Discussion: color vs form

[indjo]

Your first post suggests that your goal is to produce as good form as possible. ..... so here goes;
IMO, your girl has relatively balanced fins. Unfortunately her fins are far from perfect. In general she has rather small/slim webbing which makes them look rather small. You want the dorsal to meet the caudal - which in her case is rather round. You want her caudal to form a "D". But her anal fin is balanced to her caudal and thus form a circular pattern from dorsal to anal. IMO her fins are better than her sister's.



The second picture shows what you're after - your breeding goal (if you want to improve her fins. This is the general "ideal" form for modern long fins.

Her color is irid based (green) so you could pair her to another irid color (blue or green) or to irid based metalic like copper and platinum. You can even pair her to a black lace since this color shows irids as well. I do not advise pairing her to a red, because you will have a hard time separating the 2 colors in the future. As for marbles, pair her to any color, you should get a few marbles in fry.

[styggian]

Originally Posted by indjo

Your first post suggests that your goal is to produce as good form as possible. ..... so here goes;
IMO, your girl has relatively balanced fins. Unfortunately her fins are far from perfect. In general she has rather small/slim webbing which makes them look rather small. You want the dorsal to meet the caudal - which in her case is rather round. You want her caudal to form a "D". But her anal fin is balanced to her caudal and thus form a circular pattern from dorsal to anal. IMO her fins are better than her sister's.

Attachment 49680 Attachment 49681

The second picture shows what you're after - your breeding goal (if you want to improve her fins. This is the general "ideal" form for modern long fins.

Her color is irid based (green) so you could pair her to another irid color (blue or green) or to irid based metalic like copper and platinum. You can even pair her to a black lace since this color shows irids as well. I do not advise pairing her to a red, because you will have a hard time separating the 2 colors in the future. As for marbles, pair her to any color, you should get a few marbles in fry.

Thank you for the info :) I see what you mean about her fins, i did think she looked better than her sister. I had already considered her caudel and agree that getting a "D" shaped spread was a primary goal. I didn't think a red male would be a good pairing for the reasons you stated. While reading about betta coloring, I learned that iridescent scaling comes from a blue base, but I didn't know if copper or other metals would be a good match as well.

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/aucti...sct&1330767138 : I thought this male could potentially be a good pairing. He has a better caudel than my female, though his rays look a bit short to me.

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/aucti...sct&1331003337 : I like this male better, I like how well defined his caudel rays are, but his tail doesn't make it to the "D" shaped.

I don't currently see any CT males on aquabid that have an exceptional form. The rays are too messy, or have a small spread. I've been looking at new crowntail auctions almost daily, for months, and none of them I've seen have been worth the cost plus shipping.

[PitGurl]

Why don't you contact Karen Mac Auley, Martinismommy on here and see if she has any CT's left. She breed some really nice ones last year that did well in the shows. The color may not be what you're looking for but their form was really nice.

[indjo]

PitGurl's suggestion sounds good, you should try that.

Irid colors = green, turquoise, steel blue , and royal blue..... the basis of metallic colors, specially green.
Coppers are green based - a cross breed between green and wild imbilis (I think). In 2005-2006 if you bred a copper to a green, you will get mostly green. Nowadays the copper is more stable so you'd get equal results. Breed copper to platinum, you'd still get some greens.
Platinum = white opaque x copper
White opaque= not sure. But blue (an irid color) is one of the mixtures - the reason why you'd often see white with blue sheen on them. Nowadays you would also find white with copper layer (side effects/rejects of making platinum)

Your female is white with green (an irid color) layer. So anything with an irid layer or an irid mixture would be OK.

The first male is OK. But I don't really like the second one - too unbalanced for my taste (anal fin is too long)

[PitGurl]

This male is ideal. His rays are tight and straight. I don't like a CT who has rays that can't support themselves. He has good ray reduction and a fairly decent spread. Finding a CT with a 180 spread will be difficult, they'll have to come from good HM genes which most don't. My male Freebie who I got from Karen has one of the best spreads I've seen on a CT in person(2nd photo).

[Myates]

Originally Posted by indjo

@Myates: for someone who's not picky on fins, you sure have a gorgeous CT - fairly balanced super delta (I think), dorsal and anal up right. Pair him to a nicely formed female (same overall balance at least) and you have potential winners.

Thanks :) he was actually a Walmart find, and the first CT I had ever seen.. I couldn't pass him up lol