How to tell?

[Tormented]

Not sure if this is in the right spot.


I would like to know how to tell a female and male baby bettas apart?


I got what I thought was a female baby a few months ago and it was a male. He is in my brothers tank and I wanted to get a male baby for mine, so that hopefully he can grow up around female guppies and leave them alone when he is bigger.

[indjo]

It would be hard if there were no other to compare with. But if there were a few, the ones with longer/bigger fins are probably males. This is more obvious with long finned bettas since the males fins grow much longer.

You could also compare general body form. Viewed from above the females seem to have smaller heads and bigger belly area while males look slimmer with bigger heads.

You can't tell them apart by color. Some more dominant will show brighter colors, regardless of sex. Nor can you rely on egg spot (white spot protruding under belly) because many young males show them as well. There is actually a difference in color between male and female's white spot. Female's is milk white while male's is rather dull white. But this is hard to tell apart, so don't rely on it.

[homegrown terror]

a more bullet-shaped body: probably male
a more banana-shaped body: probably female

like indjo said, without being able to compare fish from the same spawn, it's impossible to be 100% sure, but body shape is one of the easiest and most reliable ways to sex "baby" bettas (those that are really too young to sell, whatever petco tries to say otherwise)