What a Dorsal!

check this out: http://www.qldaf.com/forums/bettas-79/3-week-old-betta-fry-80851/index2.html

this guy's got full sailfins on his bettas!
I wish I can produce fish like those!

I am inspired!

One thing is for sure though, I have several fish that do show very broad dorsal (but not as broad as the ones in the link) but the genes have not yet been fixed. These fish just pop out from spawn to spawn. It is inconsistent so far.

Here is what I look at for my bettas' dorsals:
1. base: the base is where the dorsal fin is attached to the body. The broader the dorsal base, the better. I always look at it in relation to the base of the anal fin. I always look for at least 50% ratio (dorsal base length / anal base length).
2. first rays: the next thing I look at is the first rays of the dorsal. The longer, the better. If they are longer, they give the dorsal more volume and better spread.
3. branching: the more extensive the branching, the wider spread and bigger volume. I saw these links in bettysplendens.com: Dorsals part 1 and Dorsal part 2. I am aiming for this, too but it is the last thing on my list.

Example:One of my first self-bred "sailfin" coppers

1. Base: The ratio is 2/3 or around 67%. That means the dorsal base is 2/3 the length of the anal base
2. First rays: The first rays of this fish is very short. They appear as mere protrusions from the body. Generally, the pattern is that the rays are getting longer as they get nearer the caudal. The idea for me is they are of equal length to each other.
3. branching: while the two other traits give the dorsal a broad look already, I will look into the branching. They are basically two-ray branching. Fair enough. But if they could go to 4-rays that would be better as the dorsal will spread more and would possibly flush forward. If it flushes forward, this would give the dorsal a better appearance.

Family Line:

May 15, 2013: I have bred this male to a spawn sister. The offspring (F3) produced a good number of DTs but the singletails do not exhibit the sailfin dorsal like the male. I crossed the F3: a Marble HMPK male and a Copper HMPK female. I transferred the small fry today. Some of the bigger ones are showing broad dorsal bases. I hope all of the singletails will be sailfins and I hope doubletails will also pop up. I want to do an F5 spawn in the future.





Here is a slightly related HMPK female to my sailfin male earlier (they share the same Copper DTPK grandfather)
This is a result of the spawn between a Copper DTPK x Green dtctpk-geno featured here. The fry in this spawn are consistent with having broad dorsals but some have more than the others. This female has the broadest.

Family Line

This female's Copper DTPK grandfather is the father of the previous Copper Sailfin HMPK male. I am planning to cross the Copper Sailfin HMPK male's offspring to this female and this female's brother to Copper DTPK offspring of the Sailfin male.

Update May 22, 2013: Here is a spawn sibling of the sailfin female

Final Remarks:
Don't always look at the fins individually. Always keep in mind the balance of the fish's fins and your goal. It would be funny to see proud sailfins on 2-ray, not 180 caudals. The fish above is not yet 180 so he will still be disadvantaged in shows. I am improving that and crossing his offspring to better branched cousins. It would really be awesome to see full HMPKs with 100% dorsal ratios!