Originally from the brackish lakes of Africa and Central and South America, cichlids are a bold and interesting species. They come in many bright and colorful varieties, and can grow anywhere from just a few inches to over three feet long. These territorial, intelligent and highly adaptive fish are constantly engaged in their environment. Betta fish are best known for being small, colorful pets with big personalities.
Male bettas in particular have an amazing variety of tail shapes, ranging from half-moon to spikey and crown-like. Since bettas require minimal maintenance, they're a great species for beginners. Just be careful not to unleash two males in the same aquarium these fish can get downright feisty. They are not painted, injected or dyed.
They inherit their harmless, lifelong color from their parents. They get their stunning color from a fluorescence gene and are best viewed under a blue light.
Great for any home, office or classroom, these fun little fluorescent fish are perfect for hobbyists and beginners alike. To learn more, visit their website or subscribe to their e-newsletter, Seascope.
You can also read a few articles about the fundamentals of saltwater aquariums in our Information Center. You can also subscribe to their e-newsletter, Newswire!
Take your love of aquatics outdoors! Water gardening is a great way to expand the hobby while beautifying your home. As a result, their tails look very spiky and crown-like. Because they have such little webbing in their tails, crowntail bettas often break their tail rays and can end up with a bent tail.
Crowntail bettas can also have double or even triple ray extensions, in which multiple rays in their tails or fins appear to extend from larger central rays.
A post shared by fishtank. Delta bettas are an extremely popular and beautiful variety of betta fish with triangular tails with webbing that typically extends to the tip of each ray—meaning there is no crowning of their rays.
Instead, their tails have a rounded looking edge. They are named after the Greek letter delta, and they can be found in a wide variety of colors and patterns.
Delta bettas come in two sub-varieties, which are referred to as being delta or super delta. Super delta betta fish have a wider tail than the standard delta. As their name suggests, the double tail delta has a double caudal rear fin. It is a popular misconception that their double-tail is actually just one tail split in half; however, that is not the case.
Double tails have to complete and separate fins that are not conjoined or split in any way. While a popular trait among aquarists, the double tail is actually the result of a genetic mutation that causes the fish some difficulty and usually results in a shortened lifespan.
Half moon betta fish are manned for the widespread of their tails, which typically spread to a full degrees, giving their tails the shape of a capital D. As well as having very wide caudal fins, their dorsal and anal fins are also much wider than a typical betta fish, although these do not spread to a full degrees.
The difference between the half moon and over half moon betta fish is that the over half moon has a caudal fine that extends beyond degrees. The half sun betta is a relatively new hybrid fish that is the result of selectively crossing a half moon betta with a crown tail betta. The resulting fish has a full degree wide tail with rays that extend beyond their tail webbing. The plakat betta fish is known for its short, almost stumpy tail, closely resembling the tail found in wild betta fish.
While traditionally, plakat betta fish have only had rounded or pointy tails, thanks to selective breeding, they can now also be found with short half moon or short crown tails.
In this case, they are referred to as half moon plakat and crowntail plakat, respectively. Considered by many to be the same variety, and by some as two distinct fish, the rosetail betta fish has the most magnificent, free-flowing tails of all betta fish varieties—making them both the most beautiful and also most sought after of all betta fish.
Yet their flashy appearance comes at a cost, both in their price and to the health of the fish themselves. After years of constant cross-breeding to develop their flashy tails, the gene pool within which these fish are bred has shrunk. This, combined with some less than ethical breeding practices, has led to rosetail bettas being much more likely to suffer from tumors, genetic disorders, and other health conditions that many other more common betta fish varieties.
Their long flowing fins also tend to be more susceptible to fin rot than other varieties, and rosetail bettas are also more prone to nipping at their own tails and fins than betta varieties with shorter or more compact tails. The round tail betta is an immensely popular betta fish that can usually be found in a suburban pet store. Their namesake tail resembles that of the delta betta, only without straight edges, resulting in their tail having a round, almost circular appearance.
Spade tail betta fish are quite similar in appearance to the round tail, except that their tail is not rounded, and rather comes to a single point at the tip, forming the shape of a spade from a deck of playing cards. From a competition perspective, the spade-shaped tail should be symmetrical and even on both sides. The veil tail is by far the most common tail variety in betta fish. A very pretty-looking fish, veil tails were at one time extremely popular on the show and competition circuit; however, due to their mass-market appeal and over breeding they are no longer seen as desirable for these purposes.
She has a strong love for all animals of all shapes and sizes and particularly loves a good interspecies friendship and wants to share her animal knowledge and other experts' knowledge with pet lovers across the globe. Skip to content. Oct 26 Predominant types of black betta:. Black l ace Melano Metallic or copper black.
