# Sexing my Betta fry



## NoName (Sep 25, 2020)

Good day,
I've problems sexing my plakat betta fry. I got 77 5 month old betta fry of my orange crowntail man and purple plakat female. The are a little behind on growth, cause of a bad artemia egg delivery. But all are going great now. Just since they are so small I got problems really taking the males apart. Purple red ones are sitting apart in 5 liter buckets I think they are male. The blue orange one is now in my females tank with the mother in the back. Rest of the 45 females are in a 150 liter tank for extra growth room. Hope I can get some good pointers on sexing them properly before giving them a new home.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Males:
1. Bigger fins - if they look the same, look at ventrals. Males have significantly longer ventrals
2. Bigger head and mouth
3. Viewed from above more blunt head because of bigger mouth.
4. Before meals, males are in general slimmer tham females
5. When they color up they don't show light colored bars at mid section
6. When they flare, gill covers are about 90° to body

Females
1. Smaller fins
2. Smaller head and mouth
3. Viewed from above, head looks more pointy
4. Females in general have bigger bellies
5. In general have shorter bodies - or they look shorter because of their big bellies.
6. Young females show light colored bars at mid section (around belly area)
7. Gill cover usually do not open 90°

Keep in mind that male:female result is never 50:50. Sometimes you might get 10:90 or vise versa.

In one spawn usually males look similar as females look similar. However in mixed fin type spawns, you can't rely on these similarities. Long finned females may have longer caudals compared to short finned males. But you can tell by their overall fin size - males usually look like they have fuller fins than females (and males have longer ventrals).

I may have missed some pointers.


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## NoName (Sep 25, 2020)

Thats the problem. Some have bigger fins but stripes, almost all have the egg dot, some have longer vents but smaller fins, some have wider vents but have stripes and so on


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Could you post pictures


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## NoName (Sep 25, 2020)

I'll pick 7 random tomorrow and make pictures of them.


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## NoName (Sep 25, 2020)

First 3 I think are females.























I think these 2 are male.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

They all look like females. Look closely at dorsal and ventrals - they're rather small.

And by 5 months the males should have lost their fake eggspot. Try separating those and look closely at their gill covers when they flare.

Unfortunately by 5 months only females that want to spawn will show light colored bars. . . . Sorry forgot to mention these points


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