[LittleBettaFish]

Since I just spent 6 hours moving tanks around in my fish room, I thought I'd take some photos of one of my newer betta males.

He came with a matching female, but she now lives in my sorority. He was not being very photogenic unfortunately. Much too busy moping about looking for pellets. He somehow split his tail but it is healing up nicely.

This is what his tank looks like currently. Fidget my female HMPK lives next door along with another female, Quiz (in the breeder's net).

This is my livida and tussyae males (they live in the same tank). Livida is very friendly, whereas, it took 15 minutes for Mr Tussyae to work up the courage to pose for me.

Up until today I thought this channiodes male was female, turns out he isn't. They just moved into this tank today with my he/she never having lived with this pair before. The other male is holding. He was very disgruntled at being netted and then moved around. I was surprised he didn't swallow but he is used to me poking around.

This is a shot of my middle shelf. The cloudy tank is where my channiodes are housed, while the one next to it has the tussyae and livida males. Below is my two sororities, while above is 3 males, a pair of imbellis and breeding pair of rutilans with their million fry.

 

[sharka91]

I love your wild bettas! i'm looking for betta burdigala. and about how big are your livida and tussyae? I have a pair of channoides. I love em!

 

[LittleBettaFish]

My livida and tussyae are only small, similar in size to a female splenden but much narrower through the body. My rutilans are a few mms smaller still.

I prefer the claret complex of wilds. I'm hoping to get my hands on a breeding pair of brownorum and coccina in the next couple of weeks.

My channiodes are breeding machines. That male has had two lots of fry and it holding a third batch and I haven't owned him much longer than a month.

 

[sharka91]

Where do you get your wild bettas from? I'm looking into adding brownorum into my collection. I love the green spot they have.

 

[LittleBettaFish]

I live in Australia so I get them from our AB transhipper, who also runs her own shop and imports bettas in to sell.

Don't know where to look if you live overseas.

 

[bettasusa]

these wilds bettas are gems! Beautiful photos!

 

[LittleBettaFish]

Thanks.

I really love my wild bettas. I like the fact most can be kept together in breeding pairs, and the colours on them are really vibrant and iridescent when housed in a blackwater style set-up.

Definitely some of my favourite species of fish.

 

[blueridge]

Your wild bettas are always gorgeous! I have a stupid question to ask you, for their water do you add conditioner to it too?

 

[LittleBettaFish]

Yeah I just use regular tap water (our water here is really really soft) conditioned with Seachem Prime.

I usually make it a few degrees colder than the tank water temperature as that initiates spawning in most of my species.

If your water is really hard, you would probably need to either use R/O or rainwater as they will not really thrive at extreme pH and KH levels.

 

[blueridge]

So if my tap water had low pH then that is ok as long as I use water conditioner? What type of plants do you use in your tanks? I noticed that some of them don't have any substrate. Also do you use Indian Almond Leaves or do you think that Oak leaves would be ok to use? Sorry for all the questions...

 

[LittleBettaFish]

If your water has low pH and KH, it should be fine to use. If your wild bettas have been aquarium-bred (which I recommend as they are friendlier and will more readily take pelleted foods), they are less sensitive than wild-caught bettas.

Since the tannins stain my water to a dark tea colour, I only use java moss as there is not enough light penetration to grow anything else.

The tanks that don't have any substrate are only my Betta splendens. All my wild tanks have substrate except for my fry grow-out tanks.

I have used Oak and Alder leaves in my wild betta tanks and had no problems with either. However, I use IAL as they look more authentic and tend to produce the highest level of tannins. '

Hope that answers everything for you.

 

[blueridge]

Yes it does thank you so much!!!!! I was also wondering want tank size should I get? Would a 5 gallon be ok if I decided to just get one? Or would I need a bigger size tank? What species would you recommend starting out with? What if I don't want to breed just have them as pets? And one last one would Aquabid's wild bettas be considered aquarium breed?

 

[LittleBettaFish]

I would start off with a pair or reverse trio (two males, one female) of either channiodes or albimarginata. These are really friendly, easy-care wilds, and will readily breed for you if conditions are right.

Plus they are one of the most peaceful betta species, and will rarely fight with each other or other fish. They prefer to live in groups, and this will give you the best display of colour. A 10 gallon tank would be ideal for three channiodes or albis.

Personally I prefer more than 5 gallons for a breeding pair as most wilds are pretty aggro when courting. If you only have one, and it is a smaller species, a 5 gallon tank should be fine.

I have ideii and unimaculata as pets only (my ideii are a pair that like to kill each other when in together) and they are like big splendens. I've found the bigger wilds are much less timid initially than smaller species.

It usually says in the advertisement whether they are wild-caught or not. I would assume most common species of wild bettas available in the USA are aquarium-bred either by wholesalers or local breeders. Usually wilds from Thailand on AB etc. are wild-caught.

 

[blueridge]

Thank you soooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Could you possibly tell me which species might be best for a 5 gallon tank?

 

[LittleBettaFish]

Anything from the coccina complex.

If it is dense enough, you could keep a pair in there. A pair of albis or channiodes could fit as well, I had two in a 2.5 gallon. I only moved mine into a 10 gallon to cut back on water changes.

You might be able to squeeze a single unimaculata complex fish in, but I'd personally prefer between 7-10 gallons for them.

Also you will need to cling wrap the entire surface of your tank. Wilds jump 100 times worse than any splenden I've owned, and I lost my best breeding pair within about a week because I was lax with my lid.

 

[blueridge]

Thank you so much!! I'll probably keep it to one or a small breeding pair I don't want the fish to get stressed out or make it a tight squeeze for them. Do you think silk plants would be ok? And have you ever traveled with yours before? I have to make at least 3 trips every year from my house to college and I don't want to stress them out if they can't handle something like that.

 

[LittleBettaFish]

Silk plants should be fine. Just make sure at least one corner is densely planted to provide them with a 'safe' area to retreat.

I'm not sure how well they'd travel. You would probably have to take most of their previous tank water with them and then slowly acclimatise them to either your home/college water, just in case there are adverse differences in water chemistry.

 

[blueridge]

Oh ok...haha I already do that for my bettas and my guppies that I take back and forth. How about medicine? Do they respond the same way that our splendens do?

 

[LittleBettaFish]

They tend not to get as sick as often as splendens. But I've used melafix, Myxazin and aquarium salt on mine, and it hasn't shown to have affected them in any way.

 

[blueridge]

Again thank you so much! I truly appreciated it that you answered all of my questions!!!! And I'm sorry if I bothered you at all, it's just I have been really fascinated by the wild bettas and I would love to start a tank hopefully sometime this summer.