Colors
B. splendens have been affectionately nicknamed "The Jewel of the Orient" due to their beauty and wide range of colors which are produced through selective breeding.
Wild fish exhibit strong colors only when agitated. Breeders have been able to make this coloration permanent, and a wide variety of hues breed true. Colors available to the aquarist include red, blue, black, turquoise, orange, yellow, green, bright blue with pink highlights, cream and even true white (the "Opaque" white, not to be confused with albino). The shades of blue, turquoise and green are slightly iridescent, and can appear to change color with different lighting conditions or viewing angles; this is because these colors (unlike black or red) are not due to pigments, but created through refraction within a layer of translucent guanine crystals. Breeders have also developed different color patterns such as marble and butterfly, as well as metallic shades like copper, gold, or platinum (these were obtained by crossing B. splendens to other Betta species).
Breeders around the world continue to develop new varieties. Often, the male of the species are sold preferentially in stores because of their beauty, compared to the females. Recently, breeders have developed in females the same range of colors previously only bred in males. Females never develop fins as showy as males of the same type and are often more subdued in coloration.
A true albino betta has been feverishly sought after since one recorded appearance in 1927, and another in 1953. Neither of these were able to establish a line of true albinos. In 1994, a hobbyist named Tanaka claimed to have successfully bred albino bettas.
Read more about this topic: Siamese Fighting Fish
Other articles related to "colors, color":
... In color theory, two colors are called complementary if, when mixed in the proper proportion, they produce a neutral color (grey, white, or black) ... In roughly-perceptual color models, the neutral colors (white, greys, and black) lie along a central axis ... For example, in the HSV color space, complementary colors (as defined in HSV) lie opposite each other on any horizontal cross-section ...
... The district has a strict dress code which limits the type, style and colors of clothing and jewelry students may wear ... The main colors are shades of blue, white, gray, and black ... Colors may not be worn mono-chromatically ...
Famous quotes containing the word colors:
“You look rather rash my dear your colors don’t quite match your face.”
—Daisy Ashford (1881–1972)
“He hath ribbons of all the colors i’the rainbow.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. To such an extent indeed that one day, finding myself at the deathbed of a woman who had been and still was very dear to me, I caught myself in the act of focusing on her temples and automatically analyzing the succession of appropriately graded colors which death was imposing on her motionless face.”
—Claude Monet (1840–1926)