betta livida juvenile: putting them in bottles.

These betta livida juvenile were once in small polystyrene box, then a month later into bigger grow out tank, and now into 4 inches diameter bottles. The juvenile just turn 2 and a half month old, but some males had shown aggressiveness. Therefore they have to be separated, or jarring, the term betta breeders worldwide love to use.

betta livida juvenile: jarring the first 19

Life would be very lonely in separate bottles I suppose. A bit of  ketapang leaf and floating plants is an attempt to create habitat close to nature, that make them feel safe.  But each juvenile will get equal share of food, even for for the timid ones, and they don't have to fight for it. For that, I hope they grow well.

Some of them had greenish tip pelvic fins already, a trademark for betta livida. Early maturity I guess. So they say juvenile reach maturity at 3 month, but mine is 2 weeks short. I am expecting the young males to display nest making skill soon and for the females, a glimpse of egg tube at the lower part of their bodies.

Going for sale, return to habitat, giveaways are choices I will soon have. Two pairs to be returned to the original habitat, 3 pairs as giveaways, 3 pairs for future breedings. That would make 8 pairs. At least 10 pairs is up for sale. That's so much about planning, but god knows what's the sex ratio of these juvenile. A wild betta livida breeding should end with some understanding of sex ratio of their offspring. I suppose it should tie with the fertility of the pairs, the weather, water parameters and food they take. As more breeding projects are done, a reasonable estimate of sex ratio of offspring can be obtained.

Betta Livida breeding project 17/10/2020
Pair 1      : LM1s.i. vs LF2t.m.  - 38 offspring
Pair 2      : LM3t.m. vs LF1s.i.  - 19 offspring

Age: 2 and a half months

bangchik
wild betta breeding, seri iskandar PERAK

 

Return Imbellis to its habitat.

The offspring of home bred betta imbellis is a gang of healthy looking 350 plus juveniles, 3 months old.  With Razib, we both headed to five secret sites around here releasing them to their natural habitat on 5th of December 2020. We took less than 20 a few months ago but we are returning back more than 350 to their habitat. Time to say goodbye.  I am just their foster Dad for over 3 months. 

Soon they will learn to live in their natural world. No more hand feeding, they have to search and hunt. Some will succumb to predators, the rest will soon pair up, and produce babies for the next generation.

All in all wild betta imbellis breeding experience really was an eye opener. Breeding can be very detailed if we wish to explore, about water parameters, about the timing of nesting, about hatching, about little fry falling straight down and Dad quickly intercept and put back to nest, and about the shift from vertical movement to horizontal swimming. Wild betta imbellis fries show intricacy within 7 to 8 days. Then their life take a different turn after 7-14 days feeding on infusoria  with intermittent doses of artemia and moina macrocopa. Once they are 2 weeks old, they feed on bigger live food.  Dry food in pellet form comes in a bit later, about a month old.  They have gone through life in 3 different tanks: breeding tank, first grow out tank, and a much bigger second grow out tank.

Return them to their habitat will be a weekly affair now. I still have close to a thousand imbellis juveniles to care. Another 3 weeks from now, adventure in wild betta imbellis will cease, since I am concentrating on betta livida, betta tussyae, betta brownorum and betta channoides. These will produce smaller number of offspring, thus space and amount of food will not be a constraint.

Betta Imbellis F1

Parents: wild caught in seri iskandar

Offspring: 350

Return to habitat: 5/12/2020

bangchik

releasing betta imbellis to their habitat, seri iskandar

Livida breeding project 11/11/2020 : stunted growth for a few

Pair: LM1si vs LF1si
Breeding date: 11/11/2020

Offspring: 20

Age at 5/12/2020: 3 weeks

Five fries were noticeably very small within the gang of 20 at the age of two weeks . A week later,  those five are still comparatively smaller than the rest. The other fifteen are putting on weight with big belly and move actively.  Same breeding tank, same water, same food, yet some refuse to grow to expectation.  

pic1: Five fries out of 20 exhibit similar stunted growth
at the age of three weeks

The healthy ones are eating well and growing well. Its sad to see the stunted five fries. I suppose they have to be separated, and with extra care and small sized food, they might just wake up. 

bangchik

betta livida breeding

seri iskandar, perak.

