Wild Caught Betta Smaragdina's

So since I live in Thailand, a year ago I thought I'd would go out and try to catch some betta smaragdina's, I went out and only took the Males/female which looked the best and released any that were too small or not colorful enough. Do not worry about them being endangered due to me catching them from the wild, I've not even caught more than 50 from the wild and I've released thousands back. Sometimes they need to be relocated or re-introduce to new locations as their habitat is being demolished by diggers or tractors for farmland. They love to live in stagnant but very crystal clear water they prefer the very shallow part.

I've been breeding them since and have a fairy decent breeding program going on but I release 98% of my fries back into their old habitats, and keep the 2% for future spawning but have not thought about selling the ones I breed yet though.

Here's some pictures of the new wild ones I caught, please note these are scheduled for breeding so they're in yellow water from the almond leaves and small glass containers for conditioning, after breeding they're moved into their own 10 gal.

 

I'm so jealous! I would love to live some where that has wild bettas. Those are some lovely fish you have there. Reminds me of my favorite betta I ever kept. He had nearly the same coloration but slightly different body/fin shape.
Are all the ones in the glass containers males? If so, I would love to see the females

 

Following!

 

beautiful fish !

 

I absolutely love bettas.. it would be so cool to see them in their natural environment

 

That's really cool! Amazing looking betta

 

Oh, those are so pretty!!

 

I'm so jealous! I would love to live some where that has wild bettas. Those are some lovely fish you have there. Reminds me of my favorite betta I ever kept. He had nearly the same coloration but slightly different body/fin shape.
Are all the ones in the glass containers males? If so, I would love to see the females

Thanks I'm glad you guys liked it.

Yes they are, all males are kept segregated at all times however the females are kept in a cement pond outside, perhaps I have around 30-50 females together and conditioned and well fed with Moina although they do nip each other sometimes but have not seen any bad cases or dead fish as of yet as they're not as aggressive. I will take some pictures of the females when they're plump and ready for breeding in the next week or so.

I'm currently hunting for spade tail wild as they're soo rare to find, I'm yet to find any location where they have it and betta's even the same species are so different depending on their living conditions, some are very big, some are long, and some are very small but scales are very neat.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask

 

Beautiful! It's my dream to travel to Thailand to study bettas in their natural habitat.
Have you ever caught Betta hendra?

 

Following.

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Wow, those are way better looking than most of the captive bred bettas I've seen. It would be cool to be able to get one of those guys here.

 

Beautiful fish! How do you catch them? Do you just scoop them out with that basket or do you have a trap?

 

Wow, those are way better looking than most of the captive bred bettas I've seen. It would be cool to be able to get one of those guys here.

If you feel like ordering online, they can be found on aquabid and eBay.

 

Some nice emeraldy colors on them, I can't tell if the color is intense or if that black outline is making it look darker. Either. Way its beautiful.

 

I'm currently hunting for spade tail wild as they're soo rare to find, I'm yet to find any location where they have it

Having a spade tail is my dream!!! <3

 

Wow, those are way better looking than most of the captive bred bettas I've seen. It would be cool to be able to get one of those guys here.

I'm actually looking into selling in the next 3-4 months after my batch of spawns are grown up, Though it will have to go through a transhipper and I've never sent fish off shore before so I would need to do a lot of research beforehand.

Beautiful fish! How do you catch them? Do you just scoop them out with that basket or do you have a trap?

Basket is probably one of the best ways, Or simply use your hands to scoop the male under his bubble nest (I always check if their's fry or eggs before I do this, usually you can tell by the colour of the nest, new nests will be pure white whilst egg filled nests will be stained yellow by tannins because it's old.

 

Following! Please keep updating this is so cool!

 

And I thought wild bettas were boring

 

Oh, those are so pretty!!

That's really cool! Amazing looking betta

I absolutely love bettas.. it would be so cool to see them in their natural environment

beautiful fish !

Following!

