My Funny Picture - Why does my betta fish have scales under his mouth that's a different color from the rest of his scales?

Why does my betta fish have scales under his mouth that's a different color from the rest of his scales?

he looks exactly like this http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hounslowfish/webdoc16.htg/Red%20Betta.gif (its not him though thats just a picture that i found on the internet) and he has tht wierd white-ish scales under his mouth that look like this http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/Ciddian/Bettas/DSC02410.jpg wut does that mean? i just got him today. Its really small and not very noticeable. I left him in the container that i got him in for about 4 hours. Once i got homei didnt have enough time to put him in his tank so i left him in the container. When i came back home i put him in a bag and place him in the tank with the bag closed for him to get used to his tank water. But before i placed him in the tank, i looked carefully at him and saw the weird scales. my last fish died and he had the same thing just tht is was bigger. so now im worried. Do you kno what it is? is He sick and if he is what does he have? What can i do to make it go away? This means so much to me!

Public Comments

You are good at taking pictures that's a nice betta, Id say its just pigment like some people have freckles some dont.
I've had betta fish before, and I'm pretty sure that they are either just some dead scales, or just part of the fish. I really wouldn't worry about it :)
What kind of food are you going to feed him? Live food or pellets or dried food. The best is live food like brine shrimp or tubifex worms. This new tank, did you clean it after your other fish died? If you did not, it could still have a trace of whatever got your fish sick in the first place. If you did clean it, then i would not worry about it. When you have fish, try to feed it whatever it eats in the wild. Bettas are fighters, so they have a high protein diet. Good luck.
I'm sure you've seen bettas with different colours. Yours may be just that. He has scales of a different colour because they ARE a different colour. Great shot btw.
From the picture it looks just like different pigmented scales that has more to do with genetic backround of the fish than anything else. It appears to be nothing wrong, so don't worry
I wouldn't worry about it. Fighting fish come in a variety of colours. If you are really worried take him to specialist and see what they say. It's probably nothing. Did you clean the tank before you put the new fish in, if you didn't maybe the disease is still in the tank. Make sure to clean it and remember to condition the fresh water you put in the tank!