Fin Types in Bettas

The beautiful betta is a tropical freshwater fish that inhabits thickly grown waters in Asia. The Siamese bred this species principally for its ability to fight and the individual specimens that were chosen for breeding programs were dirty colored and short-finned fish. Modern bettas, however, are selectively bred to produce beautiful colors and exquisite tail shapes. In all cases though, it is the male fish that displays the shapely tails, as female bettas have much smaller fins.

  1. Veil tails and Double Tails

    • Veil tails are arguably the most commonly available form of selectively bred bettas. This interesting shape follows the natural form the fin would take when the caudal or tail fin of the wild form betta is artificially lengthened. In the double tail, the tail fin is developed to contain two lobes and to be as long as the anal fin. Betta enthusiasts typically cross double tail individuals with single tail specimens, in order to develop offspring with wider tail fins.

    Halfmoons and Rose Tails

    • The tail of a halfmoon betta spreads both in an upward and downward direction. The anal and dorsal fins of this betta strain are designed to be symmetrical and the effect is quite astounding. In an attempt to perfect the halfmoom betta, another strain, the rose tail, came about. In this strain, there is considerable branching in the unpaired fins. It is the branching and overlapping of the caudal fin which creates the highly attractive rose appearance.

    Round Tail and Delta Tail

    • Round or fan tail bettas are bred with a single caudal fin that contains gently rounded edges. The beautiful tail fin of this strain is wider at the sides than at the base. The delta tail is similar to the round tail, except that the caudal fin has straight edges. Super deltas are an enhanced form of the delta fin and possess a splendid tail.

    Crown and Comb Tails

    • The crown tail was founded 1997 in Indonesia. In this betta type, there is highly reduced webbing between the fin rays, which creates the appearance of spikes. The most sought after crown tail bettas have a 50 percent webbing reduction, but a 33 percent reduction is still acceptable when showing this strain. As with other tail shapes, the striking crown tail trait can be produced in any body form and color of betta. Breeders developed the comb tail from crossing crown tails and single tail bettas. The webbing on comb tails is more pronounced than in the original crown tail strain.