I've seen seen several posts about the vertical and horizontal stripes on a female, but haven't seen anything about the males. Do they get horizontal stripes when they get stressed?
You know Tekkno, I was thinking of posting a similiar question.
Last night I fixed my tank to be divided directly down the middle to make 2 sections instead of 3. Now Cletus and Otis are directly next to each other. They were flaring like crazy! Otis, my pink Betta developed some purplish stripes on his body . . .
I was going to take pics but had some other issues to deal with. Now I wish I would have . . .
So unless Otis is a female, I would say yes, it's possible for males to have stripes when they are stressed.
Thanks for the quick response! Yeah, I just bought my betta a couple of hours ago and he's sitting on my desk with a hint of stripes. It may be all the traveling he's done thus far. I hate seeing him in the stupid little cup and can't wait to get him into his 1 gal that's waiting for him at home. I just hope he makes it that far
I have a male that had horizontal stripes for the first while after i brought him home. I found the reason was most likely the fact that he was younger than most bettas and being only a couple months old did not have all of his coloring. So yes males get stripes too....however he is about four months now and he doesn't have a hint of stripes and is definitely male. Congrats on your new fish! Looking forward to the pictures.