A: Uh huh.. Well, uh, it's like, they are like fishies with like long stringy thingies on their fin thingies and stuff... Uh uhu...

LOL

Well I am sure if I screw on my thinking cap tightly I can come up with a few (articulate this time) things to say about them crowntail beauties :))

But it will cost you LOL  (no actually it is not going to cost you a dime! :))))  hehehehehehehe)

OK, so let us take a glimpse at the crowntail world:

• For those of you who are going, like "Crowntail what?" and have no clue what the heck it is we are talking about here it is:

  
  Single Tail male crowntail in opaque white variation

• Crowntails are new. This is one of the latest tail shape variations to surface and originated from the Far East. It was created by selectively breeding combtails for longer and longer fringes. Soon the fringes got so long that they made the tail look like a crown, hence the name "Crowntails". Initially crowntails very extremely expensive ($200 and up per pair) but now they are less rare and subsequently less pricey. 

• Crowntails can come in Single Tail (ST) or Double Tail (DT) versions.

• Crowntails can have single ray fringes or double ray fringes or more etc...

• Because their tail is already 'ragged', these males will not easily "blow their tails" and seem to retain their majestic beauty overtime.

• Crowntails come in all sorts of colors, but some are harder to produce and find then others. The less pricey ones are blue, green, red, just as all bettas. Blacks, chocolates, yellows and marbles are a bit more uncommon while true white opaques remain hard to produce. I do not believe orange crowntails currently exist (or if they do I was not informed of it LOL). Orange being such a recessive color it will take a while to get both genes to show up in one single betta.

• Crowntails are very aggressive. Females are especially aggressive when compared with regular females. Males flare all day :). 

• Spawning crowntails can be challenging. Because of their aggressive behavior crowntails can pose some problems to the breeder and need to be supervised so they not harm each other. Not all crowntails are mean, but many can be and may kill female or visa versa. So be on your toes!

• Outcrossing crowntails to non-crowntails can prove fatal. I know many breeders who have tried to cross HM males to crowntail females and the females killed the males. Why? Because crown females are very feisty and Halfmoon males are notorious for being mellow and slow (finnage too big slows them down a lot). A bad combination, if you ask me LOL. Having said that we did outcross a gorgeous Crowntail opaque to a Holy Grail female and he was very gentle, so one cannot stereotype too much.

• Crowntail trait is dominant, meaning if you breed a crowntail to a non crowntail, all fry will show some fringes, although some more than others. Also if you breed 2 crowntails together you will get all crowntails. Having said that crowntail is also a trait that can promptly be lost and when outcrossing, you can get less and less crowntail trait in each generation if you are not careful.

Hence when acquiring crowntails, it is imperative you make sure they come from a well established crowntail line, as opposed to say someone who might just have got a pair and then outcrossed them to a non crowntail strain (you will lose the trait that way rather promptly). In short, one is best breeding crowntails together and one must be careful to provide ample hiding places in the spawning tanks for both mates to avoid a duel to the death!!

If you ask me, I think crowntails are one of the most striking betta variation and I LOVE them. Not all crowntails are nice, so avoid the low end ones and make sure to locate a quality strain to purchase. 

Hope the above was informative to you. This would be a great time to announce that beautiful crowntails from very established lines will be posted on the stock page tomorrow (green, steel blue, royal blue, red , tricolor blue/white/red and gorgeous pastels). Hehehehehe - shameless plugging.