Vertical Barring on Male?

[craziloki]

Hello all,
I acquired a female betta recently from my girlfriend. Her male was beating it up so I took her in. (She wanted to see if they were compatible) Turns out her male prefers to think he's a gourami, or the female gourami is a betta. Either way I ended up with her.
I didn't want to put her in my tank (for obvious reasons as well as she has a taste for my shrimp!) So I bought the biggest dipper cup I could, hung it on the side and now that is her home.. My male, who lives amongst the shrimp has now began making a nest .. I don't really plan on mating them because it's not really set up for that, but I may give it a go and see what happens.. Anyways, my male has verticle bars on his gill covers now. Is this normal? I can upload pics...

[craziloki]

guess ill try somewhere else then..

[indjo]

I was waiting for pictures because I'm not sure what you mean by "vertical bars on gill covers". As far as I know their gill covers doesn't "bar" so I'm guessing it's just his color pattern.

[vette91]

Mine does the same thing when i put females next to his tank. I assume it has something to do with him wanting to spawn. he gets the bars on his entire body.
Its a HM King from petco.