Subject: female betta with lateral lines down body...
From: "RedForeman ©®"
Date: 7/7/2004 12:46 PM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

||| Subject: female betta with lateral lines down body...
||| From: "RedForeman ©®"
||| Is that normal or just a typical marking I'm looking at?? I've
||| thought about getting one for a 5g and just one female... The one I
||| saw today, had lines down from tail to head and I've NEVER seen
||| that before... what will the offspring look like?
||
|| Red, you big silly guy! = )~
|| Those are the normal horizontal barring that all Bettas (usually
|| more in the females) will show when showing submission, I'm not a
|| threat...or I feel scared, or even I feel sick. It's up to the
|| hobbyist to read the rest of the body language to figure out what
|| they're "saying".
|| When a Betta blanches out their coloring, the horizontal barrs shows
|| up. Once they feel there's no reason to show submission, or aren't
|| scared, etc..their true coloring comes out.
|| Now..when they want to show readiness to spawn, the color becomes
|| darker and vibrant, and the barring becomes vertical.
|| Again, the vertical barring is seen mostly in females, but males can
|| and do show it too.
|| Usually the only time you'd see a male Betta showing submission
|| coloring (blanched out color and H. bars), is when they're very
|| skttish or shy..or sick.

The only time I've seen it is when the female is in the non-hostile
community tanks at the LFS... when asked, they said it was in the lineage,
and that's what the females 'looked' like.. this wasn't from my 'trusted'
LFS girl... So I had to ask the knowledgeable ppl here... Thanks for the
answer...

I'm debating putting 1 female and 1 male*Bob* to see what they do... in a
29g with 2 Kribs*non breeders*(he's gay)... I may not do it, too time
intensive, to laborious... Bob's been acting like he's in the mood, and
building nests everytime I turn around.... the ADFs that are in with him,
kinda look at him like he's dinner, but their legs fit in his mouth quite
easily... so I'm getting the idea he's looking to move up from the condo(5g)
to the chalet in the mountains(29g planted)... we'll see...

The LFS person is unknowledgeable.
They obviously don't k now much about Bettas.
If you decide to house the male in the 29g with a lady.....I would recommend
adding at least a few ladies.
They (the females) will work out their hierarchy, and the male's attention will
be split up.
Now, remember, all Bettas are different and have individual personalites.
Some males may be nippy or chase females at first, but do no real harm. They
usually settle quickly and ignore the girls.
Some females can be quite vicious and shred a male in not time.
So, when adding them....I would add them all the same day. That way it is no
one's territory.
(don't forget to quarantine the ladies first).