male or female betta? (ans from experts only like MM,daniel....)?

Question

i have 3 bettas of which i know one is male and other is female. BUt i am not sure about third one. so i have post some picture of that betta. please check these pics the and tell me whether it is male or female. and if it is female is she full with eggs.(because of that white spot).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8308561@N04/

(This is third betta pictures)

this is aggressive one towards both other ones. But after some time it is hiding form my male betta.

2 question..---Also i want to breed them. I have 2 gallon tank and 15 gallon tank as breeding tank.
Which one is better for breeding bettas? Also i want details tips on breeding them. Any help greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

That's a female no doubt in my mind. The egg spot, coloration and pattern, heavy body, fin size and location, everything points to female to me.

The 15 would be the superior tank for breeding your bettas. The female will need space to hide from the male until you remove her and the fry will need space to grow without being moved too much. Below is a write up of how I go about breeding bettas. If you have any quesitons about it, feel free to email me.

Breeding tank: A 10 gallon makes a good breeding tank for bettas. Place in on a dark surface and set it up with no gravel or decorations. Use a small sponge filter and a heater. Maintain the heat at 78-82, the temperature is not really that critical. Using a hood is a good idea to hold in heat and moisture.

Conditioning: Condition the male in the breeding tank. Condition the female in a separate tank and be sure they cannot see each other. Feed well on frozen or live foods alternating with flakes or pellets for at least a week. The female should be plump with eggs and the male should be flaring and showing his best color, maybe even building a bubble nest.

Spawning: Drop the water level in the breeding tank to about 5" deep. Place the female in a bowl or other container next to the breeding tank so that the male can see her. As soon as there is a good bubble nest in the breeding tank add the female. Check for eggs in the bubble nest every few hours. You know they are finished when the female is hiding from the male and he no longer leaves the nest to chase her down. He will also not be trying to attract her to the nest. At this time remove the female from the breeding tank. If they fail to breed within a few hours go back and repeat the conditioning steps for a week.

Eggs and fry: The eggs will hatch in 2 days. At first the male will collect the babies and return them to the bubble nest, this is normal. Once you see that the babes are able to swim in a normal fashion, remove the male. Now is the time to start feeding the babies. Feed them newly hatched brine shrimp, micro worms or vinegar eels. Feed several times a day for the first week to 10 days. At that time you can start adding some powdered flake food to their diet and begin increasing the water level in the tank.

Care: The babies need very clean water. Do a 50% or more water change every day and be sure to remove any uneaten food or dead babies that you see. Keeping the water clean and changed very often is one of the major keys to success. Be sure you cull the brood. Culling is to remove unwanted fish. Remove any deformed fish right away and destroy them.

Rearing and selection: Eventually you will need to split the batch as they will over crowd the 10 gallon. Removing the females to another tank is the best way. The males can stay together without a problem. Continue to feed quality foods of increasing size working your way up to frozen or adult brine shrimp and continue to do large daily water changes. Once they begin to develop color, you should cull based on color. Keep the color you like and remove the rest. Even if you started with two reds you will get a few that are not red or are not evenly colored. If they are near adult size a shop should buy them from you or at least give you some store credit. Be ruthless, keep only the very best to breed with next time around.

The males can stay together basically for their entire lives as long as you never separate them. Once separated even for a day they will begin to fight so keep that in mind.

Best of luck and stick with it, you'll have baby betta before you know it!

MM

Answer 2

I'd have to say it looks more like a female to me, but not just because of the eggspot. Males can get them sometimes and Plakat males can also have short fins like that. I'm basing it more on the color with the horizontal stripes. If you're keeping them at a tropical temperature (75-85o)and giving them good water conditions, I'd expect much more color from a male. Some females can be pretty aggressive too.

For breeding, I like to use a 5-10 gallon tank. I draw the water down so it's just a few inches deep. A two gallon could be used, but unless both fish are ready to spawn when you add them to the tank, there's going to be some chasing and biting and the female won't have much room to get away. The 15 will be a little larger than I'd normally use, but I think that would be your best choice. You could add some elodea or wisteria at the ends to give the female some cover and the male a place to anchor the bubblenest.

For info on how to spawn them and raise the fry, I'm going to refer you to a website: http://www.bettatalk.com/breeding_bettas.htm - this has what you'll need for setting up the spawning tank through the actual spawning process, there's another page on raising the fry: http://www.bettatalk.com/rearing_the_fry.htm

Before you attempt this the first time, make sure you have a reliable food source for the fry. This means preparing an infusoria culture, or getting a microworm culture going. I'm sure MM will answer at some point, maybe 8 in the corner or Kylie Anne as well. Good luck with the bettas!

Answer 3

Thats' definitely a female betta you've got in the photograph.
It shows the horizontal striping as well as the white spot under it's belly.

On to your question. The 15 gallon one is definitely better for breeding betta. This will give the female a lot of room to get away from the male if breeding is not successful.

A larger tank will also ensure that the water does not get dirty quickly, which is really the number one killer of fry.

Answer 4

I am not a Betta expert. But I had to correct the other poster's info.

The Male DOES NOT lay eggs !!!

The Male makes a bubble nest and the Female lays eggs which he picks up and places them in his nest and he guards them.

Here is a great site with lots of info. and pictures...navigate on the left :) http://www.bettatalk.com/breeding_bettas.htm

And the picture does look female to me...there are wild type males with shorter fins...you can find pics of those if you just google it.

Answer 5

female bettas will have vertical stripes when they are ripe for breeding, and they also have a white dot at their bottoms. otherwise its a male. hope this helps

Answer 6

wah nice fish u have. ok about the betta.it is a female betta.why i am telling this because female betta usually have short tail and ohh i forget.so i hope u understand it.try go to this web below...

Answer 7

the pictured betta is a female. The males lay the eggs, (the white/clear bubbles found at the top of your tank) the females will fertilize them . you should seperate the fish while breeding. 1) allow male to lay eggs 2) remove betta and place female betta into the tank with eggs. thats it...