The ugly side of beauty

Once upon a time, I was perusing through a local fish store's selection of bettas when I came across a particularly impressive blue and red male, with just stunning finnage.

The label said he was a rosetail.

Huh.  I'd never heard of that before.  But he was gorgeous, and I had a spare tank, so I took him home.

And then I realized my mistake.

For those who may not know, a rosetail is an extreme halfmoon, to put it simply.  The fins are extremely wide, and usually extremely long.

Here are some pictures (all photos are assumed to be public domain.  If you own a picture posted and wish it taken down or sourced, please let me know).

Pretty, right?

I sure thought so.  And my male, Triton, was truly stunning to behold.

But it didn't take long for me to realize the price of his beauty.

His fins were way too heavy.  He hardly moved at all, instead just swimming from resting place to resting place.

Finally, he took to biting them off.

And finally, they collapsed, making it even harder for him to swim.

The vast majority of my fish live 5-7 years.  He barely made 3.

And he was miserable.

What makes a rosetail?

We'll look at this picture of Osiris.

Now, you can see the electric blue bones going through the orange of his tail, and you can also see them in his dorsal (top) fin.

But between those are even smaller, finer bones called rays.  They branch out and give the fins width.  They're what support the weight of the fins.

In a rosetail, the number of rays has been increased to extreme levels.  This is what gives the tail that fluffy, feathery look (they're also called feathertails) even when flaring.

Which yeah, we can admit it.  It's pretty.  It's impressive.  It looks awesome.

In fact, here's the rosetail version of Osiris.

I mean, I think Osiris' colors are better, but this is a gorgeous fish.

The problem is that even Osiris' fins are heavy.  He's got to work hard to get around.

Which is a good thing, mind you.  They have hearts the same way we do, and they benefit from cardio the same way we do.

But Osiris' fins are at a manageable and healthy length.  He is physically fit enough to get around with them.  Anatomically, the bones of his fins are structurally sound enough to support the weight.

This is not the case with a rosetail.  They're just too heavy.

Eventually the bones break, the fins collapse, and you get something like this.

You thought it was hard to get around before the fins collapse?  Once this happens, they can't swim properly.  They're even more inactive simply because they can't move.

And that's if they don't bite them off first.

They're beautiful, yes, but they suffer for it.  And they die young.

Never buy a rosetail or a feathertail.  Your wallet speaks louder than your words.  And every purchase motivates breeders to make more.

If you already have one, do everything you can to help him.  Keep his water shallow and give him many resting places near the surface.  More than one betta hammock and floating betta log.  Plants for him to rest on.

Keep the water super clean to avoid fin rot if he bites his fins.

Keep him as comfortable as you can for as long as you can.  And when his suffering gets to be too much, euthanize him humanely.

And never buy another one again.