My Petco gets there Bettas from Thialand and from what I understand so do many Pet stores.

 

Petco

I would be more comparing what I see available on Aquabid and around the forums.

HMPK, Halfmoon strains more so than veiltails and petshop type fish.

 

Some Thialand Breeders Breed 5 star and use IAL, abd livefood and some Thialand breeders breed 3 star bettas for mass quanity some breed for show.

 

ial? abd?

What do those mean, sorry.

 

abd was supposed to be and IAL means Indian Almond Leaves they are used by many members here because they help with Betta health, and color and are used in Betta fighting because they help avoid diseases, Toughun scales and fins some people say they are magic they come from a very fast growing tree native to southeast asia.

 

ah, should have known that one, never saw the acronym

Interesting, yes I have heard about it for years. So you think that makes that big a difference?

 

It is used by many people it gives the water tannins the Betta would have encountered in the wild.

 

I understand the concept

Curious if it could make all that difference though.

Thai fish seem more muscular, with well arched backs. Their anal and dorsal fins seem to almost come forward rather than sloping back. The spread on their caudals seems fuller and many HMPK the tail end of their body seems to turn up a little. Looks like this is due to their musculature to me.

You think all this could come from tanin in the water?

 

I think the space and environment contribute to natural development. Many Thai betta farms use natural rain, river, and stream water to fill their natural pond. Over SE Asia the conditions are just better for betta than in N. America or Europe.

When I was a kid, over 30 years ago, I breed betta in Vietnam; all my breeder friends and I selected the parents carefully. Even farm breeders they do select parents carefully. Some people think that they are mass produced means no quality. There are so many betta to choose from; they do not just throw in a pair and breed. After all it still cost them, breeders, time and money to breed. Everyone breeds for quality then sell at higher prices. If for some reason, the results are not quality then they have to sell cheap for kids (6-10 years) for pet.

Most U.S. LFS get their fishes and bettas from massive farm in GA. I do not remember the names. But over 80% of U.S. fishes come from this huge farm in the Southern States.

 

All my Bettas at Petco get theirs from thialand I am pretty sure so do most Bettas also live foods are given and soft water in thailand there are many people who mass produce lower quality Bettas.

 

Off topic -- sorry.
Hi Choclate... can you please use punctuation as I find your posts super hard to read (I have to read several times to make sense of it all). I find you usually have great stuff to contribute and I do learn from what you post, but again, my head spins.

 

I have a really hard time in grammar and spelling so sorry plus my new laptop can not have spell check.

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...26577110&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=OrOOULSFJuXa2wXq5oDoCg Some of theses are traditional Betta farms some are commercial.

 

I think part of it is just a numbers game: the more fish you produce, hopefully the more show winners you get. Also, I think it definitely helps that Thai bettas are raised in more natural setting. IAL is awesome, btw. I make a tea out of it, and add it to all of my betta tanks. Its especially good for stressed fish. I think that having darker water makes them feel less exposed.

 

You dont mass produce show quality.

 

Actually, if you get very nice parents, and raise the fry right, say on a large farm in their natural habitat with plentiful food, there is a high possibility you would get plenty of showable fish. =) Most Thai breeders don't breed their fish the same way we do in the west, and some folks over here would take one look at how they do things and say, "Thats wrong!" But these breeders have been doing this for centuries, first with fighters, and then with show bettas.

 

Most of them breed 2 to three star Bettas from what I have seen plus those farms dont cull they breed then sell.

 

Thai and other Asian breeders breed in numbers that are much higher than what anyone in this country does. We're talking several hundred thousand fish. Just by sheer numbers there are extremely good odds of a truly special fish being born in one of the thousands of spawns every couple months. Throw into that what others have talked about that Thailand, the weather there, the water there, the insects there and everything else there is their natural habitat, food, ect.

Are they necessarily breeding better quality fish though? Probably not. The conditions they breed these fish in are extremely tough, and are based around a quantity rather than quality approach (not that i would do it any different if i lived in that part of the world). One breeder with a very small operation, paying extra attention to selection of breeders, and extra care to proper feeding is going to probably produce more quality fish per spawn. But are always going to look pale to the sheer numbers of fish the Thai breeders turn over. They will make more quality fish just by accident.

Now also factor in the IBC members. Some of the best fish in the country, and perhaps the best you will ever see, but they pretty much only go to shows, and get sold at the auctions at these shows. I haven't really looked that much at types other than PK, but in that category on Aquabid you will be hard pressed to find a fish by any of these breeders.

 

From what animal planets betta fish care says they breed then sell because there is a higher demand for adults.