Turquoise Betta - Good Form?

[kbraucci]

I just picked up this boy. Could you give me your opinions on this young man :) Also I am trying to get his sister. If I am not able to get the sibling what color/pattern combinations do you think would be great to breed with him. I have my ideas but I would like to hear yours :) Thank you.

[lilnaugrim]

Actually his top line doesn't look great. Looks like he might have a DT parent with the lumpy topline and curved spine. Also Rose tails are very tricky to work with and ontop of that he's an OHM which is actually worse. In terms of length though his fins look great, they all meet and the caudal is shorter than the anal. Can't see if ventrals are split or not, but looks good.

[kbraucci]

I appreciate your honesty and explanation. Do you think he is a fish worth working with and breeding or not?

[lilnaugrim]

I personally don't think he is because of his form, but his colors are beautiful. I haven't seen a nice clean DS deep blue like that is a while. Perhaps if you find the perfect female it would work out. She'd need to have a pristine top line (no curves, bumps or bends) and I'm not sure how the tail types would work to get away from the dangerous side of RT but I'm assuming then, no OHM's or HM girls. I'm thinking maybe a VT would help reduce the ray count but I'm honestly not certain about that either since I'm not an actual breeder. This is just stuff that I've read and attained for the past few months since I am interested myself in breeding!

[kbraucci]

Thanks again for your opinion. I am learning myself also and I loved his color but unless the perfect female came along... mmmm.... Im not interested in showing, but I don't want to breed and put out a low quality Betta either.

[lilnaugrim]

Right! Yeah it's easier to sell fish that look nice and have good form even if they aren't being shown. But it just makes for a healthier fish too

As long as you don't breed him to a DT or another HM he should be fine. If you want to keep the dragon scaling you should breed him to another dragon girl as well, same goes for color. If you want to keep that color then breed to a girl with a deep blue dragon scaling, otherwise you can mix and match to see what you get Of course you won't get all Dragons or the same color if you breed two like fish unless the sister he has has great form because you can end up with grandparent fish genes and stuff.

Breeding and genetics are so intriguing

[kbraucci]

Yeah I would think if I bred him with his sister the chance of the faults still being there would be high instead of breeding him with a female who has great form and breeding out the bad and more of something good, like trying to keep his beautiful color. Genetics has always intrigued me and drove me crazy at the same time trying to wrap my head around it no matter how much I read. lol

[lilnaugrim]

Haha exactly, intriguing but also headache worthy XD

I hope you can find a great girl for him though, he'd certainly have beautiful babies with the perfect girl!

[kbraucci]

Thank you :) I hope so too. So I think I am going to look for a good form VT female with dragon scaling and in a deep blue. That might be the way to go with him. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

[lilnaugrim]

Yep I think so! You might want to post that specific question again to see what others might say about it too. But I'm pretty sure that's what you're looking for. Even if it's not a deep blue, a regular blue may work as well so you get a sort of half and half. Although with genetics it would be 1/4 deep blue 1/4 lighter blue with the female and then 1/2 whatever else is in their bloodlines I believe.