I get a lot of emails people asking questions.
After replying to so many questions and often answering the same ones over
and over again decided to write them up on my web site for all to read.
I am still learning myself and can only give you answers on what I have
learnt and experienced and how I have interoperated it.
So don't take what is said here as gospel I could
be wrong.
Question:
I'm a little unclear regarding "red wash" when is it actually "red wash" and
when
is it considered good coloring such as in a multi? How can you decipher
the difference?
Red wash messy in the fnnage and not uniformed.
 
 
Multi: Fall under the category patterned.
Betta with 2 or more colors that do not fit into any other patterned
category.
The color should be uniformed through out the finnage of the fish.
 
This guy won the Multi class in a large multi class at a show
 
Then you get border line cases are they
butterfly or are they multi.
This fish pictured below was sent to 2 shows and I let the judges class the
fish.
One judge put him in butterfly and other in Multi. He got second in both
classes.
But is he a good butterfly no I don't think so I guess it depends
on how many fish were in the class at the time got his placing.
Then there are these I would not know were to
place them.
As they do have butterfly pattern but to me are more multi but
I guess it depends on how the judge interoperates the standards.
 
Then there are the butterflies
 
Red in marbles does not seem to be a major
issue.
I sent these 2 fish to the same show thinking the one with red would be
docket for the
red but it was not the case he won his class and the other did nothing at
that show but
did do well in other shows. Horrible pic of the second fish he is much
better in real life.
 
Question:
What is it meant by when a line breeds true?
Line breeds true when you breed to fish together of the same coloration and
the entire
spawn is the same color as the parents and there is not red wash in the
spawn. Say for instance
this fish below was bred to his spawn sister of the same color. All the fry will be the same
color
you might get a bit of variation in the black rim around the finnage some
will have more and some
will have less.
 
I have found generally by F4 of selective
breeding will breed true.
Here is a good example.
F1
Large variety of different colors some with red wash.
 
F2
Spawn siblings from the above spawn
 
Once again a large variety of different colors but no red wash.
Example of some of the colors.
 
 
F3 I took these 2 fish of the same color from the above spawn and have bred
them back together
 
50% of the fry are solid purple or purple butterfly. The rest are greens
blues pastels with no red wash.
If all goes according to plan F4 if I take a pair from this spawn who look
like the parents
they should breed true. These been butterfly they should be either purple
butterfly or purple solid
F4 is rule of thumb I have found but every now
and again these
fish surprise you and I have had Sun Salamanders and MG breeding true in F2
REMEMBER you have to breed clean fish of the
same color for this to work.
For instance say I used in f2 fish with red wash it would put
a spanner in the works and delay the process.
Question:
I have another spawn that is two pastels, uncle to niece and at 8 weeks,
I am finding red on the ventrals and on the anal fin. Since this is F1 I
would assume this is red wash. If this red clears out in a few weeks,
would they be considered to have the "red loss gene"?
Is that possible with pastels?
Yes that would be considered red loss and yes it
is possible in any fish.
Here is an example of extreme red loss and it is the first time I have
seen it been so prominent.
Usually the fish will have slight red wash and it disappears but it does
usually come back as the fish ages.
Pic one was the same color as pic 2 and he lost all the red with in 3 weeks.
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