Wild Species Bettas

[PitGurl]

Got my spawn tank set up. I'll be introducing my smaragdina in the morning .

[LittleBettaFish]

Good luck. Hope you get some wrigglers!

My biggest 'wrigglers' are going to be moving into an adult grow-out soon. They have started squabbling and I want to fatten up the smallest ones.

[PitGurl]

Thanks. I had a bit of bad luck with my HMPK spawn so I'm hoping this one goes better. I'm hoping the smaragdina can stay together a bit longer then then the domestics. I really don't enjoy cleaning jars. I plan on jarring the boys I want to show that way they'll hopefully deport for the judges but other then that I want to keep them in the grow out as long as possible.

[PitGurl]

Well I put my pair together and they're totally freaked out about being in a new tank . They were stressing about the bare bottom so I put some black paper under the tank so they can't see through it. I've seen the male chase the female a couple of times but they're mostly just sitting on the bottom. I'm hoping they will chill out as the day goes on and get to business.

[Hallyx]

I run bare-bottom tanks. I've noticed that dark-colored backgrounds reflect more than light-colored ones. You can check this for yourself.

[babystarz]

Originally Posted by PitGurl

Well I put my pair together and they're totally freaked out about being in a new tank . They were stressing about the bare bottom so I put some black paper under the tank so they can't see through it. I've seen the male chase the female a couple of times but they're mostly just sitting on the bottom. I'm hoping they will chill out as the day goes on and get to business.

This is how my smaragdina reacted to a bare bottom tank too. I think they're just freaked out by how different the surface is compared to sand and rock. Keeping the water as dark with IAL as possible has helped a lot, and they seem to be getting used to the tank. I am still planning to move them to a larger NPT once I have it ready for them, but they stress so easily that I'm not going to do that until their new tank has flourishing plants providing full cover. I know that's not necessarily an option for you, I don't care how many fry I get or anything and I keep my pair together full time. I guess I'd just suggest the blackwater and plenty of nooks and crannies for them to hide in when they don't have to look at the bottom of the tank Big balls of moss help too, my female likes to hang out in the middle of them. Other than that, time to adjust is important too. Personality-wise my smaragdina seem way less happy about change, new things, and people moving around than my other wilds



I know I shouldn't pick favorites, but the albimarginata stole the show this morning. One of the males opened his big mouth all the way, it was adorable. It was either the world's biggest yawn or his version of a roar XD I've seen this behavior in some Youtube videos, and it could be part of him establishing that he's in charge and comfy in his new home. I'm not sure how aggressive or territorial albis really get, they definitely seem to be on the extremely peaceful end of the betta behavior spectrum. They don't even playfully nip at each other.

[PitGurl]

I did think about the black paper creating more of a reflection but I was worried that the male may not see the eggs as well with light paper . I have 4 IAL in there so the water is pretty dark.

As of this morning the male has a tiny nest and the female has a few nips. No eggs though. The female was barred up when I left for work this morning and the male was just sitting on the bottom watching her.

Their normal tank is a divided 6.6 gallon so that is why I moved them into a spawn tank. I'm going to leave them for a couple days. I never feed my pairs in the spawn tank but I may drop in some mosqito larve. If they're in the spawn tank more then a few days I'll have to do a water change too.

[LittleBettaFish]

Albimarginata are an extremely peaceful species. Mine lived with smaller killifish and pseudomugil species until I sold them, and even though the fish could easily fit in their mouths they never attempted to eat them.

Pitgurl, don't worry about feeding your wild bettas while they are in the spawn tank. I've fed some of my wilds while they were in the actual act! I haven't found it distracts them from their task or encourages egg-eating.

I've also found that my females will often stick around after the deed has been done to guard the male and his nest against intruders. Generally my males make only a halfhearted attempt to chase the female off while he is on fry duty.

If the male has a nest already that's promising. Hopefully the female works up her courage and does her part now.

[PitGurl]

Well still nothing. I added some more plants for the female. Sheis still barred up but the male really gives chase when he sees her. She gets stress stripes and hides again. For some reason I was thinking they'd be easier to spawn .

[PitGurl]

Sorry to be posting so much. I don't really want to post a spawn log until they spawn.

So I just saw the female under the nest with her head down, she had stress stripes. The male saw her came charging up flaring, she barred up and charged him flaring and then the male chased her off. The female has suffered some battle wounds but nothing serious, missing scales and some torn fins. I was expecting the wilds to be more gentle with each other, at least that is what I read. But it's looking more promising