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I was doing some research and found an article online that essentially showed that bettas with more drab coloring, especially those without red pigments, may be better able to cope with stress and better able to fight off disease.
Basically it says that the bright coloring of the betta is due to the carotenoids found in their food. No surprise there. However, carotenoids are also used for various internal processes as well, including many that are related to fighting off disease. Very bright red bettas are using almost all of their carotenoids for their coloring, instead of distributing it evenly between coloring and immune systems.
I don't advise against buying red bettas just because of this, since most every fish food out there has more than adequate amounts of carotenoids, so the betta will be getting sufficient amounts all around. I just thought it was really interesting.
55 gallon
Black Moor - Damian
Calico Ryukin - Serafina
midget lionhead - Kiko
Lionhead - Little Bean
Serafina and Bean's babies:
Baby
Westie
planted 29 gallon
2 german rams m/f
5 cardinal tetras
4 albino cories
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Senior Member
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| That's pretty cool. I guess the application of this would be to pay extra close attention to the conditions and diet of brightly-colored bettas - not that folks shouldn't be paying attention anyway! So would feeding red bettas foods higher in carotenoids help their systems by providing enough for them to use, or would it just get shunted into the coloration, depriving them further of the benefit?
At Home with the Wild: Blue Ridge Wildlife Institute 
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Fish Moderator
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If it follows what I learned in ecology, having an abundance of carotenoids should make them allocate a little more toward immunity. When supply of something is low, it's a trade-off, one or the other, but when supply of something is high, they have more for both. They didn't really say for sure in the study though, because I only found the abstract, so I couldn't read more into the methods and what they actually did.
55 gallon
Black Moor - Damian
Calico Ryukin - Serafina
midget lionhead - Kiko
Lionhead - Little Bean
Serafina and Bean's babies:
Baby
Westie
planted 29 gallon
2 german rams m/f
5 cardinal tetras
4 albino cories
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Junior Member
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The science is so interesting. Thanks for the info
--Fisher
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Fish Moderator
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I actually found a bunch of information out today. I'll post the little tidbits in this topic, so I"m not starting 20 different ones.
Tidbit:
According to the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association, the recommended dosages of formalin and malachite green for diseases are actually likely to be lethal in goldfish.
55 gallon
Black Moor - Damian
Calico Ryukin - Serafina
midget lionhead - Kiko
Lionhead - Little Bean
Serafina and Bean's babies:
Baby
Westie
planted 29 gallon
2 german rams m/f
5 cardinal tetras
4 albino cories
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Advanced Member
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Now here's an example of when medication, in the perfect diagnosis, can kill the patient. Keep up with the info, it's fun to know this!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cut HereIf life gives you lemons, squeeze them into people's eyes and run away! }<(((0>
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Senior Member
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Last Login: 10/30/2009 6:53:17 AM
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Yup. I'm liking this post - so informative. 
At Home with the Wild: Blue Ridge Wildlife Institute
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Fish Moderator
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Tidbit of the day:
Goldfish have an amazing preadaptation to hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions.
For instance:
An experiment was done keeping zebrafish and goldfish in hypoxic conditions and then measuring the amounts of hemoglobin, myoglobin, and neuroglobin after a few days, then a couple weeks. These "globins" are all the oxygen exchangers in the blood, for a simple explanation. The more you have, the better you can process oxygen.
Zebrafish, normally used for such experiments because they can so easily adapt to drastic conditions, showed a 5-fold increase in neuroglobin, which carries oxygen to the brain.
Goldfish showed no increase. However, this was because when they investigated the control groups, goldfish already HAD 5 times the neuroglobin that they expected.
55 gallon
Black Moor - Damian
Calico Ryukin - Serafina
midget lionhead - Kiko
Lionhead - Little Bean
Serafina and Bean's babies:
Baby
Westie
planted 29 gallon
2 german rams m/f
5 cardinal tetras
4 albino cories
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Moderator
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| My two bits -- 1) The "drab" colored bettas may be stronger because they are closer to the wild fish. The colorful bettas we see in lfs's have all been bred for many many generations in the Far East, and they are about as far from a wild fish as you could get. 2) The comment about Quick-cure (formalin and malachite green) being toxic to goldfish is silly. I don't know why or where these old wives tales get started, but QC has been used for a long time by the professionals in the industry -- including myself -- and I use it all the time on goldfish and I have never had any problems.
*************************** Local Fish Stores -- "The Heart of the Hobby"
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Fish Moderator
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Everything I have posted in this thread thus far has come reviewed journals. I haven't tracked down the full articles yet, so their methods may be suspect, I don't know. They also claimed that the recommended dosages of potassium permanganate could be toxic to zebrafish as well.
55 gallon
Black Moor - Damian
Calico Ryukin - Serafina
midget lionhead - Kiko
Lionhead - Little Bean
Serafina and Bean's babies:
Baby
Westie
planted 29 gallon
2 german rams m/f
5 cardinal tetras
4 albino cories
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