Home > About Bettas > Branching and Fin Rays

Contact Us via Email
Send To Friend
Printer Friendly Version

Branching and Fin Rays By: BettySplendens Submitted: 6/30/2006 Four-ray branching on a plakat male. The longer you stick around the hobby, the more you're going to hear terms like "Eight Ray HM" and "This little beauty branches 4 times!" Being able to identify fin rays and branching on your own will both impress your message board buddies and make it harder for unethical sellers to pull a fast one on you. Rays are usually measured in the caudal (tail) fin, although some bettas have multiple rays in their dorsals and anals as well. Rays are the small bones that run from the base of the tail to the end and hold together the webbing on a fish's tail. Wild bettas normally have a primary ray that branches once, meaning most wild bettas are two ray bettas. Veiltail bettas are also two ray bettas. The modern symmetrical show forms, with their increased caudal span, require more than two rays. I have never seen a HM betta with less than 4 rays, and most of them have more. So the primary (or 1st) ray in a betta's tail branches into two SECONDARY RAYS. In modern types, the secondary rays branch again, into what is called TERTIARY RAYS. A betta whose branching ends with tertiary rays is considered a four ray betta. If the rays branch again it is called QUATERNARY RAYS, and these are considered eight ray bettas. Male HMs commonly have at least 8 rays, but it is a bit more rare in the females. If you find an 8-ray female (sometimes called a "Lady of Eight"), snap her up! She is excellent for breeding purposes with enough rays to produce a high percentage of HM offspring, but not so many that she is likely to produce deformities.

Category: About Bettas Contact Us via Email Send To Friend Printer Friendly Version

What's Your Opinion? Post your 2 cents here. Let us and your fellow readers hear your views on the articles we have here at bettysplendens.com. Your posts will appear on the front page along with a link to this article. It helps everyone participate in the conversations such posts generate. Name: What's Your Opinion?:

Featured

.
HEJSAN FROM SWEDEN EVERYONE! Everything in Sweden is going well, although I'm still busy learning the language and coping with a newborn, so it will be a bit before I'm as active as I'd like with the fish. This is a Facebook update! I have created a new BettySplendens Facebook page that will be used exclusively for betta-related networking. On the 16th of August I will be going through and deleting most of the people on my personal Facebook page who are not actual friends or family (many of you have become friends through the course of the hobby, and of course will not be deleted). If for any reason you wish to remain on my personal page, please let me know by emailing bettysplendens@yahoo.com, or FB email. Otherwise, go to the new BettySplendens Facebook page and click the 'like' button for more betta-related news and updates :).

Tack så mycket (that's ''Thank you very much'' in Svenskie-land ;))! ~Victoria~

Slight change of plans! I have decided that, instead of reinventing the wheel, I'm going to create a personal FB page and use the old one purely for betta stuff. So if you're on the original page (now called BettySplendens Bettas), please stay put! :P

For all the betta inquiries:
Just a reminder, I am not selling bettas in the US at the present time. I may begin to supply a few select bettas throughout Europe sometime in late Spring 2011. Cheers!

Spotting the Orange Dalmatian
Ever since it first started being widely seen in pet stores around late 2004, the spotted orange betta has taken the hobby by storm. But what exactly is it?

Finnage Variations
Bettas today come in a wide variety of forms, and new ones are being created all the time. Here are the most popular.

Choosing a Betta
There are basically three ways of purchasing bettas. Buying them from a pet store, buying them from a breeder, or buying them online. I'll run through some important things to consider in each of those options.

The True Story of the Halfmoon
The true story of the creation of the Halfmoon betta.

Defining a Good Crowntail
For the purpose of showing in the CT class, Crowntails are defined as bettas exhibiting at least 33% reduction in webbing versus ray length in each of the three primary fins (caudal, anal and dorsal). This requirement must be demonstrated in all three primary fins but does not need to be exhibited between all rays to meet the minimum requirement to be classified as a Crowntail betta.

Bringing Home Your New Betta
Buy a Betta at a pet store? Find out how to best introduce him to his new home.

© 2013 Victoria Parnell. All Rights Reserved. All Logos and Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Powered By The Alfred Web Publishing System v3.1