Question On Metallic Genetics

I am raising a small spawn of plakat fry. The parents are both metallic turquoise CT plakats. I expected turquoise and coppers, but at 7 weeks old, I also see a few with a third color: royal blue. I never expected the royal blues, as I thought that this color was the result of turquoise X steel. Is this normal with metallics?

I have a second spawn of 3 week old fry from the male in the above mentioned spawn with a female metallic marble plakat. I wonder what their offspring will look like? Will I get CT plakats, or regular plakat tail type? Will I get turquoise, coppers, royals and marbles?

I'm also going to attempt to spawn a DT turquoise plakat X CT turquoise plakat this week. The eventual goal is a DT/CT plakat, in turquoise, copper, and marble patterns.

Without knowing the full history of both parents you really can't be surprised about much. But yes, it's quite normal. The most common metallic colors are royal,turquoise,green and the like.
Who knows what you'll get in your newer spawn- once again- the full history of the parents is in question. But you'll most definitely get some extended branching from it. They should be quite interesting. Do you have a camera?

I don't know the genetic history of the plakats, as I got them from a betta importer: Bluebettausa. I took out my camera and took photos of the fry colors.


Here is the Father




Turquoise Fry




Copper Fry




Royal Blue Fry

wuvmybetta said:

Without knowing the full history of both parents you really can't be surprised about much. But yes, it's quite normal. The most common metallic colors are royal,turquoise,green and the like.
Who knows what you'll get in your newer spawn- once again- the full history of the parents is in question. But you'll most definitely get some extended branching from it. They should be quite interesting. Do you have a camera?

Click to expand...

wow thats really neat! I love the dad! That really makes me interested in what I will get in my spawn with Isis and Dawna...they were from bluebettausa...wonder if they will come out as pure as I thought!? hehe but cute babies

Turquoise carries Steel Blue and Royal genes which combine to make turq's, and will produce Steel and Royals.

CT plakats
My word, the father is so gorgeous

Turquoise fish do not carry steel and royal blue genes, royal blues carry the gene for turquoise and steel. The interactions between iridocyte color alleles are as follows:
BlBl=Green
Blbl=Royal
blbl=Steel
As you can see, homozygous for one allele gets you steel, homozygous for the other gets you turquoise, and heterozygous gets you royal. However, the effects of certain genes can be masked by other genes, which could be the case in this spawn. Genetics can be so complex that, to quote Forrest Gump, "...you never know what you're gonna get"
As for your second spawn, if it's between the CT plakat male and a regular plakat female, you'll get all plakats with various degrees of combing on their tails. Some may look like regular plakats, some may look like CT plakats, but all of them are only going to be carrying one copy of the CT gene

WOW the Father is AWSOME



Synirr I had the hardest time reading that

Dr.Synirr

Im my experience, and with my knowledge from other breeders, all three are incomplete dominant (All three can appear Unless you breed Steel to Steel, Turq to Turq and you KNOW their genes are a pure strain for that coloration). I also breed Royals.

Are the copper gene and the metallic gene different, with copper being a metallic with color? Could it be that one parent has the turquoise and copper genes, while the other has the steel and copper genes? Could it be that the copper gene is causing steel gene to appear as turquoise?

Such a scenario makes sense to me as I do the gentic calculations:

25% would be turq/steel= royal blue
25% would be turquoise/copper =metallic blue
25% would be steel/copper= metallic blue
25% would be copper/copper=copper

I wouldn't mind such a genetic mix, as it would yield a line of copper CT plakats, something I was trying to get down the line.

I can't find much internet info on the effects of the copper and metallic genes. On the Betty Splendens site, there was a discussion on the fact that the "metallic" is sort of a "wildcard" which changes the expected results.

Sounds like that's a pretty good explanation

And who would question that this forum will breed breeders? It's a breeder magnet/haven.


I have several fish from Blue Betta USA also. A Gold CT trio, a Metallic Green/Red DT HM Butterfly pair, and two female Black Copper HM/HMx Plakats (for whom Beau was purchased.) In addition I have purchased 40 cories from Bryan at BlueBettaUSA/BetterBettas. There is a complex thing going on there that I am still trying to understand, but so far it appears that his bettas (other than wild catches) come from an associated Betta Farm in Florida, Better Bettas. He does import wild stock: cories and bettas. His fish are nonetheless great and bred from a fine show quality stock, but they couldn't I suppose be called Thai bred.

If you were courious about the breeding of your pair, I'm sure Bryan would be glad to hear from you. I have found him to be very accessible and interested in his fish.