BettaChris's Betta Page

Betta sexing is very simple,  but there are many people out there who will tell you the wrong stuff.  Not all male bettas are long finned And not all females are short finned.  While usually at local fish stores you will not see short fin males or long fin females, it is still good to know how to tell them apart.

Male bettas in the wild are short finned just like females.  Male bettas are nortorius for being fighters but that is discussed in the betta fights section.  Some male bettas are more aggresssive as some are less aggressive.  So you can't always base aggression or coloration or even fin length on being a male or not.  

 

-Good ways-

 

Some things to look for on a male betta is an extra flap of skin under his body(when looking at him head on).  The extra skin is an extended flap of skin from the gills.  Making it look like a beard.  This isn't 100 % accurate but it helps.  Some people say that their females have this as well,  but again this only helps sex your betta.  There is other info to come that will add to clues to figure out what gender betta you have.

 

Another thing to look for is no white dot under his body, inbetween his ventricles.  Females have a white dot or an egg tube(opisorve[checking the spelling later]) It is very rare to see a white dot under a male, while it may have been a paracite, i do recall having a male with a white dot.

 

My favorite way of sexing them maybe hard for new fishkeepers.  It is hard to explain but people who work around bettas all of the time can tell them apart by using this way.  Try looking at the head of the betta.  Males have a much bolder head and finage structure. While it may take some time to get use to looking at the head, experts can do it farily easy and it is about 90 %. 

 

You will develop your own tricks as you go along, but these are a few that I have learned.

 

--Bad ways---

 

Finnage: This way is very hard to use, as people will just assume that all long fin bettas are males, and that all females are short finned.  Which as you probably already know, that isn't correct.  As Short tail males and long fin females can get confused.

 

Coloration:  Again bad way as females can be just as colorful as males.

 

Aggression: Another bad way. Not all males are aggressive or as aggressive as other males.  Females are the same way. Some females are more aggressive and others are more passive.

 

Pics of males:

 

Short tail male:

 

Long fin male:

 

Female bettas can for the most part short finned.  Long finned females are out there though.  Female bettas for short can come in any color as males.  The only difference is that true black melano female bettas are mostly infertile.  I believe only 1-2 % are not.   Female bettas can live together, but their is most likely to be some fighting at first.  While their fights aren't usually as bad or as long as males, they can still do some damage to eachother. One of the common mistakes of stocking a female bettas is adding two females and showing them a male.  This will release hormones in the fish and in hte competition of breeding, they can do alot of damage to eachother. 

 

Some good ways of telling a female from a male were talked about in the male section.  As a quick over view, a good way is looking under the fish,  the egg tube is visible inbetween the two venticles.  It is a little white dot.    While it is possible to see a male with a white dot, that is usually just a parasite.

picture of some females: