Sneaky Male? Or Just A Pretty Female?

[ninjacheesefish]

SOO!

I decided to by Occo two lady friends to live with him and keep him company and I'm confused.
I got two females, and one of them is brown and stripy and I'm certain is a female.

But the other one, the sneaky one I'm not so sure about. S/He is black bodied and has short stumpy reddy blue fins. (picture attached, sorry about the quailty)
Is this a male betta or a female betta?
I've shoved all three bettas into one tank, and they just seem to be chasing each other at the moment.

Also he hasn't started making a bubble nest. Does the water need to be still for this?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

It is extremely dangrous to the fish to keep males and females together. You need to remove the ladies asap before they massacre each other.

 

[lloyd]

it does look like a male to me. its very thickset and looks a bit bashed we could indicate that he wasnt the only male in the lfs tank. iv noticed more regularly that some lfs have more and more males creeping in female tanks.

your tank is more han likely destined for destruction anyway though because you really should have males and females living together anyway. most of the tim you will end up with 2 dead fish.

even if all fish were females you could end up with fataltys as female groups work better in larger numbers than just three.

i would suggest seperating them.............you could get away with keeping them (if your fish turns out to be female)if you had a really big tank but it is still a risk

 

[ninjacheesefish]

Right, Occo has gone back to being a single man in his tank.They've all been seperated.

The female and shemale have been but in a breeding trap with a divider, in a seperate tank.

Any ideas? Or anyway to identify males from female?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

If there is a white spot on the underside right in front of the fin, its a female. THat is called an egg spot and only females have them/.

 

[super-MAGuire]

If there is a white spot on the underside right in front of the fin, its a female. THat is called an egg spot and only females have them/.

Not strictly true, some males also have them, just fewer and not all females have them...

Thats the problem with betta, i tried to breed mine, and accidently ended up with a juvenile male dragon close to beating my super delta to death... LFS seem to be quite useless with spotting the females at a young age.

 

[Flute]

Have a look at the ventral fins, if they're much longer than your other female's, there's a good chance that it'll be a juvenile wild type male.

 

[ninjacheesefish]

I'll try and get some better photos of them, can you idenify by photo?

One of them has a white spot underneath. The other one doesn't.

 

[Flute]

If you can get an in focus picture, preferably with the ventral fins lowered, then yeah there's a good chance we'll be able to tell The ovispot is a good indication, but not 100% full proof.

Just for reference, here's what my two wild type males look like (they were bought as females)

This guy was crazy obvious after a few days that he wasn't a female:

Where as this little one was a lot more difficult to decide on, and took quite a few weeks to show that colouring.

See how long his ventral fins are compared to a female?

 

[ninjacheesefish]

I think its a male... Its basically a twin to the one in your first picture, just a bit more battered...

 

[Flute]

Best to separate them then. Sometimes keeping males and females together can work, but if you've got 2 males and 1 female, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[ninjacheesefish]

Photos attached:

^
Mystery fish. Possible male?

^
I'm guessing is a female, from her colours and fins.


Also at the moment they're all seperated. One's in a tank on his lonesome, and the other two are in a breeding trap as a temporary measure.
Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[Flute]

My guess is male. His dorsal and anal fins are much larger than those of the female. He's a handsome little chap though, and he'll look even better when his fins have healed up!

 

[ninjacheesefish]

That makes sense. He's very pretty though

Okay, is the female definatly female though?

i've named the male digit, it just suits him.

Also, these two fish in the photos get on okay. I introduced them and there was no fighting or anything between them. Is this normal?

 

[Flute]

Second one definitely looks like a female And Digit is such a cute name XD

They may get on ok for a short amount of time, but I wouldn't risk it for very long. Tis a rarity that males and females can co-exist long term.
I keep 1m and 6f together, but I bought them as tiny juviniles before they were even sexable, and the male is super relaxed. I think it's working for me at the moment because aside from them growing up together, there are 6 females so any aggression from him is spread out, so no one female gets beaten up. Saying that, the tank they are in is barely half stocked because I dread what would happen if I introduced any new fish. I'd be too concerned about messing up the balance of their group, and I have a 35ltr on stand by just in case he turns nasty. So I don't know if adding more females would allow you to keep your male with females. It would depend a lot on your males personality.