This is the pair that just keeps on giving. I think this is like their fourth or fifth spawn now.
The male is quite comfortable with me being around his nest. I suppose after I almost completely destroyed his first nest full of fry, there isn't much worse I can do! I think that ruining the spawns of first-time fathers has become sort of tradition in my fish room. Oddly enough, it is usually the males I leave completely to their own devices that tend to be the poorer fathers. When my Betta sp. apiapi arrived I noticed the female was particularly plump with eggs. Therefore, it was not that surprising that within only a couple of days of arrival, I caught the pair wrapping in one of the film canisters.
There are a small number of eggs visible in the nest and I am hoping that that both fish have strong paternal/maternal instincts to ensure the survival of the fry once they become free-swimming. Nothing more frustrating than when you get the eggs to hatch and one or both parents proceed to cannibalise the fry. If this does prove to be a new species, I believe I may be the first person in Australia to not only keep them, but to also have a successful spawning. So not much pressure on me to get things right! When I saw the new list of wilds posted up by Jodi-Lea/Fishchick Aquatics and saw that there was a pair of Betta sp. 'new red' (also referred to as Betta sp. 'apiapi' by JotyBettas the seller), I was pretty damn excited.
This is apparently an undescribed member of the coccina complex. Whether it is actually a totally new species, or just a separate locality/variation of an existing species still remains to be seen. However, it was definitely a coccina complex species so I had to have it obviously. They just arrived today, on what is quite a blustery Melbourne morning, and the photos below are of the female exploring her new home. They are not particularly shy and so I hope they settle in as well as my two other pairs from this seller have. Forgot to add a link to the description of this species by the seller - http://www.bettashop.net/SHOP/b-apiapi-p.html |
AuthorLocated in Melbourne, Australia, I currently keep and breed a number of species from the coccina complex. Archives
November 2017
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