Livida project 17/10/2020 - accurate counting for 6 week old juveniles

 Finally I get the total number of offspring right and accurate.  While doing regular cleaning up, and 30% water change, I snap photo from the top. Most leaves and plants are taken out for the photo. There they are, the juveniles all over the place. 

pic1: juveniles of 17/10/2020 livida breeding project - Pair 1
Total: 37

pic2: juveniles of 17/10/2020 livida breeding project - Pair 2
Total: 19

Betta Livida breeding project 17/10/2020
Pair 1      : LM1s.i. vs LF2t.m.  - 37 offspring

Pair 2      : LM3t.m. vs LF1s.i.  - 19 offspring

Age at 1/12/2020 : 6 weeks

bangchik

betta livida breeding 

seri iskandar, perak.

betta livida breeding project 11/11/2020 - 2 week old fries.

Male: LM1si  Female: LF1si

Breeding date: 11/11/2020

Offspring: 20

Get a pair, put in a tank, fill up water to 3 inches depth, put ketapang and mahang leaves, and place daun pegaga (asiatic pennywort) for nesting. That sums up basic breeding requirements, at least the way I do. Breeding can be much deeper if we wish to challenge ourselves.  Inbreeding, outcross, backcross; these are new terms I have to get involve with as I venture further with betta livida breeding. 

I believe my 29/8/2020 wild caught betta livida are related, because they were caught within a square meter in their wild habitat. Of the 2 males and a female, they might just be brother, sister, daughter, son, mother or cousins. Of the two males, one is bigger than the other, I just guess they are son and father,  and the female could be sister to the young male. 

So the 11th of November 2020 breeding project, could be a backcross between father and daughter.  It was a successful mating with  offspring of 20. At the age of two weeks, 5 of them are noticeably small, as if they are stunted. They move, but always on the floor of the tank. The other 15 exhibit normal growth as we would expect for two week old. Culling the tiny stunted five?..... Not yet I think, they could just be late bloomers.  Its too early to conclude, but the idea that stunted growth is typical of  closely related pairing is lingering in my mind. But at least I can rest assured that the wild betta livida seri iskandar has their next generation ready for future breeding adventure for whoever wish to participate.

Pic1: Offspring of livida 11/11/2020 project.
Some are somewhat very small.

bangchik

wild betta breeding, seri iskandar

Betta Livida breeding project 17/10/2020: over a month old fries.

Pair 1: LM1si vs LF2tm - offspring: 34

Pair 2: LM3tm vs LF1si - offspring: 19

Breeding date: 17/10/2020

The offspring is over a month old.  They are no more the lovely, sweet little fries. Both spawns, had evolved into a more wilder version.  Ketapang and mahang leaves lying at the bottom are favorite hideouts. I notice some of them even hide at the corners within the accumulating debris. Some dash from one clump of debris to another, as some prefer to shuttle between one leaf to another. 

When they are at one to 2 week old, I can almost hand feed them. They show their hunting skill, coiling up their little bodies and dash to snap live food. They get accustomed to my presence I assumed . I thought that's  going to last forever, that docile behavior. Now, they learn about safety as in the wild, and they even treat me as intruder. Alas..

Food is still artemia and monia macrocopa. Once a week, I give them little snacks of dried egg yolk and crushed pellets. For artemia, electricity can be off. Even monia culture may crash. So the little livida babies has to be versatile with food.  Covid19 movement control order (mco) is a blessing, that we are advised to stay safe at home. Betta Livida fries can count on me to feed them live food, 24/7.  

Their time is more within hideouts now. Water change gives the opportunity to see them and count them, and assess their growth. The other day I saw one dead, less than 24 hours I guess, judging by its condition.  The rest are fine. One death is still a cause for alarm. Frequent water change, and regular adds on of ketapang leaves are all I can think of for now.

