BETTA TRIVIA

Episode #1: Did you know that bettas can not digest sticks?

When feeding live foods such as white worms and grindle worms it is difficult to totally clean them. The worms get all tangled up in the root fibres and little sticks of wood that come with the soil. The fish get so aggressive when feeding that they often swallow the sticks and roots.

One day I noticed a bump on left side of one of my fish. As I kept track of it, it seemed to be growing larger! The next day a brown thing erupted from it and kept getting longer and longer. Sure enough it was a stick that the fish had swallowed with the worms I was feeding it and that is how the fish got rid of it! He just pushed it right out of his side until it fell off! As far as I know there was no bleeding and the fish never once showed any signs of distress or pain. The hole is all healed over now and the fish is in fine health.

 

 

Episode #2: Did you know that Marble bettas were first developed in jail?

Yes, apparently it is true! According to Mr. Walt Maurus in his book "Bettas A Complete Introduction," this variety of betta was developed by an inmate of the Indiana State Prison named Orville Gulley. He was trying to produce a black butterfly betta in his jail cell in peanut butter jars and he was selling his excess fish to Walt. Marbles showed up in among these extras and have been kept going by many other breeders. There are marbled bettas of almost every colour combination possible now.

 

Episode #3: Did you know that the black melano betta was produced by a Doctor using X-ray radiation?

Yes, apparently Dr. Pronger (I think I have his name right) exposed some fertilized betta eggs to x-ray radiation and some of the resultant fry turned black in colour. I believe he also did the same with angelfish eggs. These melano bettas  are fine looking fish, but the female melanos don't produce viable eggs. Apparently the mutation that produced the black pigment also changed the nature of the egg membranes so that they are no longer water proof and none of them ever hatch. That's the trouble with radiation…you can't just focus it on one gene.

 

Some people do not believe that this story is true, but I do. One day I came acroos an account od this experiment and it was detailed enough to convince me because it gave the level of radiation that the Dr. used to fry the eggs. The only trouble is…I've misplaced the article and am still looking for it.

Episode #4: Did you know that some female bettas will do anything to avoid sex?

Just look at these pictures (photo 60 and 61) to see how far this marble female went to get away from the black plakat male. They were only in a 2-1/2 gallon aquarium so there wasn't much room to hide. Every time I would let her out so the male could court her she would jump and make a perfect landing on top of the ½ Styrofoam cup I put in the aquarium to protect the bubblenest.

After awhile I would chase her off because I didn't want her to dry off. As soon as the male would chase her again, however, she would leap right back onto the cup making a perfect landing every time. They never did spawn (...so far).

  
 

PHILADELPHIA AREA BETTA SOCIETY (P.A.B.S.)

INTERNATIONAL SHOW AND AUCTION

May 13-15, 2005

Here are some photos of that show. Unfortunately, the camera battery was getting low when I got to the fish and I forgot my charger, but hopefully you can see these weird fish. In addition to the photos I got to meet some great people including the President of the club Paul Cipriano, the Head Judge Rich Christman, another judge Sieg Illig, Jack Tobin, Clayton Crawford, and my favourite, Phil Lafferty ("The Old Dragon"). Please, notice the intensity of these judges as they evaluate the fish.

I guess that the best part of the show for me was observing the excitement and enthusiasm of William Rizzolo winning his first "First Prize" with his yellow female.

 
One half of the show fish carded up.   Head Judge Rich Christman.
 
Picking Best of Show.   Judge Sieg Illig
 
A neat butterfly (not for auction).   A marble butterfly crowntail?
     

 

PROPOSED SET-UP FOR A PET STORE BETTA DISPLAY:

In order to sell show bettas in a pet store you must first convince the store owner that they will sell for an inflated price compared to his normal Singapore bettas. I believe that half moon bettas will sell very easily if they are 1. well lit and 2. given enough room to flare.

When people see the half moon tails on the new metallic colours they will want to own them.

So, here is a set-up that I am using in a Canadian petstore.

The first element are rectangular jars about 1 litre in volume with dividers made out of cut-up duo-tang covers or sectioned placemats:

 

These jars can be purchased at most Dollar Stores. Then the jars are placed on a shelf with a mirror behind them and another white placemat is placed behind them. This larger placemat can be removed and expose 4 or 5 males to their reflection at one time:

The mirrors can be purchased at Home Depot for about $12.

A sign is necessary to let the customer know that it is OK for them to pull out the dividers and watch the fish that they are interested in flaring at his neighbor. If the dividers are replaced then the fish will always be fresh and respond every time with a nice aggressive flare that will show them off well.

ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESS:

1. front lighting - in order for the colours of these fish to show off well ceiling spot lights must hung in such away as to shine directly on the fish from above and in front.

2. mirror behind - to make flaring easy to see a mirror behind the jars is essential. When a male flares at a fish beside him it is not as readily observed as it is when he flares at a fish behind him... even if it is a reflection.

3. cards between fish - if fish see each other all of the time then their flare response reduces until they no longer flare. So, cards between them gives them a rest and ensures that they are fresh.

4. food, containers, heaters and support(books and websites) - these must be available for the customer to be willing to risk trying something new.

5. workers enthusiasm - if the workers are excited about this new variety of bettas then they will push them to the customer and answer their questions. Hopefully, one of the workers will set up a breeding tank on one of the store counters for the customers to be able to watch them spawn.

GOOD LUCK IN YOU QUEST!!!

If we can convince enough stores to adopt this set-up, maybe someday all bettas in pet stores around the world will be housed properly and given the respect that they deserve!

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