Betta sp. Palangkaraya

[Emokidz]

Probably one of the betta species I never thought I'd get a chance to see in person - Betta sp. Palangkaraya, was introduced into the wild betta hobby just recently during 2009, under the Coccina complex (My favourite complex!). Personally, I'd place it on my list of some of the beautiful and fascinating of its complex, alongside uberis, burdigala and the subtly beautiful persephone. And after reading Stefan's post about this little gem on Petfrd.com almost 2 years ago, I started my long hunt.

After over a year of asking around, reading up and checking online sources, the opportunity finally came. Just a while back, I did two separate orders of this species. The two pairs from my first order have since grown up and done really well. One pair starting to breed.

Conditions I'm keeping them at:

Temp: 26 - 29 degrees
pH: 4.0-5.5
Diet: Frozen blood worms, Frozen BBS, Live Daphnia, Live BBS, Live Tubifex
Tank setup: No substrate, java ferns, Ketapang leaves, 1 Black film cannister


Now, time for some pictures... Enjoy!

Male - The male's irids never fail to amaze me when I shine my torch into the tea-stained ketapang water. Greenish on side view and deep blue when shone from above, the irids are really amazing for such a tiny fish (3-3.5 cm currently).





Wish my digicamera could have focused better for that shot though... Would have been great... But oh well, plent more opportunities for future posts!

Now for the Female.. Probably always my favourite in each pair. The female is slightly plumper and has subtle colours, echoing that of the male's. If well-conditioned and observed carefully, the subtle iridiscence is a form of beauty in itself - not overly flashy, but mesmerising on its own.



Patterning on the female's caudal, and dorsal fins are similar to that of the male..


The pair taking some frozen bloodworms.. A staple in their diet.




After weeks of conditioning, the female was fat with eggs and displayed vertical-barring. A great sign of a possible and upcoming spawn.





True enough, a bubble nest was built at the frontof my tank. Didn't seem like much, so I just left them alone. No spawning occurred at this nest. Possibly because it was a very open area.


After waiting a bit longer, the male eventually set up his nest in the film cannister I floated at the back of the tank. Before I knew it, spawning had taken place and the male was taking care of his brood. A successful spawn!

A proud father hanging his fry...




Right now, the fry are free swimming and taking live daphnia and the infusoria in the tank. Will monitor and continue to feed them. Hopefully, with success. Also, I just checked and the pair spawned a second time as there are eggs in the bubble nest again. So will see what happens and keep you guys updated.


On a side note, what was sold as 'rutilans' at Y618 previously has grown up and has confirmed my suspicion that they arent Betta rutilans, but Betta brownorum! Great fishes. Love the large lateral spots.
Here are some pictures of mine. I think I may have a pair within the 6 fishes I got.







Awesome fish. I think brownorums are cute in their own right. Simple, but unique and beautiful too.

[Fendi]

Congrats Bernard..
Great looking female pics..
Now that's a sp palangkaraya made in Singapore...

[astro]

nice bro. Congrats on the spawn

[griffinkid]

Wow, this is indeed a very rare betta breed. Looking good there! *envious*

[Emokidz]

Congrats Bernard..
Great looking female pics..
Now that's a sp palangkaraya made in Singapore...

Thanks Fendi! Had to take many shots to get a decent one. The tank is really dark and they come out only very Occassionally. But yup I like the picture as it captures the fine details on the female which many people think would look drab if not well captured. Just managed to get an even better shot and pictures of fry too. Stay tuned for the post!

[Emokidz]

nice bro. Congrats on the spawn

Haha thanks!

[Emokidz]

Wow, this is indeed a very rare betta breed. Looking good there! *envious*

Thanks griffinkid! Yes, sp. palangkaraya does come by often at all. Have Reid to acquire this species numerous times before without any success. Guess the hunt has finally paid off now that I've found them. Stay tuned for updates!

[Shi Xuan]

Wow, Bernard, nice to see them spawning for you. I've been busy lately and seldom have time for the fishes but I'm still keeping the pair and they are still the same, just slightly larger.

