how do you tell their sexes?

[sazzap]

I have two betta fish which are kept seperately.
One is a deep red colour all over, and the other is a mixture of red purple and blue - this one has a much larger tail.
How do you tell the difference between female and male battas?

Also the red/purple/blue betta made a nest of bubble on the surface of the water yesterday. Is this normal, seeing as it hasn't been around any other bettas?

thanks

 

[wrs]

the easiest way with with tail sizes, but there are some kinds of males that have short tails. But usually at LFS they dont have rare kinds of bettas, do you have pics of them? the one with a short tail minght be a female, but it could be a short tail, a p something, or it's still young and hasnt developed fully yet.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Bettas sometimes build nests without a female present.

As for telling the difference, female bettas have shorter tails and their colors are more drab than those of males.

Is your other betta really pale or not colored deeply? Can you provide a picture?

Place a mirror in front of the betta in question. If it flares then you know it's a male. If not, it's not a necessarily a female, though.

 

[Bangin]

Two of my three female bettas flare and build bubble nests.

Females will have an egg spot (ovipositor tube) while males usually don't. It's a white speck under the belly located between the ventral and anal fins.

 

[sazzap]

This is the multicoloured one that was building a nest, so I assume he's a he

This is the red one, sorry the picture isn't very clear. This one also flares his head sometimes.

 

[cutecotton]

i think they're both males, females won't generally have fisn that long

 

[sazzap]

ok thankyou
won't be putting THEM together then

 

[cutecotton]

hey there if you're interested, here's a picture of my female bettas. Females generally have a more defined "curve" on their stomach and very short fins they are generally smaller than the males in size too

 

[sazzap]

nice pic
thanks mine are both males then

 

[rollntider]

yeah I have a female that flares at my cat fish when they get close to her food..LOL , I have heard of females bubble nesting also...but generally the females are smaller and shorter fins and an egg spot....

 

[sazzap]

I just put the larger betta into the aquarium, where there are two small goldfish some guppies and a platy. At first it started flaring loads but now it has calmed down.
Do you think it will be ok in there? The other fish do not seem to be disturbed by it...

also there is one other fish in there but i don't know what it is, it was quite small, only about 2cm when we got it and now it is about 5cm, i don't think it's a tropical fish, it's long and thin and is a very light orange or peachy colour. Any ideas, maybe some type of goldfish?

its' colour is the same as this Danio...