Betta Coccina? Anyone owned them?

[LittleBettaFish]

Early this morning, I picked up a small group of 3 females and a male from the LFS after seeing them there last week. They are destined for my 46 gallon tank, but it will be kept in smaller temporary accommodation for a few more weeks until my dad is back to reinforce the floor. I did some basic research through the IBC website (http://www.ibcbettas.org/smp/species/coccina.html), but aside from a couple of unhelpful web results, didn’t find much else out about them.

Has anyone owned any of this species of betta before? If so, what kind of conditions did you find they did best in? The tank (a 7 gallon filled 2/3s of the way) has lots of root-like driftwood for them all to hide in, while there’s some hairgrass and leaf litter scattered about as well. There is a small amount of dominance display between the male and females, but nowhere near the aggression levels you would see between Splendens. They are around 5 cm long, and I have back-up accommodation for the male, if their behaviour escalates.

At the moment, I have heater set at 25 degrees celsius, and have a small internal filter for water circulation and oxygenation. I’m thinking of adding some peat to the filter to soften the water since it says they prefer a very low pH of around 4-6.0. Food will be a mix of frozen brine shrimp, daphnia and bloodworms, with the occasional treat of live mosquito larvae.

I will try and get some photos, but they are still extremely shy and keep darting off to hide. However, now that my brother has installed three more power sockets into my bedroom, I think I might have to snap up a pair of Betta Unimaculatas for my 20 gallon. I have a soft spot for the wild species, but they are so hard to find around here.

[PewPewPew]

Goodness theyre cute! Id love some pics- theyre interesting.

Bump for knowledge!

[MrVampire181]

They are small from what I've read (but heck wild imbellis, which are really just slendens from a different location are TINY).

[LittleBettaFish]

Well it turns out I ended up with three males and one female They have a lot of hiding places, and aside from the biggest male scaring everyone off, they seem to be getting along alright. I bought some water lettuce to give them some security when getting to the surface and dumped a whole load of live mosquito larvae in for them to eat. One of them decided he wanted to hide out under the alder leaves so all I could see was a tail and dorsal fin.

They are about as big as a large tetra at the moment. The water has a pH of 6.0 and hopefully should drop a bit further, although it's gone so dark from the tannins and peat I can't see anything. I will try to get a couple of photos although they are so shy sometimes I wonder if I even have any fish in the tank.

[PewPewPew]

Oh my goodness! How cute. Best of luck!

[misamiania]

When I went to the LFS today they had a few of those. I was tempted to snatch one up but I refrained!

Darn Betta's... like chips... you can't have just one. A month later I now have three haha. The only reason is because this is not my permanent home otherwise I'd rig up an awesome thing :)

[misamiania]

http://www.ibcbettas.org/smp/article...t_coccina.html

http://fishprofiles.com/profiles/fre...Betta_coccina/

[Arashi Takamine]

Cute! I'm a little surprised that the boys are getting along but it's good they're not fighting.

[LittleBettaFish]

These are the shyest fish I have ever seen. I can only pick out the biggest and the smallest of the males in there. The female and remaining male are in amongst the water lettuce roots somewhere, but the water has turned so dark, I couldn't find them even with my torch.

The chasing has settled down and from what I've seen on the males, they have coloured up nicely. Hopefully once I get them into a bigger set-up, I will see some more of them since right now it's all very packed with wood and plants. I'm still not sure how to feed them. I kind of just drop bloodworms in and hope they pick them off the bottom.

I should have some nice photos of them on Sunday. My camera struggles with taking a half-decent shot of my other fish, let alone these tiny little things.

[dramaqueen]

I read that the males can be a little aggressive. When spawning, the male and female can be kept with the fry and they won't eat the eggs or fry.