I've sort of been avoiding posting here as I have not had a very good couple of weeks with my fish. My pair of Betta uberis are sick with what appears to be velvet, and I sadly lost the whole group of fry. Once again, I have no idea as to why this happened, and once again, I was left questioning my future with these fish. It definitely undermines my confidence as a fish keeper to keep having to face the same challenges over and over. However, I can't see myself giving up on wild bettas any time soon, as there is no other fish in this hobby that comes close to replacing them. In other news, I've decided it's time to move some of my F1 fish on, as spawning activity has pretty much ceased in my breeding tanks and the tanks themselves are becoming very crowded.
The only problem is, that buyers simply don't want a single fish. What they want, are pairs for breeding, so when I have a surplus of females in one tank, and an excess of males in another, it does make it difficult to move fish on quickly. Never mind that most of the species I keep have a very limited market of buyers to begin with. The hobby in Australia is only small, especially when compared to places such as Asia, Europe, and the US. We just don't have the population that these countries do. It can become very easy to 'flood' the market with a particular species of fish, and this is why I try to keep my spawn numbers low. I would rather sell my fish privately than hand them off to a fish store or wholesaler. This way I know the quality of care they are provided is top notch, and I am able to talk with the buyers when they come to collect their fish. My plan is to sell almost all of my F1 Betta hendra and Betta brownorum. At this point in time, I have decided to retain all of my F1 Betta sp. apiapi. However, I will be moving the F0 pair into a tank of their own once I have the space so they can hopefully resume spawning. Perhaps once I have a 'back-up' group of young fish, I will look at selling a sibling pair or two. There has also been some difficulty with importing my wild pairs from Joty into Australia. My Betta coccina were not available until recently, and the two attempts to import Betta rutilans ended with them DOA in Bangkok. With that said, I believe they may have come in on this latest shipment. I will post an update when I know more. No hobbyist likes to hear that their fish have died in transit, so I am going to be on tenterhooks until I know more. |
AuthorLocated in Melbourne, Australia, I currently keep and breed a number of species from the coccina complex. Archives
November 2017
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