# Why can't you breed a veiltail? (or can you?)



## BettaJen (Jun 7, 2012)

I'm just curious. I have one.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

You can breed them, but due to saturation of the market by wholesalers (of usually fairly sub-standard stock) and something to do with them not being able to be shown or have their own class with the IBC, most breeders don't bother with them.

It is going to be next to impossible to sell common coloured VTs for anything more than a pittance. There's just so many languishing on the shelves of every single fish and pet store.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Breeders will telll you you can't but you can as long as you have homes for the babies. Veiltails aren't as sought after as other tail types.


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## Thomasdog (Jan 26, 2012)

I love veiltails! <3

Sorry, that's kinda random!


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## BettaJen (Jun 7, 2012)

Thank you.
It's not for selling or show purposes. 
I was looking at this forum and found breeding Betta to be interesting. 
They would make over 100 babies though, if successful?
I don't have the equipment for that. 
They're just ideas. And it'd be nice for my future Betta to be passed on from my current one.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

You may not get that many babies. But breeding takes a lot of time,money and space. We recommend that you do plenty of research before attempting breeding.


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## jeffegg2 (Apr 5, 2012)

BettaJen said:


> I'm just curious. I have one.


Of course it is possible, that is where yours came from! 

The thing is, if you are going to go to the time and expense to breed 100+ Betta's, you might as well use good stock to begin with so you can possibly recoup some of your expense, or at least easily find homes for them. If you check around your local pet stores you'll see that show quality Betta's are a rarity. 

If you are just interested in the process and have a pair of veil-tails, it is possible to limit the spawning by removing the female early and only have 10 or so fry which is easily manageable with a smaller tank.

Jeff.


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## Aus (Feb 3, 2012)

It's downright shameful that veiltails have such a marginalised place in the IBC.

They're a foundation animal. They should be upkept, to whatever standards beyond simple soundness might be placed on them by whatever body sets the breed standard.

One day, there very feasibly may not be any veiltails that are not genetically weak, which means that one day there could feasibly be no more veiltails.

Don't blame the greedy mass breeders or the people who buy them for pets. Blame the people who set the standards and turn their noses up at these fish, whose standards are so 'high' they'll let the veiltail die out as a viable breed type rather than act quickly and diligently to preserve and strengthen it.

Of course I realise there are people working to re-establish the veiltail type. But until the VT is actually deemed as valuable as any other tail type (which are also badly bred and languishing in tiny pet store cups everywhere...) to the species/show crowds in general it won't catch on and the VT will continue to be marginalised, to its vast detriment.


TL;DR: I love veiltails too.


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## BettaJen (Jun 7, 2012)

Ah. Thanks for helping me understand.
I will not breed him because I'm not well prepared. 
^_^


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## lvandert (Feb 23, 2012)

I currently only have two babies from a spawn that started with a couple hundred eggs. Between natures way (dad eating bad eggs and bad fry when hatched) and then the few sick ones dying off I'm down to two healthy babies. I didn't expect such a small spawn but I was prepared for bigger. It's a long shot but depending where your located I may be willing to sell you some supplies. I'm pretty much done breeding


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## jeffegg2 (Apr 5, 2012)

Aus said:


> It's downright shameful that veiltails have such a marginalised place in the IBC.
> 
> They're a foundation animal. They should be upkept, to whatever standards beyond simple soundness might be placed on them by whatever body sets the breed standard.
> 
> ...


What is a "foundation animal"? It is not a wild type. I consider it a step towards the half moon type. I would not be opposed to an IBC veil tail class however. But if there was such a class, perhaps they would be swamped with Thai betta owners.


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## Aus (Feb 3, 2012)

I guess I'm used to talking about mammals.. 

What I meant was, it's one of the original tail types developed. No matter whether VT is considered as a 'step toward' any other type, it's still a tail type exhibited by the species that imo deserves to included in the IBC, if for no other reason that to encourage the breeding of good examples of the type and genetically sounder strains of fish with it. 

Why would it be swamped with Thai betta breeders? Are the other classes not so?


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