My Betta Collection, Wild Species and Selective Bred Strains

[jecraque]

I'm sooo not a fish person, but I have to say, I am loving this thread. Yours are prettier than I ever imagined bettas could be!

 

[Xander505]

I'm sooo not a fish person, but I have to say, I am loving this thread. Yours are prettier than I ever imagined bettas could be!

Thanks, bettas are underated and misunderstood fish, which leads to them not being as popular as most other tropical exotic fish. With proper care, selective breeding and research, bettas can become one of the most stunning and most after fish in the fish trade.
Most individuals are misinformed by petstores and mainstream betta info the internet, which leads to improper care, which results in bad genetics and drab looking bettas.
If you think the ones I posted so far look amazing, just wait til the end of next month and I'll show you guys a really interesting betta, that will stand out from these ones.

 

[Crysta]

Woooooow
What lovely fish.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

I reallllyyyy love that wild betta Imbellis...i wouldn't mind getting one of those..so beautiful!!

thanks a bunch for the info on the other thread it was a great help ) keep posting pictures!!

I also added 5 more long fin mountain minnows to the tank, for a total of 7 now

and got a GIANT quarter (or a lil bigger) red ramshorn snail...so cool.

 

[Xander505]

Thanks Crysta, I'll update whenever I get more bettas in, also I'll be starting up a new planted tank journal so look forward to that aswell. I'll head over to check your thread out, the new additions sound pretty cool.

---------- Post added 01-29-2013 at 12:53 PM ----------

Just got another wild species betta to add to my collection lol. It's a regular imbellis, but this one is the normal form and colouration of the imbellis species compared to the black form varient that I just posted above. This imbellis is wild caught, so the fins are a bit effy, but in the wild males tend to fight over females and territory so I'm not surprised. Here's the pic below, enjoy everyone.

 

[Xander505]

Alright guys, I've selected the show betta pairs which I'm going to condition for breeding this month. I'll be breeding blue mask HMPK male #1 with blue mask HMPK female #1 as well as my female black copper Ct. I'll keep everyone posted, really interested to see what I can get out of my male blue mask crossed with my females black copper Ct. Hopefully I get some crossray fry, as this female is the sibling of my black copper king Ct male (refer to page 1).

Male Blue Mask HMPK #1

Female Blue Mask #1

Black copper Ct female

I'll be breeding my wild species bettas next month, be sure to log forward to that aswell.

 

[Petross]

nice collection

 

[Xander505]

As promised in post #22, of this thread I'll show you guys an very interesting betta, that some of you may not have known existed. Here's a small piece of info for some of you fellow "exotic" betta keepers, unlike the ones I've already posted up, this species does not create a bubble nest when breeding. I'll throw in a hint aswell, this species of betta also shares the same name as one of the most aggressive and fearsome freshwater fish species in the world.
I'll post pics of the pair later this afternoon, after I pick them up. Look forward to it everyone

 

[Anonymity82]

Unfortunately, that guy probably gained that "knowledge" after being hired. They need to make sales, and that's all that matters to them. It's an industry to them, not a hobby, not a passion. "They're just fish".

I work at [enter chain pet store, don't want to get in trouble] and trust me, we don't give two craps about sales, at least I don't. We don't get commission so why does it matter? The managers care and it is true that if we boost sales we may get more hours but because pay is so low and most of us are only there PT it's not enough to sway us to sell animals at all cost.

That being said, the reason you get so many crappy employees at these stores is because they pay crap, absolutely poor training, and they hire people with little to no animal experience. I was told I wouldn't have to look anything up, well 85% of what I know was from my own research after getting hired and being tired of being stumped. I love helping customers and I always try to find the right answers if I get stumped. If I don't know the answer I'm honest about it. Unfortunately, some people, I know of at least one guy who does this, just makes crap up.

Don't forget though, we get so many customers who DO ABSOLUTELY NO RESEARCH on their own. Or we get customers who know better but don't speak up. Please, as an employee, if you know the answer to a question jump in. The employee may be offended but if he's giving off obviously terrible advice like Bettas are cold water fish (WTF?)he deserves to be offended. Chances are he'll be happy someone jumped in with some knowledge.

AS A CHAIN PET STORE EMPLOYEE I BEG OF YOU TOO SPEAK UP! (This is for anyone reading)I mean, if you say "This hamster should be eating Haze Hamster not this crap" you'll sound like a jacka$$ because there's obviously nothing us low level employees can do about that but if you say "These hamsters are tearing each other apart" or "There's no water in the bearded dragon's dish" or anything like that, instead of just shaking your head and walking away at least know I'll be happy you did. Or if you hear someone saying bearded dragons don't need UVB or something stupid like that step up and correct the employee. It's about the health of the animals and not whether or not someone gets offended.

I totally agree and I always mention it to managers and customers alike that we need to set up something much better for the bettas. It's not going to happen if people keep buying these bettas. I wish we wouldn't even sell them.

Fun fact about my chain pet store. We treat animals in a sick room. We take them to the vet, they get expensive medicines and we treat them for weeks, sometimes months. Then, if for some reason we can't sell them we adopt them out. This is something most customers don't realize and most think we just kill off any sick animals. We don't. You know who does? Many local ma and pop pet stores because they don't have hundreds of extra dollars to spend on sick hamsters. I just like to throw that out there.

