Tail filament growth

[rodger]

Last week my slobbering cat lost his tail filaments for some reason. They have grown back longer then ever, and the upper is now longer then him. I also have a tigrinus that has an upper filament that stays about the same length as the fish. Do the filaments grow continuously? Do they just get to a certain length and break off? I sometimes see hair-like things floating in the tank an inch or so long that could be broken filaments.
Does anyone have an opinion or better yet real knowledge about tail filaments?

 

[amazonfishman]

They typically max out at some point, if their filaments are long and in good health then the fish is typically also. That is one of the first ways to detect stress when they start to wither due to bad water quality. It's not uncommon to have a filament on either specie be 1/2 it's body length.