The Full Guide For Betta Colours

[Eli Badran]

Peace all,

There are so many colours for bettas, so many combinations ...
And I mix them all and so very stuck in the middle not knowing how to call my bettas ...

Would you please help me get this sort out?
What are the colours we have in bettas?
If you may, show me examples of colors (no need for real pictures, but this may be another chance to show of your lovely bettas you worked on so hard :) )

Thank you
Eli

[David Esguerra]

Basic colors:

steel blue
green
turquoise
royal blue

red
traditional cambodian (flesh body, red fins)
yellow
orange

black (melano and black lace/marble black)

white (also called opaque by some)

copper
platinum
gold

Color modifiers (genes):
Pastel
Marble
Color loss
albino

Basic Patterns:
Butterfly/variegated
triband
multicolor
bicolor

And then there's the factor of "masked" bettas that I just can't fit into any of the above categories.

I'll leave the pics to the pros. Hope I didn't end up confusing you even more and hope I helped a bit.

(BTW, I just typed the above from memory so if I forgot something, my apologies.)

[sylwester]

quote:Originally posted by David Esguerra

Basic colors:

steel blue
green
turquoise
royal blue

red
traditional cambodian (flesh body, red fins)
yellow
orange

black (melano and black lace/marble black)

white (also called opaque by some)

copper
platinum
gold

Color modifiers (genes):
Pastel
Marble
Color loss
albino

Basic Patterns:
Butterfly/variegated
triband
multicolor
bicolor

And then there's the factor of "masked" bettas that I just can't fit into any of the above categories.

copper
platinum
gold

resides in the iricident layers doesn't it. I would group that with
green/turquoise
steel blue
royal blue

Isn't maske a fancy name for other iricident colours than the more common ones?

[David Esguerra]

Mask refers to... well quite literally a mask over the the face of an irrid fish which would normally be blackish or dark brown.

A masked fish (let's say royal blue) would be royal blue all over the body including the head/face whereas an "unmasked" fish would be have a royal blue body and a blackish head.

[Eli Badran]

Thank you for the colors names :) well i identify some of them - yet still i would like to see some pictures :)

Now another question:
Can't the metalic colours (platinum, steel, gold, copper (did i foregt any?)) appear in all basic colors? Can't we have a "steel red" ?

thank you

[David Esguerra]

In theory yes... as of now, no.

The closest thing to a metallic red is the basic copper.

By the way... just in case there is a bit of confusion, steel blue is not part of the "metallic" colors.

The "metals" are vitually these basic colors:

copper= red+ metal layer (not too sure on the red)
platinum= white/opaque + metal layer
gold= yellow + metal layer

[Myron Tay]

I think this is going to be a never-ending exercise since by the time you have finished with any list, there would emerge a new colour. That's one of the exciting things about this hobby!

[sylwester]

So mask is the fish that doesn't have the recessive piebald trait?

[David Esguerra]

Sylwester,

With regards to the piebald... not really.

Think of it this way... the mask is a relatively "new" feature. An irrid fish before would never be anything like an ideal solid red fish (which ideally would be red from head to the tips of the fins). It would always have the "fault" of a head not being the same color as the body. To my knowledge, before the appearance of the mask gene, you would never see a splendens with a head that was solid royal blue... with the development of the mask trait a fish could now be blue from head to the tips of the fins (again, ideally speaking).

Unfortunately, I don't have pics of my own but these are pics from another board:

Look at the pic of the Green Masked Butterfly:

http://www.australianbettaforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1115

notice how by the pic, the gill plates are exactly the same color as the body. Ideally, the whole head would be the same color as the body.

A traditional irrid fish would have a dark colored head. A good example would be the royal blue butterfly at the opening page of the board (which is derrick's fish if I remember right...). Nice solid royal blue body... with a blackish head, which is not a fault at all.