This gene is able to move the fish s chromosomes which will always have different kind of colors.
Betta marble gene color change.
Marble betta fish as they re called in the industry have a type of jumping gene that can cause a natural change in the color of the fish.
The marble gene influences the solid color in unpredictable ways making new color and pattern combinations possible.
Insert itself into another gene and change its function.
Because the marble gene is a transposon its color is unstable and often marble bettas will develop more or less color throughout their entire lives.
This a condition of a mutation called as jumping gene.
A transposon cannot transform into a normal gene so there are no marbles that are guaranteed to hold their color pattern throughout their lives.
Genes are responsible for a variety of things.
Transposons have the ability to do two important things that affect a betta s color.
These marbled bettas have a really interesting gene mutation known as the jumping gene.
The coloration occurs when pigment cells are given certain pigments usually through biochemical reactions that produce that color and can change them depending on proteins that come with them.
These transposons are what make marble bettas notorious color changers.
Most new betta owners have never heard the word marbling to describe a betta in their lives since they probably didn t poke around that much in betta genetics just how to take care of them.
If the solid colored parent betta carries the marble gene the percentage of marbled fry increases.
With bettas we study genes to understand and modify through breeding particular traits like color pattern and fin style.
These types of betta fish are notorious for changing colors.
Marbling is when a betta changes color splotchily if that s a word and it can be red or more commonly blue purple or white or a combination of two of those.
A result of the gene switching pigment on or off.
There is a particular type of betta fish called marble betta fish.
Some betta fish have what is known a marble coloration to them.
As the gene jumps between chromosomes it may alter the skin pigmentation of betta fish which can happen several times during their lifetime.