Recognizing Good Bettas-Shape

Betta colors were the subject of last month's article but that is only half of the story, the other half is the shape of the body and fins. There are two Betta shapes to consider - singletails and doubletails, each having its own distinctive body and fin shape. (ST AND DT are short forms used for

the singletail and doubletail Bettas respectively and I will use them throughout the rest of the article to help speed up my painfully slow typing.) Since one pi cture is often worth 1000 words the accompanying

diagrams should be helpful.

In both ST's and DT's the body of a fully-grown Betta should be at least 1-1/4” long. In both sexes, DT's have stouter stubbier bodies than ST's. Male ST's should have a streamlined cylindrical- shaped body without a humped back. DT males never approach the streamlined slender bodies of ST males but again, a humped back is to be avoided. As with males, female DT's are stouter than female ST's and in both types, the females should be more round and full looking than their male counterparts.

They are also usually a bit smaller than the males. Females with male-like slender streamlined bodies are usually faulted at shows - the judges prefer females that look a bit “matronly”.

The other area to consider with respect to Betta shape is the finnage. Firstly, the amount of finnage should be in proportion to the size of the body. A small body with monstrous finnage is as bad as a huge body and very little finnage. Looking at the winners in shows will give you a feel for the right proportion of body to finnage sizes. Extra length in finnage is less important than extra width: super- long but stringy fins cannot compete with shorter wide fins. When looking at both ST and DT males, the aim is to have enough width to the finnage so that when the Betta flares, there is almost no daylight showing between the fins. The Betta should look almost round in silhouette.

Going into detail on ST's first and starting with the dorsal fin; this should have a wide base tapering towards the top, thus looking like a "flickering flame”. The caudal or tail fin should be as wide as possible and should be symmetrical; that is the top of the fin should not be shorter than the bottom, as is often found on poorer quality Bettas. The anal fin should be wide with a bit of a point at the bottom rear end, not narrow with a long stringy point. The pelvic or ventral fins should be long and tapering; both should be the same length and they should not be crossed when the fish is at rest. This is not to mean that they can't cross when the fish is swimming - it is normal for them to do so when the Betta

“turns a corner” to swim in another direction; but they should not be deformed into a perpetually crossed condition. Some fish have short stubby pelvic fins - a serious flaw. The pectoral fins (behind the gill covers) almost never have serious flaws. They should be the same size and not be ragged at the edges.

When looking at a DT male flaring, one should imagine a straight line running from the tip of the nose, along the body and through the split in the caudal fin. The two halves of the betta, as divided by this imaginary line, should be mirror images of each other. DT's have many more fin rays than ST's, thus increasing the width of the fins. This is especially so in the dorsal fin which is approximately the same size and shape as the anal fin in DT's. Both the dorsal and anal fins should be almost square.

The caudal fin should be divided into two equal-sized lobes of identical shape. The split should go right to the base of the caudal peduncle (where the fin joins the body). The pelvic fins are somewhat broader

in DT's than in ST's. The pectoral fins are the same in both types of Bettas. Some common faults in DT's include a few short rays at the beginning of the dorsal fin, uneven caudal lobes (with the lover lobe

being larger) and an incomplete split in the tail. While difficult to avoid, these faults should be minimized if possible. The comments above for male ST and DT Bettas apply to females as well except that their fins

are shorter so that when they flare one cannot hope to eliminate daylight showing between the fins as in the males. Again, extra width is more important than extra length - in fact extra length can be detrimental as many judges downpoint long-finned females on the assumption that they have been treated with hormones.

This concludes the overview of what constitutes a good Betta. The final article in this series will describe how to improve your Bettas through selective breeding.