Wild bettas

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TheFishNerd

TheFishNerd

Exodon
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2020
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I can't seem to find much information on the internet about keeping and breeding healthy wild bettas. I have 3 beautiful wild bettas I got two days ago. They are doing really well and already starting to get quite a bit of color after shipping. They are so much better than I could have imagined. All three are already eating and very active. I was most surprised by the little turquoise alien girl who immediately started trying to get the male's attention and the blue alien female shows faint breeding stripes. The male is quite a bit smaller and more timid and tries to show off to the females but gets scared away as soon as he comes too close to the divider. There is plenty of room and plants for him to steer clear of both females unless he chooses to come up to them. They still have a lot of growing to do before I let them together and the male will be completely by himself within a week or so to grow and adjust to their new home. Anyone else kept wild bettas and can give me some tips/tricks to caring for them and hopefully breeding them? Some questions I have are...


1. Is my ph of 8.2 too high for them? (The male is a wild caught imbellus) They are active and healthy but I am worried it might cause long term problems.
2. Is flaring and showing fins aggression or normal when they are trying to get the opposite gender's attention?
3. How long should I wait before introducing them to each other?
4. I have leaves, a piece of driftwood, and low light live plants to try and replicate their natural environment. Anything I missed?
5. The blue alien female is a lot bigger than the male but much more mild tempered while the turquoise alien is the perfect size (A little bit bigger) and much prettier but quite aggressive. Which one should I introduce to my boy after they have adjusted to their environment and been conditioned?

Thanks in advance!
 
1. For the most part, wild Bettas prefer to be kept on the acidic side. With that being said, they can adapt to a much higher pH as long as you keep it stable.

2. It's normal. I've seen my male wilds do that in front of the girls.

3. For breeding purposes, you can introduce them when they're ready to breed i.e. male building a bubble nest.

4. That's perfect for wild Bettas! If you don't have any floating plants, then get some. Wild Bettas love floating plants.

5. I don't recommend using your male B. imbellis to breed with your female aliens, but if you were to, I would try to stick the mild manner one.
 
Crispii said:
1. For the most part, wild Bettas prefer to be kept on the acidic side. With that being said, they can adapt to a much higher pH as long as you keep it stable.

2. It's normal. I've seen my male wilds do that in front of the girls.

3. For breeding purposes, you can introduce them when they're ready to breed i.e. male building a bubble nest.

4. That's perfect for wild Bettas! If you don't have any floating plants, then get some. Wild Bettas love floating plants.

5. I don't recommend using your male B. imbellis to breed with your female aliens, but if you were to, I would try to stick the mild manner one.
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That's good to hear. I want to have no doubts that I know what I am doing. I don't have any live floating plants but I did cut the stems off a fake plant with large leaves and floated those and they seem to love it so I added more. If the imbellis male doesn't get along with either female I will get him a blue imbellis female but for now the alien females are all I have and shipping another would be expensive. I want to make a betta barracks but I need a successful spawn to explain making it to my parents (Still a minor). As soon as I set that up I want to get a blue imbellis female and turquoise alien male and pick the best out of the spawns to sell in order to pay for everything I've bought so far. I am still not sure what the difference between the imbellus and alien bettas are.
 
20200225_181408.jpg

I was able to get one of the turquoise alien. She came completely brown so her color is quickly improving. (Rest of the live plants and leaves are on the way) If I can get the rest of the pictures you will see that the blue alien looks more like a turquoise but fits the pictures/description of the blue alien. The exact photo of my blue alien before shipping had no color on the fins but a very dark blue body. This little girl is also too small to fit the size description of the blue alien.
 
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TheFishNerd said:
Thanks ?. Out of curiosity I still am not sure what the difference between aliens and imbellis is. Are alien bettas hybrids?
Click to expand...
Aliens are hybrids within species from the splendens complex. Betta imbellis is actually a species on its own, no hybridization.
 
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