Butterflies - can their clear fins color up?

[BettaMomma]

My little Charlie is still chugging along - I don't think he has quite fully recovered from his bad bout with Velvet and whatever else he had a while back, but he swims fine again now.

He does fine as far as the swim bladder issues go - he can eat a total of 5 pellets a day, with an occasional couple of bloodworms tossed in there every now and then with no ill effects swim bladder-wise.

However... he does still have the pretty prominent red streaks on his fins. I was just wondering if it's possible for a butterfly to suddenly develop coloration around the edges of the clear part of their fins? His tail also has some thin spots, and it looks like he's got a tad bit of darkness near where his tail attaches to his body and near the very ends - but the part up by his body on his tail sort of looks rather irridescent rather than something bad. Don't know about the dark part down by the end of his tail though.

 

[GuppyDude]

its not completely unheard of, most bettas will continue to change in size and color alot in their first full year of life, i dont know how old ur fish is, but if he's younger its probably normal. i dont know anything about the butterfly gene at all, but im gunna venture an opinion and say that butterflys can change coloring as well as any other betta fish.

 

[Synirr]

It's very common for pattern on butterflies to get "dirtier" with age... I had a red butterfly who had the perfect pattern when I bought him, but later his anal fin was almost solid red! So yes, it's quite possible for them to change A LOT

 

[daudy_dojo]

wow i did not know that

 

[newfishies]

i think most butterflies come from lines with the marble gene(s) , and those tend to change with age, so i would thik that the butterflies could change as well.

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay, this is all making me feel better.
You see charlie over there <----- beautiful fins... well now he's got some massive red streaks on his bottom fin. That doesn't really bother me so much now, knowing that they can change color. It's his tail now. It appears to have some blackish stuff on it, almost like he's been dragging it around in the dirt.

Any ideas on that?

 

[OrkyBetta]

Hmm, sounds maybe like some sort of fin rot? My jenga has black rimmed fins, maybe it is just something some bettas get? Salt couldn't hurt.

 

[BettaMomma]

His tank is the most sparkly cleanest betta tank in the universe. lol
And it doesn't look like finrot - it's not necessarily at the ends of the fins, moreso up..

This sorta looks like (sorry I can't think of a better description, and because I'm a scrapbooker... here goes) someone took a cotton ball and rubbed it all over a black rubber stamp ink pad.. then rubbed it on his fin.

 

[oneponygirl]

I bought a butterfly on Friday and his color has already changed. I just marked it up to better water and food. When I bought him his fins were red closest to him and then white half way to the edge. Now the white is almost turning black and has metallic blue streaks. I was kind of sad to see the stark white go but it's still very pretty and he's acting healthy so I hadn't worried about it. Let me know though if you discover it's something that I should worry about.

 

[Synirr]

The black could just be him changing colours too... they do some weird things sometimes . That's really the only explanation I can think of for the markings you describe.

My Marie Antoinette (midas hybrid, not a betta, but still *lol*) has changed colours in bizarre ways. She's orange and white, but every now and then she'll develop huge black spots overnight. It looks like she has been rolling around in coal or something. Just as suddenly as the spot appear, they disappear and either leave not a trace or leave faint orange marks where they used to be. She's such a weird and confusing fish

 

[BettaMomma]

She's such a weird and confusing fish

Aren't they all?
I'm going to take the camera home from work tonight so I'll post some pictures and see what everyone thinks.

I'm such a total worrywort I'm sure it is nothing to worry about. He seems like he's back to his normal old self - I tried dried pellets for 2 days now, and he seems to be tolerating them without any signs of swim bladder kicking his butt anymore, so maybe he's perfectly healthy and I'm the one that is nuts.

 

[BettaMomma]

Here's Charlie now.
You can see the dark spots on his tail and the red streaks on his bottom fin.

Here he was before:

 

[SRC]

I think I mentioned in a thread about this fish before..that he isn't a "butterfly" but more likely a marble. And marbles change color pattern from time to time.

But on the subject of butterfly's fins colring up...it is entirely possible.

My green butterfly sot...started off solid green with yellow edges, they transformed to white edges, then he changed colors completely and changed from aPea green to a aquamarine green..with very little white, or butterfly, pattern left.

Sot's breeder picture (from the breeder's website)

Sot a few weeks after I received him

How Sot looks now (had him 7 months)

This is some info/pics of marbles changing colors

this fish in the pictures did this change in the three days I was at the IBC show in Seattle, but once again, light to dark

Friday:

Monday:

 

[BettaMomma]

DANG. Very interesting.

He had velvet about the time his streaks showed up so I assumed that the 2 were connected.

So he's really a marble rather than a butterfly? I don't know them that well to know what qualifies one as what.

But based on what I've seen for pics, I guess it's totally normal.
Thanks!

 

[Seahorse]

I love how Charlie looks now!

I had a boy do that as well (with black areas), and he is perfectly fine, months later