Opinions On Stripes

[juliehainsworth]

Hi ok thought I'd ask if anyone knew whether or not the verticle bars actually mean that a female is ready for spawning or whether or not its just a sign of her submitting? The reason for me asking this is that I have some juvie males that recently escaped their containers into the tank with my male betta Gabriel and when I found one he had the exact same white vertical stripes as the females get when introduced to a male, which is why I'm wondering if the stripes actually mean that they are submitting?

All opinions welcome to this one!

 

[Synirr]

It's not submission, it's actually the opposite... vertical bars are a sign of dominance, horizontal are submission
When a female is ready to breed she displays the vertical bars as a sign to her mate that she is a fit and dominant fish and worthy of his attention. When a fish displays these bars to another fish of the same sex it is a sign of aggressive dominance, they are saying "I'm the top fish here, don't mess with me!" I often observe this in young juvies who haven't developed their colours yet so the stripes are highly visible... the most aggressive of the bunch will display vertical bars when on the attack, then go back to the typical horizontal bars they all wear when at rest.

 

[Rynoah]

Ahh, I was wondering about horizontal bars. I recently acquired a new boy who had been kept in a tank full of flame tetras, which was next to an empty tank containing another male betta. The new boy was pale and displaying horizontal stripes. Poor guy's fins were a bit nipped, too.

 

[juliehainsworth]

Thanks Synirr! Trusts the little juvie to try and dominate the big guy! !