Fishy is definitely a girl. I fed her this morning, and shortly after, she broke out in very vivid and beautiful vertical stripes. Now she's showing off, taking very long and slow swims back and forth in front of the glass. Hmmm.... I think I need to have a word or two with those people at Pet Smart who insisted she was a he....
P.S. I will try to get a picture, she is so beautiful right now.
Well, I got some beautiful pictures on my camera, but my printer port isn't working so I can't upload them to my computer that way, and my camera cable is missing. I tried some on my cell phone, but it doesn't have a flash, so they are terrible and you can't see her stripes. I will keep trying, maybe moving around the lighting in my bedroom. I suppose I could hook up her tank light. I hadn't done it yet because she was sick, and I didn't need it at the time.
Actually, displaying breeding bars doesn't necessarily mean shes a female....I've seen many young males display both horizontal stress stripes and and vertical breeding bars. In fact, I just now went over to feed my boys breakfast and Sebastian, the boy featured in my avatar, displayed some nice little bars for me. Also, when I first brought him home a few months ago, he was pale and had visible stress stripes. ;)
She also has what appears to be an egg spot, so I'm assuming she's female. I have some pictures of her on my previous post, but she didn't have vibrant stripes then. http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=116002
She had very obvious vertical bands where her coloring was coming back after having velvet and jumping from her tank, but not vibrant striping like she has now.
I've had young males with egg spots too. And also when I purchased Sebastian, his ventrals were no longer then a females. Even now they're a little on the short side, and he has a smallish beard. If he didn't have such long fins I probably would have assumed he was female. xD They can be tricky little things to sex when they're young.
Hmm....it really is difficult to say, even with the pictures, and I find that I'm generally pretty decent at knowing how to tell....Fishy could be a female or a very young male. You may just have to wait it out and see how Fishys fins grow out/fill in....
plus, there is no flaring when he/she looks in a mirror. I have seen flaring, a lot more yesterday and today, but never at a reflection, it's just an obvious interest.
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