# A couple of questions - genetics & breeding



## RedRunner (Oct 4, 2014)

As I said in my hello, I had bettas before but they were wildtype. So no where near as colorful as what you get. 

So I'd just like some clarification on stuff I've read to double check


Blue Betta x Red Betta [both solid] = blue fry, red fry, and dual red/blue fry? 

So the same apply to

Blue x Green = green, blue and dual green/blue

Red x Green = red, green, dual green/red


Or not. I believe, if I'm right, blue & red are the most dominant of colors... does that include green?


I understand that melano black is dominant but what of lace and devil/orchid. 



I have a question, also, that make seem simple but do bettas have a visual clue to their colors. 


Eg. a red fish with green in the fins would probably be carrying green genetics.


----------



## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Melano is recessive. Black lace/orchid are pretty easy to come by and often pop up in F1 from blacklace x blue. Pretty much all my black lace x blue spawns gave about 5% black lace. Majority were blue though

"Green" is usually turquoise, met turquoise, met royal...even met steel can sometimes look greenish....So the colour that will show in the offspring will depend completely on the irid colour of the two fish you breed. So if youre breeding a turquoise "green" to a red fish with steel irid youre only going to get royal blue irid (which is pretty much the least greenish one there is) but if you bred your turq to red with royal irid youll get some turq irid in their too.

So basically turquoise is BLBL
Royal blue is BLbl
Steel is blbl
Then you can have metallic alleles added to those as well, which make things even harder lol. But usually metallic makes things look greener since it adds goldy specks to the scales
So 
Hetero met turq =+BLBL
**** met turq =++BLBL
Hetro met royal = +BLbl
**** met royal = ++BLbl
Hetro met steel = +blbl
**** met steel = ++blbl (copper)

So you have 9 potential colour outcomes depending in the genetics of the parents...I wish it was as easy as blue x green = blue and green 

It will act the same as crossing red to blue since they are all variations of blue. 
Pretty much red wash everywhere and blue irids over your reds. Will be almost impossible to get clean red again from that line once blues been crossed into it, and if you dont have red loss you will find it very hard to get pure blue back as well

And yep, if you see the irid in the fins then the colour of that irid is what its carrying
Eg this red fish has royal blue irid (you can see it in his tail and body)










Hope that made sense lol...sometimes I can ramble on and confuse people even more


----------



## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Betta colors are said to occupy certain color layers. Understand these layer and you will understand the general idea of how they work.
Iridescence (turquoise (blue-green), Steel blue, and Royal blue) are found on the same layer. Instead of getting 2 different colors, you will get a blend.
Eg: Turquoise (BLBL) x Steel Blue (blbl) = Royal Blue (BLbl)
So if you breed Royal blue x Royal blue = you will most probably get all three irid colors

Red is found on its own layer. It will not blend with irid colors. If you cross it to irids you will either get red irid (dominantly red with irid markings) or irid red (dominantly irid with red wash/fins) combinations.

Black and cambodian are found on the same layer. Crossed to irids, they will produce color combinations with the same principle as red x irid. But to complicate things, cambodian carry Non Red and Blond genes. The former changes red to either yellow, orange (same NR) or white (different NR). While blond eliminates black pigments. 

Metallic genes seems to be associated with irid layer (except royal blue). Metallic colors are usually steel blue based or has a steel blue background. Intense metallic are brought out by cross breeding splendens to wild types which eventually produced the dragon scales.


----------



## RedRunner (Oct 4, 2014)

Okay that makes sense. I may have some more questions as I go.


----------

