Wild Betta Fish?

[Sakura8]

Since I'm thinking of getting wilds, I'm going to be stalking this thread. LBF, you are definitely our resident wild betta expert! So glad to have your knowledge on the forum. :)

[Aus]

I aimed to keep wilds from the get-go, once I found I could keep a splendens in good health. I wanted a pair of macrostoma (they are truly spectacular and my hands-down faves for wilds) but was advised against it as a beginner to other betta species. So I bought five B. strohi juvies from LittleBettaFish (I am so glad you're in Aus LBF haha) and they are AMAZING.

Not hard to keep at all. They take pellets as well as live foods quite easily and are really entertaining to watch. I find they're not that different to splendens really apart from the aggression levels. They 'argue' a lot over territory but I have yet to see a worse fight than a small nip here and there, no damage at all.

It's no trouble to put some wood and a few IAL in the tank to keep the water soft. Put 'em in, the water goes dark - nothing is simpler. I loathe keeping blackworms, I really do, so that's the only hassle.. and one which is easily remedied once the warmer weather comes. Oh, and it turns out I have four females to one male, so I might look into an extra male for the tank soonish, and perhaps dividing them into two 'colonies'. Yay, more wild tanks, lol!

I love how the strohi change colour all day, depending on light and mood. Even the females colour up from yellow to olive green and sometimes even almost as dark as the male, who at his best is black or deep blue with brilliant white ventral tips and peacock feather colouring on his tail-tips. The male is stunning! I'll include some pics below of him and the girls, and some of the colour variations they exhibit from moment to moment.

They are mouthbrooders, and the male has swallowed the first clutch of eggs he held - I think he has another as of this morning but I'm not worried if they are eaten, as I'm moving soon and don't particularly mind not moving baby fish as well as all the others..

I'd recommend them to anyone looking into wilds. Next, I'd really like to try channoides and maybe unis (to be better prepared for the macros I WILL own some day haha)

[Joelouisvachon]

the way they change color sounds like little chameleon fishies! they are nice looking, I'll look into them as well.

[Joelouisvachon]

I couldn't find them on seriouslyfish.com, do they go by any different names?

[LittleBettaFish]

Here is their profile on the IBC website.

http://www.ibcbettas.org/smp/species/strohi.html

They don't go by any other name that I am aware of. They are very similar to another species foerschi.

[bettaboytroy]

Thank you for this thread! I had no idea the wild types were so beautiful. I really like learning about different species types, as well as tail types, color types and the like.

[Joelouisvachon]

It's a lot of help for me too, considering I knew nothing about wild bettas until now.

Thanks, LBF, for the link! I'll put it in my word document I'm using to collect this info. So far, these are the betta varieties I've been considering:

Betta Strohi
Betta Channoides
Betta Albis

How does this list sound? So far I've looked at Betta Strohi and Betta Channoides, and I'm just about to go and research Betta Albis.

EDIT:
I've found a betta variety called Betta albimarginata, is Betta Albis just a short form for that fish, or is Betta Albis a whole other variety?

[LittleBettaFish]

Nah Betta albis is just Betta albimarginata. It just saves typing it all out.

All those species (particularly if captive bred) are pretty hardy and easy to care for. My strohi spawned constantly, even when I had them in quite a small tank. Just be aware they do have quite large mouths being mouthbrooders so not sure how they would do with smaller tankmates.

[Joelouisvachon]

I know the IBC website already suggests a tank size for these species, but what size of tank have you used successfully? I want as many different opinions based on experience as possible.

[LittleBettaFish]

I kept my strohi in a 12 inch cube but that was only supposed to be temporary and I sold them before I upgraded them. I should think for a pair of adult strohi, a tank in the 18 inch - 2ft range would be fine.

A reverse trio of albis or channoides could easily fit into a 10 gallon tank. I kept a small family group in a 10 gallon tank and never ran into any issues.