# Female betta sex changed to male



## Angelo S Camposagrado (Nov 22, 2019)

Yes, you read the title right... 










This here is one of my multicolor females, she won a show in a local show here in the Philippines on November 2020. after the show I bred her with a male which was a success and was able to grow the fry to adults. I decided to do a second breeding with a different male but it ended up failing. she became to damaged for me to groom her for the next show so I decided to nurse her back to a healthy state. Usually what I do with my females once they grow up I will be placing them in my sorority aquarium. One day I decided to just put her in the sorority with the other females instead of her living in her solo tank. A day after placing her in the tank, plenty of females have torn fins and most of them looked exhausted and i see her building a bubble nest in corner. I took her out immediately after seeing the event.

A few months later, I came across some articles that artificial sex change in bettas can happen and for some reason I theorized that maybe this female is no longer a female.

So in order to fulfill my curiosity I bred her with a female. After a day of placing them in the breeding container, there were eggs in the bubble nest. I removed the female partner and waited a few more days, and to my surprise the eggs hatched.











1 month later only 8 survived, but still this is a big discovery for me. that I was able to breed a betta with a male and a female
Here are some pictures of the fish for you to see the changes that happened to her throughout the months.
















Let me know your thoughts about this. I just could not handle keeping this to my self any longer so I decided to also share it here. Happy Betta Keeping to everyone!


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## Eridanus (Jul 1, 2021)

Wow, I wasn't aware that was possible with them! I'm definitely gonna research. That's fascinating


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## Feanor (Nov 13, 2020)

I don‘t remember where I read this (probably somewhere on the Forum ):

"(..)Fish do not have XY chromosomes. No joke. Their sex is fluid. A female can turn to a male, or a male can turn to a female in the right circumstances. This is more common when the fish are still fairly young. Like the rest of us, they become less flexible as they get older...(…)"

Amazing pictures and story😀!


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## Angelo S Camposagrado (Nov 22, 2019)

Eridanus said:


> Wow, I wasn't aware that was possible with them! I'm definitely gonna research. That's fascinating


Pretty bizarre right. There are plenty of articles about this happening but I only am able to see artificial sex changes conducted on the fishes and not naturally.


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## Angelo S Camposagrado (Nov 22, 2019)

Feanor said:


> I don‘t remember where I read this (probably somewhere on the Forum ):
> 
> "(..)Fish do not have XY chromosomes. No joke. Their sex is fluid. A female can turn to a male, or a male can turn to a female in the right circumstances. This is more common when the fish are still fairly young. Like the rest of us, they become less flexible as they get older...(…)"
> 
> Amazing pictures and story😀!


This could conclude that they truly don't have sex chromosomes. Could it be that during the fry stage they decide what gender they want?


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## YogisMom (Jul 7, 2020)

Angelo S Camposagrado said:


> Yes, you read the title right...
> 
> View attachment 1033830
> 
> ...


First of all, he is gorgeous! Second, oh my goodness. I never knew this and I’m amazed. It’s crazy how nature works! Thank you for sharing!


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## MABetta (Jan 10, 2021)

Wow, intriguing. I will have to go research this....lovely fish !


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## BettaMas (May 10, 2011)

Hi Angelo, thanks for sharing your interesting experience! Just curious, those 8 fry, what were their gender ratio - did you get mostly females?


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## Angelo S Camposagrado (Nov 22, 2019)

BettaMas said:


> Hi Angelo, thanks for sharing your interesting experience! Just curious, those 8 fry, what were their gender ratio - did you get mostly females?


At this time they are now a month and 14 days old. I still cant distinguish there genders but by looking at the size of the fins, Im guessing more of them will be male. But don't worry I'll post the picture of the fries once I can distinguish there gender.


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## BTanaka05! (Aug 11, 2021)

That is really cool! I wonder if when she was attacked, it stressed them into changing their genetic makeup. That can happen if an organism is exposed to a mutagen like UV, chemicals, or stress


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## ZiggyM5 (Jul 22, 2020)

Angelo S Camposagrado said:


> Yes, you read the title right...
> 
> View attachment 1033830
> 
> ...


Beautiful is an understatement. It is intriguing and strange, at least for me. Please, keep us informed about their development. Thanks for sharing.


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