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Male Plakat Sold As Female? Or Just An Aggressive Female?

13K views 51 replies 17 participants last post by  FishyBloop 
#1 ·
About 3 months ago I purchased what was advertised as 4 female Betta's to add in a tank with a male along with Harlequins and Amanos. The male was in the tank for a month before with the other inhabitants and all was fine.

When I introduced the 4 "females" there was no aggressive behavior from the male nor females. So I thought all was well! But due to it is not advesed to put females with male Bettas I paid extra close attension for the first couple of weeks to asses them. I found out that 3 of the females were fine, they were submissive to the male and got fat (with what I belive to be eggs). The male was in his prime, flaring occassionally.

But the problem "female" started to show aggression during this stage. It started nipping at the Betta Splendens tail, causing in the end, quite serious damage. I had a 12g on standby for this and I had to seperate them. I put the male Betta Splendens in it to heal his fins with aquarium salt to prevent infection as well as a high protein diet.

Also with my suspect male Plakat I noticed he started to pay more attention to the females. He, or she didnt flare at all but did sort of round them up and stay close the largest female. But the thing I dont understand is that it looks very much like a small/juvenile female betta. So I cant really blame the LFS for selling it as one, especially as they have limited knowledge anyways!

As it stands now I have decided to put the definate male Betta back in the original tank with the females as his fins are healed fully. I put the suspect Plakat into the tank the injured male came from. But just to confirm with the picture and experience anyone has had on here, is it a male or female betta? Thanks in advance!

Swan

Bellow: Suspect Male Plakat, Sold As Female (sorry for bad quality)


Bellow: Fin Damage On Male After Confrontation
 
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#4 ·
Maybe. But a friend of mine who will probably comment on this thread soon, also had this problem. In fact I belive we both got out females from the same LFS. But when he seperated his female (suspect Plakat male) it started making a bubble nest. A attribute only the males do. So it must be a male surely?

Swan
 
#5 ·
exactly the same problem swan, not sure if mines a plakat male but it has definitly shown aggresion to my other male, enough to kill him! When I introduced a new male betta the same problem occured(flaring gills and such) yet the 3 other females showed no aggresion. When I put the "female/male plakat" into a spare tank it started to make a bubble nest, is this not a male behaviour?

Just to add swan and I brought the females from the same lfs unbeknown to us that there was problems.



 
#6 ·
Luke your betta is just a male veil tail with some fin damage you can tell its a male by it body and tail.
Swam some females make nests too. Its not very commom though. I read about it online it some females believe they are males and build nests.
 
#8 ·
One tell-tale sign for a female is the horizontal lines (2 lines) running through the body.
You have a female. Females will attack males as well. Only closely related betas can be kept together for a long period of time.

Oh, if you're trying to breed them, let them have visual contact not physical contact. Only until the horizontal stripe turns vertical will the female be ready to mate.
 
#13 ·
Swan - try to get a clearer pic and I'll tell you if it's a male or female ;)

Luke - your fish pictured is def a male. The head and stocky body is a dead giveaway. Look at his mouth how it curves up more then a female.

mistergreen - males will get the horizontal stripes if they get really sick or stressed as well.
 
#16 ·
Luke - your fish pictured is def a male. The head and stocky body is a dead giveaway. Look at his mouth how it curves up more then a female.
The mouth is not necessarily a male/female thing. It's a lineage thing. I've had females with that mouth.
Luke- I think it's a male too.


And the stripes are normal. When a the fish is not stressed, and the lines are there, it means it's a female.
 
#14 ·
The first one looks like a female to me, the second a male, altho I am no expert. Do either of these "females" have an oviposter - a little white raised looking dot on their underside where the eggs come out? It's not always visible so even if you don't see one it's not a definite thing that it must be a male, but it is helpful in determining sex.

I've never heard that only females get stress stripes - but now that I think about it I've only ever seen stress stripes on females.
 
#22 ·
The first one looks like a female to me, the second a male, altho I am no expert. Do either of these "females" have an oviposter - a little white raised looking dot on their underside where the eggs come out? It's not always visible so even if you don't see one it's not a definite thing that it must be a male, but it is helpful in determining sex.

I've never heard that only females get stress stripes - but now that I think about it I've only ever seen stress stripes on females.
+1 on wendyjo's point. If you can see an oviposter it is definately a female.
 
#15 ·
Are the horizontal stripes a sign of stress and stress only? Or can they be natural? And I am in the process of taking a better picture of the Betta male/female in question. Its a young juvenile though, even for a female it would be small so sexing may be even trickier. Thanks for the help guys!

