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Wild Species Bettas

97K views 1K replies 59 participants last post by  evilone 
#1 ·
Due to popular demand, I am creating a Wild Species thread so as not to keep clogging up Setsuna's thread in the Breeding forum :)

Who owns or has an interest in wild species? Do you have pics? Baby wild types for sale to others? Looking for breeding stock? Have questions about care? Are you simply looking for more information on these many species?

Resources

Link to IBC Species Management Program page and species index:
http://www.ibcbettas.org/smp/species/index.html

Seriously Fish species profiles (scroll down to the bottom of the page I've linked to see a full list of current species profiles for wild bettas):http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/betta-imbellis/


FAQ

Q: Do wild bettas need the same care as betta splendens?
A: Not necessarily. Many wild betta species prefer slightly cooler temperatures compared to bettas. Actual wild-caught pairs are the hardest to care for, and it's not necessarily ethical to buy them, seeing as over 56 species are identified by the IBC as in need of preservation. Wild bettas who were born and raised in hobbyist aquariums tend to be much easier to care for. Please be SURE to thoroughly research the species you are interested in before you acquire a pair.

Q: Do male wild bettas need to be separated from other fish like betta splendens?
A: Probably not. Many, if not most, wild betta species can be kept in pairs or communities. The general recommendation for most species is a heavily planted 10 gallon tank for a pair and a 30 gallon tank for a community, but this is not a hard and fast rule and breeders have successfully raised fry in smaller settings.

Q: Can wild betta species interbreed with betta splendens?
A: Some can. That is actually how metallic copper genes were introduced to betta splendens. However, because of the vast global spread of betta splendens and the shrinking natural habitat of many wild betta species, interbreeding is not seen as a responsible thing to do. There may come a day soon when the only populations of wild species exist in the hands of aquarists, and maintaining a pure gene pool is needed right now to boost numbers.

Q: Do wild betta species breed the same way as betta splendens?
A: Some of the more closely related species like betta imbellis are bubble nesters just like betta splendens, although the parents don't need to be separate from their fry. Other species are mouthbrooders (the males carry the fertilized eggs in their mouths until the fry hatch).

Q: Aren't wild bettas dull and uninteresting?
A: Not at all! Of course the aesthetic in wild betta species is their natural beauty, which is different from what many betta keepers may be used to. Betta splendens are the yin (artificially selected for exaggerated traits and bright colors) to the wild betta species yang (naturally evolved beauty). This isn't to say there are only muddy colors going on here. This is just a sampling of different species:


Source: IBC species index


Source: IBC species index



Source: IBC species index


And some Youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSV3nEbCVqE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5yg8Spbiw0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyEHk-A0F7M
 
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#308 ·
This person actually did

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/japanese-balcony-rice-paddy-final-harvest.23151/

And they got a bowl of rice out of it at the end.



I have been looking at pictures of the biotope habitats for my fish and trying to work out how to better mimic them. So far I think a base of peat moss with a large amount of leaf litter with some twiggy pieces and perhaps even a pothos or peace lily (for the roots) growing out the top would be the closest I could get to how these species live in the wild.
 
#310 ·
THAT IS AMAZING. Seriously. He got a bowl of rice out of it!

One of the male ocellatas swallowed his eggs. Derp. I guess he got hungry. He was back to eating at meal time today. The other one is still puffy-chinned and hiding out. He's a good daddy <3
 
#311 ·
Sorry to hear about the egg eating Babystarz. Sometimes the females can be so pushy the poor males have no choice but to go with it even if they aren't quite up to scratch condition wise to be holding.

Hopefully if your male does hold to term no one decides to munch on the fry before you can get them out.

I realised why one of my palangkarensis pairs has not been spawning. I think I have my burdigala female in with one of the males and the actual palangkarensis female up in the tank with my uberis male. They used to be housed altogether and I thought I got everyone separated out correctly. Looks like I didn't.

Palangkarensis got moved into the divided tank I was saving for my new pairs. There is so much leaf litter that the water is a very dark orange. The actual pair have been barred up all day and the male is hanging up in the floating leaves so crossing everything that they spawn in the next couple of days.
 
