odd betta fish

[Ivy]

Hello,

I have 3 betta fish. One's definitely male - he's long finned. One's
got a definite white spot between her tummy fins, and a very round
belly, so I'm fairly sure she's female. The third..I'm not sure. It's
got short fins like the female., but flares gill covers and has a
(very small) bubble nest. Have I got a ringer in here?

I'd like to put all 3 in my 15 gallon tank but I'm not sure how they'd
get on. The unknown betta seems very aggressive. The male will flare
at everything, rocks, red fish food cans, me.. :) Other inhabitants
in there are 4 cherry barbs, a dwarf gourami, 3 cory cats and a
nocturnal loach.

Any advice?

[blove]

its never a good idea to put bettas together. gouramis are in the same
family so its rare for bettas and gouramis to get along. www.bettatalk.com


"Ivy" > wrote in message
...
> Hello,
>
> I have 3 betta fish. One's definitely male - he's long finned. One's
> got a definite white spot between her tummy fins, and a very round
> belly, so I'm fairly sure she's female. The third..I'm not sure. It's
> got short fins like the female., but flares gill covers and has a
> (very small) bubble nest. Have I got a ringer in here?
>
> I'd like to put all 3 in my 15 gallon tank but I'm not sure how they'd
> get on. The unknown betta seems very aggressive. The male will flare
> at everything, rocks, red fish food cans, me.. :) Other inhabitants
> in there are 4 cherry barbs, a dwarf gourami, 3 cory cats and a
> nocturnal loach.
>
> Any advice?
>

[TYNK 7]

>Subject: Re: odd betta fish
>From: "blove"
>Date: 12/14/2003 6:49 PM Central Standard Time
>Message-id: >
>
>its never a good idea to put bettas together. gouramis are in the same
>family so its rare for bettas and gouramis to get along. www.bettatalk.com
>


Depening on the situation, tank size and each individual personality of the
Bettas, it can be done. However, of course I'm not talking about housing more
than one male per tank.
The little one sounds like it could be a late blooming male, so I wouln't put
that one in the 15 with the other identified male.




>
>"Ivy" > wrote in message
...
>> Hello,
>>
>> I have 3 betta fish. One's definitely male - he's long finned. One's
>> got a definite white spot between her tummy fins, and a very round
>> belly, so I'm fairly sure she's female. The third..I'm not sure. It's
>> got short fins like the female., but flares gill covers and has a
>> (very small) bubble nest. Have I got a ringer in here?
>>
>> I'd like to put all 3 in my 15 gallon tank but I'm not sure how they'd
>> get on. The unknown betta seems very aggressive. The male will flare
>> at everything, rocks, red fish food cans, me.. :) Other inhabitants
>> in there are 4 cherry barbs, a dwarf gourami, 3 cory cats and a
>> nocturnal loach.
>>
>> Any advice?
>>
>

[Sunny]

"NetMax" > wrote in message
...
> Of the many existing Betta species, splendens is AFAIK the one whose
> males are the most identifiable with their long flowing fins, so there is
> a possibility that you could have one of the other Betta species, or a
> short-fin variety of splendens or most likely =>, it's exactly as TYNK 7
> pointed out :~) I just thought I'd throw some trivia in here ;~)

I have a new Betta (alongside another in separate 6 Litre tanks).
It's been a week now and he has not eaten, but just ignores the Betta bits
that I drop into the tank.
How long can they go before they get really hungry?
(He is building a nest, flares at his "mate" next door, roams the tank and
looks healthy enough).

[Ivy]

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 22:35:14 -0500, "NetMax"
> wrote:

Thanks for all the fast advice. :)

>Of the many existing Betta species, splendens is AFAIK the one whose
>males are the most identifiable with their long flowing fins, so there is
>a possibility that you could have one of the other Betta species, or a
>short-fin variety of splendens or most likely =>, it's exactly as TYNK 7
>pointed out :~) I just thought I'd throw some trivia in here ;~)

The store I got the uncertain fish from kept them all in one tank. Ok,
it was probably 50 gallons, and had so many plants it was difficult to
find any actual fish, but he said there were 20 'females' in there.
Looking at pictures on the web, my uncertain one looks a whole lot
like the 'plaket' short finned males. Is there any definite way to
tell?

>
>"TYNK 7" > wrote in message

>> >its never a good idea to put bettas together. gouramis are in the
>same >family so its rare for bettas and gouramis to get along.
>www.bettatalk.com

My dwarf gourami is very timid, and seems to spend a lot of time
hiding. He did this even when he was with only 2 other fish (cherry
barbs, who totally ignore him). Nobody in the tank is bothering him
that I've seen (his fins and feelers are fine).

