Betta imbellis

**Enda** · 19th Apr 2009, 18:23

Hi all,

Sharing some pictures of my Betta imbellis:

Here's my first male. It's not actually the first imbellis I kept. I had 4 other fish before this one that died on me.

This is the first fish that has done really quite well.

Here's another photo of the same fish.

Here are two others that I bought recently. The male on the left is the largest of my three fish. I thought the one on the right might be a female, but it now looks more like a male. See the next pic.

This is a close-up of the fish on the right. Any input on whether this is a male or female? Looks more like a male right?.

This is the best picture I've got of my two males flaring at each other. There's a divider between the two of them in this picture. The one of the right is the same male in the first two photos, and the one on the left the second, larger male. Note the different patterns on their tales.

Right now all three are in separate tanks. Safer for them all. My first male harassed another to death previously and I don't want to take any risks now. I'm working on filling my 1.5' with more plants and wood so I can hopefully keep more fish in one tank.

Anyone has females to share?

**Mez** · 20th Apr 2009, 01:57

That other fish is a sub dominant male.
I wouldnt mix males.

**Enda** · 20th Apr 2009, 15:37

That other fish is a sub dominant male.
I wouldnt mix males.

Yup, I've got them all separated now. But the two in the same tank, separated by a divider, tend to jump over the tank divider. Maybe they like to be with each other.

**mictok** · 20th Apr 2009, 22:41

Originally Posted by Enda

Yup, I've got them all separated now. But the two in the same tank, separated by a divider, tend to jump over the tank divider. Maybe they like to be with each other.

They are high jump expert,I use to keep a male that will jump to and fro the divider 2-3 times a day.

**Mez** · 21st Apr 2009, 01:33

Enda, what channa do you keep?

**Enda** · 21st Apr 2009, 09:57

I had a single bleheri, but recently sold it off to another brother on this forum cos I don't have the space to keep a group and try to breed them.

They are high jump expert,I use to keep a male that will jump to and fro the divider 2-3 times a day.

Ya, I've given up trying to catch them back already. I now have the first male and the sub-dominant one in a 1.5' divided into two. They keep jumping back and forth. The largest male is in another 1' by himself.

Last night, the first male had a really odd colouration which I've never seen before. The front half of his body was much lighter (like stress colouration) than the rear half (normal dark colouration). There was a neat straight dividing line in the centre of his body.

The first time I heard of this happening was in a B. ideii belonging to Haji Badaruddin:

http://www.petfrd.com/forum/showthre...ighlight=ideii

Any input on why this happens? Stress? Some kind of infection? My fish looks fine so far, but it didn't eat last night.

**Enda** · 23rd Apr 2009, 13:39

Here's a picture of the fish I was talking about: the rear half of the body is dark coloured, but the front half is light, like stress colouration.

Any explanation for this

**Enda** · 23rd Apr 2009, 13:41

A couple of pictures of two males flashing at each other. One of them got across the tank divider, and I took these pictures yesterday.

**iwishweallcouldwin** · 24th Apr 2009, 09:31

Sexy looking pair with nice ventrals

**dexter** · 29th Apr 2009, 13:49

very nice! thankz for sharing

**Enda** · 1st May 2009, 14:19

Thanks all for the kind comments.

Anyway, the half coloured fish passed on.

It had a fungal infection, kept hanging around the surface and eventually stopped eating. I think the infection probably arose from injury inflicted by another male.

Lesson learnt: keep males separate and deal with suspected infections promptly. I've read that malachite blue and salt dosing, with the "Japanese yellow powder'' antibiotic works well on wild Betta. Any input on this?