The Labyrinth Fishes: Part III
The
Bettas
by
Jennifer Wilkinson, CAS
Originally published in The Calquarium Volume 42, Number 2.
Aquarticles
Betta edithae
Edith’s betta has small eyes and short fins. The caudal fin is
round. The fin rays extend beyond the edges. They
are beige with three longitudinal stripes along the body. These stripes are visible only
on occasion. When the
female is ready to spawn these stripes are boldly displayed. The anal fin of the male is
spotted with blue and
darkly edged.
These fish come from southern Borneo, in slow flowing waters.
These fish may be housed in a community aquarium with other
peaceful tank mates. They will eat all kinds of fish
foods, but seem to prefer Grindal worms. They are not fussy as to their water conditions.
The ideal water
temperature is 26º C. The male is the larger of the two at 9.5 cm. The female gets to a
total length of 9 cm. The
female is more aggressive than the male in these bettas.
These fish are fairly difficult to breed. Introduce a pair into a
40-liter aquarium, with no aeration or filtration.
Plants or hiding places may make the fish more comfortable but are not really necessary.
The female will seek out
and defend a spawning area for a short while before spawning. The female being the more
aggressive of the two
and will initiate the spawning activity. After the female circles the male several times,
he will embrace her at which
time the eggs are released and fall to the bottom. The female will pick up the eggs and
spit them at the male.
There are usually around 100 eggs per spawn. They are mouthbrooders, so the male will
brood for about 10
days. The female should be removed after spawning is complete. The male should be removed
when he releases
the fry. The problem that makes these fish so difficult to spawn successfully is that the
male may eat some or all of
the spawn while brooding.
These fish are quite interesting, even though they don’t have
much colour.
Betta imbellis
In the peaceful betta the males are larger than the females at 5
cm. They are also the more colourful of the two.
The male has a bluish black body, black when in full colour. His fins are slightly longer,
and with the exception of
the dorsal, are all outlined in red. This is a pretty fish. The females are less
colourful, have shorter fins and when
ready to spawn, the body gets lighter with irregular stripes.
This species comes from the Malay Peninsula in swampy areas,
puddles and rice paddies.
These fish will fight just like Betta splendens, so males
can not be kept together. A single male and several
females can be kept in a community aquarium with other tank mates of the same size. No
barbs. They prefer soft
acidic water with a temperature of 26º C. They will eat all kinds of prepared and live
foods.
This betta is easy to breed. Introduce a well-conditioned pair into
a 20-liter aquarium half filled with soft acidic
water with the temperature at 28º C. There should be some plants for the female to hide,
to get away from the
male if she wants to. There should also be some floating plants for the male to build his
bubble nest under. The
male wraps himself around the female at which time the eggs are released. The eggs will
fall to the bottom of the
aquarium. The male will collect them and spit them up into the nest, while the female is
recovering from the
embrace. The male recovers much quicker. The spawn usually consists of up to 160 eggs. The
female should be
removed after spawning is completed. The male will take care of the eggs and fry until
they go free swimming,
then he too should be removed.
This is a pretty fish although the fins are not as long as the Betta
splendens. The name implies that these fish are
peaceful, but remember that the males can not be kept together. They are only peaceful
with their other tank
mates.
Betta splendens
The Siamese fighting fish (I call them my nightmare fish) come in
all sorts of colours and colour combinations. The
male is truly a very beautiful fish. They are the more colourful of the two and have much
longer finnage in
long-finned stains. The males get to a total length of 6 cm. The females are usually
rather dull. They do however
show vertical lines when ready to spawn.
Wild Betta splendens live in thickly over grown ponds and
in slowly flowing water. They come from Thailand
and Cambodia.
These fish are fairly easy to maintain. They will eat all kinds of
prepared and live foods.
They are not fussy as to water conditions as long as the water is
not too hard. They prefer a temperature of 26º C.
The males can not be housed together. If they are kept in a community aquarium, it is best
to add one male and
several females. Or just a single male, by himself. He will not bother other tank mates,
however watch for the
other tank mates nipping his long fins. It is best to house male bettas in a jar. Keep in
mind the temperature of the
water.
