Friends betta???

Ok I have a friend that bought a female betta awhile back and it had short fins. She put it in her tank with the male betta and they fought like amd and the male died. She treid to put in cories with the betta and it also killed those.... now she tells me that the betta who she thought to be a female is now growing and is developing long fins..... Hahaha she bought a male betta and thought it was a female... could this be right... could you mistake a male for a female if it was not fullly developed??? could this maybe just be a label mistake also... what do you all think... she is afriad to put anything in the tank wioth it now. She named it big red _itch then when she noticed the fins growing she now changed the name to twisted sister...

Heidi

 

If the fish was very young it's possible that it was a male with undeveloped fins, or it may have been a Plakat (a wild Betta breed which is VERY aggressive and looks similar to a female Betta Splendon) Either way under no circumstances can a male and female Betta live together. They can only be put together for a short time while spawning and even then sometimes one will kill the other or seriously injure each other. Breeding Bettas is best left to professionals.
Some Bettas are so aggressive they will kill ANY fish you put in the tank with them. Rose had a female like that who killed 3 other females and a couple Cories either directly or indirectly.
Please tell your friend to keep this Betta in a tank alone and NEVER to try putting in tank mates again. If you could post a pic of her fish we here could identify it's gender and breed.

 

It is very possible to have a young enough male that the fins are not developed enough to tell the sex. They are selling younger and younger fish now and they are very hard to tell the sex of at times.

Right now JT's fins look not a lot larger than my female halfmoon's fins did when she finally took a flying leap out of her tank and died. She was a Cambodian Halfmoon and her fins looked very much like a male's.

Rose

 

Even if the Betta is not a male there have been accounts of females killing other Bettas and Cories before (which is why you always need a backup plan).

 

ok thanks guys I wil see if she will let me get a pic of him... She isn't planning on sacrificing any more fish to him.... She was rather upset about the cories so that tipped the scale.. He is now a loner with as much play space as he wants.... Thanks for answering we were curious..

Heidi