Wild Species Bettas

[LittleBettaFish]

Generally you just use sphagnum peat moss to lower the pH and soften the water in wild betta set-ups. In the photo of my burdigala female above, the brown substrate she is laying on is peat moss that I soak and then add to the bottom of each of my wild betta aquariums. If you have very soft water to begin with, peat moss coupled with IAL can bring the pH down below 6.

The furry looking strands in the same picture, is dried sphagnum moss. I don't actually know if it does anything to the water chemistry, I just added it because I liked how it looked and it added more bulk to my leaf litters.

I've never actually used live moss. Are you thinking of like a paludarium type set-up where there are separate land and water sections, or would the living sphagnum moss be in the water itself?

[babystarz]

I've only used dry sphagnum peat moss mixed with dirt as substrate to lower pH/bind minerals. Living peat sounds like a fantastic experiment. I'd see if anyone at plantedtank.net has experience with trying this.

[LittleBettaFish]

Excellent. It looks like my palangkarensis pair may finally be spawning, or about to spawn. Male finally may have grown some balls after all. I think if one pair spawns I may sell the other pair as I don't need two separate tanks taking up space.

They are a superb little fish. Wish I knew a bit more about what they actually are and where they come from.

[ChoclateBetta]

I wonder if Carter will like Spagnum moss? I use IAL.

[babystarz]

Originally Posted by ChoclateBetta

I wonder if Carter will like Spagnum moss? I use IAL.

I am not sure, since splendens do fine in a wide variety of pH levels.

I don't know WHAT has gotten into my patoti male but he's been picking on the female. She has several nips in her tail :( if this does not stop promptly I will remove the male for a time out and reintroduce them after a week or two. They are in a heavily planted tank so at least she can hide.

[LittleBettaFish]

Could it be that they are going to spawn soon? My male wilds are quite hard on the females before they spawn. Usually the females get chased every which way around the tank and may or may not end up with a few nipped fins in the process.

I think my burdigala fry have left the nest and gone off into the leaf litter. I knew I should have gotten them out earlier so I have to wait and see whether they are still kicking around or have been in fact, eaten. Neither mum nor dad's bellies were big so I am hoping that they have just become free-swimming.

My other burdigala pair have gone crazy since I put the film canister in their tank. They've both been up to investigate it and are now chasing each other around so hopefully they might spawn. Then the film canister will be making its journey into my brownorum tank haha. Wish I had more of them but they are hard to find nowadays.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by LittleBettaFish

I've never actually used live moss. Are you thinking of like a paludarium type set-up where there are separate land and water sections, or would the living sphagnum moss be in the water itself?

I'd be interested to try a conjoined section. I've seen several people do varying degrees of separation including one that had live sphagnum moss and seemed to be unseparated. Apparently a lot of peopel use sphagnum when growing carnivorous plants. Sphagnum in the wild is part living and part "dead". Since its a moss the dead parts can sometimes grow back into living parts. In a bog, only the uppermost layer is alive, and it looks really pretty IMO. I'm not certain if its the live moss or the dead moss that has the most influence on the pH, I think that its the dead moss, so the living moss really wouldn't be a benefit other than acting like a little section of a real marsh or bog. Maybe if I ever do wilds I'll give it a shot

[LittleBettaFish]

Got some updated videos of my newly changed around top shelf of my fish rack, as well as of my persephone and unimaculata juvies. They are all growing out nicely. Haven't seen any sign of my burdigala fry so I am hoping they have just gone down into the leaf litter and not been eaten by their parents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKeLXanqa0o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hYwQrTTOis

Got four or five more film canisters my second cousin's wife has saved up for me so going to chuck them in all my wild pair tanks and see if I can't get some spawning happening.

Was also very relieved to see my two year old rutilans pair has made a full recovery. The female presented with all these fuzzy patches down her body and looked very clamped and ill and today they were out staring at the uberis next door looking pretty darn healthy. I have told them that they can officially retire from breeding as I have enough of their offspring now.

[LittleBettaFish]

Haha sometimes I feel like I spam this thread but since I have nearly a dozen wild species I figure I am probably going to be the one that posts the most.

Well as I mentioned in my previous post my betta rutilans pair that are around two years old have gotten better. Since I moved them into a new tank one or two weeks ago now, they were quite shy and for the most part I was essentially feeding an empty tank. That has all changed as now they are out all the time having little spars with the fish in the tanks either side.

Now they are both fully coloured up and flaring at each other going in and out of their log. Usually when they act like this is before they spawn so looks like I may have more fry on the way soon.

It just amazes me how tough these little fish are. Not only are they are older than what is considered the norm for spawning by most members here, but they also nearly died only a few months ago. It seems to me that there is definitely another level of hardiness that wild bettas have over the ornamental form of splendens.

I mean my splendens still managed to drop dead or injure themselves in safe, cycled tanks. Yet my wilds are always getting pried off the carpet with a net whenever they decide they want to test the laws of physics, and without any treatment or special care at all they manage to heal up.

That's what makes me so leery about getting back into splendens (was thinking about starting up another sorority). I just worry I am going to invest all this time and love into fish who are just going to up and die on me. At least I have decided no more imports as the cost is prohibitive and the end result is usually the same.

[LittleBettaFish]

Where did everyone and their wild bettas go?

Anyway, got my uberis pair to successfully spawn! Male has around a dozen, possibly more, eggs stuck to the top of his hollow log. So lazy he didn't even bother with a nest.

I think everyone has gotten excited because I added some hydrilla, duckweed and branchy wood to their tanks to make them feel more comfortable. I think they look rather awesome myself.



The light is only up there until I can purchase some cheap T8s or something to run over my tanks.

Then I tried to take a photo of my burdigala male and he decided to sit in an awkward spot so not only did it get the water stain I can't get rid of, but also it made his head out of focus.






His female looks adorable in this one though