STANDARDS

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Standards – “Judging Manual”

How do we ever decide which fish are the best? Well, they’re all the best in their breeder and owner’s eyes. 🙂 But we have to give the awards to only a few! The IBC has written official exhibition standards that establish what the “ideal” for bettas should be in both colors and forms. The fish at a show are judged against each other based on which of them most closely match the standards. Remember that because sometimes these standards are an ideal, there may in fact not be any fish who match it. They’re goals to strive for.

The IBC Exhibition Standards are made available to the public for promotion of the betta hobby and encouragement in developing show fish. They are not to be altered in any way. The IBC Standards are updated annually. Changes just made for the season are marked in red. Please check each show year for new copies of the Standards. New versions are usually released July/August each year. If you would like to make suggestions for changes, please email the specifics to the IBC Judging Chair (jbchair@ibcbettas.org).