Letters of a Betta Addict

Ok so I’m not an expert so right now this is mostly a collection of what I’ve found. I’ll include the sites I got the information from below and any “unique” bits of information will be credited to them.

The basics:

When looking at betta coloring there are a few things to keep in mind.

1. A betta’s color (pigments) are arranged in four layers, one for each color pigment.
2. These pigments are Black, Red, Yellow, and Irridescent
3. All variations in pattern and colors in betta’s are due to different mutations that have been bred or “discovered” in each of the various genes for these pigments.

Wild Type coloring:

In the original wild type Betta Splendens the four pigments are laid out in the following orders:

*Yellow - very light and low density, not seen

Black - base layer covered by red and iridescent

Red - covers black but is covered by Iridescent

Iridescent - metallic blue or green

Wild Betta Splenden color pattern and finnage. (From IBC-SMP Website)

*Notes on the yellow layer: Yellow Betta’s seen in the hobby are not actually due to the yellow layer but rather are caused by a mutation in the red pigments and are referred to properly as “Non-Red”. In order for this layer to be seen all pigmentation in the above layers must be lost. However this is rare and difficult to achieve. There is a theory that yellow may be involved in some way with the Opaque but that hasn’t been proven yet. Since no other genes have been discovered on it yet it will be ignored for the purposes of this discussion.

The following notes are based on which layer the gene that controls the trait is located as presented by Jim Sonnier.

BLACK

• Wild Type:
  • Typically covered by other colors
  • spread at a medium density all over the fish except for abdomen and caudal fin
• Melano:
  • A mutation that increases the density and spread of the black pigments.
  • The Melano Mutation is recessive to normal black pigmentation.
• Cambodian:
  • The absence of black pigmentaion
  • recessive to normal black
• Blonde:
  • Decreased density of the black pigmentation
  • results in faded and washed out colour appearance
  • recessive to normal black
• Marble:
  • variable density in the black pigmentation that constantly changes in young fish
  • dominant gene with a high variability of expression.
    • Note: Marbles can now be found in all color types but were developed with black fish.

• Wild Type:
  • Covers black, is covered by Irridescent.
  • Limited to pelvic, anal, and caudal fins
  • very heavy density
• Red (Extended Red):
  • Increased density and spread to full body coverage
  • Gives a solid red appearance
  • Dominant to wild type coloring
• Yellow/Non-Red:
  • Mutation in the gene causes yellow pigment to be produced instead of red
  • affects both wild type and extended red patterns
  • no red pigments will be found on the body
  • recessive to normal red gene
• Red Loss:
  • Marble in origin
  • red pigments “disappear” over time
  • partial or complete loss
  • dominant over all but extended red
  • highly variable
• Butterfly Pattern:
  • Variegated fins
  • dominant but highly variable
  • 1st seen in red betta lines.

• Wild Type:
  • Covers all other pigments and is the densest layer
  • ray like projections onto fins and rows of dots laterally along the body.
  • Green is the normal colour rather then blue.
• Green/Turquoise (Spread Iridescence):
  • has a blue tint hence the commonly referred to as Turquoise
  • covers entire body but for the head
  • dominant to wild colour pattern
• Steel Blue:
  • colour mutation in the iridescent layer
  • affects normal and spread patterns
  • co-dominant with turquoise
• Royal Blue:
  • the phenotype of a fish with both the steel blue and green (turquoise) allele
• Non-blue:
  • This gene is still mostly a theory, it’s come up due to certain breeders having betta’s appear in lines with no blue. However it’s possible that a betta with a steel-blue genotype may have such a thin layer of the iridescent pigment that it would be overlooked.  ~Joep