Our New Bettas

[Sofia]

Just thought I'd introduce our new bettas, we've not gone off on the right foot on the bettas forum but hopefully we can all move on and i along with martin can learn lots and lots!


Lucy: who as far as I can tell is a Plakat

Josie: has not flared up yet but I am assuming she is also a Plakat

Mica: is a veil tail as far as I can tell

Our dog rocky:

I've written down what type of betta I think they are, could somebody please confirm or correct me?

Lucy and josie are sharing a divided tank till we get some more females, Mica is in a 5 gallon on his own next to the girls tank, they can see eachother and Mica often flares up, is this cruel? should i move his tank?

Also Lucy keeps flaring at Josie is it normal for a female to flare?

 

[Honeythorn]

I'm not an expert on tail types but Lucy does look like a plakat. I'm actually wondering if Lucy is male in fact because of the difference between the two in terms of length of fins ect.

Mica looks to be a veiltail to me. He looks almost exactly like my Duncan!

Separating them is a very good idea, females often fight when in two's and threes so keeping them apart until you get more ladies is a good move. Females do flare, mine do.

5 gals for Mica is fine, but constant flaring can be very tiring. If the tanks are next to each other, just slide a piece of card between them so the fish can't see eachother.

 

[Sofia]

Thanks honeythorn, I'll try and get some better pictures of them tonight, the light isn't helping the clarity of pictures!

Mica does look like Duncan!!! Duncan is gorgeous, I'm hoping to plant out the tanks soon should bring out their colour more.

 

[wilsonnw8]

I'm not an expert on tail types but Lucy does look like a plakat. I'm actually wondering if Lucy is male in fact because of the difference between the two in terms of length of fins ect.

Spot on. Lucy is a male ! I hope she/ he is in his own tank!

 

[Honeythorn]

Woohoo I got it right!

In which case, it's best to get "lucy" ( name change is due? unless he wants to be a tranvestite ) a 5 gal tank of his own .

What size tank do you have for the female/s when you have more?

 

[Sofia]

how can you tell that lucy is a male? she's of a similar size to Josie.

Josie and lucy are in the same tank but it's divided.

I'll try and get a picture of josie flared up so we can compare!

'Lucy' and josie are in an 8 gallon tank

 

[Honeythorn]

It's the length and shape of the fins. They're very different shapes in these pics. And "lucy" has quite long ventrals as well, certainly more noticeable. Others will be able to tell you more about the differences.

8 gals, you can get away with 5 females in that with dilligent water maintenence and good filtration . And once planted it'll be a great home for them

 

[nosoup4you]

Yeah, I was thinking male myself after looking at the pics. Don't take my word for it though, I am definitely no expert on Bettas. The length of the ventrals combined with body and fin shape would lead me to believe it is a male

 

[Netty]

They are all lovely but as has been said Lucy is 100% male.

We bought a groups of females last year a this one "Diesel" turned out to be male. You can see the difference in fins but also the very long ventrils. It's quite commom for this to happen and in the group of 6 that we bought, 3 turned out to be male but this is the one we decided to keep.

 

[nosoup4you]

Perhaps you could call him Lucien. lol

 

[Sofia]

Ok then!!! oh dear lol

Just for comparisons sake here's a better picture of Josie

she's definately female right?

 

[Honeythorn]

I'd say so yes.

 

[Netty]

She looks that way at the moment but I would still keep a close eye on her. She still looks quite young and has a bit of length to her ventrils.

This is one of our other girls that turned male but it took a couple of months before she really matured properly and was hastily removed. It's so difficult to sex them sometimes as young males will show characteristics of females especially when kept in a group of them.

 

[LionMom]

I'm no betta expert, but I have to agree with the other posters. "Lucy" is definitely a "Lou"!!!

 

[Sofia]

Lucy has been renamed Lucius the Roman version of the name Lucien...thanks for the suggestion nosoupforyou!