Female Dilemma

[andy_j]

Now i know plakat males are very popular but there is an ever increasing amount of tropical fish shops in the UK who are refusing to stock female fighters because of the amount of plakat males that are coming in with them.

Sooner or later, especially with many females dying from this mystery bacterial disease, you will not be able to buy females from a shop.

What do you think ? What's the answer ?

Andy

 

[devon_charm]

It is odd how this seems to be the case now, i have seen the ever increase in male PK's in LFS' but its odd to me how the breeders get "confused" between the two as when you do get females they are indeed VT's so how do the PK's get there eh. Plus these bettas come from Betta farms, the breeders having been doing it for generations, they aint sill, they know the difference...better stop ramblin now lol

 

[OldMan47]

I am very ready to agree with Devon charm. The breeders know what they are doing and they are dumping PKs because they want to. Since most of us can figure out the difference fairly quickly and many of us are rank amateurs, the breeders have decided they could get more for a PK that they pass off as a female than they might get for the PK as a PK. IMO the answer is to stop dealing with people who will do that. They will figure out that when nobody buys anything from them it would have been better to deal honestly in the first place. If your lfs is still buying fish from these places, that is where the action should start.

 

[blaxicanlatino]

wow, over er in Texas, there aint any plakats sold in my local petstore. When I ask an employee, they have no clue what da heck im talkin about. You may just have to buy females online or order them in

 

[newfishy]

it happens constantly in the us too, I think it is no accident that pks get sold as females, none at all. The mass produced vt breeders are not in it for just fun and games, its their living, and if selling a pk male makes them more if it is sold as a vt female...well thats what is going to happen.

if all shops had quality employees that could pick out the males, if every person who wanted a fish extensivly researched and knew what to look for it wouldent happen. even then you get super young males that mature and cause problems.

perhaps if it continues to be a problem online and local breeders will end up chargeing more for a pretty girl that you can be fairly sure is a girl then a big fancy tailed boy.

 

[blue_betta]

i noticed that just before the pk males started apearing in quantity, alot of pk females were also being seen. alot of the places around me were getting in the odd pk male, but mostely the pks were females. now most of the "females" are pk males. im not so sure its a question of them makeing more money on females. perhaps this mystery disease started in these fish farms, but they cannot afford to loose out so are selling off male pks as females so they are not loosing so much money.

i think it needs to be a case of finding out why there is such a shortage of females in the first place. susing out the "mystery disease" and finding ways to sort it. alternatively, setting up our own "breeding farms" from healthy disease free fish, and preventing the disease getting in in the frst place. and then selling the fish on for what they are.

 

[blaxicanlatino]

I think theyed sell the plakat males as females is because... well, males look more eye appealing than females. Therefire a customer sees such an astonishing, colorful, and elegant fish and wants to buy... plus, after all, you can keep multiple females togetther and are not as aggressive so a custumor may see a "female" betta as easier to keep.