Is my Tiny Tina a girl or a Tiny Tim? 0.o I have a collage of pictures, a good dorsal picture, and a crappy drawing of his/her dorsal fin. Can't get him/her to flare. No reaction to mirrors, etc. lol
By the looks of the dorsal, anal, and ventral fins, I'd say she is a girl (if she is 4 months or more). But I could be wrong, specially if she is very young (fins are still growing). Some exceptional males will develop full fins at a later age and usually show that "male" look after he is 4 - 5 months.
I think your fish is quite young. 10-12 wks but i could be wrong lol. In a month you will should know for sure. If I would have to guess i say boy. My track record is not very good so grain of salt ok.
Put a bright light over him/her and see if you can see the ovaries. They should be visible if it is a female. It's like a white triangle behind the intestines. Not sure though if you can spot them on very young females.
Not sure. My young ones are all dark so I can't spot the ovaries anyway.
I am not very good at sexing young bettas. I basically have to wait until mine are old enough to start spawning before I go "uh huh!". Whatever gender poor confused Tim/Tina is, you have a cute little betta.
Feed a healthy but steady diet. if a girl a lil eggy belly will develop. If a boy you might see a bubble nest. It took a few of mine up to 16 weeks to be gender certain.
The Ventral fins suggest a female or a very very young male. But the body shape seems to suggest a male, I have a gut feeling that it will turn out male, but we'll just have to wait and see
Any egg spots at all? Rounding the tummy?
hey guys...just saw this...I had 404 unread emails (no kidding) yesterday to go through with more coming in...and that was AFTER deleting 168!!!
Ok...my expert breeder opinion is a very YOUNG boy! DT long fin. OK...recant that just a bit. Assuming he was one of those baby Betta that petco?smart? sales. He is probably about 3 months old but one of the runts...runts aren't bad!! and doesn't mean he will stay small. In fish, it means that he was last to be pulled out of the grow out by his breeder and all the dominate male hormones have just kept him from growing. Keep his water around 80 to 85*F...82 is best. Feed high protein food (New Life Spectrum Grow Formula) is the best on the market. According to where you get it...it can be expensive though. Feed him as much as he will eat in about a minute, and feed him 3 or 4 times a day (if he gut stuffs...eats a LOT) then only feed 2x a day...IF he gut stuffs, then you can feed smaller amounts 4x a day...(this is my preference). Change 1/2 his water daily for max growth.
Good luck with him!!! He will still grow kinda slow at first, but with in a month, he should pick up some size
Thanks for the post, copper! We can't afford that food right now unfortunately. We are using Omega One Betta Buffet. Will that suffice? Oh and I keep thinking I see a small white ovipositor, but the fish is so small it's super hard to tell. And yeah, it was from Petland, in a tank with a bunch of Tetras, and it was hiding in live the plants at the bottom.
Update: The white bit is bigger and brighter today. No signs of being eggy, but there is a small white bit.
Oh and a side note? This fish is like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. Doesn't want to be fed, it wants to hunt. You drop a pellet in, the fish ignores it. You have it stuck to a wet finger, it launches out of the water and noms it hard.
You are soooooo welcome!!! and THAT is totally understandable!!! Omega is a good food too. NLS Grow is very small pellets.
I had a "female" sent to me from a breeder. I put her and a male PK into the spawn tank (I swear I saw her ovaries)...well they just kinda ignored each other...then I saw her flare!!! UMMMMMMMM....yeah.
Now 2 months later, he has grown out and is looking pretty nice...lol He ended up being a long fin HM. This is an experienced breeder, and all the signs pointed to female...short ventrals like your guy...short fins...etc. I see the same look in your guy
And what about the odds of it still being a male with an ovipositor? It's prominent enough now that he/she is filled with food, the thing is glowing white. lol
Oh looks like I didn't post it on this one, but flaring isn't a great indicator either. Girls and boys flare nearly the same, one of my females has a great looking beard as well!
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