Rays and Branches

[kgrehm]

I was going to different breeders websites and underneath the betta they were saying different numbers with rays and branches what exactly are the rays and branches cant seem to find it?

 

[annieka]

The ray's are the..euhhh ...I wish my english was better...(I'm improvising here so forgive the bad english ) are the "spines" between the webbing of the fins. These ray's can branch (like the branches on a tree, in HM's they branch many times) and the number of branches is of influence on the size and shape of the fins of the fish.

Hope I made it a little bit clearer for you....

 

[endparenthesis]

It's probably easiest to see with crowntails.

Look at this thread: http/fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=39394

If you look at the second betta, you can see that his tail rays end up branching into additional rays. I'm almost positive the first betta's tail does that too, but it's harder to tell in those pics.

Of the crowntails I'm going to mate, the male's rays don't branch, while the female's rays branch like the above bettas. As far as I know that means I'll have some of each in the end.

I believe with some fish the rays branch in more than one place from the body to the end of the tail... and that's part of the reason a halfmoon can have such an expansive tail.