Why Are Male Bettas So Popular?

I have 3 bettas, 2 female and 1 male. The females are a veiltail and an elephant ear and the male is a crowntail. I'm posting this out of frustration after feeding all 3 of them. My male is so lazy. Most of the time he just sits in his tank doing nothing. The only other thing he does is flare at his own reflection. He won't eat food unless I drop it directly in front of his face and even then he will miss it half the time and once the pellet falls to the gravel he doesn't search for it like my females always do. He seems to be partially blind...which could be the case considering he's my oldest betta and I rescued him from the pet store when he was already an adult. Now my females on the other hand are amazing. Always active and very vigilant when it comes to feeding time. And honestly I think the more subtle colors and finnage makes them even more beautiful. Does anyone else prefer the females? If not, what do you like about the males?

 

I love the females as well, but my little guy always provided me with a good laugh. He would always swim over to me as if to get my attention, and "drape" his fins over his resting leaf, making sassy little movements with his head, as if to show off. That being said, I've seen many bettas like your male, and the "lazy" gene doesn't seem to be so prevalent in females, potentially because the weight of males fins slow them down a bit.

 

I’m thinking your male is just on the older side, and his laziness. And when you’re buying ‘bowl’ fish that are supposed to sit then and be pretty, the prettier the better!


This is coming from someone who knows how people think when it comes to buying ‘pretty’ fish; males 9/10 are pretty than females. Males are the ones with the long, pretty fins afterall (with the exception of plakats but that’s actually why most stores don’t sell nearly as many plakats as they do the longer finned bettas)

 

I like both really. But I don't really like the long fins cuz they have had lots of swimming issues for me. So I stick to plakats.

I believe that's part of why males are lazy. Most of my long finned boys don't do much.

Though my females are the ones I'm training and they're so much fun to work with.

 

Hello!

I don't have a preference, because no gender is better than one another.
Most people choose the male bettas simply because they are "bigger" or have "colorful" fins, unlike the females.
This isn't true. Females are still capable of being beautiful. Remember, animal males might be more beautiful, but that doesn't apply to reality!

I actually started off with a female, but she died early.
My passion has been bettas for 12 years, and I have kept more males than females, just because they were more readily available at my store.
I have my very own female now, and three males, she's more beautiful than most of my males.

 

I like them both, I also choose solid colors over marbles and kois over marbles as well - male or female. I like how plakats move more freely, I have a few longer finned bettas but pretty much all of mine are active and willing to hunt for food. My most personable one is my walmart veil tail (he had a half inch of dirty water in a cracked cup, I felt pity for him and he had spirit), his name is Fury and he rebuilds a bubble nest every two days and is quite alert. He is over a year old now, so he is still young (bright orange/red/salmon colored), he has the attitude most people look for in a betta (I haven't had him flare at anything, but if he saw another betta or fish i'm sure he would).
I have a lopsided double tail baby (not sure if male or female yet) that is active, peaceful to flashy guppies, and ignores kuhlI loaches.
My most recent boy is a "king" betta (he is about three times as big as my biggest betta, right around 4 inches in length and an inch thick. I likely will be trying him in a community setup since he seems fairly passive towards other fish and quite happy to be out of the tiny pint sized cup he was in.
Betas have different personalities, so your crown tail likely has a lazy personality hence why he won't hunt for food, most females are always hunting food just because they generally aren't as heavily weighed down as males by the fins.

 

I'm drifting to wanting females as well, and am going to try my first sorority this summer. But my boy is SUPER excited about food. He also seems to have trouble seeing it at first, but that might be the lights on the water. I'm feeding floating pellets right now (he doesn't like dried bloodworms, and I'm working on getting some live food established), and the tank has a bit of a current so they go around in circles which seems to get his attention. And he is ALWAYS hungry and flirty. Just packed with personality. So I get why if all males were like HIM, people would be very fond of them

When I do my sorority, I'll be buying babies "sexed" as female and crossing my fingers that they actually are. But I also want to try the experiment of lowering male betta aggression through socialization, so if some of them turn out to be male, lazy will be fine with me I am particularly interested in the findings that socialized or colony male betta don't grow out their fins until they're isolated, which means they end up looking more female.

(Much respect, but if anyone wants to yell at me for wanting to try this, please don't. I haven't set it up yet, and am educating myself as much as possible. I WILL have a backup plan, and others have done this with success. I am a scientist and a geneticist--experimenting is part of me )

 

I'm drifting to wanting females as well, and am going to try my first sorority this summer. But my boy is SUPER excited about food. He also seems to have trouble seeing it at first, but that might be the lights on the water. I'm feeding floating pellets right now (he doesn't like dried bloodworms, and I'm working on getting some live food established), and the tank has a bit of a current so they go around in circles which seems to get his attention. And he is ALWAYS hungry and flirty. Just packed with personality. So I get why if all males were like HIM, people would be very fond of them

When I do my sorority, I'll be buying babies "sexed" as female and crossing my fingers that they actually are. But I also want to try the experiment of lowering male betta aggression through socialization, so if some of them turn out to be male, lazy will be fine with me I am particularly interested in the findings that socialized or colony male betta don't grow out their fins until they're isolated, which means they end up looking more female.

