What determines how dragonscales form?

[wah543]

just out of curiosity, what determines how dragonscales form on a bettas face, like if they'll be a full mask or not? I've had a dragonscale with just a patch on his head that wasn't covered and now I have a dragonscale that has like a huge chunk of scales not covered on one side of his face. Do they like fall off when they're growing or something?

[Sena Hansler]

Pretty sure dragonscale refers to the look of an "extra set" of scales, though they really do not have an extra set. They have a thicker look to their body, unlike a metallic.

First picture is my dragonscale, second is a METALLIC baby from his spawn. See how instead of the bright sheen of metallic, "Ares" looks as if he were painted a solid color for his body and most of his face. While the fry does not have the solid look, and it does slide into his finnage moreso than the dragonscale.

If you post pictures of your bettas, we can tell you a lot better than just assuming from our imaginations

[MattsBettas]

Sena! Tat bettas so nice! And I'm really not sure, something in the genetic coding.

[wah543]

umm it's hard to explain like why do some dragoncale bettas have the shiny thick scales covering their whole face and why do some bettas have like patches on their face

[wah543]

Ok finally got some pictures. My old betta had a few scales like missing from his face



And one I have now has like a good chunk missing



What I'm asking is why on some bettas scales don't cover the entire face and on some bettas it covers the entire face
Sorry if the pictures are blurry

[Sena Hansler]

For the second betta, he may actually be missing scales... The first betta does have the dragonscale appearance on his face... I had a koi female who had the patches of white. The reason behind each unique coloration and pattern is just how people breed them I suppose.

[wah543]

Ohh gotcha just curious, anyways whats missing scales mean? and what's koi?

[indjo]

Originally Posted by wah543

just out of curiosity, what determines how dragonscales form on a bettas face, like if they'll be a full mask or not? I've had a dragonscale with just a patch on his head that wasn't covered and now I have a dragonscale that has like a huge chunk of scales not covered on one side of his face. Do they like fall off when they're growing or something?

Genetically dragons are said to be double metallic (some code them as ++). An individual with all the dragon alleles will exhibit the full dragon scaling (full masked dragons) but with partial alleles will only show partial scaling. In other words dragon x non dragon/ regular = regulars and partial dragons, dragons x metallic = metallic, partial dragons, and few dragons

[wah543]

Ohh that really makes sense now, Thanks for the clarification