I think it's time you start working on the brownorum as well. They are nice fish, really.

[Emokidz]

Thanks SX, will probably try breeding the browns soon. They are really neat fish too. Right now the palangkaraya fry are doing good and taking daphnia and vinegar eels.

[oddstamp]

Congrats on your success of breeding the sp Palangkaraya and the very nice pics taken. Seems like a good time to spawn the coccinas complex members.. The green irids on the male of this strain seems to very outstanding espacially when compared with the other coccinas complex members or uberis from other locations.

Yup sometimes brownorums are sold as other coccinas complex members in the local shops... to me differentiating the female rutilans from the female brownorums is abit tricky... from observations what seems helpful so far is that if a whitish coloring can be seen (or what looks like a white "masking" ) higher chance it's probably a browonrum female.

[Emokidz]

Thanks! Yes I've noticed something like that too. Brownorums seem to have a light greenish brown masking. Some brownorum females have the lateral spot which makes it much easier to distinguish between rutilans. I'd like attempt breeding them as brownorums aren't that easy to come by and they are really beautiful in their own right. Then again, the uberis and Persephone are fully grown and their line should be continued too before they get old. Trying to find other breeders who have them for a swap so I don't have to inbreed.

Yes I think the weather has taken a favorable turn. The pair has since spawned 2 more times and the 3rd batch of fry are hanging in the nest. Yolk sacs almost fully gone. Should be about 2-3 more days depending on the weather/temperature. All big spawns of about 10 - 20. Feeding their siblings vinegar eels and daphnia twice daily in small amounts. Might have to separate the parents soon to stop overproduction. Will probably give less protein rich foods for a week or so before that.

[Emokidz]

Some updates. The previous batch of fry are now about 0.75cm in length and feeding on daphnia, flake and tubifex. Parents have grown slightly bigger and are spawning regularly. I just leave the fry with their parents and though a few go missing (I'm quite sure they either die or get eaten), there still is a fair amount of free swimming fry (~15 per batch) which is fine since I'm not planning on having too many. Here are some pictures...

Here's the male...





Irids look green from the sides, but turn deep blue when light is shone from above.





Female...



Eggs!





Fry!



More eggs!




More fry!!!!



Busy father...



And thats why I'm not too concerned about leaving thme with the parents. Hope you guys enjoyed!

[Shi Xuan]

Seems like you managed to get them spawn like rabbits...so how large are the adults now? I'm still waiting for news to see if I could get any breeding pairs of sp. Palangkaraya and burdigala "Kubu".

On the side note, how's your uberis doing? I might want to exchange some fishes with you soon. My oldest fry are about 2 cm already and I could see them sparing with one another.

[Emokidz]

Oh. I havent gotten down to spawning the uberis yet. Haha. You might have to wait a bit longer. Yea the adults are about 3 cm now. Doing really well and spawning.

[stormhawk]

Bernard, those Palangkaraya are looking splendid. Good catch on the brownorum, even though I missed the original post.

You stopped keeping the channoides already?

[Fendi]

Hi Bernard.. Nice update.. Looks fantastic..I'm having paros filamentosus comes this Feb,intrested?

[hmlc74]

nice pic , have any pic for the growing fry

[Emokidz]

Bernard, those Palangkaraya are looking splendid. Good catch on the brownorum, even though I missed the original post.

You stopped keeping the channoides already?

Hi Jianyang, yup, no longer keeping channoides or other mouth brooders to focus on the coccina complex alone. Haha.

[Emokidz]

Hi Bernard.. Nice update.. Looks fantastic..I'm having paros filamentosus comes this Feb,intrested?

Haha thanks! Yup, they are really pretty fish. Thanks for the offer, but I'm currently saving space for the bettas haha. Will concentrate on them for now.

[Emokidz]

nice pic , have any pic for the growing fry

Thanks! Yup, will update in a bit. The first batch of fry are about 1cm in length now. But the water is stained brown and they hide in the java moss and under the ketapang leaves.