# When to sell fry



## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

Seems like most breeders wait till the fish just 3 months and that is a young but mature fish they can start spawning st 3 months right? 

So why wait so long to sell fish? Is it more for the breeder so he or she can pick the best fish out fo the spawn? When I bought my Severus he was an inch big now he is 8" . It's fun to raise a fish and watch it grown. 

So why not sell betta fish at 2 months? By this time they are big enough and strong enough. The buyers also get to watch their fish grow a big more. 

With pet co selling baby bettas it makes me wonder why wait so long to sell the fish. I guess for money too a larger pretty fish can demand a higher price. 

So at what age do you sell your fry and why?


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## Ilikebutterflies (May 19, 2012)

First of all it is really hard to sex bettas at two months old. It is a big deal because you can't keep males together. Imagine how annoying it would be to buy 20 two month females for a female tank super cheap because they are only two months old then have half of them turn out to be male. I'm already not that great at it and I'm looking at 300+ fish thinking how much sexing them is going to suck. 

Personally, my 8 week old fish haven't developed enough for me to see what I want to keep-but then again mine don't grow as fast as really experienced breeders that feed supplements and provide pristine planted tanks and such. I breed for my entertainment. It is a hobby so I have to wait and see what develops. There is usually a pretty big change between 2 months and three months-they go from little colored up fry into miniature bettas. By three months I can tell what I may want to keep but they are still real small. Between 3-4 months I swear they don't grow at all. Breeders always want to keep the best to breed again, the second best to show, the third best to sell on AB and FB and the rest to sell as pets and culls.

I'm looking at my yellows and impatiently waiting to see if the Cambodian looking ones are going full red or staying cambo. They are a bit past 7 weeks and the yellows are taking on a rich lemon yellow while the red/cambos are messy and streaky. I swear yellows take longer for the colors to develop.


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

I kind of forgot about sexing that is more important in selling betta fish then with other fish. 

I guess it all depends on how fast they develop. Thanks for that.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I don't really go by age, I go by size. I have found some of my bettas have been spawning and basically fully mature and sexable at three months, while others have taken from eight to twelve months to reach a size that could be called sellable (these are wild bettas not splendens). 

The rate of growth and maturity will naturally vary from spawn to spawn, and so you may find hardly any of your fry are at a size when they could safely be sold even at two to three months. 

As Ilikebutterflies has mentioned, it is quite hard to properly sex bettas when they are not fully developed. Most people when they are purchasing fish want a definite male/female. If your fish at two months old are not sexable, you may find unhappy customers demanding their money back when their 'female' turns out to be an immature male. 

Also, some breeders may wait longer because they want to see how certain fish develop before making their choice on who to keep and who to sell. You would be spitting chips if you sold your best fish because it was a slow maturer and you didn't give it time to reach its full potential.


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

I usually go by size and development when I sell.. some of my babies are well devloped and a decent size by 12 weeks, while others need a bit of growing in their fins. Here is one of mine just shy of 3 months when I first cupped it.. thought it was a female.. looks to be a female. A week later it's fins were much larger and more obvious a male. Others I have are known to be male by 8 weeks easily, but they still need to develop their fin spread and such. You don't want to call one a HM and it only be a delta because you sent it premature and the fins never got the proper exercise at it's new home and never spread out, etc. 

I had listed this one as a female at first and once it became more obvious I had to tell the buyer.. luckily it was Sukura8 and she loves HIM lol. So even at times when we believe it's one way, it turns into the opposite quite easily. This was one of the very few times I "jumped the gun" on selling.

Not to mention at 2 months they are still developing in ways other than fins - such as labyrinth organs, so it's best to send out ones a bit more mature.


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

So if you advertise them as too young to sex buy at your own risk and buyers don't care it's not a big deal. It will all depend on how well they develop. 

I have plakats so sexing them might take even longer ?


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

Plakats you have to look for other signs, which can get hard. Fin length is pretty much a useless sight when dealing with the young plakats. Ventrals, ovaries, body shape, aggression, etc are better signs, but yes, unless you are 110% sure of a fishes sex advertise it as "gender not guaranteed"... Then the seller can be mad at no one but themselves.


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