MG question

[GP]

I have noticed that when looking at most MG's, that there is dark blue pokeadots on their fins, in a pattern. I was wondering, why is this?

 

[cation]

GP -

While doing a bit of genetic research, came across this tidbit, and it made me think of this post:

"A portion of a post by Rosalyn Upson on the Yahoo BetterBettas board may shed a little light on this:

"What I have been doing is growing the chromataophores in tissue culture as part of a university project I'm involved in.
The melanophores from melanos grow very differently from that seen in black lace and wild type. They pile up and are very sticky, which is why they produce such a dense black.
If you look at a melano closely, they have a lot of what I call "polka dots" throughout their fins that that make them look so dark. These are "balls" of melanophores. Preliminary studies have shown that these melanophores have extra adhesion protein/proteins.
My hypothesis is that this protein is also responsible for female infertility (how I don't know, but I have some thoughts, too lengthy to describe here). If this is the case, then getting fertile female melanos is not possible."


Further in the page, it mentions other colors with the dots. I've observed them in my fish. You can find the page here

A little more info:

"Cell type found in skin of lower vertebrates (amphibian skin, fish scales) that contains granules of the black pigment melanin. The granules can be rapidly redeployed between a dispersed state (which darkens the skin) and concentration at the centre (which lightens it). One of a family of pigmented or light-diffracting, coloured cells, known collectively as chromatophores." From here

 

[GP]

No wonder why it was so diffucult to answer. Cation, thanks so much.

 

[f250fisherman]

Nice post cation. I always wondered what was really going on.Since I didn't know what was really happening, I always thought of it in simpler terms.The spots are frequent in melanos. Since melanos are bred to steel or royal females, the spots have been spread among the irrid. colored bettas. These fish have been used in the mustard gas cross. Message boards can be so educational. I'm glad I found this one. Besides being very friendly here, it is full of good info.

 

[endparenthesis]

My fish that are blue or almost black have polka dots while the red ones don't. Anyone see reds or lighter colored bettas with polka dots?

 

[BabbleFish]

My red female has blue evenly dispersed dotts down her side. don't know if that's the same thing you're talking about, endparenthesis