Color Variants - Solid Colors
Red
A brilliant
cherry red is desired in Betta Splendens with quality genes. Any slight appearance
of iridescence, or Opaque color is a serious deficiency in color quality.
Black
The ideal color of a true Black Betta Splendens is the traditional Black Mollie
color. Other than green,
black is the least fully set of the dark colors.
This is due to the inability to breed from Black Melanos females because they
are infertile however some Black Lace lines are producing fertile Black females.
Crossing of the fertile Black Lace lines to the infertile Melano lines has
not shown to produce anything other than infertile Melano (and Normal Black)
females. Many lines have used Steel Blue females extensively, while other
lines have used Royal Blue females and thus, not surprisingly, have led to
Blacks with considerable iridescence present. True Black/Melano The definitive
pitch Black Betta Splendens.
Black
Lace/Normal Black
Black Lace is an almost translucent type of Black. This variant is much less
desirable than the Melano Black Betta Splendens..
Royal
Blue
Many young Royal Blue Betta Splendens may have a red wash when young, then
they will lose it. This is
called red loss. Sometimes the red will return when the fish gets to around
10 months old. Red loss occurs
also occurs in Steel Blue, Turquoise, and Green.
Steel
Blue
Steel Blue is also sometimes called Gunmetal Blue. This color has a silver
iridescence when compared to the Royal Blue Betta.
Yellow
A brilliant lemon Yellow is desired. Colors that tend to be either very pale
Yellow or a brown tinted Yellow are undesirable. Yellow results from a gene
that transforms red so sometimes the presence of red is also visible.
Turquoise
The ideal is a dark shade of Turquoise. It is sometimes difficult to achieve
a consistent color across the fish. The preferred show color contains tones
of Blue rather than any Green or Yellow shades. Fish with colors close to
Turquoise are often found in Royal Blue and Steel Blue spawns.
Green
A good green Betta Splendens has a dark green shade. Darker is desired over
brighter tones. Unfortunately, Green is the least fixed single color. This
is because of its tendency to vary in shade from fish to fish and hence line
to lime. Green should not be confused with Turquoise, which has a much more
distinct blue hue.
True Green
Betta Splendens that have a very dark forest green and are desirable to the
Common green variant.
Common Green
Most Green Betta Splendens are unfortunately of this color. It is a bluish
green tone but less so than a
Turquoise variant. It is often difficult to distinguish these two hues.
Clear
A transparent body and fins are perfect however, color from the body organs
can cause the fish to look
pink. In show fish the presence of any other color is undesirable.
Cellophane
A Betta Splendens with a colorless or flesh colored body and perfectly transparent
fins. Eyes are dark, not red. Occasionally the Cellophane is thought to be
a Bi-color of the Pink / Clear combination. While that view is understandable,
the by definition, a Cellophane Betta Splendens is a single color. It is clear
and any pink in the body is usually due to the organs of the fish.
Albino
Like Cellophane, these are colorless Betta Splendens both in the body and
fins. The difference is the eyes
also show no coloration and are therefore red in appearance. Albino is the
one of the rarest Betta colors.
Breeders suggest that only one Albino in 10,000 actually spawn. Albino is
actually a genetic defect that causes loss of color pigmenting. A characteristic
of any Albino fish is that the eyes are red.