Wild Species Bettas

[LittleBettaFish]

Well my palangkarensis pair spawned about two days after the father stopped looking after his first batch of fry (who are living peacefully with mum and dad in their tank) and now I have tails again!



I had at least 50 from the first batch plus this new lot. I think I am going to be overrun by palangkarensis soon. At least this species is very easy to sex correctly and don't seem overly aggressive so I may keep a few pairs on. Still have the pair outside I completely forgot about as well. Going to bring them in and try and sell them.



These little guys are going nuts trying to get into the palangkarensis tank. I think they can see the fry moving around through the glass and think that it's food. Must be how my tussyae adult views them haha.

[babystarz]

Originally Posted by efg321

Babystarz.... Wondering if you happened to see this http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/aucti...tas&1359343288 Got any boys for them?? haha since it seems your boys are occupied!

Oh my gosh those girls look ready to pop lol! My two boys are plenty occupied with the two girls, I'm giving them a vacation once they release these babies. They deserve it

Got my 20 gallon fry growout set up today, with another 20 gallon tank in reserve for when they're bigger. I want to get the nearly month-old fry out of the nursery tank so more newborns can go in there :)

These little guys are going nuts trying to get into the palangkarensis tank. I think they can see the fry moving around through the glass and think that it's food. Must be how my tussyae adult views them haha.

Haha this is how my albimarginata next to the nursery tank act too.

[LittleBettaFish]

That's the only real trouble with wild bettas, trying to find room for all the fry they produce!

My mother palangkarensis has stolen fry again and made her own rather crummy bubblenest under some IAL. Heaven help the poor older fry she keeps catching and spitting out they must think they are about to be eaten.

Looks like I might some males in my unimaculata fry and persephone tank. Now I am just hoping they aren't all male. I suck so much at sexing anything but adult fish most of the time haha.

[babystarz]

Originally Posted by LittleBettaFish

My mother palangkarensis has stolen fry again and made her own rather crummy bubblenest under some IAL. Heaven help the poor older fry she keeps catching and spitting out they must think they are about to be eaten.

The image of this I have in my head is just... LOL! Poor girl wants to feel relevant as a parent


Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I figured out why I haven't had any albimarginata spawns. It's not that they're not spawning, they're just eating the eggs right after! I caught them in the act yesterday. Sigh! At this point I don't know how many times they've done it, but I suspect it's a habit by now and I probably won't get any babies out of either pair. I know I have my hands full with the ocellata at the moment, but I did hope I'd eventually get some albi babies. I may need to get another pair in the future if I want that to happen successfully. Ditto for the patoti, the female is fine but the male has continued to attack her whenever she comes out of hiding. And not in a spawning way, in an "I AM GOING TO MURDER YOU!" way. I have such uncooperative fish lol.

[LittleBettaFish]

It's so weird. She kind of had one fry up under some duckweed and I was like I wonder if I put in an IAL whether she will make a nest again under it. And she did. It's sort of like a scattering of oddly shaped bubbles with whatever fry she can grab tucked under there.

At least it means I can safely grow them out for a little while in there.

Didn't realise that my male uberis had a nest with eggs in it at the surface of his tan and completely annihilated it with a water change. I think he got most of the eggs as he has hidden himself away again. His female is just some plump hussy. All she does is eat and spawn I think.

[LittleBettaFish]

Who ever said female wild bettas were drab? This is my palangkarensis female showing off to her reflection.





Then here is dad hard at work keeping his fry in the bubblenest. I think if they spawn again I will destroy the bubblenest since I now have so many fry to grow out.





You can actually see some of the older fry in this picture.

[Cole mccallister]

Originally Posted by LittleBettaFish

Then here is dad hard at work keeping his fry in the bubblenest. I think if they spawn again I will destroy the bubblenest since I now have so many fry to grow out.

why would you do such a horrible thing just abduct the older fry and sell them around your neiborhood rather than kill for all life is precious or just move the female rather than kill innosence

[LittleBettaFish]

Because one, there is only a very small market for these fish in Australia, two, I don't have the space or money to run yet another tank for one fish, and three because they are fish and if it was the wild at this point in time the male probably would have lost half his fry anyway to predation. The only reason he hasn't is because I am there to keep watch over everything.

You can just think of me as some evil fish keeper. I guess you think culling fry is terrible as well since they are actually alive and conscious at the time of being killed, not just eggs sitting in a nest.

[babystarz]

Originally Posted by Cole mccallister

why would you do such a horrible thing just abduct the older fry and sell them around your neiborhood rather than kill for all life is precious or just move the female rather than kill innosence

Wow. You clearly do not know anything about betta breeding, and until you have 50+ fry to care for and find homes for, you are in no place to judge. Calling someone evil for focusing their resources on the fry they already have is ignorant and naive.

[efg321]

I'm sure we have our opinions..... Culling happens! Early stages or late my opinion early is much better. If shipping from Australia wasnt so bad I would raise another option. Maybe little betta fish should stop playing Barry White and lighting candles in the fish room.!!!! I recently read opinions on a breeder breeding on another thread. breeding was done with two inferior fish but a perfect color the breeder was striving for. result 200+ large spawn culled down to 2 or 3 fish maybe? and still all the work ahead to fix genetics/ form and fins. Ten generations from now what do you think the cull rate will be?