They're always a VT right from the start but it depends on the genes for when the tail droops. Some VT's never really droop like the classic ones you see. They are only VT though if they have 2 ray's, I can't see in this picture what he's got though. But there are many forms and variations of the VT such as Round Tail and Spade Tail so they can take on different shapes, different degrees of spread and different droops, but no matter what they will only have 2 rays. Later when I get home from church I can whip up some pictures of different styled VT's to show you if you like or you can just google search the other tail names I mentioned to see the differences and such.
Veil tail age question
Question for anyone who has raised babies/fry, etc. Is there a specific age at which the veil tail presents?
Example, I got my Roland about 2 months ago. He was fairly small and had pretty short fins. I was pretty sure he was a delta tail. Even when relaxed, his tail used to stay pretty spread out because it was shorter. Now, literally in the last week and a half, his fins have grown super long, so he definitely appears to be a veil tail. Obviously I don't care what tail type he is. But I'm curious if there is an age at which this normally happens so I can tell his age accurately. He has grown probably less than 1/2 inch in body size since I got him, but his fins just grew like crazy.
Link to him when I got him:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=364433
Here is him a week ago. His fins have gotten even longer since then.
Example, I got my Roland about 2 months ago. He was fairly small and had pretty short fins. I was pretty sure he was a delta tail. Even when relaxed, his tail used to stay pretty spread out because it was shorter. Now, literally in the last week and a half, his fins have grown super long, so he definitely appears to be a veil tail. Obviously I don't care what tail type he is. But I'm curious if there is an age at which this normally happens so I can tell his age accurately. He has grown probably less than 1/2 inch in body size since I got him, but his fins just grew like crazy.
Link to him when I got him:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=364433
Here is him a week ago. His fins have gotten even longer since then.
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VT's only have two rays on a single branch whereas DeT's can have anywhere from 4-10 and sometimes more, HM's generally have 6+ although if they are nice enough they can have as little as 4 in each branch. For those who might not know what a ray is, take a look at this picture below:
Also known as Branching, I call the blue lines a Branch because then it branches out into the ray's much like a tree branches out to it's limbs/sticks. So we count the ray's at the end like this:
That boy is a 4 rayed HMPK. So VT's only ever have 2 ray's, if they have more than 2 rays it is a DeT or larger. Same with most CT's, they all have 2 ray's but we've bred them to be Double Double Rays (DDR, 4 rayed CT's) and even further for 6 rays and 8 although it starts to get a bit messy at that point.
Most PK's also only have 2 rays because they are the short tailed version of the VT's and then we start increasing for HMPK's. PK's are supposed to have more webbing though, that allows for a wider spread than most VT's can get even if they have the same amount of rays.
Back to VT's, there are a few different shapes the VT can take as I was saying previously. VT's can look sort of like a fabric or a cloth waving in the wind like this boy, that's more of the classic VT shape since it looks like a veil.
Then you get ones with more rounded edges like this one, this is more of the standard VT today though, of course depending on your area.
*Note this boy has a 180 degree spread but is not a Spade tail because he has no point, I'll get to that soon.
This lovely boy is leaning more towards the edge of a Round Tail and one more generation and I'd say they've got it!
Round tails are just rounded VT's, so they still only have 2 rays or are supposed to only have 2 rays just like VT's.
And young males will go through a "round" tail stage as they age. I think this is more along the lines of your question givemethatfish. And then as they age it will start to droop more and become the classic VT soon after ~2-3 months of age.
And Spade tail, it cannot be a Spade tail unless it has these two things; gets 180 degrees and the tail is very pointy as a spade is. As I said with the blue boy up towards the top, people may call that a Spade but it is not, he has the 180 degrees but lacking the point that they must have. This boy below is a Spade, even his point though should be a little pointier.
Here are two more spades:
This help everyone?
Also known as Branching, I call the blue lines a Branch because then it branches out into the ray's much like a tree branches out to it's limbs/sticks. So we count the ray's at the end like this:
That boy is a 4 rayed HMPK. So VT's only ever have 2 ray's, if they have more than 2 rays it is a DeT or larger. Same with most CT's, they all have 2 ray's but we've bred them to be Double Double Rays (DDR, 4 rayed CT's) and even further for 6 rays and 8 although it starts to get a bit messy at that point.
Most PK's also only have 2 rays because they are the short tailed version of the VT's and then we start increasing for HMPK's. PK's are supposed to have more webbing though, that allows for a wider spread than most VT's can get even if they have the same amount of rays.
Back to VT's, there are a few different shapes the VT can take as I was saying previously. VT's can look sort of like a fabric or a cloth waving in the wind like this boy, that's more of the classic VT shape since it looks like a veil.
Then you get ones with more rounded edges like this one, this is more of the standard VT today though, of course depending on your area.
*Note this boy has a 180 degree spread but is not a Spade tail because he has no point, I'll get to that soon.
This lovely boy is leaning more towards the edge of a Round Tail and one more generation and I'd say they've got it!
Round tails are just rounded VT's, so they still only have 2 rays or are supposed to only have 2 rays just like VT's.
And young males will go through a "round" tail stage as they age. I think this is more along the lines of your question givemethatfish. And then as they age it will start to droop more and become the classic VT soon after ~2-3 months of age.
And Spade tail, it cannot be a Spade tail unless it has these two things; gets 180 degrees and the tail is very pointy as a spade is. As I said with the blue boy up towards the top, people may call that a Spade but it is not, he has the 180 degrees but lacking the point that they must have. This boy below is a Spade, even his point though should be a little pointier.
Here are two more spades:
This help everyone?
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