"Tynk" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Sep 3, 12:00�pm, "Reel McKoi" wrote:

If you can get nice female bettas and the tank is large enough go for
it.....but have a back up plan.....I rather suspect that the nicer
female
bettas might be boys in disguise....

This is possible but I also found out that for awhile unscrupulous
breeders
in Asia were treating female bettas with testosterone to grow enough
finnage
to pass as males. I don't know if that is still being done.


Wow, I haven't yet heard of this.
Do you have any web sites saved that discuss this?

= No I don't. This was going on before I had a computer. These fish were a
mess. I ended up with a few and started to inquire around. That's how I
found out what was going on. They looked great when purchased but without
the continuing hormone treatment their fins would appear to shorten, get
thinner, develop holes that didn't get infected... in time they looked like
ragged sickly males. I let them live out their lives in a 5g tank as they
were nowhere near as aggressive as true males.


Currently you can find some gorgeous females out there.
Nothing like *hopped up* girls, or anything, just nice quality females
of different fin varieties.
PetCo and Petsmart will occasionally get some nice ones that are mixed
in with the mass bred, typical veils.

= Yep! They have those here. They call them "fringe tails." They're very
pretty.

However, you have to check them once a week on fish day if you can.
Pet smart seems to get more long finned (normal LF females), and the
occasional *nice* double ray - Crowntails.
PetCo seems to get more of the nicer Crowntails, with the occasional
Delta or Halfmoon females.

= Petco is a little too far and their water so different from mine I stopped
going there. They do have an excellent selection of goldfish and bettas.
PetSupermarket sometimes has nice young females. Their males are nothing to
brag about. I'm kind of disappointed in that store. When they first opened
their bettas and GF were fantastic.... no more!

Quite often at PetCo's they'll also be colors varieties you don't
often see.
Just today I saw about 5 really nice long finned females at a local
Petsmart. However, only one caught my in the color department.
Body and fin wise, they were all lovely. The majority of their female
stock were mass bred veils though.

= Did you weaken and buy any? :-))

Their males, all sickly veils. = /
Be patient in looking at these 2 stores if they don't get in any
special types.
They will...it's just a matter of time.
--

RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
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