The Best Of Aquabid

[Amunet]

After viewing that link, that betta doesn't appear to have been cut. From that article, it appears that the point of cutting is to remove the tail and well, that betta obviously still has hers.

It looks like she's just severly deformed. Her tailfin and anal fin are fused together it seems.
She's a cute fish though.. poor thing. I hope if someone does pay that ridiculous amount, they don't try to breed her and just give her a loving home.

 

[constantine03]

I think it's her anal and her dorsal...she doesn't have a caudal.

 

[Synirr]

That female doesn't have a caudal. She has the same deformity as my midas hybrid does, and I'm willing to bet her fins don't actually fuse, but overlap instead, just like my midas. I've seen fish in which the fins DO fuse, but judging by the ray structure I don't think that's what we're looking at here. I used to have a male with the same thing:

Either way, we'll find out soon, since I've purchased her (for far less than the listed price mind you, I'm not THAT stupid ). I'm planning to breed her once experimentally to find out if the deformity is genetic like I think it is, and if so, if it's dominant/recessive and all that good stuff. I tried the same thing with that male, but despite flawless bubblenesting and displaying, he was just too deformed and none of the ladies wanted him, hehe. Oh well, I'm willing to bet betta males are far less picky, so I imagine I'll have luck with the lady.

 

[Amunet]

Well, I don't agree with breeding her... but post a vid of her when you get her!

 

[bronzecat]

"Ditto" Amunet

No one can know what the genetic make-up of this fish is, regardless if you have had a similar one before. Who's to say that the F1's from this fish turn out fine, BUT further down the line at F2/F3, the majority of the fry look like that??

My question for Synirr is - If you spawn with this fish and you have say, 150 fry, what will you do with them if they look normal? Sell them off and hope you haven't passed on a serious genetic defect, which technically, in the very long term, could infact change the future of Bettas?
We have seen it ourselves in the dog world, so it does happen. Genetical problems are handed down from generation to generation and then you end up with animals with severe health problems. Thats why competant dog breeders research the breeding line of the dog/***** they are intending to breed with/to.
The other point, yet again someone has made a profit from what is in fact a genetically incorrect fish.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but breeding for tail type and colour is one thing. Breeding just to see if you get normal fish is another.

 

[modaz]

i think she looks rather cute as well, what concerns me though is what happens when she gets eggy will it cause problems since all her internal organs are in such a small area, would of thought it would cause swimbladder, i wouldnt attempt to breed her either, i think it would be a selfish thing to do.

 

[Synirr]

That's the entire point of breeding her, bronzecat; to find out her genetic makeup. I'm not breeding splendens on a regular basis anymore and have no intention of keeping the line going or selling any "normal" fry off to anyone who intends to breed them. Any fry, normal or otherwise, will be adopted out as pets. I'm not out to make a profit on this fish, I'm just incredibly curious (I LOVE genetics, so this kind of thing is right up my alley.) I'm going to be culling the vast majority of the fry as soon as they are freeswimming anyway, I only intend to keep about 50 so I have a sample size that is large enough to be statistically significant. In other words, one way or another, I won't end up with hundreds of deformy adults to deal with.

More to the point, if around 50% of the fry from the first spawning are normal, that'd tell me it's a dominant trait (which is my theory) and then those 50% would be COMPLETELY normal, and they COULD infact be used as breeders without any worry they'd pass the trait on, interestingly enough.

modaz: No worries. She is ALREADY eggy. Look at the pic again. The missing vertebrae are all further down along her spine, so all her internal organs should be normal, since that portion of her body is unaffected (most of the organs are anterior to the anal fin). My only worry is that her spine is so shortened it may effect her swimbladder, which is the only organ positioned that far back along the body. She may have difficulty wrapping with the male too, we'll see, but judging by her external anatomy I don't think breeding is going to be a risk to her health in any way.
My midas has actually laid eggs before, unfertilized since she was all by herself at the time, and parented them as normal. No problems with egg production or laying.

 

[Lindsey88]

Wow that female is very strange but they are kind of cute.
I'm drooling over these guys from nicebettas...

 

[emsteve]

I bought this one, 9$ tonight.
I think she's a beauty.

 

[bronzecat]

Just love these HM's

 

[constantine03]

I love this guy...when I get some open space I'm going to start dabbling in orange and blues.

 

[constantine03]

Sooo pretty.

 

[Lylu]

Pretty!

Eee!

 

[andy_j]

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

After viewing that link, that betta doesn't appear to have been cut. From that article, it appears that the point of cutting is to remove the tail and well, that betta obviously still has hers.

It looks like she's just severly deformed. Her tailfin and anal fin are fused together it seems.
She's a cute fish though.. poor thing. I hope if someone does pay that ridiculous amount, they don't try to breed her and just give her a loving home.

I agree, i've seen other tailess fish being born the way they are, like tailess angelfish and goldfish- such deformities usually stem from too much inbreeding.