Fighter Fish Types By Color

While many people love the Fighter Fish, also known as the Betta Fish. Most people have no idea how many different colors the fish come in. Throughout this post you will learn about all of the various different known colors of the Betta Splendens and their uniqueness…

Because of their vast range of colors and tail shapes the Fighter Fish has become known as “The Jewel Of The Orient”. They are truly a magnificent sight to behold with all of their shinning glory and make quite the center piece of have in your home.

The Betta Fish or Siamese Fighter Fish comes in many different colors, some that have been created through generations of selective breeding…

Green

Green is the least fixed single color and varies in shade from fish to fish and line to line.  Most Green Betta Splendens have a bluish green hue but less so than a Turquoise variant.  It is often difficult to distinguish these two hues because they really do look quite similar and also depends on the angle you look at them.

Make sure you go after the dark green Fighter Fish, they a prime choices.  This and the turquoise hues derive from the same alleles (BlBl). But the much sought after, dark, forest green is very rare. If you happen to come by one then I highly recommend you pick it up right away.

Reds

Solid red Betta Fish have non iridescent color and must have that color spread over the entire body, evenly for it to count. What you really want to get is a clean read, without iridescent colors and absolutely no fading.

However reds can come in many different hues ranging from a bright and beautiful fire engine red to shades of deep crimson and even reddish brown colors. yet, color will always vary between breeds, usually most red Betta Fish end up showing some iridescence or show a little bit of other colors creeping in.

If there is any opaque overlay is will distract from the bright red and will tend to show more pinks and muted reds.s.

Of all the red Fighter Fish out there, a brilliant cherry red is by far the most desired, with no iridescence or opaque color to take away from the solid red. Usually the red loss occurs as they age, being bright red as fries but as they grow, it gradually lessens, getting more dull with time.

Royal Blue & Corn Flower Blue

The consistent, solid royal blue is the choice form: the genotype Blbl or blBl gives adeep, rich royal blue in the green/steel blue/royal blue complex.  The most common form has a dark head and royal blue body and fins.  The ideal color lacks reds and greens.

Corn-flower blues are the same genotype as royal blues but with a dark head and corn-flower blue body.

Royal blues with red factors may appear violet or purple when young and will lose it if the red-loss factor is present and so produce royal blues.  Red loss occurs also occurs in Steel Blue, Turquoise, and Green.

Black

A true black Fighter Fish has a deep, dark and mysterious shade of black to it, all the way around. However, it is often times more of a smokey black and you will even see black Betta Fish with transparent, smokey looking fins.

Black is one of the most difficult colours to achieve, as the melano gene produces infertile Black females. Several crosses with other colours have tried to alleviate this problem, e.g. Melano x Celophane or yellows.

Getting a true black Fighter Fish can prove to be very difficult though, because the black or Melano gene products infertile black female Betta Fish. And even attempting several crosses with other species has not really solved the problem.

Steel Blue

Steel Blue Betta Fish are created by crossing the allele combination blbl, this creates a metallic iridescent glow when compared to the Royal Blue Betta Fish.

Steel Blue, Green, Royal Blue, Green and Turquoise Betta’s have an interesting genetic inheritance pattern based on the Bl / bl alleles that show incomplete dominance and determine iridescence.

Many Fighter Fish, such as the Royal Blue, Turquoise, Steel Blue, Royal Blue and Green all show and interesting incomplete dominance and determined iridescence based on the genetic inheritance pattern Bl /bl.

Examples Of Betta Fish Genetic Crossings:
Steel Blue x Steel Blue gives 100% Steel Blue off-spring;
Green x Green gives 100% Green;
Green x Steel Blue gives all Royal Blue;
Royal Blue x Royal Blue gives 50% Royal, 25% Steel, 25% Green;
Green x Royal Blue gives 50% Royal, 50% Green.
Steel Blue x Royal Blue gives 50% Royal, 50% Steel Blue
Turquoise is a variation of the “green” coloring (BlBl alleles).

Turquoise

A variant of the green, with a distinct blue hue.  Consistent color across the fish is rare. The choice color contains tones of blue rather than any Green or Yellow shades, to distinguish them from the common green.

Fish with colors close to turquoise are often found in Royal Blue and Steel Blue spawns.

The ideal is a dark shade of turquoise.

Opaques aka Pastels

You’ll know a Opaque or Pastel Fighter Fish when you see once because it will have this sort of milky white overlay that seems to dilute any of the underlying colors to more of a pastel type of shade, this usually includes the eyes in most cases.