These fish are supposed to be easy to breed. I have not found this
to be true. I had trouble even keeping the pet
shop bettas alive. I was told that perhaps the fish I purchased were too old or perhaps
not very healthy. I
couldn’t find any young bettas around in the pet stores so I joined the International
Betta Congress (IBC). They
provided me with lots of useful beginner information and I purchased a binder full of
other written information
from them. I also tried to purchase my first young healthy bettas from a fellow member.
After sending my money
off and waiting for a few weeks, I received nothing. I called and asked it this person had
sent them yet, they had.
Okay so where were my bettas???
The breeder was located in the States, and said there wouldn’t
be a problem mailing across the border. This
person sent me another batch of bettas, this time I had them sent general delivery to the
closest American post
office. They came through in a couple of days and all was fine. Then a couple of weeks
later, I had a package
delivered. Can you guess what it was? That’s right, it was the original shipment.
Where it went, who knows? But
apparently "LIVE FISH: PLEASE RUSH" and express mail doesn’t mean anything
once it reaches the Canadian
border. Out of six bettas, two were still alive. One lived for about a week; the other one
lasted about a month.
However, the second shipment lived.
I housed each male in a 4-liter goldfish bowl and put the three
females in a 40-liter tank to grow out for a while.
When I thought they were old enough and conditioned, the 20-liter breeding aquarium was
set up as follows. The
water was soft with a depth of 15 cm. The temperature was 28º C. A see-through plastic
lid was left floating on
the top of the water so the male could use it to build a bubble nest.
Day 1. The fish pair were added. The female was placed in a glass
chimney (available at any craft store) and the
male had the run, er… swim, of the tank.
Day 2. After noticing that the male had built a bubble nest, the
female was released from the chimney. The
chimney has to be taken out very slowly so as not to break up the bubble nest. I decided
to leave the chimney
right in the tank so the female could use it to hide behind.
Day 3. I noticed the pair had spawned and the female was hiding
behind the chimney with few shredded fins. She
was removed and placed in a jar by herself for a few days until she healed. The male was
left to guard the eggs.
Day 4. Nothing exciting really happened
Day 5. The fry hatched and could be seen falling tail-down out of
the nest. They seemed to float back up for the
most part, but on occasion the male would take one in his mouth and spit it back into the
nest.
Day 6. The male was removed and put back in his own gallon jar, he
greedily accepted frozen blood worms.
Day 7. The first day the fry were fed. Some hobbyist feed baby
brine shrimp right off, and that works for them.
This did not work for me in previous attempts. So this time micro food was used. A little
was shook up in water
and added to the aquarium. This was done every three days for about a month. I tried
feeding baby brine once in
a while but it still appeared too big for them. Slowly a few fry died each day. I ended up
will three surviving fry
from this spawn, which eventually did start eating brine shrimp, but they were deformed.
I have attempted to keep and spawn these fish so many times it has
become a nightmare. One day I just might get
it right. The younger bettas will spawn, but how do you raise the fry? I have all sorts of
answers collected and I
have tried just about everyone. Maybe I will try feeding micro worms next time!!!??! But
first, I have to find
some nice young bettas again.
My local pet shop told me a couple of weeks ago that they were
getting in some kind of different betta. When I
asked what it was, I was told "Cambodian short tails". This just means they were
regular bettas with a flesh pink
body and different coloured fins. In this case the fins were the traditional red. Bettas
come in all sorts of colours and
colour combinations, some even have double tails, BUT a different colour doesn’t mean
they are a different species.
Well this is the last instalment for the labyrinth fish series.
After doing all this research, I know what labyrinth fish
I want to add to my community tanks and which ones I don’t. Do you?
For more information about Betta
splendens, go to:
Baumgarten: Betta splendens: General
Information and Breeding
Berdoulay: Bettas
Keefer: Betta Lessons
Kick: Caring for Betta splendens
Kick: Breeding Bettas
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