Isnt He Beautiful?
 

[IMG]http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k98/waqnt4rain/fwbettashmp1191422772.jpg[/IMG]

he was also quite expensive. :)

i should have him here next Wednesday or Thursday. his long trip from Thailand will be difficult but he comes from strong bloodlines.

he will find his new home in a 5g planted with creeping dwarf baby tears, val and a lovely piece of driftwood and a little terra cotta pot.

some name ideas are-
Bartolomeo Cristofori
Fervido
Ardente

any thoughts??

our names for bettas have been pretty consistent. males are all named after Greek lettering. A Betta, A Delta, A Upsilon.... my only female is Bernadette. no real trend set with the girls so far. i like Bartolomeo Cristofori best i think. we have a thing for long names here. lol!

-ashley

I don't know much about fish (other than the two goldies we've had for ages) but he's gorgeous. I kinda like "Bart" :D for a name.

i guess Thailand breeders arent very careful about sexing their fish for bidding because i kept looking and looking... he was labeled as a SHE but looked like a HE. come to find out im getting two fish (i guess).

ive had trouble keeping bettas and i suspect it has more to do with the stock than my ability to keep fish. i lost my last one before Bernadette to cancer. the others had similar wasting disease. we use no commercial cleaners outside of the dishwasher in the rooms the fish are in, they get a variety of live food and i ahve used two different water sources for them and they all died of wasting diseases.

hopefully importing one will work around the issues with stock here.

-ashley

I love plakats.:)

Hopefully you have better luck with your new additions. I haven't had any problems with my 2 and one came from petco one from LFS, but I have had problems with other fish from certain stores, so I understand issues with certain stock.

You could try running salt in their tanks if you don't already. I personally am not an advocate for salt use in general, but many people swear that bettas in particular do better with it.

What kind of live foods were you feeding? Some in particular can harbor nasty bacteria or act as an intermediate host for certain parasites.

WOW - he is a beauty. I would not have known he was a Betta though - I always thought they were blue or red.

they actually come in several different colors. yellow, cellophane, turquoise, green, blue, steel blue, red, black.... few different named patterns like marble, cambodia, dragon, monster... then different tail variances such as crown tail, plakats, double tail, delta tail (i believe the pic of mybirdisevil is a delta tail?) and then your regular veil tail.

im sure ive missed some there. :)


my first betta wasnt really a betta, SHE was a goldfish and her name was A Betta. thats what Cailyn told me at 3yo anyway. we had A Betta for 3 years. he lived in a filtered 2.5g tank. not knowing any better, i broke down his tank and scrubbed the whole thing out. the ammonia build up is what ended up speeding up old age. thats the fish who got me into this whole aquarium thing. in an attempt to find out what was makign him sick, i found my fishy forum... found out others who loved their fish as much as we did ours and that we werent NUTS for feeling fish were family. :)

our second betta was A Delta. he lived in a different 2.5g with better husbandry. lost him after a year to an unknown disease. he had 1tbs salt per 10g and was fed pellets and black worms. we used treated tap water for him. he had java moss as company.

i picked up a friends betta who ended up living in her garage and winter was coming on. his name was A Upsilon. we used a new 5g with a new filter, cycled with gravel from his jar, brought him home from his old jar at my friends house. she had him a year?? fed him live black worms, gnats from around the yard every other day. used bottled SPRING water enhanced with salt at 1tbs/10g and some plant ferts. he had java moss and java fern... both ok with even up to brackish conditions. he died of obvious cancer.

now i have Bernadette. she is my first female blue crown tail.. she lives in one of the 2.5g hexes. heated and filtered and fed on live black worms and gnats with the occasional daphnia or gammaris... yard bugs. quite a few mosquito larva while its summer. i feed her a pea once every two weeks. she ACTUALLY eats it so thats cool. she has no salt in her tank and we are using treated tap water. occasional ferts for her plants. she is thriving so far. :)

Barty and Maria are both compulsive buys. i happened to be flippig through aquabid (never a good thing right??) took one look at him (who was labeled as a her.... confusing to say the least) and i fell in love.

i am hoping these guys will m fare better than the ones we have been gettign from around here. you can tell the ones we have gotten have been abused, culls from a breeding project around here. i initially only wanted Barty but found out how much shipping was and decided maybe two fish was a better idea. Maria was a fraction of the cost of Barty.

i have half a hope of starting my own breeding program with a fishy friend of mine in CA USA. i havent set on it. plakats are very aggressive even for bettas. id be afraid of him killing her instead of spawning.

we will see!! i have two fantastic mentors in the area who are willing to guide me through breeding them, more than a few who want these two's offspring. :D i have not gotten the fish yet so i could end up getting a totally different fish than pictures. im promised the one in the picture... call me cynical?? :) and the female is SUPPOSE to be a sister to Barty (desired in spawning). :fingerscr

wish me luck on figuring out if i want to take over our master bathroom in 1/2 gallon mason jars. :)

-ashley

Plakats aren't overly aggressive, it's just that standard veil tails, crown tails, deltas, half moons, etc., aren't as aggressive as they once were. Especially when you look at pet store quality fish the breeders are looking for the easiest to spawn, hence the more docile.
You're more likely to end up with an aggressive specimen when you're paying strict attention to quality finnage and color, trying to get the perfect fish. In this case you're not necessarily looking for the easiest breeder but the one that yeilds the best looking fry. That's more likely why an expensive plakat from thailand with perfect coloring and fins is going to be more aggressive than any fish from a pet store, casual breeder, or someone just out to get the most fish. I really haven't noticed a difference in aggression between low quality plakats and long finned bettas. In fact I've seen a few that were extremely docile. Part of the misconception may be that plakats can move a lot more agile than a betta with long or funny shaped fins, therefore they don't use up their energy as quickly and they probably attack more effectively.
I have noticed a difference in aggression between colors though. White or light colored bettas seem to be extremely docile, not even necessarily flaring at other males oddly enough. Same goes for the white or light colored females, mine got beat up by the purple ones and had to be removed.

I wouldn't really be worried about a plakat being more likely to kill the female though. Most females can take care of themselves just fine, and most males when ready to breed are going to be more worried about that than attacking the female. Just make sure to watch closely because even a standard betta can kill a female once they're done breeding. In some cases the female will kill the male, so that can also be a problem.
If the male tries to kill the female during breeding rather than breeding her he's either not ready to spawn or simply a bad breeding choice. The female may also be the problem since some males just don't like certain females and vice versa. Also make sure the female is completely ready for breeding or that could cause problems too.

Good luck with your endeavor :)
Breeding quality bettas can be pretty complicated, takes plenty of knowledge on genetics, and really good stock, not to mention a lot of room.
I'm planning to do so eventually but not until we buy our own house then we can have a dedicated breeding room for them, discus and whatever other fish we decide on.

BTW, The male pictured above is BEAUTIFUL, hopefully you end up with a fish just as good. I'm always wary of ordering online since I've heard so many bad stories. I would never order from anyone that doesn't have several reputable references. Too many con artists and just unreliable or unethical people.

I'm learning lots here - had no idea that Betta's were that diverse! I'll be looking for more pictures when s/he (?) arrives!

I also don't have a clue about fish but that one is beautiful. :lovestruck: