Hermaphrodite Betta, Please Help, Im Tired Of Reading X_X

[peachlids]

ok SO
 
i have 2 bettas, a red and purple CT male, and across the divider is a mystery gender white/blue/greenish betta.
 
i have come to 2 conclusions:
 
1. it is a small, shorter finned delta tail male with no beard under his gills, flaring or not flaring. with shorter vent fins and female behaviors(flaring not as vigorously as the male, no beard visible, head down position towards the male)  it also doesnt realy swim and flare in general as much as the male CT.
 
2. it is a long finned female, im guessing a SD or HM???
 
 
the reason i think it is the later is that the more i read the more common the longer finned bettas are becoming in petstores, and i know they do a poor job labeling them sometimes and this one im having trouble identifying is one that was in one of the "nicer" display containers.
 
here is a pic of the betta in question. ive had mixed answers on another blog, so. help?

 

[KrystaK]

I want to sale Male based on the picture. The fact that he isn't as aggressive as your other male could just be relative. Some males (Like mine) Never flare at all,(Seriously, I have never seen him flare). While others are more aggressive than they need to be.
 
The fact that he doesn't have a beard may just be because (his) head is white so his beard may be transparent (Just a guess) or(he) may have a birth defect where (he) doesn't have a beard. Or maybe his beard is just smaller than usual. (All just guesses)
 
I have never seen a female with such long fins. The behavior you describe could simply (him) being the submissive one of your pair of Betta's,
 
That's just me though, I'm by no means a Betta expert and the above is just my opinion based on the description and the picture. 

 

[Wildbetta]

At first glance it does appear male.  The submissiveness and not flaring are not necessarily indicitive of a female.  I have had very submissive males that even displayed the vertical bars like a female when encountering a much more dominant male.  Now with that being said -- the body does kinda look female in shape--hard to describe but thicker overall compared to what a male's is.  I have had lots of long finned females that resemble males so there is a posiblity of it being female.  Without being able to see the oviposter, it is extremely hard to be able to say one way or the other.  If is a male and you haven't seen his beard -- it very well could be translucent as a lot of bettas with the marble gene especially ones with pale faces tend to have almost clear beards.
 
With all that said, my guess at this point even without the oviposter -- is female.  I do suggest you look for that though to help determine true sex on this very pretty marble betta.

 

[peachlids]

thats kind of where im at, you summed it up and said it nicely, i bought it thinking it was a small male.
 
ive looked for the ovipositer and it LOOKS like theres a little bump? but its just really hard to tell because it likes to lay in the lilly pads and sideways on the leaves, it really is an odd little betta in terms of behavior. Im just going to condition it as if its a female to see if it becomes more round with eggs and maybe it will lay some and ill know for sure, or maybe after time it will grow larger and it will flare its beard if it is a male, i've seen the translucent beards and theres usually atleast an OUTLINE when they flare of them right?
 
and as far as what you said about the body shape and size, that is another reason i was leaning towards a female because i have it right beside my male CT and the shape is not alike at all. but I know that can vary because of the strains and genes etc.
 
also the ventral fins are shorter than most male ones i've seen. 
 
im hoping that once its a little fatter and ive had it longer it will be easier to tell the gender

 

[Wildbetta]

I am leaning toward female because I have had two females that had finnage similar to yours.  One was a CTDT that unless you seen her oviposter, you would swear she was a he.  The other one was a HM and she was a little more feminine looking but still had some really large finnage.  Body shape alone says female to me with your fish.  Females will flare and do have a beard although it is a lot shorter and normally does not extend all the way under the chin.  Even a translucent beard on a male is normally visable just harder to truely see.  The oviposter is a white tube(looks like an extended white dot) although on your betta it might be hard to see with the color pattern yours is sporting.

 

[peachlids]

ok so i saw him flare his translucent beard pretty largely at the new female betta my bf brought home yesterday, im assuming its a male, but if it is a male then i have no clue what KIND of male? my best guess was a delta but another forum user on another site said it was definitely not a delta male >
 
either way this is a lovely little colored fish! 

 

[Wildbetta]

Did the beard go all the way under the chin?  Most females only have beards on the sides but they don't extend all the way under the chin area.  That might pinpoint a good male/female decision for you.   Other than that -- tail type is either delta or possibly HM but would be hard to tell without a full on flare where you can see if his/her tail makes the full 180 spread.

 

[Paradise3]

Male. Easily. I had a longfin female copper dragon and she was huge. She had 6-8 rays in her tail and her's was a lot smaller than that. Also, body looks male to me.
 
My old HM girl.

 
My old HM male. See the difference in body shape? Males have the more upturned mouth and slight humped look to their body.

 
Now this boy above wouldn't flare at anything but bloodworm. He wouldn't flare at another male or females just bloodworm. He was in a divided tank and my PK flared at him like there was no tomorrow but he just did the head down position to show he was the less dominant and they left it there. He was definitely male because I bred him with my Delta female that I had.
 
Edit: Just found a slightly better picture to compare body shape with.

 

[Wildbetta]

I finally found some pics of my 2 females that had exceptionally long finnage. 
 
 
Female CTDT long finned

 
Flare shot from one of my females

 
Long finned female HM

 
Same fish-different angle

 
 
And for some comparison
 
OHM Male

 
HM Male

 

[Paradise3]

See even your females have smaller fins than the OP's fish

I realize how small my females fins look in the picture but that's her not flaring and everything and that was the day I received her so she was still settling in. I'll see if I can find a decent picture of her when she'd settled.
 
Edit: Well whilst searching I found this instead, this is an Oviposter.

 
And this is the female from the front.

She was a Combtail.

 

[peachlids]

ugh LOL im even more confused now.
 
i believe the beard went all the way around, its just completely clear, maybe he is just a young hm male??
 
ill just have to wait it out and see im guessing, i have another short finned female and the ovipositer is very obvious.

 

[Paradise3]

He's a young Superdelta male Just had confirmation that it is definitely male, one of the comments was "This has never seen or been female " So there's your answer Young SD.

 

[peachlids]

ROFL thats what i was thinking, which is fine by me i think the SD are awesome and not as much of a hassle to care for as the HM, ive just never seen her care a male so small before!