I was hoping the females would get on ok. The tank is planted and has
a lot of rocks and caves to hide in.
The uncertain gendered fish got into a lip-lock (!) with the male and
everyone got returned to their separate bowls for a time out. I think
you're right about not putting them together.

thanks,
Ivy

[Gail Futoran]

"Sunny" > wrote in message
...
>
> "NetMax" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Of the many existing Betta species, splendens is AFAIK
the one whose
> > males are the most identifiable with their long flowing
fins, so there is
> > a possibility that you could have one of the other Betta
species, or a
> > short-fin variety of splendens or most likely =>, it's
exactly as TYNK 7
> > pointed out :~) I just thought I'd throw some trivia in
here ;~)
>
> I have a new Betta (alongside another in separate 6 Litre
tanks).
> It's been a week now and he has not eaten, but just
ignores the Betta bits
> that I drop into the tank.
> How long can they go before they get really hungry?
> (He is building a nest, flares at his "mate" next door,
roams the tank and
> looks healthy enough).

I have 5 female bettas spread among 3 tanks. I feed them
Betta bits but they also have access to the community food
(flakes & etc.). Sometimes they ignore the Betta bits even
though I drop those in first and wait until I feed the rest
of the fish and gobble up some of that food. Maybe try some
different food for your Betta?

Gail

[TYNK 7]

>Subject: Re: odd betta fish
>From: (Ivy)
>Date: 12/15/2003 1:44 AM Central Standard Time
>Message-id: >
>
>On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 22:35:14 -0500, "NetMax"
> wrote:
>
>Thanks for all the fast advice. :)
>
>>Of the many existing Betta species, splendens is AFAIK the one whose
>>males are the most identifiable with their long flowing fins, so there is
>>a possibility that you could have one of the other Betta species, or a
>>short-fin variety of splendens or most likely =>, it's exactly as TYNK 7
>>pointed out :~) I just thought I'd throw some trivia in here ;~)
>
>The store I got the uncertain fish from kept them all in one tank. Ok,
>it was probably 50 gallons, and had so many plants it was difficult to
>find any actual fish, but he said there were 20 'females' in there.
>Looking at pictures on the web, my uncertain one looks a whole lot
>like the 'plaket' short finned males. Is there any definite way to
>tell?

A Plakat male will have a larger "beard" than a female Betta does. (It's the
flappy thing attached to their gill coverings)
Also, look for an "egg spot" on a female.
If there's a white dot right behind the venrtal fins (long-sometimes short,
pointed fins underneath the fish, in front of the anus), then it's a girl.
Don't use coloration - either more or less, or the appearence of either
horizontal or vertical barring as a ways to determin sex.
Both male and females can blanch out their coloring and show horizontal
barring.
It's body language that is either saying "I'm submissive,I'm sick, I'm scared,
or even I'm cold."
Vertical barring simply means "Hey baby I'm ready to make some baby fishies."
These "statements" are more often made by females, but males can too.
It's actually common to get a late blooming male, or short finned male in a
batch of females.
I've been in several shops and have had to tell them that they have a short
finned male in the female tank.
I've raised many batches and it's not really that hard to make a mistake. When
Bettas are quite young they start acting their true sexes, but mostly look like
a bunch of females. It's usually a very docile male that gets mistaken for a
female. = )
I don't remember if I had asked, do you have any pictures of the "it"? = )~

[Ivy]

On 15 Dec 2003 17:10:18 GMT, (TYNK 7) wrote:


>>Looking at pictures on the web, my uncertain one looks a whole lot
>>like the 'plaket' short finned males. Is there any definite way to
>>tell?
>
>A Plakat male will have a larger "beard" than a female Betta does. (It's the
>flappy thing attached to their gill coverings)

Hmm. Its beard is smaller than my definite male's, bigger than the
female's. No egg spot that I can see.

>Both male and females can blanch out their coloring and show horizontal
>barring.

>Vertical barring simply means "Hey baby I'm ready to make some baby fishies."
>These "statements" are more often made by females, but males can too.
>It's actually common to get a late blooming male, or short finned male in a
>batch of females.

Heh so perhaps his fishy hormones have started acting up (it's been
about 3 months). The known female, and 'it' were almost totally gray
with horizontal brown bars when I got them home. (The male didn't seem
to care, he doesn't fade). If It were male though, wouldn't he act
more nicely towards the female? She's been showing vertical bars and
has quite a round tummy.

>I don't remember if I had asked, do you have any pictures of the "it"? = )~

Wish I did, it's a beautiful fish, and it'd probably be easier to
determine gender. It's been in the quarantine bowl (~5 gallon jug)
and it's even terrorizing the green tiger barbs. Perhaps I should
call it Teiresias after the mythical prophet who changed genders. :)
thanks for the interesting information,
Ivy