# My young male betta has vertical stripes?



## VenomCT (Oct 17, 2015)

I read that only females get vertical stripes so I'm not sure why my male betta has them, he was sold as a baby male at petco, I've had him for about a week and he was slightly bigger then the other babies so is he actually a female that was just sold as a male or do young males sometimes get vertical stripes? He also seems to be blowing bubble nests a lot and I've read that male and females can do that so idk what to think. Im also not sure about the type of betta he or she is I think veiltail but I'm not positive and I would appreciate anyone's advise/opinion


----------



## Aquastar (Jul 17, 2015)

Petco is terribly at labelling the babies so I hear, I do think he is male though. I read something about vertical stripes= subbision stripes in babies? Could that be it? When I got my _adult_ male he had serious vertical stripes as well, no clue why though.


----------



## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I've had male Betta splendens show vertical barring, and both my immature and mature wild betta males will also show vertical barring on occasion. So it's not an exclusively female trait. 

Like Aquastar has said, the belief seems to be that it indicates submission. I suppose this theory makes sense, as if you are a young male you are going to want to make yourself look as non-threatening as possible (perhaps even trying to emulate the appearance of a female) to avoid being attacked by the mature males.


----------



## VenomCT (Oct 17, 2015)

Does anyone know what fin type he has? I thought veiltail but his back fin isn't very dramatic and is very round so he could be something else although I'm not sure how big bettas have to be for their fins to get their actual shape


----------



## VenomCT (Oct 17, 2015)

Also I have him in a gelato container because I'm in the process of treating him for fin rot


----------



## NickAu (Sep 28, 2015)

My betta when I first got her ( Sold as a female ) talk about stripes.


----------



## Aquastar (Jul 17, 2015)

Maybe some kind of juvenile delta? One LPS (that is bad with welfare of animals) has a bunch of deltas (that always go to bowls by the end of week) and they sort of look like him, his fins are still small though. But NickAu's stripes are different. Stress vs submission. My HM was rather stipey when I first got him, and good at making weird expressions.


----------



## Sadist (Jan 1, 2015)

He looks like a veil tail to me, but I'm not 100% sure. It looks like his has 2 rays in his caudal (tail fin), and his anal fin (bottom one) has the shape of a veil tail's anal fin. Since he's young, his fins aren't all the way grown yet, but I can see a tiny bend in the end of his caudal fin that might be the beginnings of the veil tail droopy thing.

I love his colors!

+1 on submission stripes vs breeding stripes.

His belly looks a bit big in the first picture to me. Did he just eat right before that? Since he's in the treatment jar, maybe you can see if he poops normally.


----------



## VenomCT (Oct 17, 2015)

Aquastar said:


> Maybe some kind of juvenile delta? One LPS (that is bad with welfare of animals) has a bunch of deltas (that always go to bowls by the end of week) and they sort of look like him, his fins are still small though. But NickAu's stripes are different. Stress vs submission. My HM was rather stipey when I first got him, and good at making weird expressions.


Aw he's so cute


----------



## aselvarial (Feb 21, 2014)

+1 to Sadist. My VT's tails both looked just like that when I got them. As they grew up, their tail started the tail droop and they both have gorgeous veils now. As he still is quite young, it's hard to 100% say, but I'd go with VT. Petco however is HORRIBLE at labeling tail types even for older bettas.


----------

