Do you think having nine tails would be too heavy for the rear end of a Fox? Even if each tail has its own muscles, for the tails to be use as hands for gripping, lifting, and such; I think the part they attach to must also have strong bones and muscles like our shoulders to bear the weight. What about a two leg species with nine tails? Your thought?
depends on the construction of those tails. if each has a skeletal structure connecting to the spine, i presume the fox in general would have underwent an evolution to adjust to the number of tails. becoming bigger and stronger to carry the weight. so i guess a nine tailed fox would be perfectly fine, albeit bigger and stronger.
Not just ask, ya have to pet it... repeatedly... for science!! Edit: Usually only magical tails that can extend etc. are used for gripping things. In most cases 9tails are just waving around a bit or used as a spellcasting foci, so not much muscles needed.
i suppose it'd depends on what's being lifted and how. magic goes a long way to cheat physics, but for the most part, tails are more like our pinkies than arms or legs. most of the movement is reliant on tendons, rather than muscle, and tails possess neither the joints nor tautness of a pinky, so it's unlikely they'd be able to actually lift stuff with them (under normal circumstances). as for the extra weight and balance, i'd assume they'd have properly grown into them, so they'd be well adjusted to their use. it's not like they'd just randomly grow 8 extra tails all at once, and even if they did, they should still grow into them, as that'd be just a natural part of their growth. even humanoids likely wouldn't have much trouble with the added weight after getting used to them. at worst, they may develop some odd habits, but otherwise it shouldn't be a problem.
For nine tails to come out of a spine, the vertebra should be quite broad. Factoring in the resultant development of torso muscles, I think it is ok. The hind legs have to be longer, and there should be a more distinct arc.
Personally I'd think it'd be more like a single tail branching into many tails. The branch itself would simply have more or denser muscles. Where as the other tails would be as normal. It would have bones like that of a normal fox. The other thing is that the body of a nine tail fox would be larger and thus should be able to support more tails. However if we are talking mythically. For a nine tail fox, a tail appears each time 100 years pass until nine tails. Thus this would be indicative of mana and magic shit happening