The title of this article could be, 'What is success?' The subject is based on a Betta species that was on my wish list from the time I first read about it. Regular readers of Labyrinth (the bi-monthly publication of the AAGB) will know my enthusiasm for breeding Anabantoids, and obtaining and propagating this species was high on my wish list.

First some background notes. The past twenty or so years has seen the number of species of Anabantoid expand dramatically as increased access to sites in South East Asia allow many private collectors as well as scientists to study habitats and find new species. The decade of the 1990's has seen the Betta coccina group grow in numbers almost yearly, and in 1991, a new completely red species was found and added to the species group. From the one species of Betta coccina that I started with in the early part of the 1990's, I have been fortunate to have been able to keep most of the others and breed several of them successfully too.

This fish came from Borneo, West Kalimantan (Kalimantan Barat) from a marshy stream. The water composition was very dark but clear and the pH was low and acidic at 4.5. Other species in the group displayed body spots or were a different colour or shape, but this one was completely uniform red but for the tips of the ventral fins, which were white(ish). The species was named Betta rutilans, meaning 'red'.

There were also initial thoughts that this species was a mouthbrooder and this was based upon observations of fish false pairing and embracing with no sign of a bubblenest. However I read in an article that B. rutilans was indeed a bubblenester. I was fortunate to obtain a small sub-adult trio from friends in the USA. With only a few aquarium reports to refer to I decided to utilize my usual Betta coccina species tank set up. This is a basic glass box with a few oak leaves spread over it, some Java moss and floating Salvinia (which if not allowed a good deal of light dies, but is useful nonetheless) some floating tubes and some tiny clay flowerpots. I don't incidentally use gravel in my tanks.

I barely saw the fish for a month. For ease of feeding, I always like to try and get any of my fish to take flakefood or other prepared foods. Feeding live food is fine when it is readily available, but in the winter months live food can get scarce. Unfortunately flake was treated with disdain, and only frozen food in the absence of living foods, was taken with any relish.

Water changes were carried out regularly with the ready conditioned water, (I use a bucket with a layer of peat and some oak leaves in it) however, one of the fish had died. It was soon apparent that the fish were not like others in the group, they were aggressive. The dead fish was not diseased, it had simply been, harassed and bothered into a stressful life and I must say premature death. The two adults left in the tank were developing into what looked like a sexed pair, but there was one problem.....they hated each other!!

The male didn't like his partner and she wasn't that keen on him. The two fish were constantly displaying fins fully stretched and fanning water currents by waving their bodies at each other before a snap would send them both into the Moss and leaves only for the scene to recommence some minutes later. All this from two 3 cm fish in a 5-gallon tank full of decor. I considered the validity of keeping two such aggressive fish together in the same tank. It was a similar situation with the wild caught Microctenopoma nanum from Cameroon a number of us AAGB members kept a few years ago. They hated their own kind, and even as small youngsters they were constantly fighting.

A conversation with Kevin Webb confirmed my thoughts that this species doesn't like it's own kind whatever the sex, but there was a difference between my fish and his. My fish displayed, flashed and snapped, but his fish tore each other to shreds, so there was hope.

After a year of this behavior, one evening a few token bubbles appeared in a floating tube. During the day the male was hardly ever to be seen but he made frequent trips into the pipe. Curiously so did the female but only when he wasn't there. As I'm sure most of you are aware, many Anabantoids are territorial, and especially the bubblenesters when they are in the process of constructing a nest or tending eggs and fry. It was a little unusual to a female allowed near a potential nest site.

A further fortnight passed and no further evidence was seen of the bubblenest growing any larger. The bubbles that were in the tube had started to merge together. I have noticed several times that a bubblenest is constructed and allowed to fall into disrepair, then a true nest is built as a prelude to spawning. In the case of the Betta coccina group, most of the species I have bred and raised construct tight nests with small bubbles to begin with and added to it when the spawning was complete. If you see large bubbles in the nest then the chances are that the fish are not ready to spawn or the male is young and is trying out first.

One Friday evening I looked into the B. rutilans tank and was surprised to see both fish in the tube. Consider that these fish had been aggressive to each other for over a year, and now were in a space where they could barely turn round! My surprise increased when I looked into the nest and saw the unmistakable dark coloured slithers hanging down from the nest that are the tails of Anabantoid fry.

With no other distractions the male would have had nowhere to channel his aggression other than the female, although he did not even display at her. A lot of Betta species males tend to drive the female away from the nest site and guards the fry on his own. The female will sometimes stay in the vicinity of the spawning site, and in some species (B. smaragdina for example) takes over the duties of looking after the fry if you remove the male.

With the parents being so attentive to their young, they were all left in the tank together, my usual procedure being to take the fry out just as they look like becoming free swimming. This I do by scooping the whole tube out and anything else that come with it and placing it in a tub. Within a couple of days the fry had disappeared. In a tangle of Java moss and leaves the fry would be well away from the parents, but it was another week before I saw a solitary fry at the surface under a sprig of Salvinia. Feeding the adults occasionally with 2-3 day old brineshrimp, meant that on putting newly hatched shrimp in, any that the fry do not take will be eaten by the adults. It was two months before I saw six young fish at the same time in the tank. They are growing steadily, and only one is aggressive with the others.

Reading this article might make you think that only six fry after all this time isn't many. I'd agree, but it is infinitely better than none at all. Those young were very healthy, and with any luck there will be at least one pair from them. Maybe next time I might get 20 fry, and indeed someone reading this piece may have spawned this species regularly (I'd love to hear from them!). In any event, before setting sights on getting a tankful of young fish, consider what defines success when breeding something a little special.

The female has since been lost, (I think the male started to attack her again a couple of weeks after they had spawned) but the male was on display at the past AAGB member's weekend. He is far too big to put with any of the young fish so spends his time in a separate tank. As with many of the other B. coccina group, despite their size, they seem a fairly long-lived fish as he is over 2.5 years old.

References:

- Linke H. Labyrinth Fish, The Bubblenest Builders. Tetra. p45

- Donoso-Buchner, R. Betta rutilans ist ein Schaumnestbauer. Der Makropode, Jan-Feb 1995 p7 (German text)

- Kottelat, M. 1991, Note on Taxonomy and distribution of some western Indonesian freshwater fishes with diagnosis of a new genus and 6 new species (Pisces; Cyprinidae, Belontiidae and Chaudhuridae) Ichthyol. Explor.Freshwaters 2, 273-287. (From a summary by D. Armitage Labyrinth 62 April 1992 pp6-7)

Thanks to Paul Cipriano, Steve Bischoff and Ray Torres for their combined effort in getting my original fish. This article was originally written in early 1999

Copyright 2002 Andrew Smith - May not be reproduced in any form.