# color question/genetics



## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

I have two girls, who when not stressed have dark bodies with very pretty green or royal blue fins. However when they are stressed they turn an ugly olive color. 

I am wondering if I were to breed one of them, is there a certain color the male should not be, in order to minimize the change the offspring will have the olive body color? I'm not too concerned about tail type as I am not sure what these girls are although I have been told either a VT or PK

All my fishies came from walmart or petco so i have no idea what's in their backgrounds.

These are the two females in question



















For males, colorwise I have

tan VT
white delta
red VT and CT
royal blue HM
red and white VT
light blue/whiteish VT
Black CT
Mixed colored one in my avatar. he's like a mix of yellow/pink/red/blue body and has clear flipper fins (the ones he swims with).
blueish green mustard gas HM

most of these guys have pics in my albums.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Well, because the females are naturally darker, the reason their colors fade is just due to stressful situations. If you did not want that olive color I would not go with that female, because chances are some may get the olive color until they fully develop their colors. 

You could mix darker colors with her, which will bring out of course darker colors (IMO). Or, if you want a variety of colors go with the mix colored one, which then you could get more than just specific colors. If you want specific colors, try matching the colors of the female and male - but be ready to accept some odd fry that may have different colors 

For instance, my VT male and female (female is plakat OR VT, idk) I will spawn soon, the male is mixed colors, very bright colored, and the female is an ebony black with metallic green/blue on her fins and back. That would be an interesting combo 

And be careful of fin types you breed... from what I heard you wouldn't for instance want to breed a CT with a HM, unless you plan to breed an offspring of the parents to get a prettier version. Just what I've heard, from on here that is...

All my bettas came from one store, which is supplied by one or two "breeders" that of course have mixed breeds. My Spartan has a tumor, sadly, probably from inbreeding (line breeding) or something else, as he had it since I got him. now I cannot breed him  But, I have a spade VT, then there is Colors and the pale, greenish yellow finned Voldemort ^^


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## AHaskell5 (Sep 14, 2011)

I would _assume _that when her color turns olive-ish it's because her top layer (the "blue" layer) , due to stress , fades away - leaving the secondary layer (the blackish-brownish) to be exposed primarily. Sorry , but because these girls are petstore beauties theyre genes are rather hard to predict... theres a possibility you could cross either of them with any given male and have a few fish that have that stubborn olive color that just wont breed out... but here's some great articles on genes if you have a free second (they helped me a lot, I hope theyll help you too!) I put them in order for you from simple to semi complex so start off where your gene-knowledge ends 

1. The basics: (about dominainace, ressessive, blah, blah, blah) 
2. Layer basics: (layers of pigment that create their over-all color)
3. In depth layers: (bettas , theyre like an onion ! hehehe  )
4. Onto the colors!: (about , well , colors !)
5. Chocos: (Seeing the olive-like-color made me wonder if she had some potential chocolate?)

I know , I know a lot of reading ! But hopefully these sites will help you figure out (or give you a little hint) towards their genetic backgrounds and help you decide on a mate(s). Hope this helped ! Good luck XD


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Your female is what I call the classic natural color - colors you'd find in the wild. Her changing to a less vibrant color should only occurs if she is stressed in some way. And this change applies to all bettas.

Color wise, (if she isn't a product of crosses) she should produce more like that if bred to irid colors (green, blue, metalic blue) or black lace. So your male should be ok.

IMO both are PK's. But not the show type, rather the fighter type (notice the distance between the dorsal and the caudal + the round shape of the caudal indicates that they are single rayed)...... just to clarify type/form.


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

Thanks for the info :-D. 

I think at some point, I will try and breed one of them as it will be intersting to see what the offspring look like :-D

I kinda wondered if they were a wild type becuase of the swirly like design on their top fin - kinda like this guy has
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwbettas&1316925611

My walmart has some spiffy looking bettas when they get in new shipments, but I don't think most of them survive long enough to get adopted


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Here our walmart actually took great care of the fishies. Problem was, the people shipping fish to walmart used refrigerated trucks... So they arrived frozen ;( so we no longer have a fish section. 

But I would love to see any fry that turn out for ya  would be awesome!!!


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## Luimeril (Dec 29, 2010)

ALL females pale when stressed. that 'ugly olive color' is just her, trying to blend in more so she's not spotted by whatever's stressing her. any and all dark-bodied females will go that color when stressed, no matter what you do. even my own Lulu goes from rich black:









to a light brown:









when stressed. it's something ya gotta live with when you deal with females of a dark color. part of their charm, imo. don't like it? don't mess with dark-colored bettas. *shrugs*


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Very true >< I have an ebony black female, and when she is stressed she goes a greyish or brownish color. Which I don't like but hey... that's why I try keeping her not stressed  then again I have a female who doesn't like me seeing her "color" so when she is minding her own business, and goes purple, then she turns and sees me she slowly fades back to her "baby coloring" with stripes lol. The other girls don't care anymore


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## Luimeril (Dec 29, 2010)

light-bodied females don't really show the stress stripes, ime. Caroline, when stressed, would just turn her fins the color of dried blood, instead of the rich pinky-red they naturally were. Freya, was my black CT female, and easily stressed, so i'd have to see that olive-color often. i don't mind it. then again, to me, no betta's ugly.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Yeah I have a light girl (she goes white, with her fins pink outlined with black  ) and when stressed she goes a light brown color  It definitely depends on your betta's color


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## tsoto80 (Nov 26, 2010)

All of my girls are beautiful...mean, but beautiful! lol


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

That's about right lol. Marge, still has a bloated belly from her food mishap (silly girl) but her and her sister Tina are back up to bullying Zebra and Rose lol. I had to remove Madame from the sorority because she was really mean... then again she was also 1.5 inches bigger lol


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

The blue finned one I only got because I felt bad for her. I saw her, got a male and went back 3 days later to see if she was still there and alive. She was so I brought her home. Her tail grew back pretty good (if you look closely you can tell there is something not right with it) and she turned out to be a very pretty girl...most of the time. The odd thing was, she only unstressed AFTER I set up a female tank. 

The greenish one was the only one alive on the shelf and she was giving me "the look". Ya know, when they look right at you with the fins flapping a mile a minute and seem to be saying "GET mE OUTTA HERE!!". I hate the look. Gets me everytime...

I think the reason they are all stressed right now is because I upgraded to a 20 gallon and my heater isnt here yet. I turned the heat on because it was chilly in here and their water was at 68


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