Betta Pugnax

[akshaykhare]

Hi Guys !
Greetings From India,
Its my very first step in keeping bettas and that too mouthbrooders !!!
Acquired a pair of Pugnax from thailand from a friend on his trip almost a month back from today. For the very first time seeing them, I assumed both of these as males as never had any experience about the species nor did anyone was very successful in breeding these beauties here in India .
These fought on their arrival at the very first instance after putting both of them in one 10 gallon tank and ripped each other a lot. From that day onwards I gave both the fish their indvidual tanks and tried introducing on several coming weekends which ended in same disaster resulting in one fish going underground and both with severe scale damage and ripped fins !!!.

Well reading everything might feel boring so here go the pics :

( PLZ NOTE : The following pics are taken with my crapy mobile cam, )
will surely try to improve hence forth



The Male



The Female (which i found to be so just a few days ago !!

The following video showcases thier love towards each other (joking)
It shows them engaged in liplock



Such fights would last for atleast 2 hrs until one succumbed !

Heres a shot after one(female) almost displaying as if dead :



After intense surfing, forum-scouting, reading articles and trying not being impatient,
Today after a quick water change I introduced again my Female Betta Pugnax into the Male tank wherein she paired up within a few minutes !!!! Now hope they spawn soon !

A shot after the Female color transformation swimming besides the male



Another shot :



From the last day what i m observing is that theres is fight btw the both but the MALE always dominates and the FEMALE always lays low and only surfaces when feeding !!! Hope this is normal,
Any tips what might trigger spawning ???


Regards,
Akshay,
Maharashtra, India.

[akshaykhare]

Pair in Embrace in the top left, (apologies for the crapy pic did venture much close as it might disturb the pair)

Regards,
Akshay

[akshaykhare]

16 days hence found a fry but the male is still holding !! Thinking of stripping the male !

Heres a pic of one of the only fry now fully visible out of the males mouth kept him in a plastic container and dropped in some newly hatched BBS :

[longkanghee]

good job! well done keep breeding them.

[akshaykhare]

Update :

The pair spawned again on the 13th of Jan, took the following pics







And
the fry grow out tank :



Babies munching at bbs:



Regards,
Akshay