Unsplendens Bettas - what do you know?

[tophat665]

Now, don't get me wrong. Betta splendens is a lovely fish. I have 7 of them (1 male, 6 females) and I couldn't be happier. However, unless you're talking serious show fish (You know: white dragon royal blue over half moon with a side of chips and a coke) they're pretty common.

I saw down the page a way that someone had some Betta imbellis. I saw some Betta pugnax come up at an auction a couple months ago. There was a story in TFH now long ago about wild bettas in Indonesia, including, among others, Betta coccina, and then there are giant bettas and tiger bettas and 40 or 50 other species.

So Who's keeping the odd bettas? The rare bettas? The bettas who live together in peace, enjoy fast water, mouthbrood, and have people saying, "That's no betta; that's some sort of miniature snakehead?"

What do you like about them? How do you keep them and breed them?

Spend a few minutes to tell an appreciative audience who have probably had a few more than enough fin rot threads for the nonce.

[ErinBBC]

I just have a 'regular' betta....however a giant betta might be pretty awesome. I wonder why more of these rare bettas have not been utilized for the pet trade - but I'm glad they haven't because most betta owners don't know how to take care of a normal betta.

[okiemavis]

I also read that article about the betta coccina. I regularly browse Aquabid.com checking out the wild type bettas up for offer (there's always a few), but alas, I have not gotten one yet. It's in the works for one of the tanks in my next "tank shelf".

[hardflip2heavan]

I've personally been looking into gettong a couple of betta imbellis. I've looked at all the lfs's in my area and none have them. I've asked if they could special order me a couple and they all just looked at me as if i was crazy. i wish somewehre would get even just a couple of them. i love the splendens, but i would lvoe to have a small school of imbellis.

[JMeenen]

I don't own any other Betta type but the Splendens..however I have been looking at all the different types and I do like the Imbellis quite a bit also interesed in the giant...there are so many different types of Betta It is really amazing

[okiemavis]

the giants are still betta splendens- just selectively bred to be larger

[tophat665]

Originally Posted by okiemavis

the giants are still betta splendens- just selectively bred to be larger

I was referring to Betta anabatoides, but now that you mention it, I do recall hearing about "giant" Betta splendens, which is also kind of cool, but not what' we're talking about here. Betta patoti is the Tiger Betta I mentioned. That'll teach me to use common names.

[Lupin]

The problem is they don't gain so much popularity compared to the Betta splendens. Furthermore, most people wouldn't want to spend a lot if these are expensive depending on Law of Supply and Demand.

[tophat665]

Originally Posted by Lupin

The problem is they don't gain so much popularity compared to the Betta splendens. Furthermore, most people wouldn't want to spend a lot if these are expensive depending on Law of Supply and Demand.

It's not actually a problem - it's simply the way things are. The majority of folks want a colorful, unusual, storied fish that they can keep in the smallest space possible with the least work possible. Betta splendens fits that bill admirably.

However (and according to wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt) there are something like 65 other species in the genus Betta, and the type specimen for the genus is B. picta, not B. splendens. That's a lot of unexplored space. Now, I understand that most of these fish will never be popular, and therefore will always be rare and expensive. I'm fine with that. I do figure that within a community of aquarists of some critical size, including veterans and MTS sufferers, there will be some amount of knowledge of the other 27.

So far, we've established that this knowledge amounts to the mere existance of some fraction of the 27, with some deeper knowledge of B. imbellis (which I understand that people tend to view sort of as a wild type B. splendens without the violent territorial imperative).

So my goal with this thread is to add a tangent to the forum that leads away from threads that can be answered with FAQs and pictures of small tanks.

[tmz]

this thread really sparked my intrest. i've been on google looking at pictures of these other bettas. the Betta imbellis is an absolutely gorgeous fish. i kinda want one now XD


one site i found, wildbettas.com, has some crazy looking fish.