female behavior

[Kittycat]

Hi, this is the first time for me to have a female betta. In the fish store, she was flaring a lot at her neighbors and showing vertical stripes. I noticed when we got home, though, that she would pale and show horizontal stripes when stressed (e.g. moving to a tank).

Now, I have two crowntail males, a steel blue and a marble. I put the female in a 2.5 gal divided tank with the marble, and while he flared a few times, he does not show much interest in her. After a while, the female became generally paler in color and not showing any vertical stripes, I see horizontal stripes instead.

Later on, I moved some of my fish around, and the female ended up with the other, steel blue male who is rather aggressive. He kept flaring at her, she flared back, darkened, and showed vertical stripes (a lot like at the store--they told me she was "conditioned" as she was already reserved for another buyer but they decided to sell her to me as he didn't come back).

Last night I moved her back with the marble, and same story--she got pale again.

While both males have a few bubbles in the tanks, neither had blown any bubble nests during the time they were beside the female.

I'm just wondering...is all this normal behavior? Why does the female pale and show horizontal stripes with the passive male? Also, how can you tell if the female is full of eggs?

 

[steppy104]

she'll look kinda bloated when she gets eggs, right behind her gills by the two arm-like fins....the vertical stripes means she's horny basically....she probably likes one male more than the other. my female does something like that....she'll only show vertical stripes with one guy, and anywhere else she is a perminent horizontaly striped pale color.

 

[tekknocolor]

That's kind of scary... I keep my female in a 10gal community and when she's doing her thing she has horizontal stripes and is a pale turquoise... not that she's freaked out or anything, but because she doesn't have anyone to show for... When it's feeding time she gets a brilliant blue and vertical stripes... only when my fiance or I go to feed her...

She can't be lusting after me! I think it just depends... she may do that so I notice her more to feed her more than the others! Who knows... she's really moody... lol..

 

[nibbles]

i added a pic of my female the day she bred.. you can see her belly is pretty fat

 

[Kittycat]

Thanks, everyone. I guess she is more attracted to the dark, dangerous, fin-nipping type than the safe, gentlemanly kind, LOL

 

[cutecotton]

some females are quite strnage, which is why i love bettas so mucH

However, you should keep in mindt hat even though the petstore "conditioned" her, you'll have to re-condition her anyways when you take her home due to teh stress of a new environment. Give her about a few days to settle in and then start the reconditioning process again, this way you'll ensure that she's in tip top shape IF you plan to breed, if you don't, then there is no point in conditioning.

 

[Kittycat]

Thanks, cutecotton. I'm not sure about breeding yet, that's a distant, obscure possibility for me due to tank requirements/bottles and all the hard work, haha. Though at least what to do with the fry was not a problem, I know stores that buy fish whether veil or whatever.

I considered breeding this girl once (though she's a veil, couldn't find any other kind female as there are very few local breeders, and importers don't bring in girls), just to see if I can successfully breed and raise fry. I was seriously thinking of importing nice quality HM and plakats from Thailand and it would be a shame not to breed those in the future, but I found a local store that carries HM once in a while so I might not have to import after all.