can a betta be "partially" crowntail?

[marcusbacus]

Can a betta be like a "15%" crowntail?

It's not fin rot or tearing apparently, but the blue one (a fan tail) now has some little spikes (very little so far, but noticeable) in his anal fin and a little bit of these (not as noticeable) in the caudal. It doesn't look like ragged, but like the spikes seen in crowntails although much smaller.

To me it really seems like it's new finnage because his anal fin was slightly tore in one of the first water changes (a minor bit, already fixed) and this part that now has the little spikes is way past below that zone, which seems to show that the fin has grown after that "incident" instead of being just ragged or rotting.

[abm]

I'm not sure where you got your bettas, but I would say yes, of course he could be a partial CT. I actually have one, Taz, who I treated for fin rot for two weeks before I saw a picture and realized he might have some CT genes . Just like people, there's really no telling what kind of genes might be in your betta's heritage Enjoy!

[marcusbacus]

I was told that he might be a combtail, but this is not what he looks like either. The spikes are getting slightly bigger, as if he wasn't already big enough!
I found a pic that looks a bit like him (same kind of tail - mine is bigger though - and same proportional size of the spikes): www.geocities.com/dynarb/mediacol/4rc6.jpg

[Hannah]

He definantly could be part ct. All he would need are parents who were mixed breeds but had one dominant gene (meaning one gene that made the other genes not show up like the vail tail gene) to cover the other genes. Put together two fish that are like this and the results in the offspring could be many things. In your guy's case it sounds like what's called codominance which is where two traits (or more) show up. An example of this is blood groups. With our blood types there are 6 possibilities: A A, A O, B B, B O, A B, and O O. One that has blood type A B shows both "traits" in that they are able to accept both A and B blood types along with A B blood (I won't go in how this works but hopefull you've taken some genetics or learned about blood types and how it works. Worse come to worse if you want to know more about this you can pm me but, as I've found with most of my friends, people usually smile, nod, and say that that was nice to know even though they didn't get any of it :. Anyway, sorry about going on about this but I jus thought you'd like to know how it sort of works and breeders can get after me if they know that I'm wrong about this since I'm still learning a lot about genetics .

[marcusbacus]

Yes I thought it could be possible genetically but I thought that these spikes weren't that dominant to the point that they could be mixed with other kinds and still appear, although not as evident as in CTs.

I went to the IBC site today and in their sample of the Flare! magazine there is this article with standard guidelines and there's a pic of a betta categorized by them as combtail and mine is *very* similar to that, even more than this one in this pic I've posted previously (and mine is even more ragged every day). It's at page 11 of this link, the pic of the red fish: www.ibcbettas.org/StadBylawsForms/Flare%2038-1.pdf

As mine, the spikes in this one appear more in the anal and dorsal fins than in the tail.

[marcusbacus]

here it is:

planeta.terra.com.br/lazer/baco/blue01.jpg
planeta.terra.com.br/lazer/baco/blue02.jpg

It might look as he has a purple face in the first pic, but it's just a camera thing. The second one is more blurred but you can have a better idea of the spikes.

Is this a fantail, a delta, a super delta or what? I'm getting confused, it looks different every time... Sometimes he's as open as a halfmoon but without the full 180°...

[starlight]

He's a super delta with heavy finage. He has some combtail characteristics. Definately not crowntail.

What kind/size tank is he in?

[marcusbacus]

I wasn't sure if he was really a delta/SD because his tail is more rounded than I thought a delta would be (they look more like a triangle from the pics I saw). The only thing I dislike a bit in him is this transparent/reddish stripe in his tail, really doesn't fit well with the rest.

it's a 4.5 litres tank, about 20x15x12cm, unfiltered (yet - i am planning to add a Whisper microfilter soon, if it works) and no heating (I bought one but it's not really necessary now). It had a plant but it wasn't that healthy so I removed it, but I'll add another maybe next week. I'm planning to get more "gear" for it as soon as it's needed, but it seems that he's doing fine there as it is. He's a bit moody with his food, sometimes he eats something just to refuse it the day after in favour of something else... go figure.

The other fish is going to be moved to a larger tank soon... I'll take his pics as soon as he's there.