Red Wine Bettas

To continue on from yesterday's post, my replacement 'replacement' female Betta sp. wajok arrived today. I was surprised to see how well she'd handled the trip down here. The luck I've had with this species thus far, I was almost expecting to open the box and find her DOA. Fortunately, she was very much alive, and was responding in a very aggressive manner to the two big males while the bag was being floated. 

I definitely got a female this time. As soon as I put her in the tank she coloured up and is now showing very prominent vertical barring. She is also very interested in the male and is following him around. I'm hoping that as long as the male doesn't become too aggressive, I might be fortunate enough to finally get a spawn. 

B. sp. wajok male

After a prolonged courtship and a slow first spawning, my biggest F1 Betta brownorum male now has a small nest of eggs in one of the film canisters. The female he spawned with, was his mother, and it was interesting to see the difference in behaviour between her and her son, as opposed to her and the original male. 

If these eggs hatch, I'm going to pull the fry once they become free-swimming and raise them in a separate grow-out. I don't often do this with my wilds, but I don't want his effort to go to waste, and I am admittedly curious as to how fry from this particular cross are going to turn out. 

Well after a long wait, I should be getting a replacement Betta sp. wajok female sent out to me. Unfortunately, my actual replacement female died in quarantine, but I was offered a replacement 'replacement' female by Jodi. 

This female is getting shipped out today, so she should be arriving some time tomorrow. I will post an update when she arrives, and if she's not DOA, will try and get some photos of her in with the male. 

Back in September 2013, I got my hands on the nicest example of a male Betta brownorum I have owned. Sadly, he passed away earlier this year, after being viciously attacked by the female. He possessed a rather large lateral blotch, which I was hoping would be passed onto his sons, and possibly some of his daughters. 

Unfortunately, only two out of about dozen young fish, display a lateral blotch. The sub-adult male pictured above, has a lateral blotch that is similar in size to the original male's, while his younger brother shown below, has only very small, lateral spots on either side. Oddly enough, this younger male is also a different shade of red to his brother, and displays iridescent gold barring on the anal fin (not as visible in this particular photo). 

I have always wondered, what it is that determines the presence, size and shape of the lateral blotch. Is it purely genetics, or do environmental factors also play a role? I have read about Betta brownorum whose lateral blotches have changed shape and size over time. I've also noticed that in females, this spot seems more likely to be greatly reduced in size, if not missing altogether. Locality also seems important. I have heard fish from the 'Matang' locality normally have much larger blotches than those from the 'Sibu' locality. Is this the result of simple inbreeding, or are there major differences between these two habitats? 

This is a subject I've always been curious about, because I personally prefer fish that display large lateral blotches - for me, 'bigger is better'. As such, I have been rather disappointed that so many of my young fish are simply red all over. At this point they look more like Betta rutilans, than they do Betta broworum.  

I have been looking everywhere for a pair of wild-caught Betta coccina 'Jambi'. I am having difficulty in finding someone who a) has them, b) is not a wholesaler, and c) is willing to ship them to Thailand so they can be imported legally into Australia. 

I figured maybe someone might come across this post, who can help me get my hands on a pair of these fish. Betta coccina remains one of only four species from this complex that I have not successfully spawned. 

It would be unbelievably awesome, if I could achieve this goal before the end of 2014. 

I figured since I hadn't taken any photos of my tanks for a while, and they are such an integral part of fishkeeping, I'd dust off the camera and get a couple of shots. Unfortunately at the moment, I only have two T5 aquarium lights and one lamp to share between my tanks. I'm hoping my future rack is not only nicer to look at, but has lighting over each shelf. Would make taking decent photographs a lot easier. 

B. hendra male (F1 female in background)

F1 B. sp. apiapi male sub-adult. 

Well today I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my Betta hendra F1 females was wrapping with the original male under a bubblenest. Based on the purchase date of the original pair, the oldest this female could be, is 6 months. I am quite happy with this rate of growth considering the 'hands-off' approach I took.  

However, while I was pleased about this most recent spawn, I was curious as to what had happened to the eggs from a spawn between the original male and female, that took place on Friday. Let's just say it did not take me long to find out...

It turns out the other male and female juveniles/sub-adults in the tank were eating them. Any time the pair were wrapping, another fish would sneak in and grab the eggs out of the nest. Similarly, if they were too slow to pick up the eggs that fell to the bottom of the tank, these would also be consumed. 

If I want to continue working with this species, I know I am going to have to separate the breeding pair from the main tank. There has definitely been a drop in survival rates of fry over the past couple of months because of predation by older siblings. Ideally, I would like to have a tank dedicated to breeding and a tank dedicated to the housing of immature fish. Unfortunately, present space constraints make this all but impossible, so for now I am going to have to put up with cannibalism.