age of bettas

[bort]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knew if there was some kind of way to tell the aproximate age of a betta. Do they get to certain lengths at certain ages?

[sawcat]

Fancier ones tend to be sent to the stores much younger, since their easier to recognize (color or finnage). My crowntail was a bitty thing, and I've seen very young VTs at the petstore (fairly short fins). If you've got a petco (or other store with CT), compare the size of a crowntail and vieltail and odds are the the CT will be much smaller than the VT.

Someplace online I've read that the more common colors could be almost a year old by the time you see them in the pet store.

You might check the breeders sites and see if they have spawn logs, where they seperate one spawn and photo document their growth. Betty splendens has two going, so you can see what they look like at various ages, www.bettysplendens.com/articles/home.asp

[bort]

Yeah most of the VT's in the stores are huge compared to the CT's and I've heard it takes awhile for some bettas to get flashy colors so I'm always under the impression that the VT's at pet shops are old. (for bettas) Thanks for the link.

[sawcat]

bort said:

Yeah most of the VT's in the stores are huge compared to the CT's and I've heard it takes awhile for some bettas to get flashy colors so I'm always under the impression that the VT's at pet shops are old. (for bettas) Thanks for the link.

You're welcome.