Wild Species Bettas

[bryanacute]

So, I'm looking to get a wild. Can I have basic care info?

[LittleBettaFish]

Depends on what species you want to get. Some species are harder than others to care for.

Imbellis, smaragdina and mahachai are probably the wild species closest to splendens.

[myotherfishisabetta]

Great pictures, they look really healthy!!!!! :)

[Setsuna]

I'll have a ton of wild bettas ship to me on the 25th. I'll have 1 pair smaragdina, 4 extra male smaragdina(was given free),2 pair of the new species Siamorientalis with 2 extra male(was given free) and 1 copper smaragdina i will post pictures once i get them ^^

[LittleBettaFish]

Sounds like you are going to have your hands full with all your new wild bettas. Be interested in seeing the Siamorientalis once they settle in.

Do you prefer having more males than females as it seems like you got a lot of extra males on top of your pairs.

I have an angry male burdigala. I took away his film canister and the bubblenest he was working on and now he is swimming around chasing his female.






The object of his 'affection'

I gave up on these two ever looking nice as they are absolute monsters. I want my males to have a rest as they have been spawning continuously for about the last month and I have too many fry to try and rear.




This is my much shyer wild-caught burdigala female. Just stripped about 50 fry from their tank and have another 30 odd in a grow-out.

I think I also disturbed my poor brownorum while they were thinking of spawning. They were both in the film canister and all these bubbles came out when I was changing their water ... oops.

[Catie79]

I can't believe I didn't see this thread before. I'll join in with my splendens complex representatives.

I've been keeping betta imbellis since October and have really enjoyed them. Being able to keep them in a group and see the interactions makes for a great tank to keep in the living room. I currently have 7 (2 males, 5 females) in my 40g breeder. They have a support crew of cories, Amano shrimp, and a bulldog pleco, but the tank is really focused on the imbellis. They've really lived up to their names as the peaceful bettas. The most violence I've seen was two males in display getting into some tail slapping and pushing. I rarely see nipped fins and my females will hang out in the pennywort together during their afternoon siesta. They were juvies when I got them so it's been interesting seeing them grow up and set up a hierarchy.

Their tank is heavily planted, aiming for the overgrown look. I recently added IAL and am still getting used to the tannin stained water. I keep having the urge to change the water, even though my imbellis seem to appreciate them. The rocks form a network of caves. After a scare, it looks like I've got an empty tank until I bribe them out with bloodworms.



Sorry about the awful cellphone picture, but it's the most recent full tank shot I have. I do have better ones of the residents!





One of my ladies very dressed up.



Please excuse the algae, but the imbellis are very curious about the resident snails and the picture is too cute to not share.

I'm currently setting up a spawning tank for the dominant male and female (Big Papa and Dainty, yes, I've named them). With the other tank occupants, the big tank isn't really private enough for my imbellis. I don't have a good picture of the two of them, but they do hang out quite a bit and I'm pretty sure I spotted some spawning behavior after a water change with cooler water. Unfortunately the cooler water also set off the cories. It was a rather . . . exciting couple of days in the 40g. Love was in the air.

If I can successfully spawn the imbellis, my next species will be coccina. I have a spot set aside for a 20g long that I can set up as a blackwater environment. The husband really likes the look of them so gave me the green light to expand beyond my original aquarium quota. I don't want to get a species that's endangered if I don't think I have a reasonable shot at spawning them, so that will wait until I've had some luck with the imbellis.

I love all of the information in this thread and I'm looking forward to learning more!

[LittleBettaFish]

Haha if you are going to jump into the coccina complex of bettas you had better get used to the look of tannins. Some of mine won't spawn unless the water is the colour of strong tea.

Most species that are threatened in the wild aren't as rare in the trade. Coccina complex bettas are extremely prolific if you get their conditions right and so you don't need to be scared off by the fact that some are endangered.

It's more from habitat loss the are going extinct, not for a lack of spawning activity that is for sure!

[Catie79]

I'm slowly getting used to it. I think I triggered a bacterial bloom with a filter reconfig, so now that the water is clearing up it isn't bothering me as much. It just looks odd next to the tank for my betta splendens where you can barely tell there's water in it. It doesn't help that I had a guest compare the two tanks and inform me that I needed to take better care of my big tank.

That's why I want to start with coccina, it's relatively easy to get a hold of and not one that has trouble spawning in captivity. I want to make sure I've figured out spawning since I want to get involved with the SMP through the IBC and the local species conservation program through the aquarium society I've joined. I'd love to be able to share wilds with some of the other hobbyists in my area.

[LittleBettaFish]

I wish coccina were easy to get a hold of here. Recently it seems like they are one of the harder species of wild bettas to find and get into Australia. Had the opportunity to get a wild-caught pair from Hermanus but I was half-broke and bought the burdigala pair instead because I thought my other pair wasn't a male/female.

This is of course before they started spawning every single week. Typical!

If you keep their water extremely soft and acidic and the temperature on the cooler side they should spawn. I only ever house one pair to a tank as otherwise I find your fry end up vanishing into thin air if your pair spawns at all.

Ever since I started using film canisters in with my coccina complex species the males never come out of them.

[Catie79]

I had my heart set on betta picta or falx until I realized I'd be doing good if I ever found a pair. I never see them listed anywhere. I keep looking in case I spot a pair for my 6 gallon that's all planted up and lovely. Coccina and channoides both show up on Aquabid pretty regularly here in the US. Brownrum is tempting, but pretty darn expensive. Maybe later when I'm more confident. The coccina are juvies and not sexed so I'll end up running a group tank to grow them out and sex them.

I'm lucky that my tap water is so soft that I have to use a gH booster to keep my planted tanks happy. It's pretty easy for me to drop the pH and I have to watch it closely in most tanks to make sure it doesn't drop too much. The tricky part is going to be finding film canisters!