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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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#2 ·
Yay wild bettas! I have a stack load of photos but I'm not sure if everyone wants to see reposts. Let me know if that's okay and I will go nuts haha

I have kept channoides, strohi and albimarginata, and am currently keeping rutilans, brownorum, burdigala, 'palangkarensis', persephone, tussyae, livida, unimaculata and ideii. As you can see I am more a fan of the coccina complex bettas than anything else, and really only have unimaculata because my mother loves them and wanted me to get a breeding pair. My ideii may be finding a new home with member Aus here on the forum.

Wild bettas can be challenging, but they will reward you with lots of fry if you get their environment right. I am growing out some persephone fry as well as some newborn unimaculata fry, and am hoping since my brownorum and rutilans have been successfully treated for velvet I can get some more fry out of them.

I am currently getting out of splendens and devoting myself entirely to breeding wild bettas, killifish and a couple of species of gourami. So you could definitely say I am obsessed.

These are my lovely persephone fry who survived a very nasty ich infection when they were quite young with zero casualties.







 
#5 ·
Here are most of the shots from my photobucket account. Had some velvet go through my wild betta tanks so they have been getting treated. Will try and get some updated shots of them tonight.


Channoides male (since sold)


Channoides female (since sold)


Livida male


Livida male stress-striped


Tussyae and livida male facing off


Tussyae male




Shots of my brownorum when they were new, tiny and chewed up


Tussyae spawning. Sadly lost the female and ended up with one juvenile


Tussyae spawning


Rutilans sub-adults. They got velvet very badly and I lost two of them as it was very hard to eradicate.


Rutilans (mum is on top in this photo)


Rutilans tank. Moving original pair into their own tank as their latest lots of fry were getting eaten by the smaller juveniles.


Ideii pair. Male sadly jumped to his death. They are big, almost as large as macrostoma.


Persephone female (deceased parents of my fry)


Persephone male and female (deceased parents of my fry)


Strohi juvies before they went to live with Aus


Strohi juvies again




Tussyae juvies. I accidentally knocked their lid slightly off, and all but one had jumped out by the time I arrived home.





Betta unimaculata. They have given me 20 odd fry recently.


Newest persephone pair in which male jumped out through God knows where to his death within 48 hours of me owning him. Just peeled his female off the carpet this morning alive thankfully. Don't know how they get out through my fortress of clingwrap.

That's it for now. All I can say if you are going to own and breed wilds. Make sure your fry have the tightest fitting lid you can find over their grow-out as they will jump out if they get spooked and it is devastating. And make sure your adults have lids also with absolutely no gaps as they will also jump out and it is equally as devastating. Particularly, if you have a very rare species in your possession.
 
#6 ·
Ah! The persephones! Silly bettas. :(

I lost my five beloved strohi juvies that I got from Littlebettafish right after moving house - and I don't know what happened. They just.. died. No sign of disease at all, they were a little stressed and pale on arrival to the temporary tank, but they are toughies and not likely to drop dead of that. I hate to think ill of folks but I had to wonder if my horrid ex housemate did something to them during the move...

Anyways. I am still a wilds enthusiast. I should have a tank ready for the ideii female in November, and I am hoping to maybe get her a new husband.


As for the ethics of wild-caught pairs.. the other side to that is that many of the wild betta's natural pockets of habitat are vanishing, and the bettas with them. Captive breeding may be the only hope of survival for some of these species, so I find it hard to see that as detrimental.

If more betta enthusiasts got into wilds, and bought their fish from a variety of captive sources, they'd at least have a good chance of continuing on via hobbyists, and possibly being re-introduced to the wild, once it gets through to people that wholesale land development and water drainage isn't a good idea for the environment. As unlikely as that is..

Here's some pics of the strohi while they were at my place. There was one male, and probably four females (they were still juvies, but some were maturing faster than others, I am pretty sure there was only one male though). I miss them horribly.










The boy is the blue one. He got so dark at times as to look jet black. The last pic above is the girls, arguing over territory. They were very territorial and the girls flared at each other more the male, I think, but they didn't get more violent than a swift nip here and there -- mostly, it was the display which sorted arguments out before they came to blows.

One of my favourite things about them was the fantastic, prolonged 'dance' the dominant female and her male did before spawning. This could go on for a couple of days, and was really something to watch.