(Much respect, but if anyone wants to yell at me for wanting to try this, please don't. I haven't set it up yet, and am educating myself as much as possible. I WILL have a backup plan, and others have done this with success. I am a scientist and a geneticist--experimenting is part of me )

They will look off because they will grow fins, the ventrals will be your giveaway for length but so will the egg spots on the bellies of the females.

 

So it's mainly just their larger finnage that makes them more popular which is kinda sad when you think about it because their big fins really do weigh their bodies down and make it much harder to swim. I still love all bettas but I am definitely more attached to my females. One of them has even learned to jump up from the water and take a pellet off my finger

 

I like males more because I don't have to worry about egg issues with the females. At my Petco almost all of the males are prettier than the females in my opinion.
I've had only two bettas so far because I restrict myself to one at a time.
My first one was a halfmoon. He was a bit lazy but very spunky and explored everything. He rested in his hanging logs a lot and only got really excited if I was near the tank. By the end of his 2 year and four month life he had battled fin rot off and on, his tail was ragged and half it's original size, he was mostly blind as well.
My plakat that I have now is VERY active, he's constantly swimming back and fourth in the front of the tank. Only when I walk away do I see him explore a little. He is also pretty feisty too.
I just enjoy males more because I like the colors and variety my pet store has to offer. I don't have to worry about the urge to do a sorority either lol

 

I like males more because I don't have to worry about egg issues with the females. At my Petco almost all of the males are prettier than the females in my opinion.
I've had only two bettas so far because I restrict myself to one at a time.
My first one was a halfmoon. He was a bit lazy but very spunky and explored everything. He rested in his hanging logs a lot and only got really excited if I was near the tank. By the end of his 2 year and four month life he had battled fin rot off and on, his tail was ragged and half it's original size, he was mostly blind as well.
My plakat that I have now is VERY active, he's constantly swimming back and fourth in the front of the tank. Only when I walk away do I see him explore a little. He is also pretty feisty too.
I just enjoy males more because I like the colors and variety my pet store has to offer. I don't have to worry about the urge to do a sorority either lol

What egg issues would you be referring to??

 

Egg bound or something. I've read some posts about females having issues and it always scares me lol

 

But I also want to try the experiment of lowering male betta aggression through socialization

I'm not gonna yell at you. But I think you should look into wild type bettas, such as betta imbellis, as opposed to the betta splendins. Spelendins have been bred for generations to be aggressive. Fighting is literally in their blood. With wild type bettas you could create a mixed sex community tank without major aggression issues, because they haven't had their aggression enhanced from generations of line breeding. If your lucky, the wild types will breed freely for you.

 

the wild type bettas you can definitely have more together, the big issue is they're VERY hard to find in many places.

If you have a really nicely planted tank you can do a social school of channoides or persephone. And if you find a place that has them OMG please let us know where cause I would love to have some again.

As for the females, my very first fish tank was a sorority female tank and it was GORGIOUS, I had some beautifully colored females with lots of spunk and personality.

I think one of the reasons most people prefer males though is because they're an 'easy' show piece fish that works with the sizes and types of tanks most people start with or have room for in their homes these days.

 

My Halfmoon male is not lazy at all. He attacks his food with gusto, especially if the current makes it move. He's always swimming around the tank except when it's dark when he hides behind the filter box. As soon as any light shows in the morning , he's out hunting. When he sees me come near he goes crazy.

I would say that for 90% of people (including me), when you say Betta, they think long fins and bright colors. Personally, I would never have anything but a male and the fancier, the "betta" (pun intended)

 

I went team female after finding one several years back. When I started fishkeeping there were never any females up for sale! So things have changed and there must be some decent demand for them.

I prefer how active and 'normal' they are when compared to a long finned male. Betta males in general make me sad because of the sometimes debilitating deformities that have been bred into them, but a 'matching' female is almost always in good physical shape. Plus, the females are serious hunters and seem to be more aware of their surroundings which makes for great interaction, and they are more expressive with their stripes and color changes.

 

I will say that there are more colorful and better looking females available today than there were years ago. I still prefer a male though.

 

Males just look so pretty with their log fins, but like others have said, all my long finned ones have trouble swimming, where as the shorter tail males (Not always Plakats, just not such long fins) and females are always much more active and swim easier. Therefore, I like female and Plakat males better,

 

I would love a male plakat...I bought my first one thinking it was a baby male plakat, turned out to be mislabeled as it was a female veiltail although I don't blame my LFS for making that mistake since they look so similar as babies. Ultimately i'm glad I ended up with what I have. Plakats seem to be kinda hard to find in the shop... types with larger finnage are definitely more prevalent in the trade...

 

The only place I have found them, other than online of course, is PetCo.