There was a time when everyone thought of Betta splendens whenever the talk was about Bettas. This is changing. A growing number of people are now showing interest in some of the other species in the genus Betta. The genus currently includes over 50 species, a number that keeps growing, as the Southeast Asian rainforests are explored and new species are found and described by scientists.

One of the newer species is Betta albimarginata. It was first caught by Maurice Kottelat in 1993 in the north east part of Kalimantan province in Borneo. None of Kottelat's original Betta albimarginata made it to his home alive, but the following year he and Peter K.L. Ng described the species from the ones he had preserved in formaldehyde. The same year Kottelat and Ng also described 4 other Betta species: B. burdigala, B. channoides, B. chloropharynx and B. schalleri.

The species described on the basis of the preserved specimens was named Betta albimarginata (albimarginata means white edge), a very appropriate name since both dorsal-, anal- and caudal fins have a white edge and the tip of the pelvic fins are white as well. With a size of only 5 cm (2 ") it is one of the smallest representatives of its genus. B. albimarginata is a mouth brooder. The male carries the eggs and fry until they are ready. He will then spit them out, and neither of the parents will provide any further care for the fry after that.

		B. albimarginata was caught by Dickmann, Knorr and Grams at the town of Malinau in 1996, approximately 100 km south of the type locality were Kottelat caught his specimens. They were found in a 2-metre wide tributary of the main river Sembuak.
B. albimarginata, female

Mature Betta albimarginata and Betta channoides looks very much alike and that has caused a great deal of confusion. Even the German publisher "Bede Verlag" has, by mistake, swapped the photos of the 2 fish on their poster with Betta species. When you look at the fry from the two species they are very easy to tell apart.
		Betta channoides, male

There was a moderate current and the fish were caught 200 meter upstream from Sembuak. The stream was overgrown with rainforest. B. albimarginata were found in shallow water among plant roots and leaf litter along the bank. The water parameters were: pH 5.5 - 6. The temperature was 27°C (81 F) and the hardness was max. 3 DH. B. albimarginata has since then been caught at other locations, so if you should be so lucky as to come across some of them, then they are likely to have a location code attached to the species name. My albi's are descendants from the fish that were caught by Malinau in 1996. I got them from Michael Schlüter and I went to Hamburg, Germany with a friend of mine to collect them myself. It was on the 19th of December 2001. It was a beautiful young pair that Michael had already gotten offspring from a couple of times; a pair almost in their prime. Thanks Michael. I was very excited when I came home and released the pair into the 60-litre tank, which I had prepared in advance with softened water in which peat had been soaked. I had to the best of my ability tried to make an environment as similar to their natural habitat as possible. A big root along with lots of floating plants and the tea colored water created a nice dark atmosphere in the tank. The fish seemed to adapt well to their new home. They ate fairly well from the food (mainly frozen) that they were fed, but they didn't throw themselves at it as my Betta foerschi did. They didn't move around much and they kept pretty much to themselves. The male was not as colorful as I had hoped for but I assumed that this was due to the change in environment. Christmas was coming and I went on a 3-day holiday with my family. Much to my surprise the male was carrying eggs when we returned. Needless to say, I was a very happy man, even though I had not seen the actual mating.

Albi-pair: Notice that the male is holding eggs

Michael Schlüter had told me that the male typically carries the eggs and fry for about eleven to twelve days, at temperatures around 26° - 27°C (79 to 81F). He also said that it is safe, as soon as the eggs have hatched in his mouth, to move the male into one of those breeding boxes that are used for livebearers. This usually happens around the 7th day after spawning. Trusting Michael and his experience with this species, I did exactly as I had been told to do, and everything turned out perfect: Eleven days after spawning he slowly began to spit out fry one by one. After 24 hours I counted seventeen fry and the male was taken out of the box. I now had seventeen small albi'fry safe in a breeding box, and I was even happier than before.

