I've had a male betta for a couple of years now in my community tank. He was always very placid, I've never seen him flare or bubble or anything, he just kinda mooches around .

As most of the books I've read say that female bettas make good community fish, I always kept one eye out for them and I picked up two from a local store a few weeks back. They were juveniles but the man assured me they were definitely females and that they wouldn't be in a mixed tank if they weren't.

However, one of them has grown very fast - twice the size of the other one now - and as its fins have grown they've got quite long underneath. It's quite a colourful fish for a female, pale pink with blue and red fins. I have been wondering whether it's actually a male.

Obviously I monitored them when I first put them with my original fish but he seemed completely disinterested in them both. However yesterday morning I got up to find his fins were badly shredded. He was acting aggressively to the pink fish whenever he came across it (the pink fish isn't fully grown yet and was hiding from him). Because of the damage I've taken him out and he's currently watching me type from a plastic container on my desk that I'm using as an emergency tank.

Now of course it could be that one of the other tankmates has been attacking him, but they never have before. I keep mollies, some cardinal tetras and pencil fish, a couple of corydoras, a ram and golden loach in there - nothing pugnacious.

What I'm wondering is, does this prove I was sold a male fish, or have I got an aggressive female? How can In definitively sex the pink fish? Also, will the boy's fins grow back? He doesn't seem to be in any distress and is behaving as normal, but he looks an absolute state.

pic, males are aggressive towards females too.

(pink's about 5cm btw)

Ah, I didn't realise that. Bad idea all round then, I guess :(

that appears to be a female.


yeah they do get aggressive towards eachother, what size tank is this?

actually I just saw it flare at the other one (the female I bought the same day)...I think I have issues here...

it's a 70 litre tank. Not sure what that is in gallons...

ive heard that fins will heal

What you have is an 18 gal tank, That basically isn't enough room for a male and a couple of females counting the other fish you have in there. Some females can be just as aggressive as any male and can do damage to other bettas. If you want a sorority of females you need at least 4 or 5 females so that the aggression is spread out more. But you don't have enough room for that many. Taking the male out is a good idea and probably won't be accepted back into the tank unless the female is ready to breed.

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That"s a nice lookng fish!