I have been trawling the net to try and get as much info on Bettas as I can, and it surprises me to find that Veiltails and Deltas seem not to be liked, why is that?

The nicest Betta I have is a Red Veiltail, beautiful bodied and fins, blowing bubbles like you wouldn't believe, but hesitate to breed him because of the negative feedback........

I also have a lovely turquoise Mustard Gas Super Delta, why are they nor liked anymore. I brought him because he ws abit beaten looking his tail was shredded, felt sorry for him, but he has turned into a really nice boy, tail is coming back and looking a million bucks.

They are in my look at tank in the lounge but can't understand why they have lost popularity. :dunno:

I still love Delta Tails !

Veils seem to be the "common" petshop variety and I guess Betta people want something more interesting.

My first Betta was a Veil tail!

My fav though is the halfmoon.

Deltas are essentially failed halfmoons and you can find then in hm spawns. With hm being the perfect goal for the breeder the deltas fail to make the grade because they dont poseses the branching and spread that enables them to reach the ideal 180. Superdeltas can at least be useful and can produce hm offspring if crossed with a good hm, but deltas are essentially useless and often culled.

Vt have arent currently recognized by show standards so show breeders dont breed them. Most (99%) are hugely mass produced with no care to their form, colour or health. Plus they will mess up any other tail type you try and breed with for generations, and its hard too get the vt influence out of the line.

That being said, my most favourite betta was my red vt called Edgar

:phb: OK so that rules out the veiltail...............The Super Delta could be useful with the HM girls, he is a Mustard Gas so what is the best colour to breed him to? This is all hypothetical at the mo but who knows if it ws worth doing I might do it, love the colour

Best colour to breed to will be mustard gas HM.

Don't breed with anything that carry the red colour.

Also make sure your hm are actual hm (180, sharp tails and 4 or more ray branching). Ive seen hundreds of fish being called hm just because one parent was hm, but the fish in question are actually just vts or roundtailed deltas.

Yeah youd want to find a mustard gas ideally, since yellows pretty recessive.

If you cant though, yellow is recessive to red so if you find a good blue/red bicolour then first gen will give you blue/reds but breed back to dad or bro x sis and you should see blue/yellow

Try and stay clear of red or yellow wash and aim for a good bi colour if you can though

:bggrn: Thanks guys, worth thinking about. He is probably too old, that's the prob when you buy from the shops you have no idea of age or conditions they have come from.

My girls who are supposed to be hm are abit doubtful as their tails have a little point in the middle t hey are not perfectly straight on the edge, so probably shouldn't use them, although bought them as being hm, should have done more homework, but hay thats how we learn, but don't want to breed if they are not up to scratch. For the work and stress involved rather do it as well as possible.

It is great that you guys are so obliging with your experiences, it is great.

I must say that at the moment I really love the Crowntails and Dumbo Elephant ears. Recently got 2 CT females and 1 Male, but they are still quite small, so will have to wait abit. Am looking for some Dumbos.

what colour are the Cts?

They are Purple, but I believe purple is not a colour so they must be a dark blue. The same colour as my big boy but no lighter bits in the tail like him. My other boy is white with a pale blue tinge under certain lights.

on closer inspection they are dark blue with red fringing on their tails and fins. Should have checked before posting dah..

Chuck up some photos! I'm sure it'll be helpful.

:bggrn: I will if and when I figure out how............lol not very savy on the PC.

If you're having trouble with Mustard gas getting him to do his thing... might want to sell him or try show him a female for encouragement, remove tank lid and see if he blows bubbles in cold air? if you think he's genuinely old that's how you will find out if he wants to breed or not.

The whole VT thing... I sold one for $15 a while back depends how well you advertise and the quality of your photo.

IMO There is no supreme tail type in this type of fish... they are all same species and yet some clubs frown upon crossbreeding. Whatever is the most (aesthetically pleasing) popular is what breeders aim for hence the high amount of attention paid to "DUMBO" and HALFMOON

The market ran out of spadetails that way, they are real pretty but some call them an eyesore.

There are exceptions though with any fish like Dragon VT with good scaling... some breeders may be interested but currently its just a fancy thing with people saying things like "I have a special fighting fish" "crowntail is better than halfmoon blah blah blah"

I'd use a good VT for coloration or to start a new line but once I went plakat I knew I would not find anything more stable yet plakats are cheap as chips lol.

I'm up for a good mustardgas regardless of tail type. Only if genuine yellow finnage on dark body with purple or blueish outline on fins. on second thought I'd be keen on yellow finnage alone

My guy is not really blue more turquoise he has quite alot of the beigy/mustardy colour through his finnage and on head at top along the backbone. He was pretty torn up when I got him just starting to get his tail again. I really like the Dumbos not because they are popular but because they are different. Would really love to breed my Red Veiltail he is by far the nicest of my males but don't want to get stuck with lots of unwanted babies. I only have hm or plaket females big enough to breed at the mo. Oh well thats life.......

Keep an eye out for the odd one of these to pop up - they do come in from time to time, the last time was mid last year when I saw one in the shops

(these are a couple of mine which I bred from about 4 years ago)

and some of their fry at 10 weeks (the mothers were not MG)

where are these now?

:cophot: Aren't they awesome?????

They are indeed!!

I took one off her , I have vids of him somewhere...and a Cambodian CT female, he was a very good parent fish.

I am so envious

where are the babys chaos!

I think the first set... someone bought off me on tm for $25 ea.

A guy later bought all of mine that I set aside for sale which is about 7 for 100$

My keepers went to a friend of my mothers who did not breed them. They got as big as the huge female you have and then they passed on I think.

He had somewhere around 7 Identical to him when I bred him with a similar girl but they didn't all have his blue outline but had the dark body with black mask and yellow fins (My Black ghost line which looked like the one in the last of the three pictures posted above) I didn't continue that line due to personal reasons.

I regret that now, very very deeply.

A true MG will have that outline