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our purple betta fish named arthur is a pig, and loves flakes. actually we tried to get him on pellets but he is mortally afraid of them. whenever we take his bright yellow flake jar and move it in front of his tank, he gets excited and looks up, expecting food. we tried to do a test to see if he was reacting to the yellow of the jar, and got the almost-identical-in-shape purple jar of the none-too-popular pellets and moved it in front of his tank, followed by his flake jar, and he seemed to react to the yellow, but it was hard to tell. so my question is this: can betta fish see in color?

hmm maby. I don't know. Maby you have a smart fish?

It might. My beta fish is not like that, it's mostly sassy and eat's a lot.
And by a lot, I mean, a lot.

my fish have different colors but yours was totally different. I wonder where did you get that?

Fish are able to see colors, and Betta fish, especially males are known to react to bright colors. That's why they have such a reaction when you place them near other fish that are brightly colored. However it's also not unusual for fish to have that reaction when they know you are going to feed them. If you feed your fish at the same time, then he is on a schedule and is probably reacting more to the expectation of food than he is the actual color of the jar. Chances are he has come to recognize the jar that holds the food he likes, and that's why he gets excited. Also if he doesn't like the pellets, then he wouldn't bother to get as excited when he sees that jar.