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Betta sp. red rubra Aceh Besar


Hyzenthlay

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Recently I got a pair of wild-type betta. They are an undescribed species in the Rubra complex and are related to Betta dennisyongi. This pair was captive bred overseas and are still reasonably young. They seem like nice peaceful fish although they are mass blackworm murderers. Here is a blurry photo of the male. The pregnant-looking belly is a result of one of the blackworm frenzies.

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Anyway, they seemed to be going well and recovered from their trip to my house and coloured up really nicely. So this morning I got up and was feeding the tank when I realised the bettas hadn't come to get any food. I was pretty worried but thought that maybe my hovering around was disturbing them so tried to forget about it for a while.

Then when I got back this afternoon they had reappeared and the male now has his mouth full of eggs. Hopefully he manages to hatch them! :)

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  • HOF Member

Congratulations. Hopefully you will get a nice brood from them, good luck:encouragement:

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That's awesome news, hopefully in 21 days you'll be seeing 20-30 little fry. That male has stunning colour, fingers crossed the fry have as much if not more colour. Wild Bettas are incredibly cool! :victorious:

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Thanks everyone! I hope they hatch too.

There is something very appealing about betta species that you can keep more than one of in a tank.

These ones have very curious personalities and twist around to inspect you when you come over. Makes it hard to get anything other than a front on photo though.

They are a bit less colourful now that they are no longer trying to impress each other but still very pretty fish. I also noticed that they have the blue eyes like blue-eye rainbows when the light hits them.

Poor guy going without food for all those days! Hopefully fry come of it! I hear that sometimes first time dads end up eating the eggs but hopefully he manages it. If not, at least I know these two like each other. :P

Their courting is so weird looking though. I saw them 'hugging' a few times last night and the colouring made me think they might want to spawn but I didn't get to see them actually passing eggs to one another.

Also, seeing as I only got them late last week they really didn't waste any time.

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The hugging thing is them wrapping & actually mating, the female pics up the eggs first the swaps them with the male. If he is still holding them in a week you can be pretty sure he'll go full term. My Macrostoma's had about five goes before he help them for the full term, then he did two back to back. We had the wild god come over from Indonesia to guest judge our Betta show in October, his name is Hermanus Haryanto & he is the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. He gave a few talks on wilds, breeding & showing, so interesting to hear how he breeds his fish. He gave me an autographed photo of one of his Betta Rubra's & yours is very similar. It is very cool to be able to keep more than one Betta in your tank. :victorious:

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Yeah, I think the hugging was them kind of 'practicing' mating before they actually transferred any eggs because they only did it for a second or so. They must have figured it out though. :P

I think my pair are actually originally from Hermanus. He was the one that clarified the locale for the species broodstock as no-one was quite sure what to refer to these bettas as because although they are closely related to rubra and dennisyongi they don't seem to be quite either. It might be hard to get a better photo at the moment as the male is extra shy now he has those eggs but I will try.

Do you have many types, Squiggle? I swear I need a bigger house so I can have a wall of tanks and have all the fish and shrimp I need! However, I can't afford the house because I bought too many shrimp and fish. :)

Are the males ok after having multiple broods? If he carries these to term should I separate him and the female for a bit so he doesn't get too worn out? Or will he just tell her he has a headache or something if he's not feeling up to it?

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I've got lots of halfmoons but I'm trying to concentrate on my wilds, I have got my two favourites, Channoides & Macrostoma's, I have a few of each & I hope to be getting some Albimarginata's soon, if all goes well with a friends pairs. :victorious:

My males seem to do ok but it's not recommended to do back to back spawns, most people say you should split the up to condition the male for the three week fast but my boys manage. I've also left both parents in with the fry & they leave them alone but I would just keep an eye on them & if they snack on one or two fry then out they go, lol. :encouragement:

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Yeah, when I have room for another tank I was considering getting a pair of channoides.

Thanks for the advice. :) If he holds them full term I'll separate them for a bit so he can rest. By then my breeding net should be free.

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Yeah, they are really nice and seem quite friendly. I think I have the wild betta bug now. :S More tanks required.

Pity I can't put them with CBS and ever see another shrimplet again.

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Yeah' date=' they are really nice and seem quite friendly. I think I have the wild betta bug now. :S More tanks required.

Pity I can't put them with CBS and ever see another shrimplet again.[/quote']

Mate I totally know what you mean!! I got 2 male Albi's holding ATM .... should release any day now .... depending on numbers (and how many Squig wants) maybe a swap when they are bigger???

I also got 2 pairs wild caught Brownorun and 2 pairs wild caught foerschi but no breeding action there yet.

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Yeah, I'd be willing to swap at some point. I'm hoping I can somehow find room for another tank. Otherwise I'll be looking for good homes for the babies anyway at some point as I doubt I can keep more than one or two.

Today I moved my holding male into a breeding net with a cave and lots of leaf shelter. I know moving him could have made him swallow the eggs but I felt sorry for him getting sexually harassed by the female while trying to hold eggs and hiding under a leaf with the kuhli loaches. She actually may have made him swallow the first lot of eggs a few days ago but then he had another bigger lot the next day. I was actually trying to catch her but she wouldn't be caught or tricked with food and he was hovering right there as if begging me to catch him.

He's still holding and seems a bit more relaxed. If he does drop them at least I will be able to target feed him to fatten him up before releasing him back with the sex maniac blackworm queen.

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Awesome that they bred again straight away. My 9 fry are doing well.:encouragement: Beautiful fish.

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Glad to hear the fry are doing well! My male somehow jumped 5cm high out of the holding net and back into the main tank. He's still holding though. Now I'm just worried that if I can't effectively separate them they might breed every time possible before the male has time to recover and he might get run down and die. Maybe I could put something over the top of the net next time I manage to catch one? Tricksy fish! I was trying to help him!

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Yeah Bettas are the king of high jumpers, they'd even give Steve Hooker a run for his money, I lost a Macrostoma male to this & their aim is pretty good too! :victorious:

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The female jumped pretty far when I tried to catch her but I thought the male might stay put if he wanted privacy. Apparently not. Lucky the breeding box was internal so there was nowhere else for him to go but back in the water. Annoying thing is they are pretty smart fish and won't be letting me get a net near them for a while.

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  • 8 months later...

Thought I'd see everyone's updates on their wild bettas?

Would love to get some red rubra, but they are a species I'd much prefer locally bred as so many seem to have been imported there must be people with juvies by now ;)

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