Pic 1: Only 1 fry seen above pegaga leaf

Pic 2:  spawn 2- they are all hiding

pic 3: spawn 1 - they are all hiding

I am now getting into water parameters with the newly bought Ph and TDS meter. So future post will be accompanied with numbers!

I hate counting when they are darting all over the place.  Close to accurate counting shows total as 53.  I guess, the number can only be exact when I put them in jars. That would be months to go.

bangchik

seri iskandar perak

BETTA LIVIDA BREEDING 11/11/2020, an observation over 8 days

Betta Livida breeding is about putting a male and a female in the same tank, and typically the male will chase and hit the female. Then the male will busy himself looking for possible site to build nest.  If the pair is happy with each other,  soon the female would come close to the nest.  

"Yes, lets get on with it"...., would probably be the words whispered by the female, to the lucky male. 

The 8 day rule

day1 - male surveying the new territory . Male will chase and hit female occasionally resulting in torn fins. 

day2 - male starts to build nest, while female is hiding.

day3 - Very early in the morning, female come close to nest and surrender, with head somewhat pointing downward. They waste no time, and go straight into mating rituals.  There is also dry runs, before the real circling and bending. Each wrap, few eggs will be released, picked by male to be placed at the nest. Many wraps will happen, lasting a few hours. When there is no more eggs to be released, male will chase female away.

"Go away, from now on I will look after the eggs and fries".  The male could have shouted that. Female will go into hiding.

day4 - male attending to the nest, picking and putting back fallen eggs

day5 - male  is working full time, really busy with falling fries

day6 - male is working full time, really busy with falling fries

day7 - male is working full time, but of lesser degree. Male manage to seek live food at the other corner. Female also come out from hiding and enjoy the live food, and she quickly dashes into hiding the moment male appears. Male notably switches place for fallen fries, he pick them up and place nearer to the tank sides.  One or two fries seems to be floating and drifting a few cm away from the nest.

day8 -  Time to say "bye, take care" to the little fries, as they begin to flex the tiny muscles. They are now at free swimming stage. Both Dad and Mom are taken out. 

Observations

That's what I had seen over the eight days since 11th of November 2020.  The most interesting part is the male is extremely busy once all eggs are deposited, running up and down to pick dislodged eggs and 24 hours later picking the fallen fries. He doesn't venture to the feeding side during 3rd to 6th day. Only on the 7th day, he manages to squeeze for a quick snack. Female also seem to be fasting  from 3rd to 6th day, just like the male. 

Water at the depth of 3 inches looks alright, but upon witnessing the non stop heavy chores of picking eggs and later fries, the depth can still be further reduced to perhaps 2.75 inches for the next breeding project.

I use water pegaga plants (centella asiatica)  as possible nesting site,  but the stems seem to restrict movements of male as he search for eggs and fries. I should assemble pegaga plants in way that would be less restrictive, for the next breeding project.

I am able to observe their behaviour throughout the 8 days, because the breeding tank is clear acrylic and placed on a rack a meter away from the dining table.  The pair had been with us for 2 months, so they don't mind our presence, and especially me for the regular non stop peeps at their activities. 

The 8 days rule may not hold, if the pair is hesitant about the whole breeding affairs, could easily be 9 days, or 10 days.

pic 1: breeding tank set up for 11/11/2020 - betta livida

pic 2: breeding tank set up  for11/11/2020- betta livida
view at night

The pair LM1si and LF1si had done quite well. The fry totaled 20  are beginning to venture and bite live food other than infusoria. 

Bangchik 
Seri Iskandar Perak

betta livida fries: 3 week old comparing the two spawns of 17/10/2020 project

PARENTS:       

Pair 1      : LM1s.i. vs LF2t.m.

Pair 2      : LM3t.m. vs LF1s.i.   

Breeding date: 17/10/2020

TANK:  8"x8"x6"small polystyrene boxes, with 3" RO water .