#312 ·
Took some photos of my striped up palangkarensis female. She unfortunately, seems more interested in the male on the other side of the divider as her male is quite shy and wussy. I might remove the divider and just let them all in together now I have them sorted properly.







Very bad picture of their current tank set-up. Hoping to find some pothos to grow out of the top as I like the look of the roots in the water.





Rutilans fry getting big and fat on grindals.
 
#314 ·
Well palangkarensis are still playing coy, but I did manage to fish seven additional rutilans fry out of their parents' tank. Most are quite small having had to scavenge to survive, but they should shoot up now I have them on two - three meals a day.

I also am going to be the owner of a pair of Betta macrostoma next week, courtesy of my mum. She saw them in my not so LFS yesterday when I went in for IAL. She had to have them since her favourite complex is the unimaculata complex. So the owner of the store is holding them for us until I get a tank arranged for them.

I don't think they are that old as they are not much bigger than my unimaculata male. However, I don't mind as that means I probably won't see any fry for a while.

I just wish she got as excited about the coccina complex species as she did the bigger mouthbrooders. I think we opposite tastes in almost everything including fish!
 
#315 ·
As you can see my fry and juveniles are thriving. The unimaculata fry are onto blackworms already and are nearly outstripping my persephone in growth even though they are about half their age. Rutilans fry are growing each day although there are some extremely tiny fry in there still. Think the photo I got of the red finned fry is possibly of the brownorum I had in there. Won't be able to tell until they grow out a bit more though.

Unimaculata fry. Yes one of them is doing a poo. Only way I could get them all to stay still was by giving them some blackworms.











This is my adult persephone female (she's unrelated to the juvies). Unfortunately, she jumped out a couple days back and got dragged along my carpet with a net since I couldn't reach her so her fins are not at their best.















Some of the rutilans fry. Have roughly 25 of them now in this tank so moving them to a 7 gallon grow-out in a couple of days.









My tussyae juvenile (probably considered an adult now) also wanted to have its photo taken. I am thinking it might be a 'she' but it is hard to tell until it colours up more.



 
#317 · (Edited)
I HAVE FRY!!!!!

My heart fell when I stopped by to feed the ocellata today and both males came to eat. I figured the new daddy had panicked when the babies hatched and swallowed them.... until I saw a tiny baby! And then another! And another! I felt a bit guilty because I was gone when they were born, and I'm sure there were many more to begin with but so far I've managed to net and transfer 12 of them. There are a couple more evading capture XD

I'm a bit panicked because my worm cultures are all moldy and un-useable. I am hoping the fry will accept frozen bbs and 100-200 micron golden pearls until I have my bbs hatchery up and running. I should have started it earlier but I was counting on the worms. I have posted on the local fish forum so hopefully I can get some new cultures started right away.

I am unbelievably excited, this is my first wild betta spawn. Yaaaaay! Alright, off to chase those quick babies. The brine shrimp net is working beautifully.

LBF - love your pic updates! The palangkarensis are gorgeous.
 
#319 ·
Congratulations Babystarz. Glad to see he held for you. Not every male is a bad first time dad. If you have a breeders' net or even a separate tank, I would probably advise you to stick him in there for a week or so and fatten him up on live/frozen foods and pellets. Otherwise you will find your female (I forget how many ocellata you own) will probably start pestering him again.

Much as people hate them on here, live blackworms are a great food for wild species bettas. The put a lot of condition and bulk on a fish and I have never run into any issues with them, even when my juveniles are swimming around like blimps after a meal.
 
#320 ·
Congratulations Babystarz. Glad to see he held for you. Not every male is a bad first time dad. If you have a breeders' net or even a separate tank, I would probably advise you to stick him in there for a week or so and fatten him up on live/frozen foods and pellets. Otherwise you will find your female (I forget how many ocellata you own) will probably start pestering him again.
I have 4 adults (2 males and 2 females) in a 20 Long, which has the same amount of horizontal space as a 30 G. Kind of close quarters so it's probably a good idea to remove one, although I think I might move the female instead of the male. The other female is younger than the rest and hasn't become eggy yet so I think it's safe to leave the males with her. I have been feeding them lots and lots of nummies, partly to avoid any remaining fry from becoming snacks. I know there are at least two of the little guys still in there, probably more. I'm up to at least 17 in the fry growout tank. The ones evading capture are so quick!

