# Compare/Contrast?



## kitkat67 (Mar 10, 2015)

Hey, all! I am just curious about my bettas. The first picture is of my "Pet-hell" buy betta, Duke. And the second is of a male I just ordered from Ebay. Any critique is appreciated! ^~^


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## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

Can you get your pet shop guy (I'll use PK1) to flare?  Does he meet 180degrees in the caudal fin when he does? Or is he similar to your newly ordered boy (PK2)? 

I am looking from the common European standard, that of Bettas4All and as such there may be differences if judged by IBC standards. Whilst I am looking for show faults, I would personally assume that these are similar to what most want to look at correcting when breeding. 

I will be hard on both boys after a fashion, but want to be clear that when pointing out faults does not mean anything nasty. Just when i started out I liked to hear, so I could set breeding goals. These are both very pretty boys IMO!  

Your new guy looks like he could be problematic in shows as he wold have faults shown as either HMPK or TradPK. From my phone, PK2 looks like he might likewise meet 180 degrees, but lacks the D shape, which would be a fault. Also, he has more than primary branching in the caudal, which is considered a fault in the TradPK. Both have a good bredth to the peduncle - along with "too much" branching of the caudal - indicate breeding to HMPK could be possible within only a generation or two. 

Both have a nice bredth on the base of the dorsal fin, in line with the size of the caudal. Its is hard to tell with PK1 without a flare photo, but I am unsure if his dorsal is long enough to overlap nicely with the caudal. PK2's caudal doesn't _clearly_ overlap with the caudal, but I believe this is more falling back to the lack of more brasnching/greater gaps between rays in teh caudal, than a fault in the dorsal. His dorsal has a nice shape, no excessive branching and the back of his dorsal doesn't extend into the body line after overlapping.

Anal fin on PK1 is of a good bredth, and appears to be in good balance with teh size of the caudal, but lacks a smooth edge and the distinct backwards tip at the end that would be expected of a show fish. PK2 has a nice point on his anal, and the slope, whilst slightly steppening towards the ends, would not be liekly to be a major fault. 

The Ventrals on PK1 are split, which is a problem. PK2s are nice and long, and still slender, desirable in PKs. There does look to be the possibility of future splitting, so if breeding I would look carefully at the ventrals on the female. 


The topline running mouth to dorsal on both males is lovely. Some may well prefer that of PK1 as it is slightly more curved, whislt Pk2's bodyline I think may come back to recent outcrossings of his line to wild types, which have longer, more slender bodies. Personally I prefer the new one but neither are unappealing or have faults. 

Colours...

PK1 has good contrast between colours, and on the whole has a good seperation between body and fins, except in the dorsal, where the blue has dominated. The blue radiating along the rays in the caudal and anal fins would only become an issue if shown against another bicolour who didn't have it (tbh a ot of show winners I ahve seen lately have had this, so it is really only a minor fault). If those green scales are present under all lighting it may slightly hinder his if shown, but it could just eb the angles in this photo. 

PK2 has better distinction between colour, with less radiating into the fins. There is a dark patch in the photo just behind his pectoral, which if it is not an effect of shadows would be a problem, but my guess is it may be the photo.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Male #1 is unclear, other than his split and long vents. Body could be smoother (compare to male #2 - has smooth side body). And too much color bleeding - need to either make body and all fins one color (totally) or show certain distinct color/pattern on body and fins (no bleeding).

Male #2: 
- Dorsal not round enough - preferably half circle/oval. Better yet, long front rays that lean forward.
- Caudal; rather small and uneven rays/branching spread. Round edges (top and bottom) thus caudal is not "D" shaped.
- Anal could be better but is ok for his class.
- Ventrals too thin and a bit too long. Has protruding ray - you want them to look like wide blades.
- Body could be better but is ok.
- Color not "clean" enough and has patches. You want the fins to be one solid color or show balanced pattern (eg. 50% bands on butterfly).


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## Akkikumar (Aug 8, 2015)

i loved the second one....


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