# The Growth and Development of Mercutio



## Fernfronds (Aug 23, 2014)

Mercutio is about 2 months old and is a Petco Baby Betta. I got him on the evening of August 23, 2014 and decided it would be fun to show his development and stuff with others and that it may be fun taking pictures of him every day to see him grow.

He lives in a 3 gallon "pet keeper" (basically a kritter keeper) heated to 80 degrees with a blue and green glass marble substrate, a bridge decoration, a small ceramic pot, a plastic plant, and a Betta leaf hammock (the newer version without the metal wire inside). He is currently eating crushed Omega One Betta Buffet Flakes, but will be switched to the Pellets of the same name/brand once he can eat them without trouble.

(I have already had him 2 days, so I will be posting those two days in seperate posts, but after that I will be posting one update every day with pictures. I will be happy to chat about him and welcome tips and questions as long as there is mutual respect involved.)


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## Fernfronds (Aug 23, 2014)

*Day 1:*

This is Mercutio's current tank setup. (Ignore the thermometer, my heater was being difficult and his tank is now stable at 80 degrees.)(Also, the cover was only off because I was trying to get pictures of him and needed more light. He does have a cover.)









--------Pics of Merc On August 24th, 2014---------



















(He is next to my hamster's large bin cage because of space contraints, so don't mind the bin in the background.)



























------Updates for Day 1------

(copypasted from my tumblr)

Yes he is very clamped up and stress-stripey currently, but he is in a new world right now, and his heater had trouble overnight and he is very unsure of me right now so its expected. He does color back up when I am not close to his tank though, and is swimming actively.

I tried to get pictures of his colors but he goes all stripey when I get close enough. So he will have to settle a bit before I can get color pictures. He is a dark bluegreen color with red on his fins/tail, and appears to have a dark dorsal stripe which has me hopeful that he may be a dragonscale boy (though I will be happy with whatever he ends up being).

He will most likely be getting an Aquafarm V2 as a permanent home at some point in the next few months. I am really interested in the Aquafarm, and I feel that the V2 would make an appropriate tank if cared for by someone who knows what they are doing and can care for the Betta’s needs as well as the plants on top.

He will not be living with other fish, as I have not had very good luck with Bettas living with other fish/invertebrates, or in large tanks. Most of my past Bettas have done a lot better in 3-5 gallon tanks by themselves, so that is my plan for Mercutio.


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## Fernfronds (Aug 23, 2014)

*Day 2:*

------Pics of Merc on August 25th, 2014-------



















-------Updates for Day 2--------

Not much new today. Got some pictures of his colors, though. He is starting to relax a bit now, though he still hides from me and gets stripey if I stay near his tank too long, and also clamps up for a few minutes. I have been trying all day to get good pics of him before he notices me and hides or goes stripey. He’s such a pretty baby. I wish I had a better camera to show it. He’s gonna be such a gorgeous adult once his fins grow out too.


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

This is going to be interesting. Thanks for sharing his development with us.


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## Fernfronds (Aug 23, 2014)

You're welcome, hrutan. I figured it would be fun to share his development and to see it myself in a timeline of pictures, so Its good to hear someone else who thinks it will be interesting.


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## Baconator (Jul 31, 2014)

I love this idea! I will definitely be following! Can you already tell the gender? I saw some betta babies at Petco and I couldn't tell which was which when they were really small haha. I think a lot of people either want a male or a female, so the babies aren't big sellers, but I could be wrong. Being able to tell the gender of them would make me consider them more next time I get one.

Anyway, I will definitely be following this and look forward to seeing your betta grow and develop! Good luck!


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## Fernfronds (Aug 23, 2014)

*Day 3*

---------Pics of Merc on august 26th, 2014----------





























----------Updates for Day 3--------------

Really starting to relax and get used to his new home and mumma now <3 He isn’t hiding as much today and actually came up to me when I fed him. Lookit dat baby belly! He’s such a cutie. I also tossed my 5 small Marimo Moss Balls in with him, since when I clean my big tank, they get accidentally stuck in my siphon all the time (now that I have a small tank again, I can move them out of it). He seems to like them, though I think he may also be a bit unsure of what they are supposed to be. The world is so different when you aren’t in a Petco cuppy, huh?


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## Fernfronds (Aug 23, 2014)

Baconator said:


> I love this idea! I will definitely be following! Can you already tell the gender? I saw some betta babies at Petco and I couldn't tell which was which when they were really small haha. I think a lot of people either want a male or a female, so the babies aren't big sellers, but I could be wrong. Being able to tell the gender of them would make me consider them more next time I get one.
> 
> Anyway, I will definitely be following this and look forward to seeing your betta grow and develop! Good luck!


It can be very difficult to tell. Especially with the smaller/younger ones. I'm only about 90% sure he is male, though its no big deal if he ends up a female. When he lost his color and got all stress stripey, I couldn't see any ovaries in his belly, so that's most of why I think he is male. A couple of the other babies who appeared to be from the same spawn looked very obviously to be females to me as well, so there's also that. There were a few babies that were much younger and I really couldn't reliably sex them.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

He's definitely male if you were interested ^_^ He'll be a blue VT with red wash. He looks exactly like my boy Steve looked like :-D


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

He's already a very pretty boy. It's funny how _dramatic _the blues seem to be when they stress stripe.


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## Fernfronds (Aug 23, 2014)

@lilnaugrim: Thank you, that's good to know  How can you tell the tail type with him being so small, though, if you don't mind me asking? Almost all my Bettas have been VTs and Merc is my first baby, so I don't really have much experience with many tail types (or babies) to begin with ^^;

@hrutan: Thank you very much. I hope he's as handsome as my boyfriend's blue and red VT boy. Though his boy has only a little touch of red on his fins. Its gotten darker, though. Closer to a more purplish color. He's had him for over a year now.

And I know! Goodness, I've never seen such a dramatic stress stripe. None of my other boys ever really got stripey, but my girls did when I first got them. One of them was dark blue, and lost most of her color when she striped, but not quite as much as this little guy. I do have to say, I'm glad he's all colored up and un-clamped now, though. He's very pretty and very lively. I was honestly not expecting him to settle in so quickly.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I've gone through a lot of fish (not just my own by others here on the forum too) so it's just tell tale signs like VT's almost always have slanted anal fins whereas a HM is _supposed_ to be straight or a little curved. But it comes down to the ray's in the fin. Here's a picture depicting rays:


And here they are on a real fish:


That first picture is a picture of a 8 rayed HM, HM's can have anything from 4 rays up to 16 and more depending on their genetics. The second is a HMPK with 4 rays.

VT's can ONLY have 2 rays so their primary ray will only branch once.


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## Fernfronds (Aug 23, 2014)

Ah, okay, that makes it a lot easier to understand/identify. Thank you


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