OntarioBetta

What would you like to learn about:

• Colour & Tail types
  
• Genetics
  
• Sexing bettas
  
• Betta species
  
• Breeding Bettas and Fry Care

Male and female bettas are usually easily told apart. However some people have trouble seeing the differences. And sometimes they can be very tricky. Here I will show you a couple good ways to tell male from female.

1. The first and most easiest way is that males have longer finnage. Females fins are usually much shorter then the males.

Male	Female

However, there is one problem with this. That is that Plakats also have short finnage, and thereby are often confused with females. Here is a female and a plakat, see if you can see the difference:

??	??

Can you tell which is male and which is female? Well, I will tell you. The one on the left is male and the right is female. If you couldn't tell then keep on reading...

2. Another good way to tell is to look for the ovipositor. The ovipositor is the little white tube where eggs come out of the female. It looks like a little white dot just behind the ventrals. Sometimes young males will appear to have this but it usually goes away. Females will always have it, but some are less obvious than others.

3. A little less accurate way then the other two is to look at the body shapes. Males seem to have a more elongated body then females. Females tend to be a little chunky, mainly in the front. Females, like us, have more curves then males. Their bodies start out thick and then get thiner towards the tail. Where as males are just kinda the same throughout. Here are some examples:

Male	Female

Do you see how the female is bigger in the front? This is because the female has eggs, which takes up space. This female has a fair amount of eggs so it is easy to see the curve. Some females don't hold a lot of eggs so they may appear to have less of a curve, but the curve is always there.

4. Another good way to tell is that females get vertical bars/stripes. The only problem is that you can only see these on dark coloured females. Yellow, white, pastel, ect females will not show these. Males can get these stripes also, but only usualy when scared. Females get them when they are displaying to males or females. They look like this:

Remember, its only the vertical stripes that mean female, NOT horizontal. Horizontal stripes are fear/stress stripes and both male and female get them.

5. This is the last way I can think of, and it has to do with ventrals and anal fins. (ventrals are the 2 skinny fins at the front). Males usually have long ventrals, whether they be longfinned or plakats. Females generally have shorter. As well, the anal fin in males tend to be longer and more pointed. Heres a couple pics to help illustrate:

Male	Female

Male	Female

See what I mean?

Ok so first of all I will explain a bit about this. Its that kind of stuff you learn in highschool so its pretty easy. If I can understand it, anyone can:
 Its important to know about your bettas genetics in order to produce good offspring. You can't just pick 2 random bettas and hope they produce a trait you want. If you want double tail for example you have to have parents that carry that trait. When a trait is dominant it will show up over the recessive one, they can still have a recessive trait but it wont show. The only way for a recessive trait to show up is if both parents shows/had the recessive trait. There are 3 different combinations:
1. DD= This means the fish shows the dominant trait, and only carries the dominat trait
2. rr=This mean the fish shows the recessive trait and only shows the recessive trait
3. Dr= This means the fish shows the dominat trait, but it also carries the resessive trait.

In this case you would get fish that showed the dominant trail, the recessive trait and fish that showed dominant but carried the recessive.

Ok so what if you crossed 2 fish that both had a different dominant traits? Well then you would either get a blending or both would show up. For example, if you crossed a red betta with a blue betta. Both colours are dominant so you would get fish that had red and blue.

Heres a list of some of the dominant and recessive colours and tail types:
Dominant= Red, opaque, turquoise, steel, royal, butterfly, marble, Veil tail, crowntail
Recessive= Black, yellow, orange, Halfmoon, double tail, plakat.

Doubletail Genetics:

DT is recessive, so it will only show up if both parents carry/show the trait. Here are some examples of crosses:
S=single tail
d=double tail
Sd= single tail carries dt

1. Both parents are Double tail- dd

You did know there are more then 20 species of betta didn't you? When I say species, I don't mean colour or finnage- those are just variation of one species. Species are like actual different kinds of fish. The name betta refers to the genus, and the name splenden for example refers to the species. The bettas you see in petstores and most commonly bred are Splendens. Most other betta species are referred to as wild bettas. Some betta species are mouthbrooders, meaning they raise the fry in their mouths instead of a bubble nest. Some betta species are also vulnerable or endangered, such as Betta Macrostoma, betta Simplex, betta Chini and others. Because some are so rare they are sold for crazy high prices, like B. Macrostoma sometimes go for around $300USD a pair!!!

To learn more about wild bettas visit the IBC Species Maintenance Program for a complete species list and also tons of info.
To chat about wild betta visits WildBettas group.

To learn more about the wilds I currently keep, click on Wild Bettas tab above