Betta

[chin]

Was hoping to get to know more people who have the same passion for bettas.

Maybe we can share experiences and tips.

[budak]

There's some discussion in the Freshwater Fishes section (Anabantoids subsection): on both Betta splendens as well as the different wild species.

[hwchoy]

To elaborate on what budak is saying, "Betta" refers to a large genus of about 60 species of "fighting fishes". The most well known being Betta splendens aka Siamese fighting fish. In reality most members of the Betta family comes from the Sunda islands (i.e. Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo/Kalimantan).

So when you ask about "Betta" it is important to say if you are interested in Betta as in the family, or "fancy Betta" which means the various bred forms of Betta splendens (i.e. your CT, HM, etc).

[benny]

Alternatively, there is a Betta Club in Singapore and they have a forum too. There are also various Betta sub groups such as bettabite and www.arofanatics.com's betta forum. But most of these are show betta clubs.

Cheers,

p.s. I'll move this to the anabantoids section.

[MrTree]

For wild betta question, just post here.

[ApistoRanch]

I'm a huge betta fan and breder of HM,CT,HMPK,Fighters, PK, CTPk i don't care the tail type other then vail. Don't realy care for the vail. Although there is a few of the vails that have a ton of color.

[Justikanz]

Perhaps someone can do a simple introduction to the terms used for Betta splendens variants, something similar to this thread? Sometimes when other members who do not know as much reads your posts, they might not be able to know what is going on... Help us to broaden everyone's knowledge. Thanks!

[ApistoRanch]

I'll give it a go. I have a few that's knowen and some that mainly betta breders will know.
But here we go. I'll go from the most commonly used for bettas. Alot of people call bettas { bay-t-a, or bet-ta} I use the bayta { betta} on the commonly used tail types,theres so many. But all the ones I'm going to list or for betta splender main tail types and non of the wilds.

VT- Vail Tail
CT- Crown Tail
CTPK- Crown Tail Plakat
DT- Delta Tail
SD- Super Delta
DT- Double Tail or ST- Split Tail both the same
HM- Half Moon
OHM- Over Half Moon
HMPK- Half Moon Plakat
OHMPK- Over Half Moon Plakat
PK- Plakat
FPK- fighter Plakat
PF- pure fighter

Now there's also a number of others used by breders and collocter, even sellers.
Monster- monster has few differnt meanings in my book, but other say it's a Masked betta with a differnt colored mask that has or hasn't devloped completly.

Mask- Mask is where the color of the betta flows into the face and is a complete covrage of the face are so there is full msk and half masked bettas.

Geno- Geno is where your breding to get a surtten tail type like DT { Double tail } and the fry comes out with just 20% DT. Well the rest of the fry had the DT gene in them so that when they reproduce the gene could be in the fry. So Geno

So there's a few of the ones I deal with everyday.

[cwtan12]

Maintaining the finnage of Halfmoons and Crowntails are not very difficult if you are experienced. After a few years in grooming and breeding, I have somehow lost the interest in competiton grade bettas. More interested in breeding wild bettas nowadays.

Just post your questions here. I am sure there are a lot who can answer. You can also read the articles from www.bettysplendens.com. I find Victoria's website one of the most informative. As for the source, I have been getting from www.siamimbellis.com for a few years. Sarawut is the one you should look for top grade halfmoon. Alternatively you can check it out at www.aquabid.com

[cwtan12]

ApistoRanch, isn't VT should be Veil Tail instead of Vail Tail?

To add on, the abbreviations commonly used especially in Singapore are:

Geno = genotype
Pheno = phenotype
BBE = Baby Brine Shrimps
BSE = Brine Shrimp Eggs
BW = BloodWorm
Tubi = Tubifex
MG = Mustard Gas (Patterned blue body and yellow finnages)
BF = Butterfly (Finnages consist of 2 colours)
Sala = Salamander (Blue body with red finnages)
ER = Extended Red
NR = Non-red eg orange and yellows

For example, the betta splendens at my avaltar is a non-red DTHM

As for Doubletails, my understanding is different from ApistoRanch's. THese are quoted from www.bettysplendens.com:Breeding DTs can be a tricky business, since the mutation is prone to spinal problems and deformities. Breeding DT x DT will produce 100% DT, but these pairings also produce a higher likelihood of bent spines and other faults. The usual procedure is to breed DT to ST, which reduces the occurance of spinal problems in the offspring and also serves to lengthen the dorsals of the ST fry produced from the pairing. A first generation spawn of a DT betta to a betta which does not carry the DT gene will produce all ST bettas, most of which will also be heterozygous for DT. The designation for a ST betta which carries the DT gene is ST/dt. Spawning ST/dt x ST/dt will produce approximately 25% DT. Spawning a DT to a ST/dt will produce a higher (approx. 50%) yield of DT offspring..
I totally agree with her from my past DT breeding experience.