Much as people hate them on here, live blackworms are a great food for wild species bettas. The put a lot of condition and bulk on a fish and I have never run into any issues with them, even when my juveniles are swimming around like blimps after a meal.
Yes I may look into that, I know Tony sells them around here so I have access to a steady supply. How big are they?

I am leaving on vacation in a month for 7 days and I'm already a bit antsy about leaving the babies for that long. I think I'll have to train my roommate to feed them ;-)

I just did 1 big feeding for the babies today, I'll be home a lot more after my shift tomorrow morning so I will be feeding small meals multiple times a day. I have Sunday and Monday off, yay!

I can only see one fry at a time in the growout, it's so densly planted with floaters and mosses :p
 
#323 ·
Interesting idea. I could see some cool semi-aquatic plants working with this type of setup. It's not practical to make it standard for the jumpers, but a couple of tanks like this would be neat! Something like this would be lovely:



LBF, are you familiar with tubifex worms? If so, how do the blackworms compare in size? I'm just trying to avoid too much nutritional redundancy :p
 
#322 ·
I just put glad wrap over my tank and when they hit that they bounce back off it and into the water.

Blackworms aren't that big. Sort of like a narrower bloodworm. They also break apart fairly easy (this is how they propagate) so older fry and juveniles can swallow them. I usually start mine on blackworms once they are about an inch long.

Just make sure you rinse them and store them correctly as otherwise they can go bad and they stink when that happens.
 
#326 ·
Yes I've had white worms before, they're also known as grindal worms yes? I didn't have any fry for months and months and I forgot to feed them >. < A new culture will be $25± including shipping if I can find one so I haven't replaced them yet.

I have access to frozen tubifex and they're supposed to be guaranteed sterile and parasite-free. The guppies love them so far. I'll stay away from the live ones.
 
#328 ·
Nah white worms and grindals are two separate things. Grindals are much smaller than white worms. I keep my white worms in moist peat moss mixed with some shell grit and they get fed bits of cat food every couple of days.

http://www.worm-cultures.com/whiteworminformation.htm

Here's some info about white worms. I use them on my older juveniles as they appear to be quite tough for the smaller fish to break up and swallow. Really easy to culture and a nice source of fat in a varied diet.

Grindals are great too. I definitely notice a difference in the rate of growth once my fry are big enough to get switched over predominately onto grindals and blackworms. My grindals are soil-less (I culture them on scourer pads) and they are in my opinion well worth the money spent.
 
#329 ·
Well I got contacted by the lady I purchase my wild bettas through and all three of my pairs (burdigala, brownorum and uberis) made it through quarantine and are waiting to be shipped to me on the 2nd of January.

So relieved. Now I just have to pray and hope they get through shipping okay and my wild betta collection will be complete. At least until I have money and can source some coccina, tussyae and livida again. The brownorum are wild-caught so I am going to try and drop the pH in their tank as low as I can.

Ended up being just under $300 for the three pairs, shipping and a 500g of peat moss. Ouch. Sometimes I think an illicit drug habit would probably be cheaper haha. But like my mum was saying to the owners of the LFS. At least she knows where I am every night .... changing the water on my tanks!
 
#331 ·
Ripariums have no land element while paludariams do. I was thinking of setting up my macrostoma tank as a sort of riparium with a couple of plants (thinking peace lilies) in plastic shower caddies along the back. Thought maybe the overhanging foliage might make them feel more secure.

However, it's not a very tall tank (only 35cm long) as I wanted long and wide when I got it made. So thinking maybe just have some branches poking out of the water and tying some mosses to these instead.
 
#335 · (Edited)
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2011/show143.html

Also here is a wild betta paludarium that looks pretty sweet. I would have had more leaf litter or peat moss in the water section though.

My mum hates aluminium plants so since it is her tank I couldn't have anything. Nothing variegated she said haha.
Wow, that is as close to their natural habitat setting as I've ever seen someone accomplish. A bit more leaf litter and it'd be perfect.

Do you think Bettas like the wild feel?
I think so. At least, they seem more comfortable the right amount of plant cover. Especially with floating plants/IAL they seem bolder and more likely to come right up to the front of the tank to peer at me.
 
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