Question about female bettas

[Kari]

Hi, I've posted in the 'unhealthy fish' section before, but not here. I don't think this is a question of some type of disease or parasite though.

I have three female bettas that are in a 10 gallon community tank. They seem healthy and fine, for the most part. I'd been noticing this tiny white spot on the underside of one of them for a little over a week now. Today, I put her in a small bowl, to be able to look at her more closely. I put her back, and decided to get the other two, just to check and see what it SHOULD look like. They ALL have the same white spot. It almost looks like a small piece of bone poking through, and it's in the same place on all three. If you were to look at them from underneath, it's located in front of the long bottom fin that spans most of the underside of their body, and it's in between the two long, thin fins. If anyone else here has a female betta, or has had one, or just knows what the heck that spot is, I'd be really grateful to know. I'd thought it was a beginning sign of ich, or some other parasite, but after seeing only the one spot, and in the same place on all three fish, I'm thinking that it's part of the fish itself.

 

[An t-iasg]

You may be seeing the ovipositor, or the egg-laying tube -- it's how the female lays the eggs. It becomes easier to see as the fish gets older. Here's a link: http://www.bettacentral.com/anatomy.htm

 

[Kari]

An t-iasg, you're a genius with this stuff! That's EXACTLY what it is! Thank you for the link, I'd tried to look it up on the net earlier, but couldn't find anything that described in detail like that.

That link also answered another betta question I had. But here's another question I still have...my male bettas have almost a stone-washed appearance, like breeders mixed their colors and such. Some of the darker spots on my bettas aren't fading with black spot treatment, but those particular spots look more like a navy blue than a black. I don't want to continue treating them for black spot disease if they don't have it, so I was wondering if anyone might know about the coloring of the common bettas you'd find at an lfs?

 

[An t-iasg]

Well, I just like to help!

Bettas' color can vary greatly. What you're seeing could be their color. If you've been giving them meds for the full length of treatment, stop and just watch them for awhile. I have seen bettas, especially red ones, that appeared to have a black "outline" on each scale. It was very pretty.

Also, a lot of bettas are rather pale in the lfs. (Sometimes, a sign of stress in bettas and other fish is some color loss.) After you get them home and into some nice clean water, they often become more bright and colorful. One time I bought a blue betta. He was pretty in the store, but within a week or so, he developed some reddish highlights on his fin tips. The reddish color was probably always there, but it came out more with good care.