My marbelous betta OR What a difference a week makes...

Last week, I got a new 10 week old betta girl:




A blue-white dragon lady with a beautiful caudal!
She's very sweet, fearless and curious.
Here, she makes the acquaintance of one of her new tank mates:



She spent her first day exploring every nook and cranny of the tank:



You can clearly see her different colors and a fairly dark body, right?
Did I mention that she's also a marble?

This is how she looks now, only a week later:



All blue and black has disappeared from her body and fins, which are almost completely translucent by now - including her pectorals. There are just a few little dark specs left, but they are fading as well. Her dragon scales are now all white.

At first, her body looked a bit more orange, and the little bit of brown-red in her fins had turned to a dark orange because the blues mixed in with it had disappeared. But now she's lost her red colors as well. Her body looks yellow. How yellow can be seen in this otherwise rather dark picture:



Depending on the light, the iridescent light blue in her fins and a slight blue sheen on her scales is still visible:



I'm a little bit sad about it because I particularly loved how the rays in her caudal were framed by dark lines. But I like the yellow color. Very pretty! And the adventure has just begun... Maybe she'll stay this way, maybe she'll look completely different next week.

But the poor little thing is still nameless! I wasn't able to come up with anything I like. She's obviously Miss Marble, but I need a nice first name for her. Any suggestions?

 

I don't have a name suggestion for your betta (sorry) but I think it's weird how bettas can change their colors.

 

She is pretty in all her incarnations. Although I can see how you might be disappointed that you ended up with a different betta than you bought.

I understand the name thing too, I need to stop referring to my new bettas as, betta #1, betta #2, & betta #3. I'm waiting for some sort of inspiration as I am sure you are.

Considering her transformation, maybe Metamorphia, or maybe not, lol

 

My fish always tell me their names eventually. Lola is the bumblebee platy, for instance. I was looking at her one day, and then it was "Oh. So that's your name lol"

 

That's crazy! Wonder if she'll change colors again.

 

My fish always tell me their names eventually. Lola is the bumblebee platy, for instance. I was looking at her one day, and then it was "Oh. So that's your name lol"

Yes, so far, all my pets told me their names, but she seems to be rather slow with that. Maybe she doesn't quite know herself who she really is considering that whenever she looks into the mirror she sees a different betta...

I'm not disappointed at all! I'm very happy with her!

 

'Novo' is the Latin word for change so maybe something along those lines? I don't know I'm terrible at naming my fish too, but they always end up with names. Even if they are simple like Banana

She is a gorgeous betta and love the transformation also!

 

Do they normally change?

 

Do they normally change?

As Betta's grow and become more mature, they can change colour, yes.

However if the fish is losing colour and gaining colour again that is not a sign of growing that is a stress sign.

 

They are excellent pics.

The one week photo really tells a story - She is a whole lot less stressed. I'm sure you'll get to see her various colours depending on her moods.

 

No, her coloration has nothing to do with stress! Or her moods. She was not even stressed that much when I got her. No horizontal stripes, nothing. It was a short overnight trip from the breeder for her, and she settled in right away. And although stress can affect the coloration, it cannot turn a blue-white-black betta into a yellow one!

She is a marble. That means she has what is sometimes called a "jumping gene".
The colors of bettas reside in different layers. There's a layer for yellow, one for red, one for black and one for blue/iridescence at the top. The jumping gene "jumps" around the color genes and turns them on and off randomly. My little marble lost all her blue, black and red coloration at once and only kept the bottom yellow.

Bettas with this gene can change their colors drastically throughout their lives, as some colors as switched on, others switched off. These changes can happen very quickly, over a few hours or days. Some bettas change never, others keep changing (I read somewhere that they tend to change less frequently as they grow older), others change only once. So she might change back to her previous look, change colors completely or stay the way she is right now - only time will tell.

You can google for marbling bettas. There are pictures of some quite amazing color changes out there.

Thanks for naming suggestions! Right now, the name Ariel is floating through me head. let's see whether she approves of it. I was not thinking of Disney's little mermaid, but that links the name to the water, but more of the spirit in Shakepeare's The Tempest. But there is a laundry detergent in Germany with that name... And it washed all the spots and specks right out of my little betta!

 

hmm, maybe you could breed for a cameleon betta, although I worry enough about my bettas when I can see them as it is.

 

LOL! Being bright yellow, she definitely sticks out much more than before. No more camouflage outfit for her!