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Meet Romeo! Or is it Juliet?

2K views 44 replies 7 participants last post by  eden000 
#1 · (Edited)
After Sev unfortunately passed a way a few days ago (I tried to do everything I could, but he went from bad to worse very quickly), I decided to take everything I've learned and get back on the bike, as it were!

So everyone, meet ROMEO! I was wondering if anyone could could give me some advice as to his breed, age, and even gender... He was advertised at the store as a "Dumbo ear" betta. Is this right? I can't get him to flare at his reflection, but I'm not sure if this is just because he's too young or something.

I fell in love with him so quickly at the store, so I got him a very nicely decorated 2.5g tank and heater. :oops:



 
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#4 ·
The short ventrals plus the body shape make me think female, and as for tail type, I think I see at least four rays, so not a veil tail and s/he's obviously not a CT. Maybe a delta/super delta, or a plakat. I am definitely no expert though!

About how big is s/he, from nose to the start of the tail? That will be the biggest clue as to age, but I'd say around two months based on how well developed the fins/color seem to be. This site has a good growth chart: http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/bettagrowth.html
 
#5 ·
Actually looks like a male Plakat to me, red salamander coloring. Since we can't actually see the ventral fins it's hard to tell. But the body is longer and 'stockier' females have a graceful curve from their stomach and up to the tail where males are more "straight", just like in humans. But of course sometimes they break those "rules" just like we do lol

But I'm inclined to say Male Plakat, most likely HM. With some adequate water changes and some Stress Coat those fins will help up nicely :-D
 
#7 ·
Ooh, from that website I'd say he (I'm just going to call him a he) is around nine weeks. The level of fin development also looks similar.

Will it be easier to tell what he is when he's older? I couldn't see an "egg spot", but his belly is white right now so it would probably be hard to tell. His ventral fins are very short and he usually keeps them up against his tummy.

Thanks Dramaqueen!
 
#10 ·
Even still, young males will have imitator ovipositer's or egg spots, just to confuse us more lol and flaring isn't always a great way either although sometimes you can tell. But one of my girls, Mystique, you would have thought she was a male when she flared and I almost kept second guessing myself until she dropped eggs one day lol
 
#12 ·
They generally come in sexed already although sometimes you get a young male with an imitator ovipositer and they're like "oh look it's a female because it's got an egg spot" lol but usually they're pretty decent at putting them in the right cups after that. I believe they come in little baggies and are all marked from what I hear :)

However he still looks like a Romeo to me, the body shape is too 'squarish' to be female. Of course that's me and my totally scientific talk lol <---total sarcasm there XD
 
#14 ·
Yeah, I think it's a male. Like others said, it's the body shape, but also the tail. It looks like a tail that's growing out- like it's ruffly rather than young females I've seen whose tails stay pretty much the same shape when they "grow up"... except for my spade tail. she looked like a veiltail when I first got her.
 
#15 ·
@OrangeAugust: Actually Spade tails are just a variation of VT. Almost all spades these days are just veiltails with a bit of the spade trait but they are not wide enough to be considered spades. Sorry to rain on your parade but your girl is most likely just a longer finned VT.

And actually Romeo's tail will probably always be like that, the length I mean. He looks like a plakat EE so his fins will stay relatively short, they'll grow out a bit as he get's older and heal up but they'll never be like a long finned boy.
 
#17 ·
Doesn't matter, it's not the point it's the width at the end. I also have a VT girl with the spade trait but if they flare and the base of the tail doesn't reach almost 180 degree's and spread outwards, it's not a spade tail. I'm sorry, I was excited with my girl too. But no one breed's Spades anymore because they don't breed true meaning you can't breed two spades and get mostly spades. More than 3/4's of them will just come out VT's.

I really do wish someone would start working with them again though, I love that tail so much!
 
#19 · (Edited)
I would fatten him/her up and see where it goes from there. I had a "female VT" turn into a male PK. It took him about 4 months to show his true colors to me. He went from white to a dark red cambodian. I had him in a community tank, but I wasn't positive of his gender until I tried to put him in a sorority. Oops ... lol Anyways, like the others said, the fins make it look like a male, IMO. The dorsal fin and the anal fin makes me think that s/he is a plakat. I have three PKs and s/he looks similar to them.
 
#20 ·
@Orange, your two spades look like young male VT's to me. The blue one is very close to being a real spade but it's still not wide enough, they end up almost like a round tail with a point is what you're looking for.
 
#22 ·
:eek: young males? I've had the blue one for about 8 months... wouldn't it have longer fins by now if it was a male? She also still has an egg spot. Which other one are you referring to? The red one? I've had her for about 4 months... I haven't looked for an egg spot recently, though. Is 4 months+ still young enough to be a male who looks like a female?
I think I did question the gender of the blue one on here before because her ventrals are so long and because of the shape of her anal fin, also, I thought her body shape was more streamlined than a female, but the consensus was that she's a female, so idk...


sorry, OP, for kind of hijacking your thread.
Yeah, sorry, I tend to hijack threads >< my bad!!

It's possible for them to change to their true gender at pretty much any point. Egg spots are still not a good indicator that it's a female. Many males can have an imitator ovipositer, most will lose it a month or so after maturity I find but I think some can hold onto theirs for quite a while.

Yeah I was looking at the red one too, the fins seem much too long, although I also have two longer finned females as well, one I know is female because I can clearly see ovaries and the other has dropped eggs before. But I was looking at the body and the point of the anal and all. It is completely possible that they are both just long finned females, they just say 'male' to me is all :) they're all beautiful though ^_^
 
#24 ·
Hehe I just PM'd you so we wouldn't hijack the thread anymore and then I saw you replied here.
Ok, thanks. I'll keep an eye on them, then. I just put them together with 5 more females, and they seem to all be doing ok, but I'll keep an eye on these two to make sure there's no excessive aggression with them.
 
#25 ·
Haha yup, I replied to that as well XD

Make sure to QT every time you want to add more fish, they could be carrying diseases that you don't know about. It's much easier to treat one fish rather than a whole tank!

And for those who can't read my PM that I sent, I did explain that Orange's blue girl does indeed look like a female, just very long fins. Most likely parents were DT and VT or had their genes to make the fins long. The anal fin slants from the front to the back, that's a very female trait. The red girl however, the ventrals are both very long and the anal fin is more box like and is pointed at the end. That one is looking more like a young male to me because the anal fin looks like it's going to get longer and the body still has plenty of growing left to do. Probably grew up in either an overstocked tank with it's siblings or spent too long in a cup that stunted the growth for now. :)

Betta's can be super confusing as we've all seen! Some females end up being males after a while when they decided that it's time to stop being a teenager and get to adulthood haha Just like in humans, sometimes it takes a little longer to mature! And some, you just never stop guessing with them XD
 
#27 ·
Yup! Deepening of their color means they are enjoying their clean and healthy water. If you want to heal his fins because they are torn, you can use Stress Coat water conditioner to help. Not sure if I or anyone else mentioned that before. Stress Coat contains aloe which will help repair fins which I think I mentioned in the PM lol sorry, I get mixed up sometimes! He looks so cute though!
 
#28 ·
Yep, I'm going to use Stress coat when I do the 100% WC today. I also put it in when first setting up his tank. It's really more of a preventative, though... his fins look a bit rough in the pictures, but they are by no means "torn" in person :)

He is SO cute. Yesterday he was chilling in his betta log, and I wanted to feed him. He really reacts to my voice, and when I shook his food container a bit he poked his head out of the side of the log to find a pellet on the top, which he literally attacked.

He's also very photogenic. *bragging mommy over here*

 
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