"There are various methods of identifying male and female bettas. These are some of the methods I know, together with ratings of how accurate I feel each method is. Do note that bettas usually reach maturity at about 3-4 months depending on the frequency of feeding, so sexing them before 3 months old can be quite a difficult task."
Regards,
Bettfanatic aka Walter
FINNAGE - 7/10
- Females generally have smaller finnages. This is very prominent in HMs and CTs. Due to much selective breeding, females are starting to display fantastic finnages too and may get confusing for HMPKs.
- A point to note is that females generally have shorter and thinner ventral fins, compared to a male's which is usually long and thick.
EGG SAC - 10/10
- This is the most trustworthy method as it involves the spotting of their sexual organ. However, it is not easy to spot the egg sac for beginners.
- After a betta's head, you can see a black, round organ. And that, is the stomach of the betta. Connecting right after that, if you are able to spot a triangular whitish organ which swells at the beginning and decreases in size towards the tail, that betta is a female. Yes, that organ is the egg sac. For males, anywhere after the stomach should seem bare.
- For bettas that have opaque scalings, the contours of the body are to be observed for the detection of the egg sac (see next point).
BODY SHAPE - 6/10
- Due to the egg sac within the females, a female betta will seem generally fatter. When viewed from the top, males are usually slender while females appear fat from the head and decreases in size slowly towards the tail.
- Males also generally have more stout and muscular build compared to females.
OVIPOSITOR - 5/10
- If you look at the bottom of the betta, right in between the ventral fins (The two long fins in front), there should be a white spot or tiny tube for a female bettas. This is where eggs will be released from.
- The accuracy is not very high because according to my experience, some young males do have this spot too.
BEHAVIOUR - 3/10
- Males tend to blow bubble nests at least the size of a fifty cents coin. Females are known to blow nests too but with smaller bubbles usually.
- Females are less likely to flare as readily as a male. Certain females will dip their heads down as a sign of readiness to spawn.
- Do take extra note that behaviour may differ greatly from fish to fish and hence, is not an accurate determinant. Eg. Certain females can flare like a male.
WHITE STRIPES - 8/10
- Dark coloured females (Eg. Steel Blue) will exhibit vertical white stripes when they get excited upon a male's presence.
- This is not easily, or impossible to be seen in light coloured bettas such as yellow.
Look closely, vertical stripes can be as faint or little as this:
An obvious e.g.
Fry food sold here!
Cheers! :)
Bettafanatic aka Walter
