Tattooed?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Me think so..

never seen something like that before

Mmmmmm I've often wondering about those and the armageddon ones too. It just doesn't seem possible to get that intense a patterning from breeding alone but then I could be wrong!!!!!

Im not sure, there is an increased interest in Japanese koi style bettas, and although those colours and markings are intense/unusual it might just be their line breeding skills, my imported male produced a "tancho betta" baby and I would not have thought it possible, a perfect red circle to the head
The latter fish has been made to look like a kohaku koi, with so much talk of the betta koi breeding projects it may well be natural

if thats the case they being tattooed its really awful
no better than injecting paints into them should be banned
i think anyway cruel!!

The second one looks more false than the first. I know breeders are playing with colours, but the markings look a little too perfect?? Also, and far worse is the fact the seller is advertising to ship directly to the EU by EMS which is totally illegal, and in all honesty Aquabid shouldn't allow people to get away with it!

I agree the second one does look suspiciously perfectly marked, but there is a chance its selective breeding for this Koi fashion. Direct shipping to the EU as you say should really be picked up on

I know, if you have an aquabid account ask the seller for pictures of the parents and siblings;)

First one somehow seems feasible.. although red spotting is pretty uncommon. The second one with the spot on the top of the head seems just a little too good to be true, though. As for asking about the parents and sibs, good suggestion, but, if someone is willing to tattoo a betta for profit then you can be rather sure that he/she would have no problem doctoring up some image to get someone to buy his $250 fish. Also, if a marble gene is responsible for this, god knows what their parents may look like or what these two would turn into in a couple of months. I've had a marble turn from white to solid blue practically overnight.

My thinking was if they couldn't provide any further pictures then it would seem even more dodgy;) The other thing is that they do not put any kind of description?? If I had bred fish to that colour i would sure put that i have been breeding for this colour for x amount of years/generations etc...

I THINK they're both real...
I mean, so far we haven't invented a way to dye or tattoo fish fins, and quite a few of the markings, particularly on the first one, bleed into the fins. There is also extensive flecking into the fins. Also, if you look at the central picture, from above, the markings are seen as red colour on each individual scale. Dye sits under the scales, on the skin. The scales on a platinum betta are clear, so you would see the dye through the scales and it wouldn't be clipping off at exactly the edges of the scales if it had been injected. I'm not sure about laser tattooing. I doubt it, because it would destroy the fin rays and the branching on that fish is perfect. Photoshop is a possibility but I don't think so somehow.

The second one I'm not so sure. I'm inclined to say real because of the bleed into the anal fin, but I think there's a strong chance that it's been photoshopped. I don't think it's a mutilated fish, just a modified image. Have a look at the red and iridescent pearly blue flecks in the caudal and dorsal -or particularly, how they're present in some photos and absent in others, and migrate around the fins within the space of a few minutes in which these photos were probably taken. The colour is too flat, I can barely make out the scale edges at all in the middle of the top marking. I think it's suspicious how all the photos are zoomed out - it's easy to cover up photoshopping on a low resolution image. You could catch this one by requesting the original high resolution JPG images. If they look the same, then I'm wrong. If he's photoshopped them, then he'll either refuse to supply them (gotcha!) they'll look totally different (gotcha!) or they'll be obviously edited (gotcha!)

If anyone is seriously considering buying that fish I'd be a bit worried about the dark mass in one side of the abdomen though... looks frankly abnormal, and is visible only one one side (which is a major pointer that something isn't right.)

now that i am awake...those are photoshop babies. look at the color, doesnt it look a little to vibrant? especially the views from the top the shadows are poorly done. man i kinda feel sorry for the person who buys those because they will get majorly ripped off.

I think I'm inclined to say now that the first one is most likely to be real. Second one, photoshopped.

If they have gone to the trouble of photoshopping one, then i'd be inclined to suspect both?

really what do these sellers do when the buyers get the fish and its not the right one? if the buyers are smart and used paypal they could put a claim in and get their money back. just resulting in lots of drama for both partys.

Maybe the first has just been enhanced?. I don't understand the lines. Is that possible to create through genetics?

I just saw the exact same pic...same fish exact same pic on a reptuable betta site on their betta of the month page. seems to me that either some one is pulling the wool over some very experenced eyes or that fish are actualy real.