Male...or female? and flaring question.

[Littlebittyfish]

This is August. I bought him about 2 weeks ago from Petsmart. He currently is living in a divided 5 gallon until I can get my other 10 gallon a new heater. My question is...Is it possible he is a female? He is an odd acting little guy...He never flares. I have tried everything to get him to flare. He doesn't even care about the other betta on the other side of the divider...He looks at him calmly..but never flares......How common is it for a betta not to flare up? I have 9 other guys and they flare at just about anything.

[Micho]

Well you're he is actually a she, if I'm not mistaken. Surprise!

[dragonflie]

While there are males who just don't flare, there are girlies who will easily flare at their reflection. ;) I had one particularly fiesty little girl.

That being said...that looks like a little girl to me!

*edited to add* my feisty little girl flaring at her reflection. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giK-gNKGcPY

[Littlebittyfish]

Darn it Petsmart!
Male or female..I still <3 my lil August...Do you think it would be too stressful to keep a female betta in a tank with a male ...divided of course.
If August is a girl...she will be my first female betta.

[Princess Penny]

Maybe she should now be known as Augusta? ;D She's pretty!

[flowerslegacy]

Looks like a female, but the ventrals are awfully long. Can you see an ovipositer? I have a Halfmoon Plakat that I swore was a male and it ended up being female. The ventrals are stumpy and she has an obvious ovipositer. I was also advised that if the betta has visual of other bettas, it can calm their flaring. It's advised to keep them apart for 24 hours and then put a mirror or another male in their view. I'm just repeating what I was told, however. I called mine "Pat" until I found out my he was a she. I'd say the jury is still out . . . based on the ventrals.

[mikevang]

yea august looks like a female to meeh...really good lookin one too

[Littlebittyfish]

Originally Posted by Princess Penny

Maybe she should now be known as Augusta? ;D She's pretty!

Too funny. Augusta it is.

Originally Posted by flowerslegacy

Looks like a female, but the ventrals are awfully long. Can you see an ovipositer? I have a Halfmoon Plakat that I swore was a male and it ended up being female. The ventrals are stumpy and she has an obvious ovipositer. I was also advised that if the betta has visual of other bettas, it can calm their flaring. It's advised to keep them apart for 24 hours and then put a mirror or another male in their view. I'm just repeating what I was told, however. I called mine "Pat" until I found out my he was a she. I'd say the jury is still out . . . based on the ventrals.

Yea, the ventrals are confusing to me too....I havent been able to see any ovipositor...Augusta moves too fast.

Originally Posted by mikevang

yea august looks like a female to meeh...really good lookin one too

thankyou!

[Thunderloon]

0.o There's HM(DT) blood in that VT. From the look and the coloration pattern on top I'd say its a she, August is fine for a girl.

I'm NOT seeing egg sacks.


The length of the pectoral fins doesn't really matter. One of my girls had pectorals nearly the length of her ventral fin along the bottom.

What DOES matter is that girls don't have a furled inner gill cover.
I mentioned using an LED flashlight because the ovipositor doesn't change color like the scales.

I think you got a jailbreak HM(DT) female, give it a month or so and see if egg sacks show up.

Flaring and males... I had to teach Kingsley to flare his gill covers, he wouldn't do it. All the girls came up to him in the sorority when he was swimming free and would flare at him and he still wouldn't flare back.
A little too much genetic diversity could easily have an effect on behavior, the supplier that petsmart is using seems to be same as petco. This supplier is known to be experimenting with kings and the HM(DT) like Sherbert and Forrest were.

At three hundred plus per spawning a single national company could probably supply all the stores in the US and Canada easily.

Often the suppliers will "jailbreak" girls with very desirable characteristics who aren't valid for the breeding program simply because someone will buy them just on how they look. I would assume that while this girl clearly has the HM(DT) genes in her she'll probably only produce VT fry.