# Orchid



## TankDiveGirl (Mar 7, 2013)

So.... I have a copper black orchid male and a steel (but looks more BLUE blue depending on the light) black orchid male.

Can someone explain to me why these fish are called "orchid?" I can't find it in the literature anywhere, and I know it's not a recognized IBC color (though i THINK i can show their offspring in the "any other color" category? The standards are not entirely clear), but i LOVE these fish, and obviously I'm going to breed them, so I'd like to know more about the color. Are they a Melano derivative? If i had to guess at the genetics, i'd say they are since the bodies are a deep velvet black, and the fins on my boys are also a deep velvet black (where they aren't iridescent)...

So yea! Someone please explain the color to me? I'd like to know how it works and how true it breeds and things like that.

THANKS!
Jamie


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## caissacrowntails (Mar 10, 2013)

TankDiveGirl said:


> So.... I have a copper black orchid male and a steel (but looks more BLUE blue depending on the light) black orchid male.
> 
> Can someone explain to me why these fish are called "orchid?" I can't find it in the literature anywhere, and I know it's not a recognized IBC color (though i THINK i can show their offspring in the "any other color" category? The standards are not entirely clear), but i LOVE these fish, and obviously I'm going to breed them, so I'd like to know more about the color. Are they a Melano derivative? If i had to guess at the genetics, i'd say they are since the bodies are a deep velvet black, and the fins on my boys are also a deep velvet black (where they aren't iridescent)...
> 
> ...


As far as I know, Black Orchid is a "term" or more like a "trademark", initially popularized (Someone please make a correction if I'm wrong  ) by Henry Yin / Henry Gunawan. He used it to describe the color of one of his "famous" CT (I forgot the details, but I think it won in an IBC show in US )


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## caissacrowntails (Mar 10, 2013)

The "original" black orchid line, was melano derivative. But nowadays, "black orchid" usually black marble-based. I'm not sure why exactly, but I guess it has something to do with the difficulties in breeding melano-based fish. So, I've bred BO line before, and they are "true breed", once in a while you'll probably get a "black devil" (black with red wash on the fins), I even tried to spawn black orchid x blue ( was thinking about getting "blue-black" ) and some of the offsprings were still BO, some were multicolors and black devils.


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