Young Transexual Betta's ?

[siamese lover]

I bought three females for my mature long fin Betta ( Blue & Red with flashes of White in his tail ) Beauty !!!!

---at least I was told they were young females !!!

All of them were a dull brown colour with lateral stripes and they stay that way while together. I isolated them in seperate floating traps so I can gently experimented with them, introducing them to the male long fin.
When they are alone two of them change colour, one to a deep blue and the other to a deep red. The third has always stayed dull brown with stripes.

No:1 THE BLUE ONE. is the most aggresive fish I have ever known, flaring her gills and attacking anything that comes close.

No:2 THE RED ONE. not as aggresive but when put with the dull brown one gets into a caressing "69" position like their mating.

No:3 THE DULL ONE. does nothing never changes colour or shows aggression. But seems to have chemistry with No:2

Whenever I put the RED or BLUE in with my Long Fin the tank erupts but especially with the BLUE ONE Not just bullying full blown fighting with ripped tails within seconds. If I put the DULL ONE in with him he just bullies her.

BUT MOST SIGNIFICANTLY is the way the BLUE & RED fish lose their colour rapidly and go back to DULL BROWN with stripes, when they are in a vunerable position ie being attacked by the male Long Fin.

We all love the long finned Siamese Fighters but in Thailand the true fighting fish is a short finned fish. I think I have three short finned fish TWO MALE and ONE FEMALE but I'm not sure. They are smaller but I just put that down to them being young.

CAN ANYONE SHED ANY LIGHT ON WHATS GOING ON ?

 

[modaz]

to be honest pictures of them would be good to deterine what they are as description is lacking

another point is that you shouldnt just add the (maybe) females to the males tank, reading up on the process of introducing them is the best idea, its called part of the conditioning if your planning on breeding them, its not surprising that you have problems by doing this, females can be aggressive, its in their nature as well as the males. your really not doing yourself any favours and only causing yourself concerns, like i said a few pics would be good.

 

[MermaidMel]

What Daz said! He's a wise man, take heed. I wouldn't be keeping them with the male anyway and they need to be without males and maybe 2 more girls would be good, lots of hiding places too. I keep 14 females in a 25 gallon tank and they never fight. Sure a couple of em have a wee bit of a chomp from a fin, but there is never any flaring, or blatant fighting or open wounds. In fact, they are cute together, they have concern for new arrivals not territory marking. But then, it's a big tank, with no other tankmates and LOTS of places to hide, should they require it.

 

[ibbledibble]

you could always try putting the "females" in seperate tanks around the tank your boy is in. so they can see each other, but not reach him.
if the girls egg up and get vertical stripes then you would know they were female
like daz said, you shouldn't just throw them together anyway. they need to be showing signs of being ready, after conditioning for a couple of weeks.

 

[siamese lover]

you could always try putting the "females" in seperate tanks around the tank your boy is in. so they can see each other, but not reach him.
if the girls egg up and get vertical stripes then you would know they were female
like daz said, you shouldn't just throw them together anyway. they need to be showing signs of being ready, after conditioning for a couple of weeks.

I have removed all three to a tank of their own with real plants and hiding places. They have all changed to bright colours two blue and one red. They seem to lose all of their colour when stressed in the presents of a much larger long finned male.

Before I got them my male was happily cruising in my 200 litre community tank. When I bought them I confined them all to seperate floating breeding tanks so I could experiment with their compatibility. I know that my male has chemistry with the red one but not with the two blue ones, he is primarily blue himself.

He is now back to cruising in the big tank and the females are happily sharing the small tank with no other inmates.

If any of them egg up I will try them with him in another tank to themselves.