Lucky, the Tail-less Wonder

[BettaMomma]

If I don't set my camera on macro mode, I can't get a good picture of them, but mine's the same way about picking up lots of detail. I think that is one reason Draco always looks odd in pictures to me. His scales stand out more because of his coloring, he looks a lot more blended looking at him in person LOL.

What camera do you use?

I use our Canon EOS 20D.
LOVE the camera - I'm going to invest in one for myself.
I just ran out of room on it tonight - and there are 360 HIGH res photos on the card.
Love it!

 

[BettaMomma]

Can you get this picture:

with larger dimensions and the same resolution, though?

Yeah, you're right - lemme go load up my laptop and see if that high res pic is still on it.

I'll be back in a bit.

 

[ManyFISH4Me]

I can't believe Walmart charged you for him. They should have just given him to you. If you did not buy him, he probably would have sat in his little cup until he died. I don't think your everyday shopper, buying a fish for his/her kid, would have purchased a tailess fish. You should write a letter to the company, and send along a pic. That poor guy should never have been sent for sale. He is one very lucky guy to have found a good home.

 

[BettaMomma]

I'm going to say it's a birth defect,although I've never seen anything like it in my life! Also,there's no rot on his anal or dorsal. Poor little guy, he's obviously had to struggle from a very tender age. Glad he found you,BM. You know everyone else would have just 'ed him and put him back.

I think everyone else had been doing that. Poor little guy.
he was shoved off to the side.
I looked at him and after I got over my initial anger and really really pissed-off'edness, I smiled and hid him in the back.. heh heh

 

[BettaMomma]

I can't believe Walmart charged you for him. They should have just given him to you. If you did not buy him, he probably would have sat in his little cup until he died. I don't think your everyday shopper, buying a fish for his/her kid, would have purchased a tailess fish. You should write a letter to the company, and send along a pic. That poor guy should never have been sent for sale. He is one very lucky guy to have found a good home.

I have to say, I'm one lucky gal for finding HIM!

 

[BettaMomma]

OKay... here's the major closeup of the tail you asked for!
MuuUuhhhahahahhaha.....

 

[littlefishie]

That definitely leads me to think birth defect, it doesn't look like there ever was a tail! It looks more like his scales just grew together over the base of his spine, so he either had a tail as a juvie and lost it, or just never had one to begin with.. I doubt you'll see one grow back, though..

Guess you'll never really know if he's a veiltail!

He's very cute though, and I can't think of a better person to have him.

 

[GuppyDude]

wow, somehow that tail was removed, it would be extreamly uncommon for a betta to be born without a tail, let alone a betta that could survive past the fry stages of life

 

[BettaMomma]

He's very cute though, and I can't think of a better person to have him.

Aww, thanks
You'd never know by the way he acts that he's missing a pretty major body part. I'm betting that I'll never see him with a tail either.

Oh well - he will be the talk of the office for a while, that's for sure.
LOTS more people stop by my desk now than ever before. That's sort of a plus. lol

 

[GrullaQuarters]

I don't know.......if it was a birth defect, I'd think whomever saw him would have just done away with him......but my gosh, that doesn't look like it was cut or ripped off! Hopefully he'll let you get a pic from the back. You were meant to find him though!

 

[BettaMomma]

It's really hard for me to tell what happened here.
looking at it with the naked eye, you would just assume that it got ripped off somehow. But, now that I see it closeup and under a flash from the camera, and it looks like it's grown that way for some time now.

I watched him for quite a while this afternoon and could see him doing everything with it that normal bettas do - like, you know when they flare their tail will puff up? Well, you can see him trying to puff up his tail. And when he flares cuz he sees himself, he wags it just like Harvey and the rest of the testosterone freaks at my house do. It's really bizarre. It's almost as if he thinks he DOES have a tail there.....

 

[wuvmybetta]

I was thinking that maybe he ha a freak accident as a young juvie. Possibly got stuck under the gravel vac and had it chopped off. That's one of my biggest fears

EDIT~ Just saw the new pic. Look at the way it's perfectly healed on the end of his caudal peduncle! I don't think it will ever grow back.

 

[transposia]

I don't think your everyday shopper, buying a fish for his/her kid, would have purchased a tailess fish.

I'm willing to bet that they wouldn't have known he's supposed to have a tail!

 

[BettaMomma]

I wonder if WalMart would be able to tell me where they got this shipment of fish from. Not that it woudl really matter, cuz no one probably even noticed him come through - everything's such an assembly line process there.

I really wish I knew his story.
I bet he's dying to tell me, too!

 

[Synirr]

Awww, I'm so glad you got him, BettaMomma
I'd have bought him if I had seen him at my local Walmart

If I were to venture a guess, I'd say his tail probably isn't going to grow back. It looks like he was either born without it, or had some kind of freak accident... either way, it's cut so close that the cells for regrowth are probably damaged.
There was a cichlid at my LFS without a tail one time... his owner returned him because his tankmates completely ate his tail off, and it would never grow back.