# Im wondering do only female Bettas get stress stripes? I looked at the Baby Bettas...



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

I looked at the baby Bettas at my local Petco (sad little things:-() and all but one baby had stress stripes. I was wondering is that a good indicator of male or female? Also most of the babies had little or no color, is that because there babies or will that be there adult color as well? 
And...if anyone has pics of there baby Bettas all grown up that would be awesome!!

:thankyou:


----------



## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

Most dark colored juvenile bettas, male or female, have stress stripes. 

Babies will likely color up as the age.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, babies tend to have stress stripes although not always for stress. When they are young the stripes act as camouflage in the wild and they will eventually color up 

And pictures! I have pictures! So this is baby Steve the day he first came home:


About a week later:


And just the other week, he's been with me for roughly 4.5 months now I think and he still has a lot of growing to do since he's stunted but he's still going okay. His long time partner; Tony has just recently passed and so Steve's been super depressed lately.









And another one of my babies who was given to me at roughly 4 months of age (the other couple only had him for a month or so though) Hawkeye! First day home:









And now I think he's been with me 120-30 day's now, I keep track on my journal  This picture is actually about two weeks old now and his tail has actually a third larger now! He grows every day!


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah, babies tend to have stress stripes although not always for stress. When they are young the stripes act as camouflage in the wild and they will eventually color up
> 
> And pictures! I have pictures! So this is baby Steve the day he first came home:
> 
> ...


OH MY GOSH!! Your Babies grew up to be so darn pretty! Wow Hawkeye is a really handsome guy!
So I guess there is no way to tell by looking at a baby if it will male or female till it gets older, and obviously the color will be a big surprise as well!
Have you found the babies to be hard to raise? Im sure they will need all the same care as any Betta, but eat specific fry food and maybe chopped up frozen food huh?
Thank you for the pictures! I have been bitten by the Betta bug, I have a sorority tank, and a lone male in a five gallon, and now im thinking its very likely I will soon try to raise one to those poor babies, it would feel good to rescue one.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Thanks!!

Actually I've gotten fairly good at sexing Baby bettas, there is a time when they are too young to actually be sexed for sure but we can always speculate 

And you can usually tell the color fairly easily if you know what to look for and what color will look like what when they are stressed out or have stripes in general. Light colored babies like Cambodian's are generally easy to spot, they'll be a fleshy color with usually no stripes or at least not dark ones and reddish fins. But sometimes, yes it is a surprise! I did foresee Steve's color actually fairly well! Hawkeye however surprised me a little! I didn't think he'd get so dark!

As far as care, Babies are very difficult to care for. Think about human's, a baby is quite the commitment (although we last a lot longer than Betta's generally ;-)) But Baby Betta's ideally will eat every 3-4 hours, you want small but frequent meals. Feed them until their bellies are nice and round but not sticking out like they'll explode. So 3 times a day is going to be best, twice will be fine though if that's all you can get.

Water changes are going to be the biggest thing in their care. They require daily water changes regardless of tank size. Baby betta's throw off a Growth Stunting Hormone as all fish do, but it's much more potent than other fish. So if it's left in the tank with the fish, it backfire's and stunts the Baby which can be deadly if left unattended. So Daily water changes of at least 50% is what will be best, every other day if you're really busy one day but really, daily is what you want.

Heat is always great, 80-82 is perfect but it can be anywhere from 76-84 or so, it won't hurt them. Obviously, try to prevent temp swings as you would with an adult as well 

And for food, I really suggest New Life Spectrum Grow formula, it's a .5mm pellet that is very high in the nutrients they need. Also, yes, frozen foods will be great! Doesn't necessarily need to be chopped up, you can just slice a portion off a block of frozen foods though to keep the rest of it fresh so you can use it later since he obviously won't eat an entire block lol. Variety is always great, I use Frozen bloodworms, daphnia and brine shrimp along with NLS grow, NLS Betta formula (chopped up) and sometimes NLS flakes if my boy's are being picky some day's. Live foods are always very appreciated but I know we all don't have access to them. In the summer time though you can collect Mosquito larvae in a bucket of conditioned water that you leave outside. Make sure to dump the bucket every few day's though so you don't get an infestation of mosquito's! That'd be horrible!

That's all I can think of for right now, feel free to ask more questions though ^_^

Yeah, the Betta Bug bites hard!


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> Thanks!!
> 
> Actually I've gotten fairly good at sexing Baby bettas, there is a time when they are too young to actually be sexed for sure but we can always speculate
> 
> ...


