New Fish - Weird Fins

[helen]

i wasn't planning to get another betta so soon after losing Meanie, but a friend brought me one on saturday. he is a lovely little fellow, reddish orange and pretty small, has settled in fine. this may be a dumb question, but are there more than one "type" of betta? Meanie had big flowing fins and tail, and his tail was forked. this new one has a very small dorsal fin, it is just a narrow pointed one. his anal fin is fairly big but his tail isn't forked and it is long and narrow like his dorsal fin.

[abm]

Helen,

There are many types of fins!

The Bettatalk website has a good description of the various fin types with pictures to help you determine what you've got. www.bettatalk.com

Let us know when you figure it out!

[twoluvcats]

there are different types of bettas...many actually.

Here is a page that goes over some of the different tail types. www.bettacentral.com/bettatypes.htm

More often than not, you are only going to find veil tails at a petstore. The other tail types you get from breeders.

Your 'forked tail' may have been a tail split that never healed.

It sounds like your new guy is a veil tail.

[helen]

thanks for the links! from the pictures, i would think this new fellow has a veil tail. i couldn't see a dorsal fin like his in finnage pictures, but in bettatalk colors, the orange one has a similar fin. it is very long and narrow. i guess Meanie was a delta tail but as you say his tail must have been split by injury as it was divided in two parts when i got him.