Color Changing Betta......

[bettafish333]

Ok,

SO i have a blueish orange veiltale betta that i have recently bought. When he see's a male he almost looks like a king male delta tale plakat. Then he turns orange. WHen he's alone he stays blue.... I was looing forawrd to start a breeeding project with him to keep this interesting thing going. But is that normal? I've heard of fish that turn grey, but not orange... Anyway would it be a good idea to breed him, and would anyone like to buy some of the fry if i do breed him?

[bahamut285]

I'm not really sure what you're trying to say, but breeding is very time consuming and very expensive. A few of the members on here spend easily close to $300 on a spawn that includes a spawning tank, live foods and jars to house aggressive fry.

If you feel like you are prepared to breed, please check out the breeding stickies in the breeding section of the forum, best of luck

[bettafish333]

What i'm asking is why is he changing colors and if i breed him will the gene continue..

[purplemuffin]

Maybe you can take some pictures? :) There is a gene called a 'marble' betta, and the constantly change color throughout their lives!

[bettafish333]

He just changes colors through out the day though,

[purplemuffin]

Are you sure it isn't just the lighting affecting him? Take a video or some pictures :D

[randio]

I have a female that does this same thing! when she see's a male she turns green, but the rest of the time she's blue... very strange.

[purplemuffin]

You know, that sort of thing seems to be sort of common with scaled animals. I don't know how different it is for fish, but in reptiles there is such a thing as 'firing up', where at certain times of the day the colors will be brighter or even completely different!

For instance, this is the same snake: one picture taken at night, the other was the next morning



No she wasn't in shed, in fact she had shed right before the 'dirty' looking picture

Or, this gecko will change drastically when fired up:






Also, hormones will change the colors of a snake. A green tree python that is pregnant will turn blue, while a pregnant ball python will "glow" about 10 shades brighter than her usual colors. I wonder if daily activity or hormones relating to seeing males or other bettas could affect their color slightly or the way it reflects in the light.


This is all me guessing around here. I'm sure it's something very different, but it just reminded me of these examples. :)

[Bambi]

It's common enough for a betta to change colors when flaring, stressed, or excited.

One of my girls has red was that normally looks like a bit of orange under her blue but when she see's another better her blue color dulls and the orange turns more vibrent. It's the "layers" of the colors. Blue is over the red layer so when it dulls out the red/orange shows more.

[bettafish333]

Yeah its not lighting i'll upload the pics asap! And the spawning was a success! Don know about the colorchanging yet the little fishies are still in the eggs!