# Almost Purple :) Breeding Quality?



## jessiepbg (Nov 13, 2010)

I got a new boy a few weeks ago. He's really flashy and is super friendly and energetic. I'm kind of playing with the idea of breeding some time down the road and just wanted to see if anyone could take a look at him and tell me if they thought he'd make a good contribution to the hobby. I don't know as much as I'd like to about what makes a good quality Betta, so I figured I'd put up a few pics of him and see what people thought. Please don't be afraid to tell me what his flaws are, I'd really like to know. No matter what, he's still gorgeous to me.


















That's about as high quality as I was able to get tonight. If those are too fuzzy, I'll try again tomorrow. The first one shows the shape of his body and the second shows as much of his finnage as he was willing to let me capture. Speaking of, I swear his body is purple in real life. This camera is not exactly high dollar.


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

He's really pretty  He's like a violet D:


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## PitGurl (Feb 22, 2011)

Depends on what you're goals are. Correct me if I'm wrong but he appears to be a pet store betta. Pet store bettas are normally older and may not breed as easily as young bettas. Coming from a mix of backrounds his color won't breed true, you will most likely end up with multi colored bettas. His form is typical for a pet store betta. He looks like a HM but without him flaring it's hard to tell. His dorsal and anal are too long, his caudal is fair. If you just want to breed for practice then you could use him just be sure you have some homes in the works. I'd recommend getting a halfmoon or delta female for him. Stay away from veils and crowntails. 
The pic I've attached gives you an idea of what the ideal HM looks like. Keep in mind this fish was bred by one of the top breeders in the US, the average HM doesn't look like this. Btw...this fish is missing ventrals.


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

PitGurl said:


> Depends on what you're goals are. Correct me if I'm wrong but he appears to be a pet store betta. Pet store bettas are normally older and may not breed as easily as young bettas. Coming from a mix of backrounds his color won't breed true, you will most likely end up with multi colored bettas. His form is typical for a pet store betta. He looks like a HM but without him flaring it's hard to tell. His dorsal and anal are too long, his caudal is fair. If you just want to breed for practice then you could use him just be sure you have some homes in the works. I'd recommend getting a halfmoon or delta female for him. Stay away from veils and crowntails.
> The pic I've attached gives you an idea of what the ideal HM looks like. Keep in mind this fish was bred by one of the top breeders in the US, the average HM doesn't look like this. Btw...this fish is missing ventrals.


Why is it missing ventrals? also, it seems to me like some pet store's are starting to send in younger fish, especially petsmart. The fish at petco see a little older(other then the baby's of course).


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## jessiepbg (Nov 13, 2010)

Ooh, that one's gorgeous. That's exactly the sort of advice I was looking for too, thanks! Are there a few websites that you'd recommend so I can get a good idea of what makes a show quality betta? I tried starting on the IBC's website but I kept hitting dead ends. 

If I can get him to flare, I'll get a pic. I don't own a handheld mirror, but I've been able to get other bettas to flare at CDs. He was labelled as a HM, but you're right in guessing that he's from Petco, so I don't know whether it's a correct ID or not.


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## PitGurl (Feb 22, 2011)

@ copperarabian- Sometimes bettas are born without them.

@jessiepbg- Try this site, it's great. 
http://bettysplendens.com/articles/home.imp


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Yeah as PitGurl said, the ideal HM is like a circle with his tail, dorasal and anal all meeting at the same place and creating an even line. If I was you I'd try and find a female with shorter anal and dorsal fins to try and compensate for this. 
Is it me or is the top half of his caudal shorter than the bottom half? It could just be the angle the picture was taken.

Nice fish though, good luck with your breeding


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## monroe0704 (Nov 17, 2010)

As a rule of thumb, you should never breed pet store animals. They may look beautiful and even show worthy at times, but their genetic history is a mess. Not to mention they may carry some fairly serious diseases. If you wanted to use this guy for breeding, I'd suggest finding a female from a reputable breeder in your area or have one shipped in to try and clean up his gene grab bag. You can search for breeders using the IBC site... He does have flaws... Just based on form alone: he has a few short rays on his dorsal, like mentioned above the dorsal/anal are too long, his pectorals are just slightly too long. I mean, he's not that bad, but it's iffy what he'll pass on to fry...


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## SDragon (Sep 26, 2011)

very pretty fish.


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## jessiepbg (Nov 13, 2010)

If I do decide to breed within the year, I might buy a nice female off Aquabid. When I get out of school and find a place to settle down permanently, I'm planning on buying at least one nice male and a quality female or two to breed, but that's going to be years down the road. My main goal if I were to breed Darius would be to learn how to condition and breed a pair and how to raise fry correctly(and find out whether I've got the patience and motivation), before I was $50 into a quality breeding pair.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

> As a rule of thumb, you should never breed pet store animals


All the fish I breed are from pet stores...:shock:


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

The pics aren't the best for studying confirmation. You really want a side long picture with the fish in a full flare. The first thing I noticed is that his anal is long which can be somewhat hard to correct, make sure if when choosing a female you pic one with moderate fins to balance out his anal.

The second thing is that his caudal doesn't appear to be even but then again he's not flaring and the pictures are at an angle so it's hard to tell for certain. 

Here's a good article explaining what to look for in an HM.
http://www.bettaterritory.nl/BT-AABHMintro.htm

Edit...

Also a word about color. He isn't actually "purple".. he's a dark bodied bi color with blue and red which makes him appear purple... the genetics however are not going to give you purple. If you breed him don't have high expectations of getting tons of purple babies. You'll get a variety of multicolors, greens with red wash, etc. IME most fry end up favoring the mother as far as colors go.


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