# My surprise marble~



## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

One of my females surprised me last week when she began to marble after more than eight months of being a solid royal blue betta! At first I was afraid she was sick, but other members here have reassured me she is just marbling. And BOY is she marbling! I figured I'd keep a thread here to document her progress for anyone who is interested to see it. She is literally changing every single day! Before long my little royal blue CT is gonna be white!

Enjoy~

When I brought her home - 6/29/13

















Then I went away for a long weekend and returned to this - 3/2/14

























The next day - 3/3/14

















And the next - 3/4/14


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## Meade (Feb 15, 2013)

So pretty!


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## amphirion (Jan 15, 2014)

that would have given me a heart attack! phew!


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Meade - thanks! She's looking stranger by the day lol but it's fun to watch her changing!

amphirion - oh, you bet. I was almost panicking and about to yank her from the sorority and start treating her, but thankfully another member had a fish who has done this exact thing, turning from all blue to a surprise marble. I am so glad she stopped me from starting any treatments!

3/5/14 - her pectorals are starting to change as well!


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## BlueLacee (Dec 8, 2013)

wow, she is cool


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

BlueLacee - thanks! I think I'm gonna have a white fish pretty soon haha

3/6/14

















3/7/14


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## knottymare (Feb 23, 2014)

:blueyay: That is a remarkable transformation!


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Thank you!! She is surprising me more every day haha. She's even changed since this morning! I'll have to get some new pics uploaded.


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Alright, since I'm shameless when it comes to bragging about my fish... more pics!

3/8/14 - I love that her lips are staying blue!








Her sassy attitude in this one is my absolute favorite hahaha

















Aaaaand she's tired of me taking pictures. Although Kira wanted to say hello hahaha


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

3/9/14








Those blue lips, tho... I can't even, she's so cute.

























She is camera-shy with this side of her body. Noooo idea why but it's so hard to get a good picture of this side of her body.


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

That is some amazing changes going on, you never would have thought of her as a marble from her first image, lol.


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

beautiful Betta said:


> That is some amazing changes going on, you never would have thought of her as a marble from her first image, lol.


Thank you! Yeah, she really had me worried at first... never in a million years would I have guessed she would marble EIGHT MONTHS after I brought her home! But she's happy as can be in there haha and providing daily excitement for me as I get to watch her change.


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Alright, so I got behind by a few days, but she is REALLY pale now!

3/10/14

















3/11/14

























3/12/14


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

I reckon she is going to go white, lol.


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

beautiful Betta said:


> I reckon she is going to go white, lol.


I reckon you're right~ lol


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## knottymare (Feb 23, 2014)

She looks like a lipstick wearing Zebra! I love all your girls. One of these days, I'll set up a sorority tank!


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## pitbullmamaliz (Oct 24, 2011)

I love her zebra stripes! And what a huge change in such a short time!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Holy mackerel! I agree with everyone else; amazing changes in such a little span of time as well!! I can't wait to see how she ends up and if she continues to change! :-D


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## givemethatfish (Feb 10, 2014)

OH man I would have freaked out too. What's wrong with my fish!!?? That's really cool! I have a new Petsmart find who is a really interesting color and clearly very young. I can't wait to see how his color changes/comes in as he settles in and matures.


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Thanks for all the comments, guys!! I think even her fins are going to turn, they've already started~

3/13/14
























White pecs!


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

maybe she will go white and then start turning blue again. lol


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## Weaver (Sep 8, 2013)

She's perfectly stripey! Oh my gosh, she's a pretty Marble! I wish my boy would go back to being all white and blue again. >.>


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Thank you guys! I'm loving the changes, although I'm a bit sad to see the blue go because I bought her specifically because I loved her gorgeous royal blue color. Maybe she'll marble back to blue, who knows? Either way I still love her~

I'll post more pictures tonight, she's changed a little bit more today.


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## knottymare (Feb 23, 2014)

This thread is fascinating. Is this common? I had never heard of a fish changing so much that wasn't related to it's normal changes as it grows.


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## AmbiantNight (Feb 12, 2014)

What an amazing little lady! I love her.


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## isaiaas91 (Mar 20, 2014)

Amazing thread, great pictures from beginning to end!


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

She's not done yet! She's begun to have hints of RED on her fins now! And she's got gorgeous butterfly bands right now. I need to get pictures uploaded and then I'll fill this thread up hahaha


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Okay, a few new pictures for you guys!