Lol! Yes it does bite hard! Well first let me say thanks for the suggestion on how to tell a Cambodian. What I would like to get is a Cambodian female, at least I'll have a good shot at picking the color I would prefer now! 
I did know that a baby would have to be feed more often than an adult, I didn't know a thing about the growth stunting hormone though, so THANKS for telling me that. I can do three feedings a day and a water change a day will be no problem. I actually do feed mosquito larva, its a main staple in my fishes diet for most of the year, but that time of year is about to be over here. We expect the first hard freeze of the year this week and that will be the end of my fishes live food till spring.
Any tips on how a newbie like me could make an educated guess on the sex of the fish?


----------



## TiffanyP (Jun 29, 2013)

My little guy Yoshi surprises me every day! I got him as a little colorless fish with stress stripes and a few dragon scales...


And now he's black!!! I never would have thought he'd be black! The pictures don't show just how black he is though  I've had him for 2 days shy of a month now.


And this is a baby I've had longer, Alaric. This is him when I got him.


10 days after I brought him home:


And a couple of weeks ago. I've had him for almost 5 months!


----------



## Chachi (Sep 22, 2013)

Alaric looks a lot like my Owen! Makes me wonder if her coloring will be similar when she is a bit older! Cute babies!


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

TiffanyP said:


> My little guy Yoshi surprises me every day! I got him as a little colorless fish with stress stripes and a few dragon scales...
> 
> 
> And now he's black!!! I never would have thought he'd be black! The pictures don't show just how black he is though  I've had him for 2 days shy of a month now.
> ...


Your babies are so cute! I especially like Yoshi, I think its rare to get a dragon scale baby. I look at them every time I go to Petco and I haven't seen one I thought would turn out to have dragon scales. Both your babies look great! What do you feed yours?


----------



## TiffanyP (Jun 29, 2013)

Oh thank you  I quite like them too haha

I feed them NLS small fish formula - perfect size for their little mouths  I also feed them 3 small meals a day since I am able to. I also pick out the smallest frozen blood worms and feed them those as soon as they are able to get their mouths around one, usually once a week or so.


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

Well I went to Petco and Petsmart yesterday, I was actually planning to get a female or two for my sorority tank, but the few females that they had were very drab in color so I didn't get one. I also was PLANNING on resisting the urge to get a baby Betta for a couple more weeks, but I didn't do that either...
I saw this poor little baby and it looked like a cambodian like I was wanting to get later on. She was all starved and sunk in so I got her. I say her but it could be a boy, I have no idea.

lilnaugrim! What do you think? Cambodia maybe? 

You can't see in the pic but she/he has red lipstick on! So cute, and the last pic is one I just took this morning. She looks a little better already I think. I have her in a specimen container floating inside my sorority tank, that way it will be easy for me to do the daily water changes and also she will be at a constant 79 degrees.


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Looks like a little baby boy to me! And yes, most likely a form of Cambodian! True Cambodian is very rare now but you can still get ones that usually have a blue iridescence over them (the original did not have the irid) and varying hues of red. Looks pretty healthy to me as well! Tiny, but healthy :-D definitely do daily changes for him and he'll start sprouting like a weed in no time! :-D


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

lilnaugrim said:


> Looks like a little baby boy to me! And yes, most likely a form of Cambodian! True Cambodian is very rare now but you can still get ones that usually have a blue iridescence over them (the original did not have the irid) and varying hues of red. Looks pretty healthy to me as well! Tiny, but healthy :-D definitely do daily changes for him and he'll start sprouting like a weed in no time! :-D


A BOY!! Wow I was betting it was a girl! Of course I have no idea how to tell at this age lol. Thank you so much for replying!


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I has pictures! None of these are my fish though lol. First is another male Cambo

So this is the first male. Notice that he only has a bundle of organs right behind his head, that's his stomach mostly along with some other organs on top of it.


And now here I have the stomach outlined in red, it's the circular object and behind it is an empty cone. That's where the ovaries would be if it were indeed a female.


Here's another baby girl who turned out to be a beautiful cellophane marble girl. Note that she also has the stomach but there's a little yellow mass starting behind it, it doesn't look like it's just a stomach but there's something else sort of there.



And here's the same girl grown up a little more! Note the yellow cone has grown! You can see it's actually like a cone now!



Hope that helps!


----------



## annyann (Oct 28, 2013)

It helps a *massive* amount, thank you! I got up close with a magnifying glass.. _0_o _ And there is no yellow behind the stomach, so my new little fish must be a dude haha. Thanks for helping me figure that out!


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Sure! Np! Of course it's always easier in light colored fish ^_^ it can get super tricky with the darker colored ones haha


----------



## Chachi (Sep 22, 2013)

Your baby looks just like my Houdini! He's the one Lilnaugrim used for reference in her post. You'll enjoy watching him grow! Mine is still pretty small though and I've had him for almost 2 months!


----------



## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

^_^ hope you don't mind Chachi, I used yours and two of Mysti from Huffle_Puffle as well


----------

