How come?

I have around 30-40 juveniles from my pair of vt unfortunately the mother Q-T died with dropsy. Out of all of them only one turned out to be a male. He looks very much a spade tale. Is it normal to have so many females. Could it be water conditions and temperature that has encouraged this? You probably think there may be a few males in there but they may be pks but none of them flare at each other or fight. They all swim around peacefully together. So if I do have a mixture of both how do I tell them apart?

There are various factors that can affect the sex of fish spawns, temperature being the main one; I don't know much about the effects in bettas though.

If there are PK males you should be able to tell them apart by body shape, the females have fatter front ends, they'll also develop an egg spot as they grow, though this is sometimes hard to see. Males will have a longer point to the anal fin, and their ventrals may grow longer. Once they hit the 4-5 month mark they'll also start trying to court the females so you'll see bumping and flaring.

How old are they now? If they're not fighting I wouldn't worry about trying to separate any of them, it's normal for males to just fit in with the group up until the point they reach sexual maturity if they've been kept in a group their whole lives.

KalandraJane wrote:There are various factors that can affect the sex of fish spawns, temperature being the main one; I don't know much about the effects in bettas though.

If there are PK males you should be able to tell them apart by body shape, the females have fatter front ends, they'll also develop an egg spot as they grow, though this is sometimes hard to see. Males will have a longer point to the anal fin, and their ventrals may grow longer. Once they hit the 4-5 month mark they'll also start trying to court the females so you'll see bumping and flaring.

How old are they now? If they're not fighting I wouldn't worry about trying to separate any of them, it's normal for males to just fit in with the group up until the point they reach sexual maturity if they've been kept in a group their whole lives.

Both parents were VT. but I suppose there are throw backs to the PKs. The only distinguishable one I have is easily recognizable as he is the only one with a long tail and he had to be removed as he was causing trouble. They are around 3 months. Tell you the truth they all seem to have points at the end of their anal fins. I'm having a good look now........no can't say I can see any egg spouts. The rotters won't stay still enough to get a good look.