3/17/14

























3/20/14

































So! Her face is coloring up blue again and her fins now have butterfly bands and hints of red on them as well as he body having a couple faint spots where there are hints of red. My little girl isn't done surprising me yet! Can't wait to see what else she has in store for me~


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## beautiful Betta (Sep 19, 2013)

This thread is so interesting to watch, thanks for keep posting pics.


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Aw, thank you! She's certainly been fun to watch haha


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## BettaGranny (Mar 8, 2014)

I didn't know this can happen. I would have thought my fish was sick if it happened to me. Thanks for sharing this info. Your fish is beautiful!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Realizing this is an older thread by now, but what did she end up as Seki?


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Ahhh who dug this up? This is an old thread haha but it's really funny because I could literally update with about 30 more photos documenting her ever-changing markings. She hasn't stopped, so I can't say she "ended up" as anything. She's just marbling away, changing every single day. At the moment she's mostly blue again, though her white splotches have been growing once more. I've never seen a fish marble so much!

I'll snag a new pic for you guys if I can get her to cooperate. She's an attention-hog until she sees the camera, then suddenly she wants to hide in the plants hahaha.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Haha, I did when I was explaining marbling and the process to somewhere else here since it's a good documented process! And figured since I knew you were still on and about that we could get an update ;-)


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## Pippin (Apr 11, 2014)

An update would be nice if she sits still! My tip to get photos of bettas is go out to the tanks at two in the morning. Hopefully she will be asleep and where you can see her.


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## leedavidford (Apr 27, 2014)

She's awesome!!  I love how she keeps getting prettier!


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## Jonthefish (Jun 16, 2014)

Woah that change is crazy !!! :-D

Do marbles normally marble this much ?! xD Gorgeous !


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, they can Jon! Some only change once while other can change their entire life!


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## taquitos (Jun 27, 2013)

Beautiful girl!


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## Jonthefish (Jun 16, 2014)

lilnaugrim said:


> Yeah, they can Jon! Some only change once while other can change their entire life!


Tempting me to get a marble ... xD


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I find that the ones who are most obviously marble never really marble that much, it's the ones that look normal that marble the most! Much like Seki's girl started out a normal blue CT girl! You could never really know most times!


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## Jonthefish (Jun 16, 2014)

Natures so amazing sometimes . I wonder what causes them to do that ? :-D


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

It's a specific gene called the jumping gene which causes the fish to change color. I don't know exactly the origin of it but I'm assuming it's probably linked for camouflage in nature, could be wrong about that assumption though lol.


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## Pippin (Apr 11, 2014)

That sounds interesting. I think I know of a IS science class I could take when I get into second semester of eighth grade.


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## Jonthefish (Jun 16, 2014)

lilnaugrim said:


> It's a specific gene called the jumping gene which causes the fish to change color. I don't know exactly the origin of it but I'm assuming it's probably linked for camouflage in nature, could be wrong about that assumption though lol.


Interesting . I think I'm going to look more into this !


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Marbles are SO. COOL. They're like these magical rainbow chameleon fish.

Almost seems like blue fish are more likely than other "normal" colors to turn out to be marbles, doesn't it? A lot of the marbles you see on this forum have at least some blue. Gray, Enceladus, and this girl are all partially blue marbles... Of course there's the "traditional" kind which are usually mostly white/cellophane, or the koi patterned bettas. But I don't think I know of any/many fish outside those two categories.

Speculation, of course. I don't know much about fishy genetics.



Pippin said:


> That sounds interesting. I think I know of a IS science class I could take when I get into second semester of eighth grade.


You guys make me feel old.


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

Forgive my lateness (I've been otherwise occupied with a rescue), but here are those updated pics of little miss Hime. ^_^


















BONUS!! My male CT marble, Kai, who has also done some significant marbling, though not as much as Hime.


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## IcyFin (Jan 26, 2014)

WOW! What a fascinating thread! It makes me wonder if any of my fish are going to surprise me with sudden colour changes! Please do keep updating this if she continues to change


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## autojoy (Jun 16, 2014)

WOW! This is dramatic!!! She looks amazing -- so does Kai, like a little jewel ^_^


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## PoissonsMom (Feb 11, 2014)

My male DRCT, Hawk, has done exactly the same thing 2 me, lol! I bought him back in Feb, as a black copper. Over the last couple months, he went from black, to solid red.... And is now mostly white, with red-orange splotches, as u can see in my Hawk album! I 2 thought there was something seriously wrong w/ him, until other members assured me he was just marbling. His ever changing colors & patterns have me very intrigued. All I can do is wonder what in the world he has in store 4 me next!


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## Meade (Feb 15, 2013)

Gorgeous Seki!

I miss my Enceladus ;;


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