Mystery Of Myst

[Night61]

when i first got her she was rather plain looking, actually i wasn't all that impressed with her colors but she was a sweet little fishy. this is a pic on when i first got her a month ago

recently due to the increasingly cold weather i got myst a heater because it is starting to get very cold, but recently i noticed something she had changed colors on me. this is a photo of the same fish from today

personally i can't beleive this is the same fish but i know it is. i have changed her filter to a better one and given her a heater and a snail but she is the same fish. she is also now twice as hyper as she ever was before.
is this normal for bettas to change so dramatically?

 

[spazzinout]

This is just an idea... but, In the first pic, it looks like she has the bars on her body bettas get when they are stressed. For all you know, she might have been stressed and once you added the filter and heater, she got more confortable and started to show her true colors.

 

[wilsonnw8]

we see this so many times on here! I think you will find and others will probably agree she is a boy. We see this on the forum all the time and its happend to all of us- the first photo was a young male plakat, second a male plakat all grown up!

 

[metromyers]

Wow, what a change.

 

[Night61]

we see this so many times on here! I think you will find and others will probably agree she is a boy. We see this on the forum all the time and its happend to all of us- the first photo was a young male plakat, second a male plakat all grown up!

she is not a boy she dropped eggs two weeks ago and i saw her, she is defintly a little girl

 

[SharonCC]

Give a fish everything it needs, and most will not be the same fish you bought! Congrats on providing the proper care!

 

[duncs]

She looks like my male, who I bought as one of four females,
I'm sure mine is a he because I now have baby bettas swimming around my tank
Amy

 

[Joshy]

That sure as hell looks like a he to me.
Did you actually watch this one drop eggs?

 

[wilsonnw8]

I didnt mean to offend I know you say 'most definately is a girl' but to me it just looks like a male plakat, maybe its just a very colourful female but its hard for me to see that because she looks so much like a boy, have you seen any flaring? beard?

 

[Night61]

I didnt mean to offend I know you say 'most definately is a girl' but to me it just looks like a male plakat, maybe its just a very colourful female but its hard for me to see that because she looks so much like a boy, have you seen any flaring? beard?

not offended at all, i have another girl who has never dropped eggs, i think that one is a boy.

sorry if i cam across that way.
this is little rayne by th way my he she betta

 

[wilsonnw8]

lol confusing that one looks like a girl, the stripes down the body usually indicate a girl and she/he is a lot less colourful is there any chance that this one drops the eggs and that your betta pictured earlier is the boy?

 

[Syphoniera]

Good for you, sailornight6, for providing such good care to your fish as to be rewarded by such beauty.
Just glows!

I'll never forget the difference in one betta boy, (fleshy sort of pinkish in colour and, I'd thought, rather ugly in the store, but nice eyes/personality) the instant he began warming up in the bag floating in his new home, when the first hints of lovely irridescence began to appear.
Everybody who's kept fish knows through experience that fish pick up greatly in condition and beauty once settled in a home, rather than a stressful sale - tank, and when further recovered from shipping stress.
But the degree of alteration in bettas placed for the first time in a heated tank shows the importance of warmth to these fish.

And what I'm assuming is an egg tube which appears to be obvious in the pic would indicate that this is either a female (and they certainly can be colourful little beauties) or a feminized male, lately becoming progressively more common both in aquarium and wild fish over the past few decades due to the ever-increasing prevalence of industrially produced endocrine disruptors literally everywhere.
I'm guessing by the comments that nobody happened to read any of the info previously posted on feminization in male fish, the now-common evidence among bettas particularly causing much confusion.
Male fish, (and other animals) more and more frequently, are not only demonstrating female sexual characteristics, but producing both sets of equipment or developing completely functional, entirely female reproductive systems while remaining genetically male.
If interested, there's a whole big post on this somewhere back on this betta forum.
Anyone breeding, especially, has to be aware of this, as it affects and will continuously further affect them as well as the fish.
Men may not be men any more, in tanks, rivers and streams, although the sheep remain nervous.
They know they're next.

 

[ThePiggy]

Are your females kept together?

 

[Night61]

Are your females kept together?

nope i have four bettas each has own tank filter heater and snail to keep there tanks clean.

 

[ibbledibble]

although i can understand why people might think myst is male, i would tend to disagree (even without the egg evidence)

the anal fin is very square, which is a typical sign of a female PK. male PK's tend to have longer more pointed anal fins (which is why it is easy to mistake them for female VT's which have similar form) plus the ventrals are relatively short (all my PK males have quite long ventrals)

but regardless of anything else, she is a very beautiful fish

lol confusing that one looks like a girl, the stripes down the body usually indicate a girl and she/he is a lot less colourful is there any chance that this one drops the eggs and that your betta pictured earlier is the boy?

vertical stripes down the body do not indicate a male! i have had young males who stripe up at the drop of a hat.
in my experience it is young bettas (of both sexes) who are prone to stress stripes. it is more common to see it in females because they tend to be sold younger, due to not having to develop their impressive finnage.