I recently discovered the wonderful world of bettas! While at the local pet store replacing my heartbroken 4 year old's deceased betta :(, I sort of impulse purchased a sweet little VT for myself, who I decided to name Jerry. Well, of course me being me, I spent the next week reading EVERYTHING I could possibly find online about this fascinating fish! Armed with a vast compounded knowledge from two weeks of obsessive research, I really still can't believe I didn't know anything about bettas, especially when I had two (both of which belonged to my two children) living under the same roof as me for the past 6 months. ESPECIALLY when I had decided genetics were one of my favourite topics in my biology major degree which I completed the first two of four years at my local college before taking a break to raise the children. I especially loved analyzing Punnett squares and recessive gene traits in human phenotypes, so you can imagine how excited I got when I found I could theoretically 'draft' the genotypes of certain desired betta phenotypes. The possibilities, as well as the many fascinating scientific research articles, really are endless!
Anyways, so now here I am, two weeks into my new hobby/obsession, and I have steadily increased my 'collection' from lone little Jerry, to a new total of SIX beautiful, adorable, and amazing male bettas :D. I love them more then I ever thought would be possible to love fish, but betta really don't feel like fish anyways, do they? All six have custom picked names to match their personalities (Jerry the VT, Darwin the double tail, Aristotle the beautiful ?delta? tail, Einstein the incredibly sweet runt of a possibly failed CT cross, and ,lastly, the two metallic brothers I just acquired, Mozart the double tail and Amadeus the ?delta? tail).
I am SO interested in determining their hypothetical genotypes, using a few different options to leave room for any heterozygous genes containing mutated recessive alleles which are not presented in the aquired phenotypes of each fish.
OK, here is what I could use help with: I will provide some pics of each fish, and I would so value any input in regards to genotype theories! Or any input/discussion about their appearance period.
Thanks so much! This was my first posting and I'm still very excited about my new found passion for bettas :D
PS COULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO UPLOAD MULTIPLE PHOTOS, or if it is possible lol? I'll start out with a pic of Einstein as his colouring is the most baffling to me. So far, I have hypothesized that he may carry the genes non-red, ?blonde? (Reduced black pigment), and although you can't really see in this photo, he seems to have the iridescent spread gene, and to me it looks like steel blue iridescence.
Would the steel blue combine with the black to create the sort of bronze/gold sheen he has in areas? Or could this be from something else? Also, how much black scaling should typically be seen in an ordinary black layer, one which does not contain the melano, cambodian, or blonde gene? Because Einstein's sporadic black scale detailing as well as fin streaks just confuse me! Thanks again to any one taking the time to read this :) (Einstein was clamping his fins quite significantly when I first brought him home but I will try and post one that shows his crown tail)
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