mom first. (She owns our digital camera)