Could he be chocolate?

[naturegirl243]

Hello everyone! It's been awhile since I have really been on here.A few of my fish have passed away lately and I really don't have too many now( 5 males 4 females) I went into petco today just looking and if I really found something I liked maybe buying.I found this little stressed delta tail whom I did not buy he is stil at the store but I was wondering if he was just super pale from being stressed could he be chocolate? I might go back and get him he does have mild fin rot and was active when he saw other fish or my finger but he just chilled out on his side at the top of the cup when nothing was around.I took the pictures on my phone so sorry about the quality.The first picture is what he was doing when nothing was around.I know he is not the most beautiful/healthiest fish around but I see potential in him he is like a diamond in the rough.

[Bettas Rule]

Looks like an MG to me. Its hard to see his colors in the pics though. Anyone else?

[newfiedragon]

The top pic made me think he was either a chocolate or a pineapple, but the other pics make him look more like a chocolate. I'm a little confused about the blue in his top fin, though. I'm not sure if chocolates have that. I really like his colouring.

[naturegirl243]

Oh true I didn't think about MG.He does have a little bit of blue and some spots up top I think if he was not so stressd he would be prettier.I still kind of want him,he is a ragged little thing though lol.

[diablo13]

0.0 is it just me or do you guys see serious breeding bars on this guy? Right now he looks like a Chocolate, but the blue indicates that possibly he might turn blue if he wasn't stressed, or that could just be his fin color

[Bettas Rule]

Originally Posted by diablo13

0.0 is it just me or do you guys see serious breeding bars on this guy? Right now he looks like a Chocolate, but the blue indicates that possibly he might turn blue if he wasn't stressed, or that could just be his fin color

I saw those too! I thought only females did that?

[cgchad]

My experience has always been that the colors they appear in the little cups are often not what they will be once you get them home and settled under better lighting and better water.
One of our girls looked to be more of a dark brown color, but within a few hours of her getting in her new home, she's actually a bright red color.

[LittleBettas]

Ditto on that ^
My boy Pickle was green when I got him, now he has a green body, red fins with blue spots.
Im confused by the "breeding bars" also... ay ideas on that?

he looks like a MG to me though... hard to tell when they are stressed

[cgchad]

If you look very close in the last picture, its definitely stress stripes. The most pronounced one is dark from the eye back across the gill, with a lighter area above and below, all running horizontally.
Then on the body its a much lighter line running horizontally down the body, from the gill to the tail. There is a second light line running horizontally along the bottom of the body.
The other reason I believe it's stress, is looking closely at the last picture, you can see the scales in a little bit of a reverse pine coning effect. (Not dropsy type) But it will cast a bit of a shadow under those, making them appear darker beneath them.
A couple of my females do that every time I change the water. They are not breeding stripes since they go away in about a half hour after the water change.

I would suspect that once he is in a better environment his body will be darker than what the current pictures show, and I wouldn't be surprised if the fins lighten up.

[naturegirl243]

He is probably one of the most stressed fish I have ever seen at my petco.I do really like him I'm not quite sure if I am committed to another "project fish" yet though I still have Fez my AB guy I got awhile ago who bites his tail then gets fin rot and it starts to grow back then it's gone again, and Absolem who's tail is shredded so he kind of looks like a crowntail but he is a super delta.