2 New Girls And Adiscovery : /

[Forestpisces]

Well yesterday at work a novice a breeder i knew from a way back came in with some fish for us, he is just starting up so and was experimenting really with his breeding. He brought us one combtail teal male that was i'm sad to say rather poor quality with a slightly deformed head and poor fin quality , but in the other bag he had two combtail/ crowntail teal coloured females (he said they were crown tails but after studying the rays for a while i'm unsure as to wether they truely are or not ) i liked the look of them as they were still eggy and rather young looking too only about 1.3inches in length. So today after studying them for a good while i decided to bring them home and put them in with princess my other female at home in her HEAVILY planted tank, so i bagged up the two sisters and my boss took the cost off my wage (£10 ) i got home and floated the bag in the tank. Then i noticed something, princess seemed curiouse she is normally a very very shy fish unlike my other bettas which have either been increadibly friendly with humans or very aggressive. Then she flared revealing a scarily large beard, oh dear lord i thought after owning her for almost a year i never noticed that she is a flipping he! now i'm stuck for what to do i have a spare 54litre in the cellar but i'm reluctant to set it up as i'm short of space and i already have 4 tanks set-up (1 20gal mixed 2 5 gals each with a male fighter and 1 35litre with princess kuhlis a snail and frogs in). So atm i think i'm going to have to put the new girls in the 20gal and leave "princess" on HIS own in there, i never really looked at him that much TBH i just loved his coloures. i really would love to set-up the 54litre as a sorority but space constraints are an issue and cleaning all the tanks is a such an effort with me working alot and going to college can be such an effort that i sometimes have to do it bi-weekly. Ahh dear anyway sorry for the long post and i hope to get pics soon, any ideas on my situation?

 

[BethK]

See, I thought all females have no beards but I was wrong. Some females (I think a certain colored or tailed) can have a beard

I had the same with 2 of my females, both Plakets and same colors with a strange sandy stripe running from it's mouth, down the spine and to the back. I was adamant they were both males, so I spoke to a local breeder, who invited me over and he showed me 6 of his females that were exactly the same with the beard.

I questioned him and he was 100%, as these 6, he had spawned. But I suppose it depends on 'full' as they had their's but not as big as a male (if that makes sense).

Is there any chance that you can post us a picture of her/him?

 

[Forestpisces]

sorry my camera is broken at the moment, the bettas in questions anal fin is very long and pointed it actually almost extends past the back fin and the dorsal fin is also long and pointed, the ventrils are also quite long very very similar to my male PK but princess' fins are slightly longer and he is bigger in body than my PK large for a PK i think actually, the two girls are in my big tank for now, although i have quite some experience wih bettas i don't know of any sure fire way of telling with this guy he did have a beard for sure.

 

[BethK]

Could he/she be a giant betta?

How does he/she act around the girls? Apart from the flaring?

Here's a thought, with your 20 gal (around 40ltrs?), you could place a divider in 35 - 40% of the tank and put your boy in there and the 2 girls the other side?

 

[Forestpisces]

The 20g is waay more than 40 litres haha more around the 80litre mark it's just a bog standard clearseal that i built up myself over time with bit's and bobs from work, i'm tempted to set-up the 54litre and section i into three with one boy in each end and the two sisters in the middle, that way i cut down on tanks and the bettas are still seperate as i'm not keen on them in my community although i've never had aggression issues in there with anything. i'll have to do some measuring and purchasing i think