I have questions

[Eric M]

#22294

Hi I am a new member and have been breeding bettas for a little over two years now. My last batch of fish created such a variety of fish I wanted to share what has come from it. Except for the koi all the fish have iridescent dragon scale coloration
The parents are a ( I believe the right term is rose tail ) I raised and a blue female I also raised.
I have reared two male double tail males whose tails are bigger than I’ve seen in pictures. 1 blue 1 purple and red
1 blue female double tail who has the crowntail trait
2 koi or marble fish 1 male and 1 female Male is red white and blue female mostly white with blue blotches at the tail
1 blue delta tail male who is brighter blue than a salt water damsel fish
I also have several very small males which do not look like betta splendens at all. One small red one has a very rounded head and stopped growing around a half an inch fins are shaped like croaking gourami. I have three other males who are also very small and shaped like torpedos.
I had another 15 males I sold to a local shop these were mostly half moon mostly red, Have around ten females in various colors.
My main question is about the variety of the fish, especially these really small oddball males, I am wondering if these are genetic kickbacks to wild bettas? Or are wild bettas being crossed with domestics ? Also I have bred a few broods up but I am still a beginner so is it normal to have this wide a variety of fins from one coupe or did I just get lucky.
Thanks

[Stacy Fenhaus]

#22298

It sounds like this spawn was the result of genetic soup. I don’t say that to mean a negative thing, it’s just sometimes what happens. 🙂 You say you raised the parents, what were their parents like?

Normally when we see odd shaped fish, they aren’t necessarily throwbacks to wild forms, but rather throwbacks to the traditional plakat varieties. The one with the rounded head sounds more like a malformation due to injury or congenital defect (especially since you say it is rather runty too).

To answer your question about whether wilds are being crossed with domestics, yes, this is happening– but not on a large scale by any means.

Getting this many types of fins is not what one would consider normal (or even desirable for show breeding purposes). When breeding a pair, its always best work with fish that have known backgrounds so that you can predict what may come from them. Not to say that breeding new strains and tail types isn’t encouraged, but it can be very surprising when you find yourself in the middle ground of that process when you’re not expecting it. I’ve been in those shoes, it was very frustrating.

[Eric M]

#22302

I still have the parents, once I get my camera working I should post the pics because the male is very hard to describe.
When I bred them it was a blue rose female and a male with a white head with a red body. His fins are huge the edges are see through and the red tapers into what look like flames.
This was my most successful rearing ever ,I got about 35 to make it. My first attempt I got 7 fish next breeding I got 15.
As for genetic soup would breeding a brother to a sister or a parent to a child be a good thing to try to fix a color/fin shape in the next generation, or would that be bad genetically?

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