I very closely heed all Littlebettafish's posts on wilds here (I'm not stalking you, LBF, honest!! No, really!) as she has a lot of experience with them as is obvious from her post above. I am already planning on finding a source for custom cut perspex lids for any tanks for the larger species, and thinking up designs for these that will discourage them being knocked off by overenthusiastic jumpers.

Wilds are challenging, for sure -- but omg, so worth it. If you like observing fish behaviour, get wilds. They are massively entertaining, and full of surprises.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the confidence booster Aus! I wouldn't say I was by any means an expert on wild species of betta. I have only been involved with them for two years, but I in that two years I have learned a lot and I am always willing to share my experiences with others who are interested.

I did make this PDF on coccina complex bettas. Unfortunately, my images came out in awful quality and my writing went really big and bold in the uploading process. However, if you care to look past that, it contains info on diet, breeding and housing, based mainly on my experiences with these fish.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B245zPTPzoS-MEYzcUczd0loT0k

Let me know if you can't access the PDF. I made it shareable I believe but this is my first time using google docs.
 
#8 ·
Thank you both for the pictures and information! I really appreciate hearing from people who have experience with wild species, and I'm sure having this all together will be really nice for others who may want to get into keeping wild species.
 
#9 ·
My guitar smaragdina are here :). They're so cute, especially the female. They were really nervous in the bags, any movement from me freaked them out. They've chilled out a bit now that they're in the tank. I dropped in a few skeeter larva which they're busy stalking and happily nomming on. Here is a pic of the tank. It's a divided 6.6 gallon. I wanted to keep them separate so I can control their baby making. The tank isn't quite finished yet. I've got some cholla wood coming to add to it. I was able to snap a photo of the girl when she got close to my table lamp.
 

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#10 ·
My fish are here too :D Just put them in their tanks. My smaragdina are super shy and terrified right now. I think putting them in the glass bottom tank was a bad choice, I'll have them in a tank with substrate soon. They do have a ton of moss and frogbit. They wouldn't even leave their bag until I took it out and made them. Now they're huddled together in the corner looking at me like I'm going to make sushi out them..The imbellis are little clowns haha! They swim right up to me and stare. I will have pics soon.
 
#11 ·
Yeah I have my rutilans in hospital in a bare-bottom tank and they completely freaked about it. They lay clamped under the IALs and inside the PVC pipe I put in. One used to wedge itself upside down in the groove of the sponge filter until I put a few pieces of goldvine in.

I think it wouldn't be so bad if the bottom was spray painted black. I think the reflection off the bottom confuses them.

Hopefully they settle in soon.
 
#12 ·
My male...
 

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#15 ·
What's his current set-up like?

Wild bettas, even aquarium bred ones, can still be very shy. Some of the adults I own that I have raised myself, still get skittish if I move too quickly or do something to spook them.

Is your water very tannin stained or is the lighting bright over his tank? Are you using substrate and providing lots of cover?

When I first got my rutilans pair I didn't see them (not even at feedings) for two months or so. I eventually tore their tank apart thinking they had both jumped out. Now they are some of my friendliest fish. It can often take them some time to acclimatise to a new environment.
 
#18 ·
I have updates! I took some great pics last night of the imbellis but my camera won't connect to my computer suddenly :(

The imbellis are really fun to watch, they think everything in their tank is fascinating. And the like to come stare at my fingers if I put them up against the tank.

The smaragdina are still not sure if I'm going to eat them but the male is a little less timid, he's come out to look at me and show off, and he's coloring up too. His fins are red and his body looks more greenish so far. The female is terribly shy, I didn't see her at all yesterday and started freaking out a bit, but last night she stuck her head out of a huge tuft of java moss and I realize she's been hiding in the moss ball this whole time :p I'm glad she found a spot that completely hides her, I think that security is really helpful for her. She is a master of disguise :)

I'm really glad no one died over night, I've heard so many horror stories about new bettas up and dying when they arrive even in good water conditions, and I was especially worried about the smaragdina trying to jump and hurting themselves. But everyone is doing just fine, I'm thawing some bloodworms. I don't know how they feel about pellets; I put a few in the imbellis tank last night and it looks like they were eaten up. I did not try to feed the smaragdina yet because I figured they would be too skittish to accept it yet. I'm trying to see if my grindal worm culture is salvageable (oops, forgot to feed them for a week!) because their fat and protein content are higher than for bloodworms. And they're alive, which might make them more enticing. There are a lot of fantastic local fish shops here so if the fish don't like what I already have I can always pick up more live foods.

