# butterfly beauty



## SilverThorn (Jul 22, 2010)

My ancient veil tale died the other day:sad: 
I saw a lovely blue & red halfmoon at petco. I had to have him. I know
his coloration isn't perfectly symmetrical & his dorsal curls a bit I suspect from being in the little cup. He had a little scraped place on his head it has healed over & turned pinkish. but he is still one pretty Betta.His red is vibrant & he is ridiculously blue almost royal blue. the pictures realy don't do his color justice.
















The blue edging on his fins the flash makes it look a bit odd to me.
I've noticed some real pretty butterflies at petco lately I saw a PERFECT teal & white delta but the red & blue HM was just so dramatic & eye catching especially when he flairs even if he isn't perfect.:fish:


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## AvocadoPuffDude (Jan 20, 2011)

Truly a gorgeous specimen, but I have to recommend not buying fish at the big box stores, PetSmart and PetCo. As you have witnessed, they don't take good care of their fish, as yours has received injury at their hands. PetCo is especially egregious in that they put salt in every freshwater tank which is horrid conditions for most freshwater species (they're called freshwater for a reason, people.)
Purchasing fish from them only promotes further poor fishkeeping practices. Use your local fish (LFS) store instead!!!


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## SilverThorn (Jul 22, 2010)

My lfs bettas are worse....(the regular fish are fine just not the bettas)the jars are 1/2 the size, so tiny lots of fin curling. Also the fish are rather ugly. They are way too close together & always after each other so lots of fin rips.( I never buy their bettas.) 
As for salt I've never herd of them putting salt in the bowls at my petco. They have opaque cubies for each fish to keep the fish from going after each other & ripping fins. Their bettas are always healthy. The person that works in the fish depot is great. They rarely have any injuries or fin rips. Saw a kid shaking them once (came unglued) I do see a fin curling sometimes from the small jars at that petoc but I see that with most bettas kept in little cups. So unless I drive 2 hrs it's the crappy usual torn up bettas at the lfs or healthy pretty betas from the local chainstore petco.


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## Bettawhisperer (Oct 1, 2010)

That is not considered a Butterfly. A Butterfly has a solid body colour which extends into the base of the fins finishing with an abrupt strong edge with the rest of the fins being transparent or white. May also be referred to as variegated. But for a Petco fish you got luck. He is very pretty.


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## SilverThorn (Jul 22, 2010)

I always thought it was a type of butterfly. I see so many photos with the same sort of body coloration labeled as butterfly. Quite a few years ago I saw some that look very close to mine that were selling as butterflies. Oh well he's still pretty.& good lord never sits still! can not take another decent pic of him.


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## Chard56 (Oct 10, 2010)

He has awesome coloring! The Petco in my neck of the woods take pretty good care of them and have some really nice ones as opposed to Wal-mart who only carry Veils and CT's. The salt in use in tanks that I see are for Mollies and other live bearers. I stopped in today and had to choose between a Black HM (that I don't know if it was a Melano), or a Black Orchid HM marked as a Delta. The half priced one won out since I have Black Orchid CT's or Blue Lace HM's I can spawn him with. Your Betta falls in the Butterfly category. The definition describes a separate band of colored fins taking up half of the fin in two bands or can be three colors taking up one third regardless of the body color.


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## Bettawhisperer (Oct 1, 2010)

A tri color or three color is called a Multi. Butterfly is white trim or transparent cello trim.
Here is a Multi color. By the way, this guy is going to a IBC show next month.










Here is a Butterfly HM.


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## Chard56 (Oct 10, 2010)

I was talking about a tri-band with three distinct separate colors not a multi and a butterfly can be other colors than just white or cellophane. Here is one of my Platinum Blue and Red Butterflies:







Not the best example but you can see three distinct colors on this tri-band Butterfly:


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## SilverThorn (Jul 22, 2010)

As chard said I thought they could be other colors besides white as long as they had the distinct bands of color with equal portions on the unpaired fins of the fish. I've seen many breeders selling fish like that as a type of butterfly. I find the red/blue rather striking. 

I could have shot myself in the foot today I moved the tank in to my bathroom....it was either too close to the mirror or he's a tail biter. I guess he just flared himself to shreds.  His tail is not in great shape but he seems unconcerned...I just hope he's not going to be another tail biter like my Cambodian red dragon. I'm going to have to watch him. Could be biting from boredom or stress from the tank being moved. finally got the dragon to stop when I put him in a tank with a divider & another fish.

Bettawhisperer: Those fish are pretty good fins!


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## SilverThorn (Jul 22, 2010)

Well I caught the little booger he was indeed eating his own tail like a dog going round & round with it in his mouth flaring his gills & biting it. As soon as I turned on the tank lights he stopped so perhaps just need to have the light on & he will stop?
He has torn up 1/2 of be blue edging on his tail & 2 large rips & the end of his dorsal is in shreds. .....


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## Chard56 (Oct 10, 2010)

It's really disappointing when they do that. I have to watch for that with mine. They are 2 and 3 jars thick on some shelves and I had to move two tail biters to the front so they would stop. If they can see me they won't bite their tails. Go figure?? This guy is just starting to grow back.


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## SilverThorn (Jul 22, 2010)

I've read that some do it out of boredom. others Because they are stressed in a new environment or because they have nothing to look at. mine has stopped now that I have the light on go figure I guess he can see what's outside the tank.

wow he really chewed himself up. mine has 2 bad rips one almost the entire length of the tail & about 1/2 the blue part almost eaten down almost to the red part & a bit of the dorsal...so sad will probably grow back clear.


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