The Mystery of Spence (With pictures!)
All right, so a bit of backstory. duae and I bought a betta fish. We've recently named her Spence. Or possibly, we've recently named him Spence.
I ninja'd this photo!
But I didn't have to since Spence saw me and came up closer to show off anyway.
This betta fish is very pretty, like ridiculously pretty for a girl, but it was in a tank with other female betta fish, since if girlies are good-tempered they can be put together. Boys can't. She was labeled as a girl and sold at the girl-price at the pet shop. Duae was sure she saw an ovipositor on Spence (a white dot on the belly where they lay eggs), and since she's bred them before she knows more about sexing betta than I do.
Honestly? My knowledge ends at "Ooooo, it's a pretty fish!"
Plus, on the way home, Spence fear striped. That's when black and white horizontal lines show over their body. Males rarely do this, but it's common for females to do, so that convinced us that Spence is a very manly girl.
Until I walked in and saw a bubble nest in Spence's cup.
...Well, now we have a problem. Building bubble nests is kind of like fear striping, just now it's something FEMALES rarely do, but it's common for MALES to do.
So we either have an easily terrified feminine male, or a very baby-orientated masculine girl. Personally? I'm leaning towards hermaphrodite. Just because it would be awesome.
Now, why can't I just look at the fins and go "Oh, Spence is fe/male. Obviously."? Because Spence is fairly... ambiguous. We have two other betta, a male named Fry and a female named Laurie, and Spence is... pretty much between the both of them in looks.
Fry likes to flare and show off at everything.
Fry says "You take WAY too long to take pictures."
Spence again, just to refresh memories.
Laurie takes crap pictures. But there she is, a pretty little girl.
Although I think Laurie's problem wasn't that she didn't want pictures, it was that I was FASCINATING with the camera, so when she realized I had it she kept swimming close and then getting out of focus and looking 'tarded because she wanted to investigate.
Fry and Laurie together, 'cause it was cute.
And if you want a little more wtf in this dose of what-gender-are-you-Spence-goddammit: For a long while Spence sat between Fry and Laurie. Yesterday I switched the order of the jars/cups they're in to go from Fry-Spence-Laurie to go to Spence-Fry-Laurie so Fry and Laurie can flare at each other. Spence only built the nest after all s/he could see was Fry. So if Spence is a boy, he's not... really aiming at the right gender to need that nest.
I ninja'd this photo!
But I didn't have to since Spence saw me and came up closer to show off anyway.
This betta fish is very pretty, like ridiculously pretty for a girl, but it was in a tank with other female betta fish, since if girlies are good-tempered they can be put together. Boys can't. She was labeled as a girl and sold at the girl-price at the pet shop. Duae was sure she saw an ovipositor on Spence (a white dot on the belly where they lay eggs), and since she's bred them before she knows more about sexing betta than I do.
Honestly? My knowledge ends at "Ooooo, it's a pretty fish!"
Plus, on the way home, Spence fear striped. That's when black and white horizontal lines show over their body. Males rarely do this, but it's common for females to do, so that convinced us that Spence is a very manly girl.
Until I walked in and saw a bubble nest in Spence's cup.
...Well, now we have a problem. Building bubble nests is kind of like fear striping, just now it's something FEMALES rarely do, but it's common for MALES to do.
So we either have an easily terrified feminine male, or a very baby-orientated masculine girl. Personally? I'm leaning towards hermaphrodite. Just because it would be awesome.
Now, why can't I just look at the fins and go "Oh, Spence is fe/male. Obviously."? Because Spence is fairly... ambiguous. We have two other betta, a male named Fry and a female named Laurie, and Spence is... pretty much between the both of them in looks.
Fry likes to flare and show off at everything.
Fry says "You take WAY too long to take pictures."
Spence again, just to refresh memories.
Laurie takes crap pictures. But there she is, a pretty little girl.
Although I think Laurie's problem wasn't that she didn't want pictures, it was that I was FASCINATING with the camera, so when she realized I had it she kept swimming close and then getting out of focus and looking 'tarded because she wanted to investigate.
Fry and Laurie together, 'cause it was cute.
And if you want a little more wtf in this dose of what-gender-are-you-Spence-goddammit: For a long while Spence sat between Fry and Laurie. Yesterday I switched the order of the jars/cups they're in to go from Fry-Spence-Laurie to go to Spence-Fry-Laurie so Fry and Laurie can flare at each other. Spence only built the nest after all s/he could see was Fry. So if Spence is a boy, he's not... really aiming at the right gender to need that nest.