# Wild type Betta question?



## Jenniferinfl (May 3, 2013)

I bought what were supposed to be 12 licorice gourami's, but only 6 of them are licorice gouramis and the rest are some sort of betta. 
These two seem to be a pair as they are always together. First photo is the one I assume is the male, 2nd photo is the female, 3rd photo is them together. Any ideas what they could be?


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I want to say imbellis but they could be splendens. I would need the see the color of their cheek spot to be sure. if its red its splenden.

Beautiful fish, you plan to keep them?


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## chipmunk1210 (Jul 3, 2012)

It is really hard to tell since they are so stressed and are not showing color. I agree with Majerah1 about either Betta Imbellis or Betta Splendens but without seeing their true color it will be near impossible to tell for sure.


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## Jenniferinfl (May 3, 2013)

I need to separate them all out. They are small, 1" or less, one is fully colored, the rest are not. Probably because that one is dominant. I will separate out a couple and see if I get them fully colored.


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## Jenniferinfl (May 3, 2013)

Any better?


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

They be Imbellis.


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## chipmunk1210 (Jul 3, 2012)

Since it does not have red cheek/gill bars and seems to have blue/green colored ones with a red tipped blue anal fin -- it is a Betta Imbellis.

Whatcha going to do with them?


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## Jenniferinfl (May 3, 2013)

I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with them yet.. lol 
I don't seem to be able to definitely get the licorice gourami's I wanted to work with, but, did get these and was thinking of getting some wildtype betta's before this. 

I think I'm just going to start by separating them all out and see what genders I have and go from there. Looks like I have a lot of males.. lol I have a feeling that when they are all separated I will have 6 that look like the one in the photo and no females after all. How do you tell male and female apart? The one male is pretty aggressively guarding a section of leaves and pvc pipe that he has claimed.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Males have longer fuller fins. Color is sometimes a factor but not always. 

Betta imbellis – Crescent Betta — Seriously Fish


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## chipmunk1210 (Jul 3, 2012)

You might have at least 1 female. The one in the first picture (and the next 2 pics after that one) looks female to me.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I agree, the one lighter colored one is a female.


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## Jenniferinfl (May 3, 2013)

majerah1 said:


> I agree, the one lighter colored one is a female.


Yay! That's good to know. Now just to find her again as they keep hiding in that tank.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Thats normal. Most breeders will keep the group together so its not really a big deal. The male will breed with any female who is ready. He will flirt and she will decide yay or nay.


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## Jenniferinfl (May 3, 2013)

majerah1 said:


> Thats normal. Most breeders will keep the group together so its not really a big deal. The male will breed with any female who is ready. He will flirt and she will decide yay or nay.


One of the males has gotten very defensive, the most brightly colored one, he is guarding a section of leaves near a pvc hide. He just hangs out there and flares almost constantly. Everything else is hiding in the corners of the tanks. That's why I had thought of separating them out. But if they are usually kept together I won't worry about it. No one has fin damage, he doesn't seem to make contact, just dive at others who come near.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

What size tank, how many and how big are they? Can you show a FTS?


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## Jenniferinfl (May 3, 2013)

It's a 20 gallon long, there are 6 of them. Most of them are an inch or so, one is around 1.25" and is the fully colored one. 
What's FTS?

Sorry, know nothing about these guys really as they were supposed to be licorice gourami's.


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## Jenniferinfl (May 3, 2013)

Just thought I would update this as they are finally fully colored. So, here's one pretty, pretty male..


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Wow he is beautiful!


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

1^ with Bev,Very nice looking! 
FTS is a "full tank shot"(picture).


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## Jenniferinfl (May 3, 2013)

Thank you guys! 

They've really grown on me though I have to admit initially I was pretty disappointed they weren't the Paro's I ordered. 

I didn't realize imbellis had that bright blue stripe along the bottom. They really are a good looking fish, much nicer than I'd noticed before in photos I saw of them. I wish I had gotten a better photo of the females. There are two males and two females, I believe anyhow. The females just have shorter fins and are really dark bodied. Some color, but not those bright green/blue highlights like the males. 

I've moved them a couple times now as the tank layout just didn't work. Right now they are in this tank:










It is just a ten gallon, but now that there are pairs I've got another ten gallon setup for one pair to go into. It still has nitrites though, so they'll have to wait a little bit longer to get split up. There's lot of hiding areas though, they squirm down into the long fiber sphagnum on the bottom beneath the java fern. They're pretty much always squirming into that stuff. Honestly I would say they are playing in it, but, they are fish so I question if that's what they're doing.. lol


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