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I thought it might be good to go through a few things that could help identify a female betta. It is getting harder and harder to do with all the colour and form mutations, so it means that the old ways that used to be relied upon can't always be trusted and we have to come up with new ways.

Generally it is best to use 3 or more of these methods, as if you just use one, you run the risk of getting a juvenile or short-finned male.


OVIPOSITOR (unreliable)
This is a pretty good one to work with if you are buying wild coloured fish or veiltails, but use this as a last resort if you are dealing with fancier fish as in some lines, particularly HM and DT types, non-functional versions of these are showing up on males. Look a smidgeon back from the ventral fins (the pair on dangly fins under the belly) for a little white bump. This is the spot where the eggs come from.

FEMALE SHOWING OVIPOSITOR



BODY SHAPE (scarily unreliable)
This can vary wildly, depending on how much Betta smaragdina and Betta imbellis blood the female has, and if it has a large percentage of doubletail, which horizontally compresses the body. Generally, females are quite muscular and compact in comparison to males and they tend to be a little plumper from the gut back as they are usually holding eggs, however you really need a side-by side of siblings to gauge this easily.

TYPICAL FEMALE BODY SHAPE



VENTRAL FIN SIZE (unreliable)
This is a pretty good one unless you are dealing with super dooper fancy fish at a young age. It works pretty well on VTs and PKs and most other tail types. Females generally have shorter ventral fins (the pair of dangly ones under the belly) than males. When folded back against the body, they should reach a maximum of 4-5 rays down the anal fin (the single long one that goes all the way along the underside of the belly).

FEMALE SHOWING AVERAGE VENTRAL FINS



VERTICAL BARRING (reasonably reliable in dark fish)
When in the presence of a male, a good number of females will develop vertical bars along their body. These are different to stress stripes, which are horizontal. These are a type of mating display and will usually only be shown when the female can see a male, but might occasionally be shown if the female is trying to show submission to another female betta. Yet again, males will very occasionally show these markings.
Vertical bars are almost impossible to see on light bodied fish like oranges and yellows, and can be obscured by thick layers of metallic or iridescence.

FEMALE SHOWING VERTICAL BARRING


EGG SACS (the most reliable)
On ight bodied fish, this is the most reliable way to determine sex. Look behind the gut to the tail of the fish, and look past the skin. Females over 3 months of age will have a white triangle extending back from the gut along the body towards the tail. These are egg sacs, and so far (yay!) males have never shown these! They are quite difficult to spot on dark bodied fish and those with a thick metallic or iridescent layer.

FEMALE SHOWING EGG SACS (circled)


Again (excuse the photo quality)





Things that aren't reliable enough to mention.

FIN LENGTH
It is generally short, but then again, males come with short fins just as regularly. The Thai, Singaporean and Indonesian breeders are working on females that have the fin length of males, so this ID method will only get even more irrelevant
FEMALE


MALE (F3 RTPK, notice that it has lost a lot of male characteristics)



COLOUR (very unreliable)
Female bettas come in all manner of colours these days, so the method of identifying them by colour has become somewhat obsolete. You can still get shipments of 'wild coloured' females though, so this might be a good method if you are choosing fish from a pet shop. Females of this type are usually a duller colour than males, usually a tree-bark brown, with red or blue highlights along the fins. Generally speaking, the brightest coloured wild coloured female betta in the tank is a short-finned male.
A WILD COLOURED FEMALE


A COLOURED FEMALE


A WILD COLOURED MALE



So there you go I'm sure that everyone has their own personal ways to tell these things, but if you are a bit lost, this should help you develop an eye for the whole thing GOOD LUCK!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Wow, that will probobly help me determine whether mines a girl or boy. but she never really takes her fins away from the white dot if she has it. She/He has a partially light body, so i will go check it out. Thanks!

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....

i recently bought what i thought to be 3 wild caught females. the two with red fins are females but one with a brown/black body and fins, and turquise speckling has turned out to be a male. im not sure whether it is a betta splendens either as they are all wild caught but its much more dull than the two females and has a much more longer and thiner body profile.

Do you have a photo? A lot of wild caught fish can be crossbreds as starred fighters and excess stock etc are often just released back into the waterways. It is so hard to be certain.

It sounds like you might have a smaragdina or sp. 'mahachai', or maybe a cross. It'd be great to see

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Wow great post Callatya, quite informative and detailed.

I am amazed at the colors on the fins of the betta in the last picture on your first post: A Wild Colored Male. They are just amazing! I've never been to much into bettas but the coloration of that single fish on your picture makes me want to have one just like it or similar.

Any tips of what I should be looking for at LFS's or breeders in order to find a fish with such intricate patterns of coloration on the fins?

Thanks for the post and the information provided in it.

All the best,

James

Yeah, id go with that, the natural fish are gorgeous. I'd rather have one of those than any of the selectively bred ones.

hi! i think the mystery fish is a male, he flares at the female and his bubble nest has gotten bigger. no wonder he ripped off part of my other male's tail!!!

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....

i dont have a picture but ill try to get one. ill google the species and tell u7 if it looks like them.

ok i found a picture that looks just like it http://www.aquanet.at/doerfler/Betta.jpg
its a betta smaragdina

That wild coloured male is my all-time favourite Would you believe that he was fighting bred? I picked him up from a shop in a region of the city where I am certain that they train and fight these boys.

When I talked to an importer about getting another like him, he laughed at me, and said that you could get boys like that for around $0.03AU at any local market. I was a tiny bit shattered, but on the up side it did mean that they popped up in shipments every now and again. Keep an eye on the female tanks, they pop up in there occasionally. If you want to buy one online or through a breeder, look for ones that are bred for fighting, but preferably not trained for it.

Good find on the smaragdina coop! That was the first betta species I bred, they were such great fish!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

that is a pretty male betta. i had one very similar but the blue wasnt as deep. the one i had was nearly twice the size of my other males and heaps more robust.

its wierd that i got a smaragdina, i only get male betta splendens down here most of the time and rarely get females. the females are always wild caught and every now and then i find a wild male in the mix with them. im gunna keep a look out for female smaragdinas, or i might just try to cross breed with the female splendens n see what happens.

Its a common thought that most fancy splendens are crossed with imbellis and smaragdina anyway, so go for it, just be certain that you don't sell the fry off as smaragdinas

If you want females, PM me and I'll see what I can find

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Thanks for the tips callatya, I'll keep a look out for the fish type, hope I'm lucky enough to run into one.

Might I add that that fish is one of the most amazingly gorgeous fish I've ever seen.

Thanks again for the post,

James