My Hobby

[BuckJones]

I am a student away at school. So while I can't be at home doing something with cattle and in between studying and looking at pictures of cows/bulls, one of my hobbies is to breed show quality bettas.

These particular ones are less than spectacular as they were born right before christmas so they had to fend for themselves for a week...then they had to be raised during my busiest ever semester so they have endured some neglect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94EtwLVBNCM

[katrina]

Interesting...... Now I'm blonde... So what makes a show quality betta?

[gcreekrch]

[Faster horses]

After you get them halter broke, how do you show them?

[katrina]

[BuckJones]

Well, after you halter break them, you stick em in a bag and ship em off to a show to be judged against the current standards. The fish are assumed full points and demerited based on faults.

The fish are judged on several considerations - finnage, colour and deportment.
There are several types of finnage, and each has their own standard. Two staples are longfinned Halfmoon and Shortfinned Halfmoon. Whether long or short finned, they have to have a full 180 degree caudal(tailfin) spread, balance, proportion, strong fin rays, and clean fin edges.
Balance is the ability to draw a line around the outer edge of their fins and have the line be smooth and free of kinks and/or bumps.
Ideal proportion for longfins is 2/5-3/5 caudal length - body length. For shortfins, is
1/3 caudal length - 2/3 body length.

Here is a longfinned one I owned:

This is a short-finned one I wish I owned:


Just for comparison, here are some 3D models we developed as standards for short and longfinned respectively:




Because they are fighting fish, deportment is very important. This means the fish must be reactive, aggressive, and able to swim freely & uninhibited by their fins. Of course, they never fight...that is illegal. Here is a pic of a recent show set-up:

[katrina]

Wow.... Thanks for sharing... Pretty cool....

[BuckJones]

No prob.
Also forgot to mention that they are judged on colour as well. Solid Blues are supposed to be only blue (same for all solid colours). The more intense the better.
If they are mixed coloured or patterned, then the pattern should be the same on all fins and each colour should be clearly separated and intense. For example, the black/yellow fish could be faulted for having some blue irridescence in his fins and body. He could also be faulted for not having as well defined patter in his bottom fin as compared to the other fins. There are no colour faults on the blue.

[Faster horses]

The things you don't know about...amazing...thanks for sharing!!