Genetic Bettas

This is an addon for Genetic Animals. You'll need to install it to play this mod!

Overview

Genetic Bettas is a Genetic Animals add-on for 1.18.2 and 1.20.1. Genetic Bettas adds a new mob, the betta fish, with genetics modeled after real-life biology, blending findings from scientific research, breeder insights, and observed cross-breeding outcomes.

Genotypes are designed to realistically represent phenotypes documented in both academic studies and practical breeding, creating a scientifically plausible genetic system for Minecraft. Each betta has their own unique genes that can be inherited by offspring, allowing the player to selectively breed for colors, fin type, size, temperament, and shape.

While not all information is fully confirmed, and while some aspects have been simplified (such as fin types), we've designed these genetics to represent real-life possibilities as closely as feasible, enabling players to replicate actual phenotypes in-game. As new insights emerge, we intend to update the mod to reflect the latest understanding of betta genetics.

Gameplay

Betta gameplay is a mixture of real-life with Minecraft quality-of-life and optimization taken heavily into consideration.

Like GA Axolotls, bettas do not have hunger and do not need to be fed, except for breeding.

Bettas can be found in swamp biomes, as well as jungle rivers and modded biomes with a similar climate. They can be bred with fish food, which is crafted out of any raw fish and kelp. After feeding a male and female betta, the male will make a bubble nest, and the female will lay the eggs inside of the nest. Eggs tend to hatch after one minecraft day, but this can be configured in the config file.

On occasion, Wandering Traders can bring bettas that resemble common varieties that are selectively bred for in the hobby, such as samurai, mustard gas, koi, and more!

Behaviors

There are three levels of temperament in bettas: Aggressive, neutral, and passive. These are all traits that are genetic, and can be bred for or against.

Aggressive bettas will flare at the player on sight, nip players when hit, and do not tolerate tank mates. Females will be relentless towards one another and nip constantly, while the males do not get along with male nor female bettas and will seek to do damage. This makes breeding them treacherous and difficult. Aggressive bettas are best kept separate from everyone but themselves, except for breeding.

Neutral bettas will flare at the player when hit, then swim away. This is the most common, default temperament type. Females tolerate one another, while males will leave each other alone if given enough space to get away. In a cramped space, they will damage one another, and then flee. Neutral males are best kept separate from other males.

Passive bettas will not flare at the player when hit. They do not fight back when other bettas pick on them, and they do not attack one another. Both male and female passive bettas can be kept together in harmony in tanks.

Baby bettas are non-hostile and will not be hostile to their siblings upon adulthood as long as they were born in the same clutch of eggs and are not bucketed/moved to a different area. Baby bettas are still growing into their final form, they are dull in coloration and sometimes very different in appearance from their adult form, especially if they are marble or koi!

Betta Storage

A quick and easy way to display and store extra bettas (especially males) is display tanks! They are a block that can be crafted with eight iron nuggets and one glass block. Using buckets of water, you can pick up bettas and transport them into display tanks. Each display tank can hold one betta. These tanks are an easy way to display and sort your bettas without having to take up tons of space.

Aquatic Plants

Genetic Bettas comes with the addition of several aquatic plant species to help fill the void of a lack of aquatic foliage in Minecraft. These are bottom-dwelling plants such as anubia species, jungle valisneria (V. americana), and spade-leaf sword (E. cordifolius), with the addition of one floating plant, common duckweed (L. minor). Much like its real-life counterpart, duckweed spreads aggressively once placed by a player and has several stages of density. Fear not! Using shears, duckweed can be kept under control, halting its growth and freezing the state of density. All of these plants can be found in vanilla swamp biomes.

Compatibility

Bettas from other betta mods can be converted into Genetic Bettas using the config (this is disabled by default). However, since Genetic Bettas do not despawn like normal fish, it is recommended that spawning for other betta mods be disabled first if using this option to convert them. Not doing so will likely result in extreme betta overpopulation!