Wild Species Bettas

[LittleBettaFish]

The cost of purchasing an export license here is so prohibitive I don't know many businesses that actually have them for fish. I wish it also wasn't so expensive or time-consuming to have fish imported in!

Haha wilds are so prolific. Every time I turn around there is a bubblenest going on or someone spawning.

It's definitely not for a lack of trying that some of the wild populations are dwindling. My fish are capable of spawning a couple of times a week if conditions are right and they are both ready.

I'm only lucky you don't have to jar wild betta juveniles. Otherwise I would never had gotten into keeping them.

[babystarz]

Big update! I moved the month-old fry to their new growout today. I squished one baby with my net and I feel terrible :( He was completely upside down and unable to move, so I ended up putting him down quickly. I'm still kicking myself for it, even though it was an accident. Another jumped out of my net but I was able to rescue him with my hand and put him in the tank and he's fine. They're very interested in their new tank and I think they like all the extra space to explore. It's a bit bare right now but I will get some more caves and such for them, and the plants will fill in quickly.

And I moved them not a moment too soon - literally, as I was depositing the last baby I realized my little ocellata male was spitting out newborns in the adult tank! I even caught one baby being spit out on video :) It's so funny how they spit them out, the babies tumble out spinning like little balls until they can right themselves, then they zip around randomly until they figure out how to swim straight.

I managed to transport one newborn to the nursery tank but then decided to stop because I could tell I was scaring the male. I know the adults won't eat newborns so I figured leaving them til tomorrow won't hurt. The other male will be spitting his babies any day now too. I was also not 100% convinced I got all the month-old fry out of the nursery tank so I didn't want to move any more newborns for fear of them becoming snacks. I will inspect every inch of the nursery tomorrow to make sure.

I also found out that my second albimarginata pair spawned (unsuccessfully of course). I found two eggs at the bottom of the tank. I picked one up to inspect it, I was shocked at how big it was, and how really egg-like the shell was. I sort of thought mouthbrooder eggs would be soft, but nope! They're not. They have hard shells. I wish one of these pairs would figure out that eggs are babies, not snacks.

[LittleBettaFish]

Sorry to hear about your squished fry. I've accidentally thrown out my only brownorum fry into the front garden and it is horrible when these things happen.

Sounds like you've got a fry factory going on there. At least the fry from the bigger mouthbrooding species are a decent size and can take foods like BBS usually straight away.

Better give your albimarginata a stern talking to. I'm sure they'll get it eventually. Then you'll wish they would stop!

I finally got some photos of my macrostoma male coloured up. He is not fully coloured up as he doesn't like my camera but it is better than the last lot. His female has also coloured up as you can see. If she colours up any more I may think she is male.









Also got some photos of my brownorum female. Excuse the hand, it was the only way she would sit still.







Burdigala female had to go into 'prison'. Her and the male look like they have been at war. Just going to let them heal up before I re-introduce them. Of course the male spends all his time flaring and preening in front of her still.

[efg321]

Last picture looks like the Betta Version of "Midnight Express"....(behind the glass) haha!

[tnvol]

Originally Posted by babystarz

Is it the Wet Spot by any chance? I've bought from them before and have been very happy.

The Wet Spot is in Portland. I live about 10 minutes away. They usually always have a nice assortment of wild type betta.

[LittleBettaFish]

You can see how vicious some of these smaller species can be to each other, even in male/female pairs. This is healed up compared to how my male looked a couple days ago. Female is even worse. Of course they still spend all their time pining for each other.









Also another not so wild, but no less vicious 'Siamese' in our household.

[tnvol]

Awesome pics LBF. I've spent the last couple days reading this whole thread. There is more great info here than just about anywhere else. Thanks so much for all the great input!

[LittleBettaFish]

Yeah, the only other place I found to have so much personal info on wild bettas was on a French forum where I had to translate the pages using Chrome.

It's great to be able to share your experiences with other wild betta keepers as not many of the member base here keep them.

Most of my photos are very opportunistic. I really need to have a day where I clean the glass, have the lights on over everyone and get some proper photos. It's just fortunate my camera usually makes up for my impatience.

[Cole mccallister]

Originally Posted by babystarz

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

peaple calm down I never called anyone evil we all have opinions and i just think killing is wrong unless somthing is suffering or the matter of food mmmm food also i always have spair cheap tanks to buy and to get and have on hand mostly small to start with when the fry are old enough to become independant i move them when they are bigg enough not to get eaten i move again sorry about the mis- interpretation

[LittleBettaFish]

Male palangkarensis is on patrol with fry still in the nest. Him and his female bar up and go up and down the tank side keeping the rutilans juvies next door in line. So love watching all the fry of various ages and sizes swimming along with their parents. One was eyeing up a blackworm but decided that MWs were more its size.





This photo is blurry but shows the colour of the male rather well.