Are "giant" Bettas More Agressive Than Average Ones?

[K.J.]

As I noted in my "Wow, Mystified" post, my new female(?) is quite large. Could she possibly be a giant betta? If so, are these more agressive, which may lead to her more male-ish behaviour? (eg, flaring at mirror and other bettas) or is she just naturally agressive? Or is she a he?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

there could b a chance of her being a male betta. if u got a bigger tank try putting another female in with it and if it couses probs. take it out. ive never heard of these "giant" bettas tho. the avg. betta will grow pritty big...

 

[K.J.]

there could b a chance of her being a male betta. if u got a bigger tank try putting another female in with it and if it couses probs. take it out. ive never heard of these "giant" bettas tho. the avg. betta will grow pritty big...

There could very well be, except she has the oviposter. I have a 10g which I'm going to try to breed them in, but it's cycling and I don't want to risk possible damagw by putting her in with one of my other two females.

 

[Wisperian]

She could just be a eggbound female. If you want to see if its a plakat male, just give him/her a mirror or put it in a jar filled with water and plop it into your females tank or the other way around by putting the females into the jar and put "it" into the tank and see if she/he flares. As far as I know, they don't get more aggressive if they're giant just as how some bettas are more aggressive than others by nature. and unless you're planning to get a ct girl or something, I really don't recommend you breeding since you only have vt girls and ct + sd males so the outcome won't be that desirable unless you're planning to keep the spawn small and give away the offspring to friends/ or keep them yourself. GL

 

[K.J.]

She could just be a eggbound female. If you want to see if its a plakat male, just give him/her a mirror or put it in a jar filled with water and plop it into your females tank or the other way around by putting the females into the jar and put "it" into the tank and see if she/he flares. As far as I know, they don't get more aggressive if they're giant just as how some bettas are more aggressive than others by nature. and unless you're planning to get a ct girl or something, I really don't recommend you breeding since you only have vt girls and ct + sd males so the outcome won't be that desirable unless you're planning to keep the spawn small and give away the offspring to friends/ or keep them yourself. GL

Nah, I'm pretty sure she's not a plakat, definately not good enough finnage/branching. I'm trying, desperately, to let me mom buy a ct girl off of Aquabid but she says I can't until my first spawn is successful. But seeing as how it is my first, I'm not expecting to get 300, but in any event I could keep a few of the males and I'd turn the growout tank (either 20 or 30, depending on if my mom will let me pitch in the money for 10 extra gallons) into a sorrority tank for the females. My lfs buys the vts anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem unless I get 100.. which I'm not even expecting. I'm not really certain the pairs - Jupiter and Ares won't pair up with anyone else, so I'd get vts from them, none the less pretty vts, but Loki and Nyx and Persephone (new female) haven't really paired up. Hopefully my lfs will be able to get some ct females in.. although they seem to think they don't exist, so screw them, aquabid seems my only chance.

 

[Wisperian]

Well I still say no to breeding them since they -might- just rot in the little cups in your lfs. I see that you're in Washington so you might want to try bcbettas.com. its not that far away from you so shipping won't cost -that- much. Marianne has her stock shop closed down atm and will reopen in september or so which is good because that's when you're planning to do your spawn? She basically has like almost every kind of betta you want but she cut down on a lot of them so just email her to ask if she has some CT girls which she probably will in a bit. Try finding another lfs? And you don't HAVE to pair your fish up vt to vt ct to ct . There are a lot of variations like PK x Hm for the first generation then for the second do Longfin PK+HM geno X a pk and get some plakats out of it. there are a lot of things you can do if you're willing to do a second generation

 

[lisie]

If you got her from a pet store, there's basically no chance of her being a giant.

I definitely wouldn't breed VTs. Even if you're not *planning* on getting 100 or more babies, you might get that many anyway. Unless you're going to cull, you can't really know how many you're going to get. Unless your LFS is a really good one, it probably isn't a good idea to give them your bettas. I know I wouldn't ever trust a pet store enough to give them my babies, and you never know who will buy them. Also, you never know how old pet store bettas are. Most of them are at or past their breeding prime when you buy them.

You're best off just waiting until you can get a breeding-quality pair. You can usually find some for pretty darn cheap, and it will definitely pay off when you've got a bunch of betta kids to find homes for.

 

[K.J.]

If you got her from a pet store, there's basically no chance of her being a giant.

I definitely wouldn't breed VTs. Even if you're not *planning* on getting 100 or more babies, you might get that many anyway. Unless you're going to cull, you can't really know how many you're going to get. Unless your LFS is a really good one, it probably isn't a good idea to give them your bettas. I know I wouldn't ever trust a pet store enough to give them my babies, and you never know who will buy them. Also, you never know how old pet store bettas are. Most of them are at or past their breeding prime when you buy them.

You're best off just waiting until you can get a breeding-quality pair. You can usually find some for pretty darn cheap, and it will definitely pay off when you've got a bunch of betta kids to find homes for.

That's the problem - my mom won't let me. I have plenty of money for a good pair, or I could make some, but she seems to think that I won't be able to breed anyway, which I can't really disagree with, as it's my first time. I would have bought a pair in a single second but she doesn't want to give out her identity... Plus, she "knows the bettas will die" if they're shipped, even though I explained to her if they got overnight they probably wouldn't. And I also told her if I bought them from somewhere here, that I could find a trusted breeder and get reviews from other people. Still a no. I would try to convince her all day but if I talk about it too much she just gets angry. I really do want a pair, but I have two years until I'm old enough to move out, and by then I'll probably have spent all my money on fish.

 

[lisie]

People ship fish all the time overnight and it is very seldom that one doesn't make it. Especially bettas; they're tough little things. Also, almost every breeder will give you your money back if a fish arrives dead, and I believe the USPS guarantees it as well, so you'd get your money back for both the fish and shipping... so you can't really go wrong.

If your mom still doesn't agree to let you get a good quality pair, I would just be happy with the fish you have for now and wait on breeding. It's better to not breed at all than to breed irresponsibly.