Thailand

[Drowzy]

Originally Posted by xxabc

When my cousins bet on betta fights, it's usually on lunch and/or dinner.

The most I've ever heard of, from my family, is $50 on a fight. It could be very different with other people, but that it just from my relations.

LOL If you win you get lunch and your betta does too

[Mister Sparkle]

FYI...and I'm sure xxabc can vouch for me here...they don't intentionally let the bettas fight "to the death." They have a referee, and the fish are ordered out of the "ring" long before mortal damage is incurred.

[xxabc]

I can definitely vouch for that, however not in the absolute official battle.

They grab two wild bettas. They bet on them. They allow them to fight, and usually they will last quite some time (they seem to be more vicious than our domestic bettas!) before they slow down. Then it becomes ...*nip* ... *NIP NIP* ... *nip*. And at this point, one attempts to retreat - or ceases fighting, and the bet ends. Unless both bettas are still nipping each other, it will end. They usually do not fight to the death, but they have had deaths anyway when it came down to two really tough ones.

Sometimes there are "referees" (in their case, it's a parent, LOL), but normally it's just the cousins / friends coming to an agreement on whether or not who wins. If they still don't agree, it continues.

[soleilvie]

Fighting bettas..."referees"...bets...

This is a strange image you have all placed in my mind.

[xxabc]

Add some beer, and you have a little party in your head. Hehehe. :)

[TianTian]

I remember finding a very interesting documentary about this somewhere online... it was really interesting. Only in some areas, the people would score the fight by how many "points" their Bettas scored in a fight using specific techniques, touches/nips and whatnot (much like how a martial art match is scored). They never fought to the death to my recollection.

Cool thread. Dunno any strengthening tips, but I bet some wicked nutrition boosting would do wonders for both health and color. :D