Anthony at the Wet Spot only has 6 betta albimarginata (geez that's hard to spell!) left so I decided to go ahead and order 4. I'm having him hold off on shipping until next Wednesday so I have a week to prepare their tank to satisfaction. I have decided to buy 2 more 20 long tanks as part of Petco's $1/gal sale. My shelves are the perfect size for those tanks and I think they're the best tanks for bettas because they don't have too much vertical space, and the horizontal space is doubled.

I used up the last of my IAL last night dividing it between the two wild tanks, I noticed that the imbellis LOVE the one I weighted down with a rock to mimic their natural habitat. The smaragdina also like the added cover. I've got another huge order coming from Amy, I just hope it arrives soon!

The imbellis are impossible for me to sex at this point. If I'd kept some before I might be able to, but so far of the 6 there is only one I can tell for sure is a male. He's the most gregarious of the bunch. I am excited to see them grow a bit and hopefully I have at least 3 females :p That way I can keep everyone in the tank. I have made 3 isolated areas with little ceramic pots covered up with plants for them, so if they start getting territorial they can stake them out.

I think my sorority girls might be jealous of all the attention I'm giving to the new fish :p
 
#19 ·
My wild bettas love having a leaf litter to hide in. I put lots of IALs in my tanks and then let them sink to the bottom where they slowly break down. This not only provides lots of tannins but also encourages the growth of infusoria and other microorganisms that wild betta fry can subsist on in between regular feedings.

Be aware that albimarginata are prolific breeders once they get into it. Reverse trios (two males to one female) are recommended as females can breed a male soon after he has released fry and I believe some males have starved to death because of it (they don't eat obviously while holding). You can separate out any females after a male has released fry to ensure that he has at least one to two weeks of rest.

Other than that albimarginata are really cute and personable fish. Only reason I got rid of mine was they bred like guppies and I couldn't be bothered raising so many fry on a constant basis.
 
#45 ·
Had a spawn and I believe dad munched :|

Male found the one tiny opening where the airline came in and jumped. Lost female in a move........looking to get another pair asap!
 
#22 ·
Moar updates!

Got my two 20 long tanks. I toyed with the idea of picking up a bag of substrate at Petco that claimed to have "instant cycle" capabilities because it contained "live" bacteria. It was $20 a bag and I did set it into my cart. It promptly leaked over a cup of water into the tank underneath it. That was enough for me to regain my senses. I already have organic potting soil and silica sand that I spent $10 on, and they will cover 10X the space that this magical substrate will. I think I will go with the hardware store + seeded bacteria method to get the tanks cycled fast. If they're testing funny I will not add the fish, since I haven't done this method before.

I have been reading a lot about people putting peat moss in filter bags for the albimariginata... how essential is this? I have somewhat hard water with an initial pH of 8ish, it goes down to about 7 after an hour.
 
#23 ·
Albis are much less fussier than a lot of other species of wild betta in regards to water quality. Same with channoides. They do prefer cooler water though so just be aware of that.

If your water has a relatively low KH you should be able to manipulate your pH a lot more easily using IALs and peat moss.

Otherwise your albimarginata won't mind if you can maintain it around 7-7.5. They don't need the extremely low pH of some of the other species.
 
#24 ·
PERSEPHONE FRY UPDATED PICTURES!

Took these this morning. You can see how the blue/black is starting to show over the red on the bigger fry's anal fins. Have so many more than I thought now they are bigger. Can't wait until they are fully grown and I can start hopefully match making.













They are now solely on grindals, blackworms and whiteworms and the growth rate has jumped forward quite a lot.






Then this is the sole survivor of my tussyae fry. I am hoping it is female but I can never tell until they hit adult size. Even then I just guess. Would love to be able to keep a line of tussyae going.
 
#25 ·
My new smaragdina pair is doing great. They have been flirting with each other through the divider quite a bit. The female will go from stress stripes to breeding bars in a second. I was really surprised about how dark she gets when she bars up. I'm still waiting for the male to build a nest. I may put them in the spawn tank next week if the continue to do well and stay healthy.
 
#26 ·
Yeah they can have very rapid colour changes depending on everything from tankmates, water conditions and lighting. It's why I think so many people discount wild bettas as they are usually very unimpressive looking in a lot of fish store tanks.

I've found a lot of the time my males will build nests right before spawning. However, I've never spawned smaragdina so they may be different. The male shouldn't try and kill the female like splendens if he isn't quite ready so if they look healthy and plump I would put them in together.
 
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