I'm so jealous! I would love to live some where that has wild bettas. Those are some lovely fish you have there. Reminds me of my favorite betta I ever kept. He had nearly the same coloration but slightly different body/fin shape.
Are all the ones in the glass containers males? If so, I would love to see the females

And I thought wild bettas were boring

I just open a thread on Another wild species I went out to catch today which were Tiger babrbs I think they are really common for fish keepers where you guys are located? here Plenty of pictures of these fish

 

Wow! That is so cool! Those aren't glass cats. I just did a search and I think they are just called glass fish 'Parambassis ranga'

 

I'm so jealous! I would love to live some where that has wild bettas. Those are some lovely fish you have there. Reminds me of my favorite betta I ever kept. He had nearly the same coloration but slightly different body/fin shape.
Are all the ones in the glass containers males? If so, I would love to see the females

Scooped some of the females who have been on a conditioned diet for the past week up, they're full of eggs planning on spawning these in the next 1-2 days, going to document from start to fry stage.

Here's some pictures for you NOTE: They're also a little stressed out right now as I've just moved them into this 10 gallon today and very sorry for the bad quality pictures, even with a bright light I can't get a good focus in this stained water Will try take one just before I add one in a spawn tank another time.





- I have a Grade A female somewhere in the condition pond outdoors, what I mean by Grade A is her colour is more defined than other females, so her and a good quality male will hopefully give good quality fry.

 

Following! a little late, but Welcome to Fishlore anyhow!

 

Following! Entranced!

 

Oh, welcome to fishlore!

 

Those fish are so cool looking! I would love to have a giant tank with a small group of them

 

Definitely following! I'd love to move somewhere where I could find fish if such beauty. *Starry eyed*

 

Here's a little preview of breeding progression of a pair I've conditioned, Pretty small male but his quality is very nice, scales are compacted together extremely hard to get a good quality picture though due to poor lighting and stained water.

Breeding wilds is a little more challenging than normal betta's as it's very hard to pair a male and female together, and even if after you pair them the male still has a high chance of killing the female if she can't take a beating.

Bubblenest was moved from another male and put into his tank to speed up the process a little, the female should be put into the same exact water of the males tank the night before to get her used to the PH and quality of the water, wilds are very sensitive to water changes and new environment which is why I always have rain water stored outside with almond leaves in them to make the water soft, water is about 5-6 inch deep.

I'm expecting anywhere from 50-100 fry considering how plump the female is, Main conditioning diet is Moina, Daphnia or mosquito larvae (I don't like Mosquito larvae too much as it bloats my fish, but I would feed both the male/female 4-5 of them an hour or two before I add them together.

Oh a little something Extra I wanted to show, Here's what I mean in the Original top post about every location gives different genetics of the same species, this location has always given me short stocky Betta's ahah looks a little funny.

Here's some pictures from a current spawn, the female is very plump the conditioning food worked perfectly expecting a decent size batch from this pair!
No signs of eggs yet though will keep this updated!

WE HAVE EGGS! roughly 70-100 removed the female and will keep the male in until free swimming stages.

 

I'm actually looking into selling in the next 3-4 months after my batch of spawns are grown up, Though it will have to go through a transhipper and I've never sent fish off shore before so I would need to do a lot of research beforehand.

I've never mail ordered fish before, mainly because of the expense and fear of it arriving belly up, but it might be worth it for one of these guys, especially since my current betta is old and nearly fully blind. I'd have to wait until spring though, 3-4 months from now it will be WAY too cold to even think about having a fish shipped in. Chances are I'd end up opening the box to find an expensive, betta flavored ice cube.

Edit: That's really cool they spawned already, I would have thought it would take a lot longer with wild caught fish.

 

Can you ship it to india ... breeding pair... want to mix it with my fancy

 

I've never mail ordered fish before, mainly because of the expense and fear of it arriving belly up, but it might be worth it for one of these guys, especially since my current betta is old and nearly fully blind. I'd have to wait until spring though, 3-4 months from now it will be WAY too cold to even think about having a fish shipped in. Chances are I'd end up opening the box to find an expensive, betta flavored ice cube.

