Getting my first wild

[1fish2fish]

I'm very excited. Someone posted an unknown wild for sale on my other forum so I jumped at the chance to get one. I'm thinking its a smaragdina but I can't be certain. Either way its in the splendens complex so I don't have to have a ginormous tank to house it (like all the other wilds I love). He (or she) will do well in a 10 gallon.

Once I figure out what it is and what gender it is I might take a stab at breeding once I get a nice tank set up for a pair.

I probably spent a little more than I should have for an unknown fish but I have some saved up and my search for new pairs has come up with nothing so I figured what the heck. I was supposed to be buying a nice melano HMPK pair but the seller has yet to get back to my emails so ya snooze ya loose. This way I save a little money and its not burning a hole in my pocket

The fish should arrive at my parents house Thursday or Friday (depending on whether the seller ships it out tomorrow or the next day). My mom will take care of it until I get home Friday afternoon. I'll be sure to post pictures.

The good thing is I can get pictures and take them to my GABBA meeting on Saturday. Many of the breeders in our group breed wilds so someone should be able to give me a definitive answer on the species/gender.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed he arrives safe and sound. I paid extra for express shipping (which IMO its ridiculous to pay $35 to ship ONE fish.. but I digress) so hopefully he won't get too stressed out. My mom's a dab hand at acclimating so I'm not too awful worried.

[LikeDiscoSuperfly]

Awwe, congrats! Fingers crossed, cant wait to see pics!

[1fish2fish]

He's on his way to my parent's house now. My Mom doesn't understand why I would want a "brown fish" when we have those in the lake LOL

[MrVampire181]

lol! I like smaragdinas and imbellis so I'll be getting those when I decide to get into breeding wilds.

[1fish2fish]

I prefer mouthbrooding wilds but they're so expensive and need bigger tanks than I'm allowed to have at this time so I figured this will kind of be a medium between the wilds I really want to work with and the splendens I'm used to. From what I've been reading smaragdina and imbellis are pretty much just the mellower versions of splendens. They still have the same care needs and breeding methods so its not much change.

[MrVampire181]

I've heard the same about mahacai but heard their fry aren't hardy and hybrids aren't very healthy in general.

[1fish2fish]

Update:

There was a mix up with the paypal so the fish didn't get mailed out until Friday. It was supposed to arrive Sunday but didn't.So I was forced to go back to school with no fish. Finally it arrived on Monday but my Mom was out so it went BACK to the post office. My mom finally picked it up this morning and has it in a 1 gallon jar.

I'm going home next Tuesday for Thanksgiving (I work Thanksgiving so we're doing dinner on Wednesday) so I'll bring him back when I go back to school.

I'm bummed that I have to wait a whole week to see the little guy (or gal) but I'm relieved that it made it safe and sound. I'm hoping that he will be ok in my guppy tank for a while until I can set up his own tank.

[dramaqueen]

I'm glad he/she made it ok.

[1fish2fish]

Ahh.. the wait is finally over!!! Here is Spike!

I'm pretty sure he's a young male Betta smaragdina but I'm not positive. Hopefully in a few days he'll color up and I can get better pictures of him. I was relieved to know that he doesn't mind his guppy tank mates. Sorry for the bad pictures.. he was stressed from the drive and the poor boy has been in cold water for the past two weeks (well.. room temperature but still..)








And for comparison.. here is a picture of a male smaragdina off the IBC SMP website..

[LikeDiscoSuperfly]

he is actually quite handsome =]
How is he doing now?