Swan
 
#21 ·
I thought that another reason for the lines to change was when they become sexually active?

And if mine is a female, swans too, isnt it really rare for two females to show signs of male aggression and other quality's, even to the point of them both building bubble nests?

Also found this picture, as you said how easy it is to google, this male plakat which has almost the exact same finnage as mine?



http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-your-betta-bettas-male-or-female-114068.html
 
#24 ·
I thought that another reason for the lines to change was when they become sexually active?

And if mine is a female, swans too, isnt it really rare for two females to show signs of male aggression and other quality's, even to the point of them both building bubble nests?

Also found this picture, as you said how easy it is to google, this male plakat which has almost the exact same finnage as mine?



http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-your-betta-bettas-male-or-female-114068.html
Im with Luke here. That confirmed male Plakat looks the exact same as my suspect one. Infact theres little differenace at all! I looked today and there was no 'Oviposter' that was visable on it either. I will get a picture up of it later today.

Swan
 
#23 ·
luke, when they are sexually active, the female will show vertical bands.
The horizontal stripes cannot be used as a yardstick as both stressed male/female will have the horizontal stripes.

http://www.oneworldinternetcafe.com/betta/breeding_betta_fish.html
if you go to the link, you can see two female betas, the first(blue) you can see the vertical bands that I am talking about.
 
#26 ·
You know, aside from the issue whether your short-finned betta is male or female, the issue remains that it seems to be a very dominant/aggressive fish, and may start having issues with the other bettas in the tank if you haven't separated it out.

Keeping Betta splendens together in the same tank is always a challenge even when keeping just females in a "sorority" tank. IMO keeping both males and females together in a tank this small is just inviting problems as those fish reach sexual maturity.

If you really want to keep both male and female Bettas together in the same tank then I encourage you to either try and find some "true" wild-caught Betta splendens or go with one of the other Betta species that are not as aggressive by nature. http://smp.ibcbettas.org/ is a really great resource.
 
#32 ·
I like your wild Betta speedie. But me and Luke20037 were discussing it today and we were both adament it would be near enough impossible to get them here in the UK. Its a shame :( Wont stop me looking know, because you never know one might crop up at a decent LFS.

But if there tank bred how can they still be called wild? How many generations do they have to be before they are counted as not wild? Or is the term 'wild' just used as a common name for that type of betta?

Swan
 
#34 ·
I have no idea about the availability in the UK, but here in the USA at least the prices are dropping by the month. So it's definitely worth taking a look... any fish clubs or do your LFSs work with any reputable importers?

But if there tank bred how can they still be called wild? How many generations do they have to be before they are counted as not wild? Or is the term 'wild' just used as a common name for that type of betta?

Swan
The issue isn't really whether they're F1 or F10- but whether or not they've been crossed with domesticated bettas resulting in the super-aggressive domesticated genes. "True" wild Betta splendens are not nearly as aggressive as domesticated Betta splendens as they have not endured generation upon generation of breeding for sport fighting. Most domesticated bettas in the hobby today still come from those original Asian fighting lines... and the fighting "sport" unfortunately is still going strong in Asia.
 
#33 ·
To answer a previous post obviously the answer was to remove the offending fish and problem solved. This still doesn't answer the main question of male or female there must be a way of 100% knowing whether it's male or female?
 
#35 ·
Does the fish in the first pic always have those stripes? To me they do look like stress stripes, and again I am not saying males don't get stress stripes, but I have never seen a male with them. I see females with them all the time at the pet store, and typically if you just put the fish in your cart, away from the other fish, the stripes disappear in a few minutes.
 
#36 ·
Yes the Betta in the first image always has those stripes. Its in an isolated 12g at the momment and still has them. Could they have them due to my food has alot of the B Carotene, causing colours to be more vibrant? Ive covered most options and see no reason for it to be stressed. Still not sure if its male of female yet, need to get a better image on here!

Swan
 
#38 ·
Hey, everyone! I have a question related to Betta gender identity as well. I bought a Betta fish about a week ago at a pet store. It was labeled "veiltail female", which is exactly what it looks like. I read up on Bettas before I bought the fish, and I didn't question "her" gender because she always has two stripes going from her mouth to her tail. This is the only fish I own, so it is alone in the tank. Yesterday, I left for a few hours and came back to a bubble nest in "her" tank. Now, if the stripes are definite indicators that the fish is a female, and the bubble nest is a definite indicator that the fish is a male, what is my fish??
 
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