HM male

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I saw this on aquabid and I think he's absolutely stunning. I'm seriously considering getting him. I know I blew my fish budget on the DTHMPK pair, but my mother killed the female while I was away this week. My parents said that they'll replace it so they're paying shipping anyway. Of course two extra fish (I'd want a sibling female) is still pretty dear... still, I've also lost about $100 odd in mollies (just been cleaning the carcases out of my brackish tank, that's a jop I sincerely hope none of you ever have to do.) Plus there are some other male bettas showing signs of serious gill damage due. ammonia, ones I would have bred that I may choose not to if they don't recover. They're acting like the recently rescued, not prime breeding stock.

I don't usually go for halfmoons because in many cases the fins are so large that they don't act normally and I hate to watch it... same reason I don't keep fancy guppies. But this boy doesn't look so bad. Does anybody think his fins are going to get disproportionately big or is that pretty much it? (3.5 months).

I'm off to fetch the HM standards now and compare him, other than the lengthened anal fin I'm not spotting many faults. Does anybody think this would not breed true or there's some other reason I should steer clear?

Thanks

Hi Laura
Pretty boy
He's obviously OHM, and I would say he's actually RT due to the amount of folds in his caudal. You would have to be careful with what female you were to breed him with, so as not to make future finnage too heavy. RT fins are naturally quite heavy due to the excess branching.
As regards to faults, there is the obvious Blue bleeding into the white fins. Nothing horrendous though, and unless you are going to be showing it doesn't really matter.
I dont know if I'd breed to a sibling though? Maybe look for a HM female with at least 6 ray branches. The ray branches act as a sort of skeleton for the fin, so more ray branches means a stronger fin :D

Personally, I wouldn't go for rosetail. They often have deformities in the spine and have poor scaling. They also have a lot of fin to carry around, some actually begin to droop as they get older. In a halfmoon, personally I'd want fewer folds in the caudal and straighter edges so it looks as much like a D as possible, and trapezoidal shaped anal fin with straigher edges. :s I like the body shape and the dorsal has a decent base, but its overall shape could see some improvement, maybe it's just the pic making it look more awkward than it is. Personally, I'd go for a regular 180 degree spread HM over rosetail, and look for an ideal fin/body form before color.

Here's a similar fish I randomly picked off AB to show you what I mean, lol,[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] it's not a perfect, of course, but the caudal is much flatter and more rounded, not the perfect D shape, but getting there. The dorsal has a wide base and I love how the first ray is nice and tall. The anal fin is a little too long, and it has a very unfortunate notch in it toward the back, but I like the basic outline. These are just my opinions, of course, and what I like in a fish. Good luck.

Breeding RT, you do have to be selective over the breeding pairs, but i wouldn't say there are any more or less deformatities over any other tailtype.
The 2nd Aquabid example, IMO, has more finnage overall than the first, so therefore the female needed to breed with it would have to be carefully selected.
However, after looking at the first one again, I have a feeling that it has PK in it somewhere due to the definate PK body shape. Also, and i dont know if its just the angle the picture has been taken, it looks like it may have a shortened body?