Betta changing color -- Head darker?

[Splashes]

My betta has been fighting columnaris for a couple of months now. I think he may have finally beat it! But as I look at older pictures of him, I notice that his color has changed. Mostly it's brighter, but his head now seems to be turning dark gray/black. His tank temperature is 78*F, so I don't think it's that. Is a black head normal for a veiltail? You can see old and new pics here: public.fotki.com/curlilocks/betta_fish/

[twoluvcats]

i've had 2 veiltails with black heads. I think you are finally seeing your guy's true colors. In the pics of him with a lighter head, he looks faded and sickly.

[Cheart99]

it probably is his true colors. My betta had a dark brown head and blue/red fins. When i first got him his head was light brown.

[marcusbacus]

I had a blue betta that wasn't much a dark blue as my current blue betta (he looked purple under brighter lights) but his head was much darker, almost black, and it also seem to have been brighter before. They seem to change colours quite a lot, my red betta which has a half transparent tail (he's a butterfly) now has a very weak iridescent stripe on the top of his tail, which seems to be getting bigger every day. It's not dark blue, looks more like turquoise so far and it goes from the red part of the tail to its end. At first, it was seen just in one side, now I can see it at both sides.

[Splashes]

Good to know it's normal then! He's just been sick and pale so long that I don't know what color he really is supposed to be. I think he was probably sick when we got him (as a gift). He's feeling much better now! ;D

[BlahBlah]

Hi,

I have a question about coloring too. I just got a betta around 3 weeks ago, and lately I've noticed that the tips of his pelvic fins and the very tips of his caudal fins are white/clear, like they're lacking color. The rest of his color looks the same...he has an almost black head that fades to dark blue with some violet-red in his fins, and his pelvic fins are violet-red.

I thought I was stressing him out or something, but I haven't changed anything different with cleaning/maintenance and he still acts the same - very active. He's housed in a 1gallon tank, no filter, but I change the water frequently. He eats twice a day, 1-2 pellets each time.

I read online about the illness signs and he doesn't have anything described. I'm wondering if his fins are possibly growing? They do look longer than before, but I didn't take pictures to compare. I'm not sure because I haven't seen any info about fin growth and whether they have coloring or not. Can anyone explain this? Thanks!

[Cheart99]

my betta has a lot of this. it is only on the tips and the color is white/clear. This is new fin growth and you dont have to be worried.

[BlahBlah]

Thanks for the advice Cheart. I was getting paranoid there. ;D

[Splashes]

Yeah, Splashes has white tips on his ventral fins. He always has, so I guess that part's normal for him.

[BlahBlah]

I noticed the last couple days that my the ventral fins of my betta are becoming more vibrant in color - a much richer and brighter magenta...so much prettier than before

Oh I forgot to ask, will the new fin growth eventually develop color instead of staying white/clear? Would it be influenced by food nutrition?

[Hannah]

Yup, the new fin growth should color up and I think that good nutritional food for your betta will help his color in general plus help to keep him nice and healthy.

[BlahBlah]

Oh, I have another question...underneath his head, behind the gill slit area, I noticed that it was lighter in color, almost whitish-gray, stopping at the base of the ventral fins. I wasn't sure if he looked like that since I got him, but right now he's recovering from fin rot, so I wanted to ask. I have him in a hospital tank with Maracyn and an airstone (I was paranoid he wasn't getting enough oxygen). Is that a sign of poor gill function or something? It kinda seems like he's breathing heavily, but not all the time.