Whats Wrong With Veiltails?

[digitalemotion]

i see alot of bad comments on here about veiltails and i was wondering why? ive not yet got my first betta as ive had to borrow the tank i had set up for one of my fish that was being harrased.

Im going to be getting my betta from a fs (maybe not so local depends on if they can display that they know thier stuff) and the only types ive seen in any fs around here are veiltails. ive even enquired about CT's as i would really like one but it looks like im gonna have to get a VT they all say the demand isnt high enough for any other tail type, this doesnt bother me personaly but i was just wondering if there was a specific reason that VT's arnt a good idea to buy?

 

[Wisperian]

its just that most viels have no pure genes. like if you breed 2 viels together you'd probably get 1000000000 different outcomes. so they are considered mutts

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

It's not buying them or having them that's a problem at all. It's breeding them. Because there are so many VT's available if you breed VT's they are much harder to find homes for then CT'S, HM's etc etc. Especially when you start entering deeper into the betta realm. Personally my fave fella is a VT (my first boy and still with me ) and I'd love for him to be a daddy. But I simply don't have room for a massive stock of VT's nor necessarily anyone who would rehome them.
P.

 

[Sorrell]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with VTs as pets! They are a wonderful fish. The negative comments come from people wanting to spawn veils. Spawning them is basically a waste of your time and money and it does absolutely nothing for the fish as a whole. VTs are EVERYWHERE, you can't expect to sell them. Most pet stores have contracts with mass distributors who purchase veils for pennies, therefore they are generally not interested in buying VTs from local breeders. They cannot be shown either, so you don't have that option to send them off to auctions. As wisperian mentioned, breeding veils is a blind venture. You can't "better" the fish and especially not in one spawn. With such a smorgosbord of genes it is impossible to set goals for the future generations.

I'm not saying it's impossible to breed a great fish from veils, but it would take so many generations that by the time you got anything decent looking they would be extremely inbred and weak when you could have started with "nice" fish in the beginning. When you breed a fish you know the background and history of, it is much easier to set goals and actually see the results. The fish in my avatar for example, I know what his siblings looked like, his parents and their siblings, and their parents. Having this knowledge, I can predict what my possibilities are and isolate the particular things I am looking for in one spawn. You can't do this with veils and people often end up with 200+ fish they have no one to take.

This topic made me think of this thread...

 

[digitalemotion]

Thanx guys, i understand abit more now.

im going to be scouring all fs in my area as i want one thats a bit different in colour.. all my lfs seem to have is blues with the odd purple or red.. ive found a fs which is about an hour away that has according to its website a member of staff who runs the fish room that breeds bettas. im sure i will get what im looking for there im just worried about the time to transport him back home

 

[Rynoah]

He'll be fine during transportation, so long as you keep the water warm. Bring a towel to wrap him in or an ice chest with a heat pack if you feel the water will cool down too much before you get home (or you can just keep the heater on full blast in your car).

 

[lisie]

Ain't nothin' like a veiltail.

 

[vancouver]

They just don't look as good as cts/dts/plakats/deltas

 

[Loko17]

Yea I'm with Vancouver, for me VT's dont look as good as the rest also I think there are too many VT's everywhere and should be more variety of all sorts of bettas. Like I have never seen a DT in person nor have I seen Plakats,SuperDTs,Halfmoons among others. But I've seen plenty of Veiltails and frankly there are too many. I have a crowntail and it was the first one I'd seen in person.

 

[Sorrell]

Thanx guys, i understand abit more now.

im going to be scouring all fs in my area as i want one thats a bit different in colour.. all my lfs seem to have is blues with the odd purple or red.. ive found a fs which is about an hour away that has according to its website a member of staff who runs the fish room that breeds bettas. im sure i will get what im looking for there im just worried about the time to transport him back home

He'll be just fine in a bag for an hour, that's a piece of cake for a betta A couple of stories... I went with my friend to visit her boyfriend who was about 6 hours from my house. While we were there I went to a shop and bought a betta because we planned to head home in the morning. Welcome to Wyoming, freak snow storm, 12 inches in a matter of hours and we were snowed in for the next four days. The little man stayed in his bag all that time and never blinked an eye.

A larger scale version...went to a fish show in Seattle and bought 18 fish. These fish had been shipped in to be at the show, then stayed in bags in my hotel room for two days, went into a box to be shipped back to my house and showed up the day after I returned-all fine.

Bettas are incredibly hardy fish, an hour is nothing. Not suggesting it, but you could bring him home from the store and leave him in the bag a few days and he'd be fine.

 

[BWBettas]

hink about it, how did the fish get to the store They didnt come by concorde and get there super lightning fast?... they came in a car/truck/airport and that was obviously longer than one hour! even the hardier fish in the order like neons, gouramies and the such. They all survive the long journeys so bettas will do it, peice of cake

Bret

 

[Sp00ky]

Another thing a lot of people dont realise is that VT's are actually derived from a failed HM that cannot raise its tail which means that at comps they have been judging "second rate" fish for decades LOL. Theres an interesting article in PFK May 2006 about Ray Brown who is a champion breeder which explains this more in full. It also goes on to inform readers that he was the first person to enter 2 Plakats in a comp and the judges could not and would not judge it as they had not seen anything like it before and they though the fish were too old ! He also entered a HM which got 79/100 but could not be judged on finnage as the FBAS standard stated that a fighters tail much hang down in a veiltail

as a result of this they had Ray draw up a standard as to which they should be judge by and thanks to him, people can enter more than just VT's now.

 

[geo7x]

yeah there is nothing wrong with veiltails, i love them, it's just don't breed them, it just means you are contributing to the 'betta in a cup' market, and there are tons of homeless, uncared for veiltails out there, and its best not to add to them. If you really want a CT then maybe just wait and keep checking in your LFSs, today i went into my lfs who are just your average LFS with just VTs in there, but today they had teo new new stunning CTs so, you never know . buuuut velitails still make fantastic pets and in many respects they are just as good as any other betta, especially if you have no intention to breed them.

 

[aquagirl]

Jesus I love VTs.

My LFs's have been stocking more CTs, lately, though... so they're not too hard to get anymore either.

Some VTs are really gorgeous.

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Rebel is my babyyy.