How can you tell the difference betweeen...

[kilgore]

How can you tell the difference betweeen a black lace with i blue/green/steel iridescent and a coppper black?

[Myates]

Do you have any picture(s) of the fish in question?
The black copper would have more of a copper color (which can look a bit reddish, purple-ish and/or gold in the copper scaling) and the black lace could have what you said- blue and green coloring.

[indjo]

The actual "lace" is the fins - they sort of fade to pale black. But "today's" often refer to black bettas with lots of irid on it - irid dots on body and irid ray on fins. These are mixed up with the black orchid (or vise versa)

Black copper is actually more greyish than copper. Perhaps this is caused by the lack of red pigment (not sure). But it has blackish fins - as in black dragon; silverish body with black fins.



This is a black copper (sorry I don't have a picture of a lace nor orchid)

[Myates]

hehe listen to indjo :)

[kilgore]

Hi Thank you. There is a picture, I was told it's a Black Copper, but the question was also of generel interest for future reference.

[indjo]

Yes that looks like a black copper. Sometimes they have more black than my example thus look much darker. For future reference; keep in mind that coppers carry red pigment though it doesn't show as actual red (like my avy- look at fins). Black coppers show no red pigment, instead it shows more black. The intensity of black varies - but they are still categorized as black copper.

The original Black lace may not show any irid but has paler black and (most important) the fins would fade to a cloudy black. These look like pale melano. But often they carry irid dots on the body - the reason it's mislabeled.
"Black lace" today are basically black orchids - they show lots of irids but the fins do not fade.

Btw, the true black is said to be melano. Personally I prefer the orchid because they are IMO a darker black than melano. I am currently working with super blacks (even more black/dark)- info I got that they are results/strays from black dragon and or black copper so far I conclude is not true. . . . . I think I'm getting out of track - sorry

[kilgore]

That makes sense, think I understand now