---------- Post added 02-19-2013 at 11:55 AM ----------

Oh, I love your bettas!! So pretty!

 

[Xander505]

It's good to know there are honest employees out there who actually care. The guys at my local Petsmart, don't give a hoot about some of the parrots or bettas. I saw two green pacific parrotlets together, one had it's entire head covered in droppings from the other parrotlet. I asked the employee if he was going to clean the the poop out of the parrotlet's feathers, but he said no, because they bite...I asked him if they would let me do it and they also declined.
I own a few parrotlets and conures myself and I've never seen such disregard of any birds as I did at my local Petsmart.


Well back on topic about my bettas, I just picked up my Snakehead betta pair (B.channoides) and I'm currently dripping them in my 10 gal (which use to my HC planted tank, which I'm re-scaping). These guys are still juvies, just 1", still some growing space.
From above they really do look like baby snake heads lol, but probably more when I can get a few flank and mug shots. The male is obviously the darker one, as with all wild betta species lol.

In a few months I'm going to be getting my hands on a B.unimacullata Sepasu pair and a B.pallifina sp.green pair.
Well that's pretty much that lol, here's some pics of the lil snakehead bettas being dripped. I'll post more pics, once their in their tank.
If you guys are unfamiliar with these names, it's definitely worth a bit of time to search them up, they're quite stunning, did I also mention some of these mouth brooders grow up to 12cm.

 

[Anonymity82]

All I can say about that is fill out your surveys honestly if you get any. You can also send them something about that to their customer service department. Being that customers are the only reasons we all have jobs and the growing number of competitors if you mentioned the store number and your concern with pet care they may actually change it. They're not going to do anything about their slackings if nobody complains officially. Here's a contact form http://pets.petsmart.com/help/store-help/

Awesome new bettas! I can't believe how many awesome species there are and how you can just ship them! Much like my first arachnid I obsessed like crazy over my first betta. Well, my tank was too small, 2.5 gallon, two crowded and uncycled. The betta started getting fin rot, nothing serious but there were the beginning signs, so I began salt dips (which worked beautifully) and after another week gave him a to a friend who has a little 10 gallon community tank, fully planted with Co2 etc... Fish is doing great!

 

[Najakeeper]

Amazing pictures, all of a sudden I am interested in Bettas.

I would like to have a male Black Devil King CT, possibly with the giant mutation . Does something like that exist ?

 

[Xander505]

Amazing pictures, all of a sudden I am interested in Bettas.
I would like to have a male Black Devil King CT, possibly with the giant mutation . Does something like that exist ?

It most likely does, but I haven't seen any for sale yet. All the giant gene bettas I have seen so for include:

giant plakat fighters, giant halfmoon plakats and giant dumbo plakats.

---------- Post added 02-23-2013 at 10:55 PM ----------

Here's some updates on my snakehead mouth brooding bettas. The male has started displaying his breeding colours and the female is circling around in the male's territory. Might be looking at some babies soon.

Male, reddening up

Female laying under the javamoss tree, awaiting the male

 

[Xander505]

Small update, my channoides pair 2nd attempt at courtship. Just snapped a quick pic of them, going to give them their privacy this time. Tried to capture it on video last time, so maybe that's why they didn't breed.

 

[beetleman]

wow! very nice,awesome sp. of betta.

 

[Xander505]

Got good news, my channoides pair are breeding right now, yeah! Can't really get it on video, as they're behind a rock. Both are in full dress breeding colours and I can see the female picking up here eggs. They've embraced multiple times, but the female is stil plump. Hope she's not eating her own eggs. I'll let you know if the male is holding later today, or if in fact the female is eating her own eggs.

 

[Xander505]

Another quick update, the female passed all the eggs she laid up to now, to the male. The male is currently holding and his head is friggin massive! It looks like he has too much to handle as his head is dipping down from the weight of all the eggs.
What makes it worse is; she's still making the male squeeze eggs out of her. I feel bad for my male, but happy at the same time lol. Looks like I'll have an army if channoides in 15-20 days after incubation, heck yeah!

---------- Post added 03-08-2013 at 07:26 PM ----------

Here's 2 pics of the male holding, guys. Couldn't get the best pics, since the male is very cautious and protective now. Anyhow, enjoy.

You can see some of the eggs through the males lower jaw membrane, in this pic.

 

[buddah4207]

Oh wow you have some beautiful betta. I didnt know they were so many different colors and species of betta. I only ever knew of the half moon, crown tails, and the fighting plakats. You have broadened my hoizons my good man.

 

[Xander505]

Alright got another update on my channoides pair. The last time my pair bred, my male actually swallowed the eggs he was holding. I'm told it's quite common with younger pairs, so it was a bit sad. This will be breeding attempt #3 for this pair, so hopefully the male will be ready this time around. The male is starting to get into his breeding colours, so just a matter of time until the female starts to get plump again.

Female isolating herself, she did this prior to the last time before getting plump with eggs.

 

[Xander505]

Alright, just another quick update. My female is slightly plump and my male is displaying bolder breeding colours. I give them another week, until we see some results. Enjoy.

Females abdominal region getting plump

 

[myrmecophile]

Sadly it is not always young pairs that swallow, some species are just more prone than others to swallow in a tank environment. My Betta macrostoma males are consistent swallowers at day three. I can set a clock by this, other species will hold no matter what you throw at them. I had two macs spawn two weeks ago and as usual by the third day the eggs were gone.