Well everyone told me it would happen sooner or later... and it has.
We've setup a 3gal hex next to Lornas side of the bed.

and here is the possible new inhabitant.

When we bought her, she had a nice blue body and red with blue fins.
But shes not settled in just yet.

I was very impressed with her colour and style so we bought her rather than waiting for the right male to turn up

Am i right in thinking that females are ok in community tanks?
as she may endup in our bristlenose tank when we find the right male betta.

anyway... I'm rambeling.

[edit] sorry - answered my own question.

This post has been edited by smithrc: Jan 1 2005, 10:11 PM

I have 5 females with my 2 blue rams and my whiptail catfish together.

I'll most likely be adding one more female and then calling it quits for that tank!

You shouldn't have any problems

She's gorgeous! Very pretty colors!

she should be able to hold her own in a community, i added a full grown female to my community and she went right for the rainbow shark (who is the boss) and put it in it's place

she's lovely btw

cool... looks like she'll stay with the bristle noses then - and we'll keep looking for the male for the hex

oooh she's lovely

with most of our fish - they colour back up pretty fast...

She is still the colours in the picturs - any idea why - she seem very happy and it eating well??

Our 'female' has now coloured up nicely...

we went back to the store today and they had one left... so we bought 'her' too

now they didn't eactly get along too well when we put the new female with the other one... we now have our orinigal one all worked up and flaring at everything and the new one with split fins and bits missing from the tail...

I just had a look at the tail types and now think that they are infact young male Plakats.

here is a picture of our first one coloured up.

What do the rest of you think??

This post has been edited by smithrc: Jan 9 2005, 11:05 PM

She's a pretty fish

I've had a couple female betta in a community tank before

We think 'she' is actually a he (young male plakat)... any ideas?

i am by no means an expert, but i thought i could see an ovipositor (egg spot ) in the first pictures you posted.... did she have gill flaps when she flared...females can be very territorial when a new one is introduced
she HAS colored up nicely, though...good luck!!

This post has been edited by newfishies: Jan 9 2005, 11:23 PM

COuld you rake pictures showing the part below the his/her ventral fins?

I'm on it

change of plan - the plecs have been fed bloodwork and as soon as i turned the lights back on everyone else started eating it... I'll try tomorrow.

What am i looking for to ID male / female?

This post has been edited by smithrc: Jan 9 2005, 11:38 PM

He he, I was asking the smae thing just a few weeks ago:

http://www.fishforums.net/content/Bettas/68466/http-www-fishforums-net-index-php-showtopic-68466-hl-/

doop - i really should use my own advice....

cool - the one in the pics is a female then... (phew...)

I'll see if the other is a female and then I'll try re intorducing them again slowly i think.

Thanks for the help folks - I'm off to bed

In order to keep females together, it is best to keep groups of 4 or more. If you keep two, one will harass the other, sometimes to the point of death. If you keep three, two often gang up on the other. If you keep 4 (or more), the agression usually spreads out.