Need Help IDing Tail Type

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FishesRWishes

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Nov 29, 2010
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Hey there,

I'm having trouble identifying what tail type my female betta has. Some have said plakat, some have said veiltail - I fugured the experts at AC would be able to help clear things up. Here she is!





She can also be seen in this video (I don't know how to get the video player to show up here):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0yLNjtAuso

I'd also like to know what tail types the other 2 females have as well, but am mostly concerned with the above female as I may breed her.

Your help is greatly appreciated!
 
plakat. maybe a bit of ct, but ive often seen female pks with a bit of spiking. female plakats have those short stubbier tails as opposed to veils, which seem to have longer, but less wide 'ovalishr' tails. shes really cute tho! ^^
 

Kaosu

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Oct 22, 2010
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Female Tail Types:



Different tail types have different amounts of rays. VT's, usually have two, as do CT's (though sometimes they can have more - up to 4 or 8 sometimes). HM's can have up to 8 (and have even been know to have as many as 12
), but usually have 4 or 6 (though a HM with only 4 - 6 rays would most likely be classified as a delta or super delta). PK's generally have two (traditional PK's) and HMPK can again have 4-8. When you look for rays, they always start off at the base of the fin as one big ray, then branch off about 1/4 to halfway down the main ray. It's the branching you want to count. It can be tricky to see sometimes.

Here's a pictures taken off of aquabid to show you what I'm talking about, lol.





I drew in the rays to make it clearer. In example #1 you can see the clearly defined 4 rays. But in example #2 you can see where the rays spliting off and there's actually a 5th ray, bettas rays comes in two's so when this fish is finished maturing there's a good chance that he'll have 6 rays. You measure your bettas fins by the highest ray-count. So it could have a few rays with 4, and a few with two, but would still be classified as a 4-ray.


Ok, now that you have an idea on how to count rays, we'll discuss each tail type individually. Here are pictures with certain highlighted points, look at the picture then we will discuss the highlights.

Veiltail



Ok, highlighted in red we see that the edges of her tail are not straight, they curve in toward each other.

In green we see that she only has 2 ray, a veil tail female will NEVER have more then 2 rays.

and In blue we see her anal fin, its long and scopy but not very well defined or symmetrical.

Delta/Super delta



Red - The edges of her tail are straight, the DO NOT curve in toward eachother.

Green - She has 4 rays, deltas/super deltas can have between 2-6 rays.

Blue - Her anal isn't as scopey as the veiltail and is more well defined, this is the type of anal we will see on the halfmoons as well.

Halfmoon



Red - Her tail had nice long straight edges, and when shes in full flare her tail make the shape of a perfect D.

Green - She had 8 rays, a halfmoon can have anywhere between 6 and 16 rays!!

Plakat



The only point I can really highlight here is her anal fin, a female plakat will have a smaller, straighter, shorter anal fin then any of the other females.

Double tail



Red - She'll obviously have 2 lobes, the more even the better

Blue - Double tails have a much long dorsal fin then any of the other tail types.


Telling a female from a male plakat



Red - Males tend to have much longer ventrals than females

Green - Males have an extra layer of skin on there gill making it possible for them to make the big flare face, lol. When females flare their girls will flare out but that BIG extra layer that frames the face won't be there.

(this is not my article..i just copied and pasted )
 

BettaFishMommy

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if you got her from a big box store, she could have a multitude of different betta genes in her, and you'll probably never be able to identify her as a single type. she is very pretty though!

Kaosu, great post! very informative!
 

LiveMermaid07

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Your girl's so pretty! Congrats!

Kaosu, great post! very informative!
Ditto! :)

Kaosu, I'm wondering since you know so much about betta tails if you might know about these shapes. These are fairly new fish of mine and I haven't seen tails like these before, or in your post.
(For give me if I'm hijaking op's post, that is not my intention op!)

The boys is rather spear shaped, unfortunately I don't have a good photo of it (and it was eaten off when he squirrled his way past the divider into my crowntial's area, it hasn't quite grown back yet so I can't try to get a better pic right now.)

2011_0823CheetoSpearTail - 1.JPG
these pics are kinda vauge, but his spear shape was actually rather pronounced.

2011_0823CheetoSpearTail - 3.JPG


The girls is the one I"m most curious about, she doesn't stay still for pics so they're kinda blurry, but she has a very sharp dividing space in her anal fin and I haven't seen that before in bettas (though I've only been at this a few years now. :) )
2011_0823 LittleGirl - Seperated Fins - 5.JPG
2011_0823 LittleGirl - SeperatedFins - 4.JPG

2011_0823 LittleGirl - SeperatedFins - 2 .JPG


2011_0823 LittleGirl - SeperatedFins - 3.JPG

2011_0823 LittleGirl - SeperatedFin - 1.JPG


Please pay no attention to the dirty glass! :eek:

2011_0823CheetoSpearTail - 1.JPG 2011_0823CheetoSpearTail - 3.JPG 2011_0823 LittleGirl - SeperatedFins - 4.JPG 2011_0823 LittleGirl - SeperatedFins - 2 .JPG 2011_0823 LittleGirl - Seperated Fins - 5.JPG 2011_0823 LittleGirl - SeperatedFin - 1.JPG 2011_0823 LittleGirl - SeperatedFins - 3.JPG
 
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