female might be a male

[windfire]

so when i bought ares there was a supposed 'female' in the tank with him that i bought as well, short fins ect. i moved all the ladies to my community but they couldnt cope with the all the movement, i have quite a few guppies and platies in there and they always on the go. i think it was a bit much for them all. so i set up a 1ft tank for them and added them planning to get the heater and filter today, which i did. only when i got home there was a lovely lil bubble nest waiting for me so im now almost 90% sure the red betta is just a really badly beaten up male. so i whipped up a divider out of an old undergravel filter i had lying around which i cut up and now have mildly happy bettas in a divided tank. the real female a lil bluey greeny red is still a lil stressed by the change but i think she will adjust. the only thing i need now for this tank is a light. both sides are fully planted and each has a lil place to hide, filter in the females side and heater is in the males section, cos of the open slates in the undergravel filter the water passes through quite easily. all in all a satisfactory solution, except from my breeding point of view.

[Alex09]

How can you guys not tell a male from a female. I was at the LPS today and females have a totally different body shape.

[FuulieQ]

Don't be presumptive. Not everybody knows.

Well, at least you caught it before you wound up with one less betta or 50 more bettas. :/

[JKfish]

Check to see if when he flares he has a "beard" and see how long his or her ventral fins are compared to the real girls, and if he has a white dot between them. If he has thin short ventrals, lacks a "beard" and has a white dot, he is a girl. If he has thicker longer ventrals and a beard then he is a guy (guys can have the white dots too) Girls sometimes make bubblenests as well, so that doesn't turely matter

[windfire]

He flares at everything, theres no white spot and his fins are a mess so cant see how long the ventral fins are. He was in a tank with ares at the store and ares tends to beat stuff up. Theres another bubblenest this morning, and he has a similar body to ares, and a beard. If its definately male im thinking apollo for a name, havnt named the real female yet, maybe artemis. Alex some of us are still learning and dont know these things especially as here females are not very common at all.

[JKfish]

:) He most definately is a guy. Don't worry if you can't tell the differences at the moment. Just keep in mind that ventrals and beards and the white spots (ovidepositer) are the best ways to distinguish. If you take some time to look at pictures of males versus females (say if/when you start drooling over bettas on aquabid.com), you'll start to see the differences in body shape.

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Originally Posted by Alex09

How can you guys not tell a male from a female. I was at the LPS today and females have a totally different body shape.

This is true; however one of my girls has a different body shape to the others; no beard and has a white spot (however I'm leeping a close eye just in case)