Fry of B. channoides are very light (like guppy fry) while fry from B. albimarginata are very dark, actually almost black. My fry were black and approximately 5 mm long. As I expected, they were able to eat brine shrimp and cyclops nauplii immediately after they were released. After a week they were moved to a small 12 litre tank with peat as bottom cover and floating plants. I changed half of the water weekly and everything looked just right. Since the male had released the fry he had been convalescing in his own tank, one similar to the one the fry were moved into. Eleven days without food is serious business. -It would be for me anyway! He looked a bit worn and his colours were rather dull, but he ate quite well and that convinced me that he was OK. After 3 weeks alone he looked much better and I decided that the period of convalesce was over. The female was in the same type of water as him, so I just caught her and dumped her into his tank. In a matter of seconds it was as if someone turned on the light in the otherwise dark tank. Within five seconds the male lit up like a Christmas tree and became one of the most beautiful fish that I have ever seen. His colours changed into vibrant black, white and orange and he looked fantastic. He flared vigorously. He even extended his throat pouch as if he wanted to show her exactly how many eggs he was able to carry. He swam around making artistic poses: All rigid he shot vertically trough the tank, sometimes he swam head up and sometimes head down, and he played dead on the bottom as though he had fainted over her beauty. All in all he put on quite a show for her (and me).

The female seemed a bit confused and you can hardly blame her. More than four weeks on her own and then suddenly she finds herself tossed into a tank along with an ardent lover. After half an hour she was on top of the situation again and the spawning began in the slow way that many mouth brooding Bettas mate. It must be like watching The World Cup final in football all in super slow motion. On one hand you are dying to see what is happening but on the other hand you are also bored stiff. The female changed her colours and markings constantly during the mating but otherwise she didn't seem to be dominated by the male in the same way as you often see happening with the bubblenest-builders. Actually it looked as if she was the one who controlled it all. After 6-8 hours the colours on the male had faded and his throat pouch was full of eggs. Since I didn't want to feed the female in the small 12-litre tank, I removed her immediately after they finished mating. In a lager tank it is no problem to leave the female in the tank with the male for the first 4-5 days. By then she will have produced new eggs and will start to disturb the male and then she will have to be moved away from him. Also this spawn was released as planned. This time on the twelfth day and in the same manner. I succeeded in getting them to spawn a third time and I was beginning to think that I had found a fish that was easier to breed than the guppy. I would soon find out that it wasn't so. One day I discovered that the fry from the first spawn were sick. It was a disease that to me looked like Oodinium. I gave them the medicine Odimor according to the instructions in the packet but within 48 hours they were all dead. At the time I was not too worried. I still had the fry from the other spawnings, but unfortunately the disease wasn't a one off experience. Out of the four spawnings that I have had so far, three of them have died the same way: Always at the age of nine to eleven weeks and always from the same disease. I've been told that the disease is very similar to the one that adult Betta macrostoma sometimes get infected with and that it should be curable with ½ doses of Tetra's General Tonic and ½ doses of Tetra's ContraIck. I haven't tested it yet, but I would love the cure to be effective.

The fry from the second spawning made it though the critical period without any problems and they grew up to become strong and very healthy fish. They grew slowly but steadily and today at the age of six months they are about 4 cm (1.6"). Like their parents they eat any live food that will fit in their mouths and most kinds of frozen foods. While the fry are growing up it is a good idea to remove the males as soon as it is possible to identify them. Often other males won't show their gender until the largest and most dominant male has been removed. Then the second largest will become the dominant male and show his gender and so on.

Overall you can say that Betta albimarginata is not exactly a "firecracker" in its everyday life. It's a quiet little fish with a reserved nature, but without any kind of shyness. But seeing them mate is an event that I would hate to be without. The whole concept of mouth brooding Bettas never ceases to amaze me, and Betta albimarginata are probably the most colorful of them all while they mate. Raising the fry to adult size has been a challenge to me but maybe you will have better luck.

References and links:

Aqualog: all Labyrinths, 1997
Labyrinthfische, farbe im akvarium. H. Linke 1998. Tetra Verlag
http://www.weichwasserfische.de/betta.htm