FOOD:  infusoria, artemia and moina

OBSERVATION

Population: Earlier on it was difficult to count the fries, since they like to dart away into hideouts. A rough estimate of 16 and 15  proved wrong. While doing large water change recently, and putting aside ketapang and mahang leaves, and all the plants, the three weeks old fries were big enough for accurate counting. At three weeks old, Pair 1 had 22 babies whereas Pair 2 had 20, which really is at low end of normal betta livida range of fries, between 20 to 50 (refer https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/betta-livida). 

Size:  Fries from both spawns are of the same size and both are active. 

- out of 22 fries from spawn 1, at any time about half were seen swimming  or hanging out at mid level, and the rest swimming at the bottom. They rarely hide under ketapang leaves at the bottom.

- out of 20 fries from spawn 2, only one or two can be seen swimming at mid level, most are hiding under ketapang leaves at the bottom.  

During feedings,  the first group were at ease, exhibiting hunting skills and show their curled bodies  before snapping up the live food. The second group were rarely outside of their hideout, sneaked out  to grab food and get back into their hideout.  

Video1 : Fries curled their bodies and snapped live food

bangchik

seri iskandar

Biotope of Betta Livida seri iskandar breeding tank

Habitat and biotope are words closely related. They refer to life, land and parameters of the area. In the world of aquaria, the term biotope describes aquarium setup that replicates conditions like water parameters, plants, substrate and lighting. I try not to be very technical about biotope of betta livida (seri iskandar) breeding tank. I will focus on what's going on in the mind of the layman or a wild betta breeder on his first few attempt at reproduction.

The tank should have two distinct corners, one for nesting and the other for hiding. Betta Livida breeding is about a male making bubbles under a leaf at one corner and as soon as mating rituals done, the female will be chased away so she needs a far corner to hide.

Nesting corner is where the whole mating rituals will take place. The male will make bubbles underneath pegaga leaf and placed eggs released by female during mating rituals there. Nesting corner is full of pegaga plants, portions of pandan leaves and of course the tiny duckweeds.

Pic1: Nesting corner with pegaga plants

Hiding corner is where mahang and ketapang leaves are placed over two 1" white pvc short pipes. This corner will be the feeding corner during the 7 days of breeding process.  The female can easily run and hide here if it needs to be.

Pic2: hiding corner for female to run and hide

A rather large 2.5" pvc elbow is placed in the middle of the tank. It separates the two sides.  I always use RO water for breeding, 3 inches in depth. In an attempt to lower ph a bit, mahang and ketapang leaves left for a week or so will do the work.  

Pic3: Nesting corner on the left, 
with large 2.5 inches pvc elbow on the right

For beginners, the set up and biotope for betta livida breeding will work fine.  No measuring tools! Its about what is right. Once we wish to go serious with breeding and want to explore more, then the whole biology and biotope parameters for betta livida breeding tank will get in. 

Pic4: small breeding tank on the left,
the male LM1s.i.
and the female LF1s.i. 
Both get into the breeding tank on 11/11/2020

Bangchik 

Seri Iskandar

Describing betta livida seri iskandar

I have every intention to describe our 29/8/2020 wild caught betta livida for lasting footprint on my part and as reference for others.   We caught four fish that day.  As usual they were put into bottles when we got home. Soon after we realised, that these couldn't be betta imbellis. The colour, the shape of the body and the flare were different. Google helped. We zeroed in into betta livida.  To have it confirmed we checked with experts in Malaysia Wild Betta Society Facebook group.  Yes, our guess was right.

      

Pic1: Betta Livida with striking two gold stripes on its cheek

Pic 2: Betta Livida has whitish green tip of pelvic fin

Pic 3: Betta Livida taking an aggressive stance

pic 4: betta livida, lines and dots along at tail and fins

The habitat of betta livida seri iskandar

It is a slightly undulating land that meets a plain separated by a ditch. The whole landmass is basically laterite soil, and the ditch is full of fallen mahang (macaranga) and simpuh air  (dillenia suffruticosa) leaves. The two types of trees form the canopy shadowing the ditch. Water isn't too dark coloured, just slightly tinted clayey water. That ditch is noticeably man made, most probably during the establishment of massive felcra plantation.  Senduduk (melastoma) and other typical wetland small shrubs grow at the outskirt of ditch. The ditch itself runs to about 200 meters.

