[chrissylee13]

i was searching google for betta body shapes and i came across something sort of horrifying. apparently there's a new trend happening some where in the world where betta fish are having their tails cut off while still very young. this causes a mutation where there is no tail on the fish. i guess they're doing it to parrot fish too. i couldn't find much info on this except for one thread on another betta forum. i guess they're calling it a "bullet betta" or a "love betta".

here's the picture of one of these bettas.

 

[PandaBetta]

Ohhh!!!

 

[BeautifulBetta]

WTF?!?! Why are people so awful? How can they think thats okay?

 

[Luimeril]

i think that was one of Aquastar's..... he sometimes breeds DTs, adn i think that's an extreme deformity caused by that. :I

she's adorable... but can't have lived long....

 

[chrissylee13]

well, i found this one a betta forum from Malaysia. from what the person said that found these at a LFS there was a whole tank of them and a whole tank of parrot fish that looked just like it. i guess they personally know the breeder now because of their interest.

 

[SnowySurface]

A mutation is a deformation that happens during development. Like cows born with two heads. This is a cosmetic alteration that happens after birth to healthy bettas. If bullet bettas are real, then this is a form of mutilation because the betta was severely damaged physically and then healed the best way it could.

I can't understand why anyone would want to do that to any fish.

 

[RedneckBettaGuru]

WTH, if someone is doing that on purpose that is animal cruelty for sure.

Lui, if you look closely i would say its a male. Long ventral and a a beard.

This is sad and wrong in so many ways.

 

[SnowySurface]

i think that was one of Aquastar's..... he sometimes breeds DTs, adn i think that's an extreme deformity caused by that. :I

she's adorable... but can't have lived long....

well, i found this one a betta forum from Malaysia. from what the person said that found these at a LFS there was a whole tank of them and a whole tank of parrot fish that looked just like it. i guess they personally know the breeder now because of their interest.

Ok. Now I'm confused.

Is this caused by actively cutting off the tail of a young betta with a knife? Or is it caused by a glitch in DNA not forming the tail in the first place? If it is a genetic problem, then my previous comment is a bit off. I thought the breeder was physically cutting tails off of young fish that were born with healthy tails. :-?

 

[djembekah]

;-; poor fishie!

 

[lvandert]

That is horrible! Those poor babies! How could they deform something that cute just to try to get a new breed?!

 

[MadameDesu]

Ok. Now I'm confused.

Is this caused by actively cutting off the tail of a young betta with a knife? Or is it caused by a glitch in DNA not forming the tail in the first place? If it is a genetic problem, then my previous comment is a bit off. I thought the breeder was physically cutting tails off of young fish that were born with healthy tails. :-?

Okay, some quick biology.
1. A mutation was found and the mutated strain was bred over and over until the deformity was established.
2. The fish was cut and shaped during development and it cannot be bred into new generations.

I'd say it's more than likely #1. The fin wraps around cleanly with no scars or anything (if fish get scars). I'd expect it to look more damaged if it was cut up ...

 

[MollyJean]

OMGOSH that's so sad!! It's like half the fish is missing... That poor baby!

 

[Luimeril]

recently, i found a betta similar to this one on Aquabid. she had no visible tail(to me. after posting it on FB, someone said she HAD a tail, it was just really tiny and almost fused with her anal)....

i say it's a birth defect. he should have been culled the moment the breeder saw it. all his organs are smooshed, and as i said, he couldn't have lasted very long. :<

 

[SnowySurface]

Okay, some quick biology.
1. A mutation was found and the mutated strain was bred over and over until the deformity was established.
2. The fish was cut and shaped during development and it cannot be bred into new generations.

I'd say it's more than likely #1. The fin wraps around cleanly with no scars or anything (if fish get scars). I'd expect it to look more damaged if it was cut up ...

Thanks for the clarification. I still can't figure out why anyone would want to do this. But at least I have a better idea of what they are doing. I personally still see this more as mutilation than breeding for a trait. -_-

 

[chrissylee13]

in the thread i read it from it said that they physically cut the tails off while their still fry.

 

[chrissylee13]

and sorry i said mutation! the thread used "mutation" loosely. i did find though that there are some bettas that have no tail but it's because fry siblings ate it. and i think i found one that was born that way.

and my guess is that they probably experimented with how it would look... soo if they actually do cut it off it's probably done in such a way that it looks "nice".

 

[MadameDesu]

and sorry i said mutation! the thread used "mutation" loosely. i did find though that there are some bettas that have no tail but it's because fry siblings ate it. and i think i found one that was born that way.

and my guess is that they probably experimented with how it would look... soo if they actually do cut it off it's probably done in such a way that it looks "nice".

Ahhhh, ok. Wow ... it's a wonder that fish even got to that size. I don't think it'll last much longer :-(

 

[Olympia]

That is sad and disgusting

 

[MrVampire181]

This is becoming a serious problem on AB with people selling deformed fish to get money for "rarity".

The IBC was raging about such auctions last week. This is why I will NEVER buy from Aquastar... he has too many deformities and I don't trust his lines.

I'll stick to sellers like Chaba and Ploybettas since their fish are great and I have never seen a deformity posted from them on AB.

 

[Olympia]

Boycotting Aquastar would be a good idea People could write to stop this madness.

Honestly I don't think these deformed fish sell well? Or do they?
I don't get who would want a betta without a tail, or something. That's why we love betta. They have beautiful fins and colours.