How do you determine tail type in a fish that won't flare

[Skyewillow]

My marbleized koi male never fully flares, he just does the "Alert" flare; the one where the fins aren't fully spread, and the dorsal is up, and body language says "I see you".

I THINK he's a VT, but his fins were cut (too straight to be nipped) when I got him, and they're still growing back. But when he does his alert flare, his top edge goes a little higher than a veil should.





Also, I've seen Hu flare, but haven't gotten a profile photo of it yet, I'm having trouble figuring out his type. He's my biggest male, not counting tails, so I'm fairly sure he's fully grown.





(the little tank was for photo purposes only)

I'll have to look around to see if I can find the pictures of Mushu's tail from when we brought him home.

EDIT: Found it!

[eatmice2010]

very wierd

[Fenghuang]

I think he's a VT. His tail has a sort of slope to it that other tail types don't really have.

But that's horrible... His tail was cut? I only ever heard of pet stores selling hybrized cichlids (ie. blood parrots, flower horns) with purposively cut tails for aethestic purposes. My great uncle was told by a pet store employee that they were a new breed and bought some for twice the normal price once. He gave us five. All dead now; blood parrots sold by pet stores too often have deformed swim bladder, mouths, and misshaped spines because of inbreeding and mass production if it wasn't bad enough that they were brutally maimed and mishandled. /: It's sad that so many people selling animals only about profit.

[Skyewillow]

I'm 99% sure that it was, and I didn't notice it until we got home. But in the last picture of Mushu (the cow spotted fish), you can see the weird edge on his tail. It was way too neat and straight to be from tail-biting.

Also, if he was a tailbiter, in my personal experience, that's not something that they discontinue easily. I had a male who gave himself tail cuts from the time we got him, till he passed away 2 yrs later, no matter what I did, including painting the back wall of his tank blue to cut reflection.

Mushu doesn't do that, he's pretty mellow and laid back, I've seen him flare ONCE since I got him back in early October.

[Fenghuang]

Yeah, I can see that. Tail biters take chunks out of their tail. He's pretty though. I hope he continues to heal.

[Skyewillow]

He's been healing really well, if you can see his tail in the pictures above, that wonky edge is gone it's straightening out now. ^_^

[majesticstorm]

I think that he's a VT, too, but I'm really bad at identifying these things, hahaha.

But anyways, your boy is sooo pretty, both of them! It's infuriating that they cut his tail though :( The things people do to poor animals for a profit. It's like those...tattooed fish where they tattoo a heart or something onto their bodies.

[Skyewillow]

I may be biased, but I think all of my bettas are beautiful! ^_~

Thank you for the compliment though! ^_^

So my question is HOW do you know that he's a VT? Someone has mentioned anal fins before, and dorsal fins. How do they tell you what the tail is when it's cut, damaged, or in my baby boy, Skerries' case, hasn't grown in yet?

^Skerries

Or on a girl?

Archipelago

[Fenghuang]

Well, VTs usually have long ventrals and two rays (occasionally, you'll find one with more but normally two).

[NorthernLights]

I think Mushu is a Delta. His fin shapes are very similar to my Odysseus (who also never truly flares), who is definately a Delta. He is beautiful!

I am not sure about Hu, he looks like a very nice Plakat to me, but I am not good at identifying females, either, so if he is a she, I could be totally off base.