Tail variation, colors, and patterns have been carefully and selectively bred over the years by experts and now there are hundreds of betta fish types. Usually, in nature, they have duller colors, but the Betta destined for your aquarium will show the most exciting and striking combination.
Have you ever kept a Betta Fish — what is your favorite variation? Leave a comment in the section below…. I love the article it is very informative. I was given 2 male Bettas when my neighbor from across the hall decided to move out. My daughter was excited and immediately changed their water without doing a lot of research first, one died the other is still kicking.
Your article has helped me pin down the possibility of him being a Half-moon because he is way more aggressive than the new Betta which is a veil-tail. This article somewhat makes me know more about the fish since other articles has no picture accompanying the type and description.
Could I have a rare rose petal betta?? I have a delta tail betta, Aurora, he has a very unusual personality and appears to be a fighter. I mean this betta stands his ground when changing water he heads towards my hand gesturing ad challenging.
He faints to the rear and runs after a while but mostly he shows no fear. I have 2 female elephant ear bettas one with a white body and red fins and one that looks like a mermaid. But the first one which is Peaches is more of the alpha because she flares her gills at the other one named Ariel. What should I do about this. Hi Kaitlynn, do you have the option to put Ariel into another tank? Alternatively, you can try adding more plants to allow each one to have their own territory.
Many thanks, Robert. Absolutely the best fish. We have a red and purple crown tail and a sky blue mustard rose tail both from petsmart. About how big will a Plakat get? This is the first betta I have owned so looking for as much info I can find on them.
He made it through two moves and over four years with us and behaved more like a puppy than a fish! After a couple of weeks of looking, we found a beautiful fella with various shades of blue, leading to white fins. If you can help, I appreciate it in advance. I have a young koi male betta. Not quite 1 years old and he has beautiful clolors. I used to have a dragonscale Betta named Ulysses. He lived with us for two years and died due to a silver bulge in his side that I have been researching.
Nice article, thanks. Yes, on the page this page links to you express that 10 gallons is better. On this page you simply say 5 gallons suffices. As you seem to know, in nature their inhabitat is much larger and not small puddles. Please consider advocating better life for bettas through larger tanks e. I have him in a gallon tank, do you recommend any plants in particular? I currently have a rosette sword and an anubius nana. This is wonderful! I wish I could post a picture of him but I got a new friend today who is supposedly a black orchid male.
He is so gorgeous! I signed up for the care guide. My husband and I tried our best to save them but failed. Two gallon tank in which we attempted to eliminate all reflection after seeing him slam himself at it a couple of times. I recently got a beta fish and it is a musterd gas Jetta.
It is truly beautiful but could you give some tips on caring for them. He seems to be quite playful. I have a red and black delta tail male who will attack anything I put in the tank even my fingers! This color refers to any specimen with a dark colored body of blue, steel blue or green, along with yellow or orange fins.
Therefore, there are opaque versions of all the main colors. Orange bettas are quite rare, but when you find them they are usually a rich tangerine type shade. However, in bad lighting, they often look red. To bring out their best color, you want decent strength, full spectrum illumination. A post shared by Kellys Petz kellyspetz. There are some solid, all purple individuals, and also some purple bodied specimen with fins of a secondary color that have surfaced under various creative names.
Red is a dominant color in betta fish, very commonly seen but nonetheless still very striking and beautiful. It is a blue-green color, somewhere between blue and green in fact, which can end up looking kind of plain blue or plain green in certain light.
A post shared by jessiel. Although used to describe patterning of some betta, the term wild-type is also used to describe a color. Pineapple is a form of yellow where there is darker definition around the scales, which gives a look to the fish somewhat like that of the scales on a pineapple.
You probably know about albinism in other species, and the same goes for bettas, really. Albino betta fish will be solid white with no pigmentation at all, with eyes that appear pink or red. If you have a white fish with black eyes, this is simply a white type and not an albino.
Albinos are extremely rare, and they go blind at a very early age. They are therefore extremely hard to breed, necessarily continuing their scarcity. Due to the popularity of these fish, they have been bred over countless years to create a smorgasbord of new and exciting varieties.
Featured Image Credit: Mr. Soonthorn Thonglor, Shutterstock. Hey there! I'm Brian, a lifelong enthusiast and fish keeper with a wealth of knowledge and experience on freshwater aquariums, that I love to share on this site. If you have any questions or need any help, please do ask in the comments section below, I'd love to hear from you and will help where I can. Sign up to receive our latest articles, tips, tricks, and guides, plus discounts on top products, to hit your inbox every week!
Betta Goldfish Fishkeeping Supplies. B Hamilton Last Updated: Oct 22 VeilTail VT 2. Combtail Betta 3. Crown Tail CT 4.
Double Tail DT 6. Half Sun 8. Plakat PK 9. Round Tail Bi-Colored Butterfly
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