What’s really cool to know is that there is an opaque or pastel from of each of the main color types. All that the breeder needs to do in order to trigger this type of color is make sure the Op allele is present and you’ll have yourself an awesome looking pastel Betta Fish.

Pastels can be almost any pastel color.

Yellow

Brilliant lemon yellows or even a butter yellow are the best yellow colors produced so far, although some breeders claim to have produced a golden yellow.  Colors that tend to be either a very pale yellow or a yellow-brown tinted are inferior colors.

Yellow results from a gene that transforms red so sometimes the presence of red is also visible.

Golden yellow Fighter Fish, with golden iridescence, are rare. In some Betta Fish, like the yellow/apricot strain, only the operculum is iridescent gold.

A lutino form exists, in which the eyes are yellow, too.

Apricot And Peach

These are yellow pastels of varying intensities.

Apricot yellows have a distinct pale orange tint to the yellow.

Some yellow Bettas show a faint orange tint to the fins and are called Apricot.

To continue the fruity colours, “Pineapple” Bettas are yellows with a
distinct black outline to the scales, giving a net-like or pineapple
appearance.  Pineapple Bettas are pattern form, not a colour type.

Albino

Rare.  A characteristic of any true Albino fish is that the body lacks all pigmentation, including the eyes which appear red.

Like Cellophane, these are completely colourless fish and may appear pinkish white or solid white if the opaque factor is present. True albino Bettas have red eyes, with no pigmentation and may show a little bit of color if they are very translucent due to their organs wand what not.

If you ever have the chance to come up on an Albino then I highly recommend you do because they are VERY hard to find and even harder to breed. Take a big time advantage and jump at the opportunity to get one.

White

Some White Fighter Fish may be completely solid in color and are a true beautiful dense white because of the opaque factor in their pigments. You’ll be able to tell the sure fire difference between a white and an albino every time because albinos will always have red eyes and true whites will always have black ones.

The image to the right shows a truly perfect white Betta Fish, yet it may still have some weird coloration with blues and black due to the way the light is hitting the Fighter Fish in the photo.

Just always remember that whites of this type have black eyes and true albinos have red eyes. Don’t be fooled.

Chocolate

Chocolate Betta splendens look brown to the eye, but are actually a black and yellow mix and are one of my favorite colors you’ll find on the Fighter Fish.

While the Chocolates are not are rare as the dark forest green Betta or the Albino Fighter Fish, it’s still a pretty tough one to come by sometimes, usually because most people just don’t have the chocolate color ones around.

If you want to help improve the color of the Chocolate Fighter Fish you can actually breed it with a yellow one to try and increase the vibrancy of both the yellow and the chocolate fry.

Orange

Orange Fighter Fish are actually a new strain of Betta Splendens, and for some reason each breeder seems to think about the shade of orange a little bit differently. I have never really seen a true orange Betta Fish, except in pictures. Most of the ones I see are more like a light reddish orange or more of a deep Halloween type orange color that tends to be more yellowish red and orange.

But none the less, all forms of the Orange Fighter Fish still look really really cool and I would most definitively keep one of them in my fish tank without question. They are yet another hard strain to come by, so if you find a true orange one, make sure you do everything you can to get it.

But the real question is… How “orange” is orange?

In my opinion, true orange is the spectrum right in between red and yellow. I always think of Halloween and pumpkins when talking about orange so maybe my view is a little slanted, but then again, maybe it’s right on target, what do you think?

Lavender

A lavender Betta is genetically a Cambodian Betta Splendens with extended Red and a layer of light iridescent blue-green.

Truly Purple Betta Splendens are also very new and rare and it appears that the color results from blending red and blue, just like you would get from blending some water colors together. Nature always works the same way.

The Royal Blue strain throws purple or violet fry that appear violet at their first show of color and darken to royal blues within a few months, as the red fades (due to the red-loss factor, L) as the fish mature .

Truly violet colored Betta Fish are rare. So again, if you find one for sale or a breeder with one. Do what you can to get some off spring. It will be WELL worth it.

So there you have it, those are virtually all the different color combination you will find. Keep in mind these are the basic main color combos out there, many breeders will cross black with yellow for example to make really cool looking Fighter Fish that are totally unique. They are always coming out with new strains and new colors.

Stay on the lookout for more new posts about color combinations as I will update every time I find out about a new one…

5 Responsesto “Fighter Fish Types By Color”

1. jos says:

   October 17, 2011 at 5:17 am

   what is the price of lavender beeta fish..i need it.

   Reply