When breeding bettas, it can be very helpful to know some basics about genetics. One thing that is really important with genetics is to understand the terminology used. In this article, I will try to clarify and cover some of the basics, which are indispensable to understand betta genetics in a simplified manner [1,2,3].

The units of inheritance that transmit information from parents to offspring.

This is the genetic makeup of an organism: the genes.

Another word for gene. Each chromosome has a copy of this allel, thus a gene-pair.

How to indicate the different generations?
When two unrelated parents (P) are crossed their hybrid offspring is called the F1 generation (for the first filial generation).

When the F1 generation is interbred their offspring is called the F2 generation (for the second filial generation).

When the F2 generation is interbred their offspring is called the F3 generation (for the third filial generation).

And so on........

Now try to visualize this using for example the allele for hair color in humans:

Brown hair is a dominant trait. How is it possible that two parents with brown hair get a blond daughter of son?

The allel for “brown hair” is dominant and depicted with “B”.
The allel for “blond hair” is recessive and depicted with “b”.

The answer lies here: Remember that all alleles come in pairs and that the parents have to be heterozygous for the allel for haircolor. This means that both parents have to posses the recessive trait for blond hair (“b”) besides the dominant trait for brown hair (“B”), thus “Bb”. The best thing to visualize this is by the use of a Punnet-square:

Inbreeding, linebreeding and outcrossing
In order to breed good quality Betta splendens, different breeding methods are used. Inbreeding, linebreeding and outcrossing play an important role in setting up a quality line of Betta splendens.  

Outcrossing refers to the breeding of two unrelated (inbred) strains.

What does inbreeding do in the genetic sense?
Inbreeding will increase the probability that any given gene has two identical copies derived from the same ancestor. It tends to make all genes more homozygous. Remember each animal has 2 two copies of a given gene (technically speaking, two alleles at each locus on the chromosome) one from each parent. Unfortunately we are not able to only select the desired genes we want because genes come as a package…….

 One has to keep in mind that in the quest for fixating the desired traits by inbreeding, there is always the chance that we unintentionally loose some of the desired (“good”) genes and fixate some undesired (“bad”) genes which surface throughout the process.

Good examples of this are for instance the inbred strains of laboratory rodents. The process of inbreeding used to create this type of strains most of the time kills the majority of the strains between the 8^th and 12^th generations due to a loss of fertility (reduction in litter size) and viability. The strains, which survive these critical 8^th-12^th generations, form the inbred laboratory strains. These animals are homozygous for a more or less random selection of genes derived form the initial pair.

Why outcrossing?
As described in the example of the laboratory rodents above, in general inbreeding can be done up to F8 (8^th generation). Most times the rate of breeding success is really low at this stage.

When we extrapolate this example to Betta splendens, extensive inbreeding can result in fish which show a number of undesired characteristics like: smaller bodies, decrease viability, decrease of aggressiveness, decrease of fertility, not building bubble nests, fish which don’t know how to wrap themselves around the female, etc. This is why it is advisable to use an out-cross (unrelated partner, fresh blood) once in a while in order to keep the lines healthy and viable.

When choosing the outcross candidate, the breeder always needs to decide which outcross candidate possesses the desired traits that can improve the established inbred line. Off course there is also a risk in outcrossing because a breeder can loose the type of betta he has been worked on for a long time. Breeders often decide to cross the hybrid offspring of an outcross back to their original inbred line. This in order to add the new or improven traits that were brought in by using an outcross, but also in order to eliminate possible bad traits brought by the outcross.

1. Campbell, N.A., “Biology”, Fourth edition, The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc., ISBN 0-8053-1940-9
2. Zakwoordenboek der Geneeskunde, 25ste geheel herziene druk, Elsevier/Koninklijke PBNA, ISBN 90-6228-255-5
3. Betta Bunnies genetic page