Edit: That's really cool they spawned already, I would have thought it would take a lot longer with wild caught fish.

First day after catch is crucial, water must be near perfect for the betta's to be in, usually a male/female will be ready to spawn within the first 2 days but they need to be checked if they're in good shape beforehand Please contact me when you wish

Can you ship it to india ... breeding pair... want to mix it with my fancy

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As for shipping to India I will need to look into it and see if I can do it via a transhipper, it will be my first time shipping abroad, and yeah you can always contact me when you are ready. But for Ambooz I will get back to you when I have information if there is a transhipper for india.

Can you ship it to india ... breeding pair... want to mix it with my fancy

Been doing some research, cannot find a transhipper in India sadly

Should be hatching later tonight or by tomorrow, never seen a male make such a big nest for such a small quantity of eggs before, Think almost all of the eggs are fertile as they do look like it.

 

I may be able to find one ... know a guy who gets fish from abroad, but how many needed to find pair ?

 

If you can find someone in India who gets fish from Thailand directly with a thaI Transhipper it will be possible, I only know transhippers from AU,US,UK and Europe and 2 ThaI transhipper who deal with those people but do not know if he ships to India also.

Wild betta's are a little picky with pairs so I sometimes have to force spawn which means the female will be fed very well and left in the tank with the male until she finally gives in takes maybe a good 2-3 days until she spawns but this is a little cruel so I avoid doing so as the female will take a good beating before she will give into him.

Most of the females I keep well fed and spawn pretty easily and the usual method I do is I put a male inside a spawn tank/tub first and make sure that the water is conditioned with almond leaves to soften the water then I put 2 females in glass bottles/containers so he can see them and they can see him and once he's made his nest I release both female and keep an eye on them for the next 20-30 minutes, study carefully on which female is most interested by noticing if she's following him, flaring at him then that is your pair chosen. Wild males do this creepy snake movement towards the female which is interesting as I've never seen fancy betta's do this but that's just my personal experience.

So to be sure I'd say 2 females 1 male is good enough, I've never tried breeding hybrids fancy with wilds though only cross breeding other wilds from thailand.

 

I tried breeding bettas a few times with moderate success ... when I read about betta forums, they say its good to mix wild bettas with fancies to get stronger and better fish... when I seen the post I thought adding this to my collection will be good since I can try a few attempts with them... my biggest issue was everyone I contacted said getting a pair from wild is going to be difficult since they simply catch and ship . Is jj market is near to you ?. The transhipper guy is expecting a box from their in next month....

 

Ask the transhipper, ask him who he gets his shipment from in thailand with contact details Email,facebook ect and I can contact the guy on my end and arrange something out if possible Its possible yes but I've personally never tried, The wilds I got are 100% who have been in captivity for a few months so they're all good, just a note about them when they arrive their colours will not be visible for a good week until they settle in but if your water quality is suitable to their liking they will be good, they will only flare up when they see a female or another male betta.

Usually for shipping, I will avoid feeding the betta 1 day before shipment to avoid fouling the water I will take responsibility for DOA'S but will not be able to refund shipping.

WE HAVE WRIGGLERS!

 

Great job! He's such a proud father

 

Wow!!! Love this thread!

 

1st Day of free swimming, they're so tiny my camera can barely focus on them so sorry for the not so good quality pictures, First meal is tomorrow morning!

P.S - I underestimated this spawn by saying less than 100 Eggs, there is over 200 fry in this spawn for sure, I've added some plants so they can start feeding on the micro organism on the plant so they're all hiding so I couldn't get a picture of them clumped up.

 

those pics are way better than I could take.

 

This is incredible. I'm really enjoying this thread!

 

Awesome!! I'm going to need one of those males!