Red Wine Bettas

Just took a picture of the tank I am going to hopefully be using for my new pair. At the moment it has the substrate in, and the water has been nicely coloured by the use of peat moss and rooibos tea bags.  

The plan now is to order a heater, purchase some watersprite, and soak the wood I intend on using in the tank for at least a week so that it is fully waterlogged. 

I picked up the wood on Saturday, and opted to use the below layout in my tank, as I felt it not only provided the most cover at the bottom levels of the tank, but also looked the most 'natural' out of all the other layouts I'd tried. 

Currently, the plan is to have a shallow leaf litter consisting of IALs on the bottom of the tank, with a heavy planting of watersprite and duckweed at the surface. 

I'm hoping the roots of the watersprite will provide addition cover once they start to grow down towards the substrate. 

This is to make up for the lack of Betta persephone photos lately. These two males were fighting over a nest built under one of the IALs. I believe the nest actually belonged to the male in the top of the first photo. 

It was interesting to see them break apart after a minute or so of display, rest, and then resume their fight where they had left off. 

For those curious about the black object below the males, it is a nylon stocking filled with peat moss. 

Since I have been a bit slack with my postings of late, I thought I would just do a brief update of what's been happening around here. 

Firstly, I have had to separate my pair of Betta brownorum after the female attacked the male and nearly killed him for the second time in recent weeks. This was after I accidentally got her head stuck in my siphon while I was cleaning their tank. You can see the damage done in the photo below. Fortunately, it was not more serious. 

I have spawns from both my Betta hendra and Betta sp. apiapi pairs, and I also got eggs from a spawning between a pair in my Betta persephone tank. However, as expected these didn't last more than a couple of hours. 

Speaking of my Betta persephone, I have decided to transition their tank back to its original set-up of peat moss (will be going over the existing aqua soil), IALs and wood. I just feel they showed better colouration, and were much more active in their previous setting. Of late, I have found it difficult to even find them half the time, let alone take any proper pictures. 

Photos of the big transformation should be up before Christmas. 

Currently I am experiencing an outbreak of velvet in my Betta sp. cf. rutilans green. This is on top of the infection in my Betta unimaculata tank. At the moment both of these groups are receiving treatment, and the plan is to continue this treatment for the next 4-6 weeks so that these fish have the best chance at recovery. 

However, in more exciting news, I am awaiting the arrival of a new pair. I am hoping they are on this next shipment into Oz, and have my fingers crossed everything goes well. I won't post any specifics until I know more myself.

There are several posts that I have been working on, so expect to see these posted over the next few days.  

Betta sp. apiapi female

I managed to get a couple of photos of one of the bigger fry from my Betta sp. apiapi pair. It is probably just over half an inch in size, and is starting to show some red colouration along the anal fin. 

At the moment it still seems to still have a rounded caudal fin. However, I am not certain at what age or size I should expect to see development of a more spade shaped caudal in male fry.

Because this is a species I would really like to work with beyond an F1 generation, I am eager to see the ratio of males to females from this current population. With my coccina complex fish, I generally get a ratio of around two to three males for every one female. Therefore, my prediction is that it will most likely be male heavy. 

This is why I really need to get my hands on a digital pH meter and a hardness test kit. It would be great, if I could figure out the water conditions that lend themselves to a more balanced ratio between males and females. This is because it's extremely difficult to keep a line going, when you only have a single female to work with.