Male Betta with horizontal stripes???

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Kari

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Apr 14, 2005
Messages
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Location
Indiana USA
I know that the female bettas can have horizontal stripes on their body, but is that normal to see on the males as well? I lost a male betta today, and after losing him, and two of my females last week, I broke my 'no more fish for now' rule, and got another male tonight. I noticed when I first put him in his new tank, he appeared to have horizontal stripes, and I'd thought you only saw that on the females. After a few minutes, I really didn't see them anymore, so I don't know...does anyone else know more about this?
 
Aww, another betta died? :cry:

Female bettas can show horizontal stripes during the mating process, if they are ready to breed. I've never had a female betta. I suppose the darkness of the bars depends on her coloring to begin with.

The only time I've seen male bettas with "bars" is if they were stressed somehow. One betta already had dropsy, and another had finrot. (the one with finrot recovered; the one with dropsy didn't.) So if a male has bars, I would call that "color loss" and color loss in general is a sign of stress. It is somewhat normal for a betta (or any fish) that you just bring home to look pale. If he's coloring up nicely already, he feels right at home!
 
I'm SURE he feels better, anything's gotta be better than the tiny bowl he's been in for the last 3 weeks (at least). I saved another male betta tonight too, maybe. Another lovely wal-mart tale, although I suspect a customer may have done it intentionally.

So they have these little baskets to hang on the inside of the tanks, to keep a few male bettas in. (Most are left in a tiny bowl, in about an inch and a half of water, and sometimes even that's pushin it) I'm looking at the tanks, and I notice that there isn't a betta in the basket, it was one of the other kind of fish in the tank. Then I notice that the male betta is out inside the tank, and he had alot of fin damage. Nothing I hadn't seen before. So I started looking at the other tanks, and then went back to look at one with the loose betta, and noticed he looked a little different.
I got to looking closer, and realized there were TWO male bettas loose in the tank. I reached in and righted the basket, and got a net and put the stressed betta in it. I happened to notice, on my way out of the aisle, the other fish I had really wanted and thought were pretty. Painted glass fish. Now that I've gotten to know more about fish, and gotten to know what happens to THOSE poor fish... I don't think shopping at wal-mart has ever irritated me as much as it does when I go to their fish aisle now. Not even during the chrismas rush :evil:

On a happy note, I think the new guy IS happy with his new home. He and Levi are already flaring up at each other, and making a hardy row of it. Sir-Chomps-A-Lot seems to be a little depressed though. He just looked at both of them, and then turned away. I think he misses his sparring partner (through glass only!), Falcore, who's been moved to a qt tank in the bedroom. Ah well, maybe Chomps is just playin it cool :D
 
I'm glad your betta looks better now. I never go to Wal-Mart, for fish or anything else!

With my previous two bettas, when one died, I think the other one missed him. Their tanks were arranged in an L-shape so they could see each other if one was in the left corner of his tank and the other one was in the right corner. There are pictures and a little description of their "routine" in my gallery.

I now have other bettas in the tanks, but no pics yet! I have pics, but I need to put them in my gallery!
 
Levi looks alot like your Benny, but without the pink at the tips of the fins. The new guy looks alot like Kenny :D
 
Awww.... We both picked out nice bettas!

Benny and Kenny are in fishy heaven. :angel: Now I have to get pics of Kylie and Wylie in my gallery!
 
I've gotta figure out a name for this new one, something better than 'the new guy'. He's already looking 110% better than he did at the store, he and Levi have hit it off beautifully. I moved Chomps back by Falcore, I'm hoping he perks up.

And yes, I lost Scrapper yesterday, or the night before :cry: The worst part about it is I ALWAYS make sure he comes out for his food, and give him a good looking over to make sure he's okay. He'd gotten something a couple months ago that ate his tail almost completely away. It was awesome, watching him proudly keep chuggin along, and growing his fins back.

I'd been waiting for a warm day to get outside and go through the shed, BIG job. So since it got so warm wednesday, I got out there and started on it. After working out there in the heat all day, and still having a million things to do, I was bushed by bedtime. When I fed them that night, I didn't see him. Everytime before, if I didn't see him, it meant he was asleep, so I ended up waking him up, to make sure he was okay and that he didn't miss a meal. I shoulda checked wednesday night...I might have been able to save him.

It didn't take me long to figure out what happened to him, since he'd been doing so well up to wednesday morning. Wednesday it got hotter than it had since last fall. It had been pretty cold for the previous weeks, and I wasn't expecting it to get quite THAT hot, so I'd had the small tank and bowl sitting by the window, and still on the heating pad. I feel like a total ass about it, Scrapper's the one I wanted to take cruising with me. I think he woulda liked it, but I was too scared of stressing him to prove the theory. I didn't say anything about his death yesterday, because I was still too :evil: with myself for being so careless and thoughtless.

The new guy's beautiful, and I really like him. He's got alot of red, just like Scraps did, but he's also got green and blue, like my first male betta, Dragon. (my heart was BROKEN when I lost Dragon, it happened very quickly, and that's when I got Scrapper) The new guy seems to love the new home. I took the top off the tank, to make sure I didn't boil HIM too, and I'm going to try to find them another spot, where they won't be so close to the window.

Well...I have a TON of things to do. Water changes, a massive amount of ivy to plant (not in the tanks :lol: ), a ton of housework to catch up on; although I DO have some questions about some plants I already have, and am wondering if they could be planted in a tank? But I'll save that for later, first things first. I'll talk to y'all later.
 
My mind keeps wandering back to the injured betta that was loose in the tank with another betta. If someone else doesn't take him home soon, I may have to bring him home with me. I've actually thought about asking the store manager if he'd just give him to me, since they lose so many anyway, and that ones already injured. Is that a crazy idea? :?
 
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