Spotting the Orange Dalmatian

Spotting the Orange Dalmatian
By: Victoria Parnell
Submitted: 8/11/2006

Orange Dalmatian from Siamimbellis.com, used with permission.

Orange Dalmatian from Siamimbellis.com, used with permission.

Ever since it first started being widely seen in pet stores around late 2004, the spotted orange betta has taken the hobby by storm. But what exactly is it?

Around fall 2004, Master breeder Sarawut Angkunanuwat, better known as Siamimbellis, released a new betta color onto the HM show betta market. This was an otherwise solid orange fish with a distinct red, dark orange, or apricot spotting pattern in the fins. He called these fish "Dalmatian Oranges", and I was able to acquire a few from him roughly around the time of their first release.

Sarawut sent me 2 spectacular males and 2 bonus spawn sisters. While the males were fully spotted, neither of the females showed the Dalmatian pattern.

I bred the males into my red line, and the first generation yielded 100% red and cambodian red fish, none of which displayed any sort of pattern; more probable is the supposition that any pattern the fish may have shown was covered up or blended in to the normal red, effectively rendering the pattern "invisible". Unfortunately, I was unable to pursue the next generation with any of these batches of fry, as I lost them all during a power outtage in a winter storm of 2004.

The females I managed to save, and bred them both into my solid orange Ralph Tran line. Of their offspring, approximately 30% had red spotted fins by 6 weeks of age; another 20% or so developed red spotting as they aged.

The original Orange Dalmatian HM line was anything but accidental. In 2003, Sarawut first noticed the strange pattern in veiltails on the local market; impressed, he asked the local breeders to try to develop the line. By crossing the spotted Veiltails to solid orange HMs, they accomplished just that, presenting the fish to Sarawut a mere 18 months later. Sarawut crossed these HMs in his own famously established lines, and very soon was actively producing the finest specimens of spotted orange bettas yet seen.

The obvious leap is that the spotting pattern is somehow related to marble. However, there are enough significant differences between marble and the dalmatian spotting pattern to lead a breeder to wonder whether or not completely different genes are responsible for each. The most notable difference is the rate of inheritence. Marble behaves as a partial dominant, which means when you breed a marbled fish to a solid you usually get some marbles, some solids and some butterflies. Rarely do you get all marbles, even when spawning marble x marble. However, the Dalmatian spotting acts as a dominant gene, overpowering all else and affecting nearly every member of a spawn with darker orange or red splotches of color in the fins. This only seems to affect the Non Red fish -- yellow, orange and blue/yellow or blue/orange bicolors -- and not irids or reds. I assume (but it hasn't yet been tested) that breeding an Orange Dalmatian with an iridescent fish will produce offspring with spots affecting their yellow areas in the F2.

Another big difference is the stability of the pattern. Marbles have always been notorious for changing pattern over time, sometimes turning into completely differently colored fish. This has been a marble trait since the pattern was first introduced by Walt Maurus via creator Orville Gulley. In Dalmatian orange, however, the spotting and blotching in the fins seldom, if ever, changes, but remains stable throughout the life of the betta.

It has long been stated that since red and yellow are basically the same gene (yellow being the mutated form of red), seeing both red and yellow on the same fish was impossible. Likewise, NR1 (yellow) and NR2 (orange), being different forms of Non Red, are not supposed to be able to exist together. However, the advent of this new spotted fish have completely thrown those theories out of the window! Not only have we seen yellows with orange spots, but we've seen oranges with red spots and yellows with red spots. Whatever the combination, one of the basic rules seems to be that the spots must be darker than the base. No oranges with yellow spots or reds with orange spots out there -- yet!

But there may be another answer...

When discussing the Dalmatian Orange one day with IBC Grand Champion breeder Dan Young, he brought up an interesting point, that being the "Yellow Spotted Melanos" he inadvertently invented in his fishroom several years ago. In 1999, Young had a Bonnie McKinley line pure melano male that was under serious consideration for BOSM at an IBC show. Ultimately the fish was not chosen due to the typical iridescence fault, but on the drive home Young shared a cab with geneticist and IBC founder Dr. Gene Lucas, who had purchased a nice yellow female from Jim Williams at the same show. Young asked Lucas what would be the best method of cleaning up the iridescence on his melano line, and the idea of crossing the melanos to yellow was suggested. Lucas put up his new yellow female for the project, and Young spawned her to his melano male.

Since the yellow female did not carry melano, and the melano male did not carry Non Red, the first generation was, predictably, all multicolors. The finnage of this generation was disappointing, so Young ended up giving most of them away and not really pursuing the line any further. One of the hobbyists that received fish from this spawn performed an F2, but was having trouble raising them. He gave them back to Young, who grew out the spawn. Most of these also turned out to be multicolors, but one melano male was noted in the small group, and he was jarred to watch his progress.

He was developing into a decent fish when the day came that Young noticed yellow spots, like atiger salamander, on his caudal fin. He immediately brought the fish to Gene, who christened it a "Yellow Spotted Melano". When they spawned the male to his spawn siblings, it was discovered that all of the melanos showed the distinct yellow spotting in the fins, some of which were quite striking. Lucas wrote an article on the YSM for FAMA magazine, and the betta was famous almost overnight. Others were trying the melano x yellow cross and getting similar results.

It is also interesting to note that Sarawut himself has been offering a line of "Yellow Spotted Melanos", some of which have orange, instead of yellow, spots. This could lead one to wonder whether this alone hints of a relationship to Dalmatian Orange. It should be noted that Sarawut denies the two are related and states that his YSM line was a result of crossing melano to NR (orange and yellow).

However, the independent development of the YSM fish and the Dalmatian does not mean they are not related genes. Clearly the pattern comes along somehow with the Non Red mutation. In the article written by Dr. Lucas for FAMA magazine, he stated that he was unsure of what caused the anomaly. There was some conjecture that it may have been the result of a split gene, but the rate of inheritence nullified that theory. When I posed the question recently to Dr. Leo Buss, his summated this way: "It would...be interesting to see these fins under the scope. I have no difficulty, biologically speaking, with the occurrence of red splotches on a NR fish. The issues for me are: what is the phenotype at the level of the cell? What is the inheritance pattern? Both are readily answered questions - albeit requiring a substantial amount of work."

Although striking and undeniably beautiful, another difficulty arises when breeders and owners try to show these Dalmatians. The spotting pattern is considered a fault according to IBC standards for solid and bicolored fish. At the same time, the pattern isn't usually consistent enough to fare well in the Patterned class, either. There has been some success in showing them under Variations or Form and Finnage.

One of these days someone will look at the Dalmatian on a cellular level and be able to tell us how it happened. Until then, I hope others will continue to breed and develop this type. I would just recommend being careful with it. Make sure to keep the Dalmatian lines separate from the non-Dalmatian lines, or you could end up ruining your solid NR's with wild speckling!

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Notas: Después de leer este articulo me puse a mirar a "Naranjito" mi Macho HM Naranja y me di cuenta que tiene pintas mas oscuras, el rasgo no es tan pronunciado como los del ejemplo del articulo. Espero que el articulo os parezca tan interesante como a mi, Saludos! y hasta pronto.