Pic 4: The habitat of wild caught betta livida Seri Iskandar

The history goes back to the setting up of Felcra Nasaruddin and development of the surrounding areas in late 90's for residential, and commercial areas. Further up, a town Tronoh is a very much disturbed land, heavily mined for tin in late 1800 to early 1900. The long Sungai Perak which cuts across the region divide the much hilly part on its right and the lowland where paddy will grow on its left. Seri Iskandar is on hillier side. 

Size of wild caught betta livida seri iskandar

male     :    LM1si is about 5 cm
male     :    LM2si is almost 4 cm
female  :    LF1si is about 4 cm

Colour Dark purplish brown when caught. I didn't place them in exactly similar biotope, therefore the colour faded a bit.  

With the three wild betta livida seri iskandar in my keeping, I wonder if my interest in captive reproduction will help to ensure its survival in seri iskandar.  The first attempt was quite successful, now a community of almost thirty 3 week old livida fries.  

Bangchik
Seri Iskandar

Betta Livida, breeding and its problem.

 I was caught up with Betta Livida by chance. Wild betta has been about Imbellis for decades. It was childhood pastime, wandering around nearby ditches looking for betta imbellis. We kept them for fun in those days. Interest in breeding wild betta comes much later.  

Razib, a neighborhood friend shares the interest in betta breeding. We ventured into wetlands around Seri Iskandar together, and brought home wild betta imbellis. On the sixth trip 29 August 2020, we caught what's later identified as betta livida. He took one male, and the rest with me, 2 males and a female.

Understanding that inbreeding may not be too good, so I bought two more Livida pairs (sp Tg Malim or t.m.) from A' Aquatic Hauz Pahang to kickstart the breeding project.  I tagged my Livida as LM1s.i. , LM2s.i. and LF1s.i and those purchased as LM3t.m., LM4t.m., LF2t.m., and LF3t.m. 

Betta Livida Breeding Project 1

Pair 1:    LM1si vs LF2tm. 
Pair 2:    LM3tm. vs  LF1si.  
Pair 3:    LM2si vs LF3tm

Mating Date:  16/10/2020

Free swimming fry: 23/10/2020

Pair 1 produced 16 fries (estimate), Pair 2 , 15 fries (estimate) and sadly Pair 3 failed altogether, no bubbles, nothing.  The saddest part is ,  betta livida purchased all died within 2 weeks after bouts of spawning activities . LF2tm, LM3tm, LF3tm were gone. I wonder if they were used to different environment and food with the breeder/seller, or bouts of spawning too much to handle, or they were too young at the verge of maturity or they were not well fed weeks before breeding. I guess conditioning them with good food for a week or two before breeding would solve it, for fish purchased best if we allow a month to pass first.  But wild caught livida from seri iskandar, survived. 

Nest of Pair 1

Nest of Pair 2, 

the male can be seen guarding its nest

On their 13th day, the fries look quite healthy, living on infusoria and a bit of other live food like artemia and moina macrocopa. 

Bangchik. 
Seri Iskandar

Betta Imbellis breeding: third attempt

7 day old betta imbellis fries. Immediately after 

the camera shot, they were transfered to a bigger

grow out blue tank

The bowl is fairly small, 9 in diameter and can only accommodate water to a depth 2 1/2 inches , leaving a breathing space of half an inch. Its really the minimum.  Three bowls and three betta imbellis pairs. Out of three, only one pair did get through and produced fries.

I took still photo from the top, zoomed it and did the counting. I counted to 250 and then stopped. For record purposes, the total for the first week of age is more than 250.

BANGCHIK seri iskandar.