briztoon Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 Picked up my new Betta sp. Mahachai and Betta smaragdina pairs yesterday and took a couple of quick photos before work today. Only photos of the males. The females are in large fry saver nets in the tanks, so don't photograph well. Betta smaragdina Betta sp. Mahachai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gulp Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 Pretty fishies! Nice photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_95 Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 They look great Peter! The mahachai are my favourite in the complex, I would really like to give them another go one day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 They look great, congrats no them. Hope they breed for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 Gosh they look so similar. If I had them both in my fishroom I think I might get them mixed up. The mahachai looks to have more green irid than the smaragdina which would be counterintuitive for my aging brain. I would naturally expect the smaragdina (emerald) would be more green. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forever_and_a_day Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 gorgeous boys. i absolutely love the finnage on the smaragdina <3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briztoon Posted May 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 Thanks guys and girls. Bettarazzi wait for me to take some better photos. The Smaragdina has a darker red layer, so the green layer doesn't always show as bright, but at times he can positively shine, just depends on his mood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieBell Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 (edited) Wow these are amazing! Never seen them before. Gorgeous! I want some now. They look very similar to me but I like the second one better Where did you get them? Edited May 21, 2012 by Steph90 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briztoon Posted May 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 G'day Steph90, These are wild form Betta from the Splendens complex. There are four wild species in the Splendens complex, B. splendens, B. imbellis, B. smaragdina and B. Sp. Mahachai. I found this website that might help wild bettas, Plakat Thai. And here is an article on B. mahachai, Bettas in Peril: The Mahachai Situation. I was talking to someone on Sunday and she was telling me how almost all of the areas where mahachai used to be found have be turned in to salt flats. I live two short bus rides from LFS. And someone sells on line and can be found on YouTube here, someone. As of Sunday, there was one pair of smaragdina still for sale and possibly 5 pairs of mahachai and a few unpaired males. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieBell Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 Cool! I did a bit of a google search and found some of those articles. I was reading that you can house the pairs together. Do you find them to be aggressive toward each other at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yanagi Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 I'm not Briztoon but in my own experience they are aggressive towards each other but given a lot of cover they tend to just flare and then get on with their day. In a sparse tank, boys got beaten up by the dominant one and females hid themselves away. This goes for both species. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadoh Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 I briefly kept Mahachai and didn't have any aggression at all. A little flaring and such, but no nipping. As Yan mentioned above, they need plenty of hiding spots. My tank was planted quite heavily and had a piese of driftwood running down the middle so fish were rarely in each others line of site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afr3178 Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) From what I've read you can't or aren't supposed to keep two bubble nesters together. Same goes for mouth brooders. But you can keep a bubble nester and a mouth brooder together. That's what I've read, never tested so not sure if it is true. When I said two together, I mean two different species of bubble nester or mouth brooder :) Edited May 22, 2012 by afr3178 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briztoon Posted May 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) Hi afr3178, I think Steph90 was asking if it was possibly to keep a pair together, not whether it was ok to keep two species together. This is my second attempt at keeping and breeding wild type Splendens. I kept both mahachai and smaragdina about 18 months ago, but never successfully raised a spawn. My smaragdina pair never spawned. My mahachai pair spawned a few times, but the fry never survived past 3 days. I eventually gave up and concentrated on apistogramma (dwarf cichlids) which I found much easier. My tanks had a lot of driftwood and plants in then, so I never had a problem keeping pairs together. There was often a little chasing by the male, but as soon as the female dived under some driftwood or into a clump of Java fern, the chasing stopped. This time round, by tanks aren't planted, as I've gone bare bottom, with plants growing on driftwood. So there is not as much cover, and the chasing by the males has been a bit more intense, especially by the mahachai male. So I put the females in large breeder nets in the tank. OK, a couple of full tank shots, and my smaragdina boy was a bit busy this morning between bouts of flaring at the mahachai male next door and displaying to his female in the breeder net. Mahachai tank. Female in breeder net. Smaragdina tank. Female in breeder net. And when I checked on them this morning I found the smaragdina male had built a large bubble nest under a IAL leaf. He has taken up residence in one of the tubes next to his bubble nest, comes out and blows some bubbles, does a lap of the tank, displays at the female, then goes back in to his tube ready to ambush anything that comes close to his nest. I'll feed up the female a little before releasing her back in to the tank. And learn how to culture some green water and and build a new bbs hatchery. Edited May 22, 2012 by briztoon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afr3178 Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 Oh, my bad haha. Great tanks by the way! They look really good congrats on the bubble nest too! Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieBell Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 Yep! That's what I meant. Male and female of same species living together. Guess it's like having a sorority. If you don't have lots of cover they chomp on each other! Nice bubble nest :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melbournebetta Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 Now these are two wild species I'd consider- they're beautiful. Best of luck with them, thanks for sharing photos - please keep us posted with them won't you? -Ness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briztoon Posted June 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 I have been feeding up both pairs for the last couple of weeks on live black worm and live mosquito larvae, along with freeze dried black worm and Hikari betta pellets. On Saturday I did a 50% water change on each tank and released the females back in to the tanks. Woke up Sunday to find a large bubble nest in each tank. The Smaragdina male chased the female a little, but spent most of the time alternating displaying to her and checking on his nest. The female had coloured up a lot and showed a lot of green iridescent/metallic scales. The Mahachai male pretty much chased his female on sight, often flaring and displaying to her while chasing her through all the plants and driftwood. The female showed a lot of purple iridescence over much of her body. Yesterday I noticed the the leaf under which the Smaragdina male had his bubble nest had sunk, but that he had moved into one of the floating tube in the tank, and when I looked closely, I could see a bubble nest inside the tube. Both yesterday and today he chased the female on site, but spends most of his time in the tube. The Mahachai male still had his original bubble nest, but now spends almost all his time under the nest. The female has been in hiding for the last two days. I found her hiding under some sunken Ketapang leaves. Today I put both females back in to the breeding nets, so they aren't harassed. OK, I know the general rule of photos, or didn't happen. I tried, but because of where the nest are, and the glare from the tank lights, you can't see too much. For the same reasons I can't see if there are eggs or tails in the nests. Smaragdina male guarding his nest. Inside the tube, checking on his nest. Top right hand tube. Mahachai photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briztoon Posted June 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 Well I am guessing both spawns were unsuccessful. I have been waiting to see some free swimming fry. Today I saw one in the Smaragdina tank. Dad came over to it and had two half attempts at it, before it dove in amongst the plants. Both males appear to have new bubble nests in new tubes, and aren't interested in the old nests. And they are again displaying at each other, and checking on the females in the breeder nets, which they weren't doing when looking after their old nests. I'll look at feeding up both pairs for another fortnight before I think about introducing the females back in to the tanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briztoon Posted June 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2012 I did a big water change and tank vacuum on both of the wild tanks on Wednesday and let the girls in with the boys for a play. Pretty sure both pairs had spawned again by Friday. Big bubble nests in each tank, nothing new. So this morning, I had a couple over buying some Apistogramma, and the wife is down having a look at the wilds (tanks are on the bottom tier of my stand), and she says one male has two nests. So yup, sure enough after laying on my back and looking up in to the tank, the male Smaragdina has a nest under a IAL at the front right corner of the tank and a second nest under a second IAL at the back right corner of the tank, and is dividing his time between the two. But every time the Smaragdina male swims between his two nests he has to stop for a flaring competition with the Mahachai male, because the Mahachai male has built his nest under a IAL half way along the glass at left end of his tank. So the two males have built their nests practically next to each other where they can see each other. Smaragdina rear corner nest. Smaragdina front corner nest. Mahachai nest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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