LIVIDA: a rare acrobatic display.

It has been long since I last play with Nikon and macro photography.  Now, an old handphone. Flicking through the photo gallery, I was amazed with one blurry move.

A threatening face, a wavy tail, dorsal fin flipped extraordinarily to the front covering its head...., I long for the old Nikon. Surely Nikon can define mood and clarity to its minute detail.

livida, acrobatic display.

(WBLM)

Livida sp Tg Malim, a mixed origin.

The male, bought from an established breeder from Pahang. I got the female from a seller residing in Selangor, wild caught he said. The pair breed twice with offspring of 4-5 months old.

F1 males has spots and light blue colour spreads thinly throughout the body. Ventral fins are thick, and tail spade shaped. With curvy head and stocky built, they really look awesome.

Livida sp tg malim

wblm

Livida seri iskandar

Out of a few hundred offspring of wild caught pair from seri iskandar wetland, only a few appears with small spot on their sides....., the rest are mostly clean single toned.

Livida seri iskandar, offspring with small spot.

wblm

Betta livida : … excessive reproduction.

The pair broke the norms of 20-70 eggs per spawn. They went through a frenzy of non-stop reproduction dec20 – jan21. I kept taking the pair out to another breeding tank once the fry able to swim freely and put a halt after the 5th spawn.

While doing 100% water change recently, I scoped out one by one and did exact counting.

23.12.20 spawn 1 – 94

28.12.20 spawn 2 – 90

03.01.21 spawn 3 - 171

09.01.21 spawn 4 - 115

15.01.21 spawn 5 – 91

TOTAL: 561 babies

THE PAIR: LM2si x LF5tm

Spawn 3 with 171 babies could be due to consecutive spawning over 2 days. I did notice how Dad raced all over the tank picking free swimming babies back to the nest. There could be another set that wasn’t ready to swim yet. I think Dad like to let go both sets to roam the tank simultaneously.

I asked fellow breeders about this. Most agree that the pair must be very healthy, Mom with belly full of eggs, Dad energetic and attractive. Cool rainy season of Dec-Jan months could also spur this excessive breeding mood.

Pic 1 : handsome Dad, I call him LM2si)

- Seri Iskandar PERAK, Malaysia

betta livida giveaways, continuity of livida seri iskandar bloodlines

Giveaways will lighten one's load. For betta livida, that would translate into a lesser bunch to feed and do water change. The first giveaways from the first batch of betta livida breeding goes to a friend. He got two pairs. One male having spot at the side, while the other has clean body. Since the juvenile comes from spawns of two different pairs...., a female and a male from each spawn and he has to make sure that the pair comes from different spawn. Its just our raw understanding about danger of inbreeding.

betta livida breeding: a matured pair.

 Every living thing will grow and finally die. A cycle of life. Somewhere in between being young and old, is a stage known as maturity. Always the term refers to maturity in reproduction. Sexually matured.

For betta livida, after 3 months of age, the female will begin to show the egg spot or ovipositor. Its a tube that extends out of the body for releasing eggs during spawning activities. Then slowly the belly portion around the egg spot turns whiter. That would probably be the sign of accumulation of eggs. The female would be ready for breeding at this stage.  Four months of age would be the starting point of being sexually matured. Young pairs will spawn, but there is a danger of them getting too stressful and finally die. I will put five months of age as being a safe age for successful breeding.

Age is tough to guess, unless its a fish that we breed. Wild caught fish is tough to guess. Purchased fish that comes with birth certificate is a rare occurrence. Then size would be a parameter worth looking at. But to measure the length of fish is quite a skill.

bangchik
seri iskandar Perak.

LM2si, a longer flare

 

LM2si, the flare

 

wild caught betta livida LM2si: January 2021 first set of pictures

 LM2si has matured over the months...

pic1

pic2

pic3

pic4

pic5

pic6

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pic15

bangchik

seri iskandar, Perak

betta livida: the most loving couple and prolific rendezvous

Its about a loving pair, wild caught LM2si and LF5tm bought from a seller. By the way the seller mentioned  the sp tg malim female specimen being wild caught. I trust his words.  They were paired on 15th of December 2020, in a red medium sized tank. They took their own sweet time and finally spawned on 23rd of December.  Then they exhibited what's true love all about, with spawn after spawn.  Its like electronic clock precision, the moment fries twitched off the bubbles and swam freely, Daddy and Mommy will go for another rendezvous.

15/12/20        The pair placed in breeding tank
23/12/20         First Spawn (1)
28/12/20         Second spawn (2), the moment fries swam freely. (New eggs in renewed nest within coconut shell. I missed the opportunity to take the pair out .)
1/1/21            Shift pair into new tank after fries from spawn2 swam freely.
3/1/21            Third spawn (3)
8/1/21            Shift pair to a new tank after  spawn3 swam freely
9/1/21            Fourth spawn (4)
14/1/21          Shift pair to a new tank right after spawn 4 swam freely.

15/1/21          Fifth spawn (5)

19/1/21          Take female out (update on 21/1/21)

20/1/21          Take male out

video1: 14/1/2020 12.10pm moments before the pair would be taken out after 4th spawn. 

If I shift them 2 hours later, new eggs would probably be deposited in the old nest.

Estimates of fries

spawn1: 60plus

spawn2: 50plus

spawn3: 50plus

spawn4: 50plus

spawn5: 50plus (update on 21/1/21)

I wonder what kicks off this productive phenomenon:  the chill of rainy season or  a marvelous case of true love being displayed. I shall wait if there are new eggs deposited for the fifth spawn, then after let the pair rest for a month. Its too taxing on me as wild betta breeder, and probably on the pair as well.  For me, its another 3 months of tedious fry care  before sex orientation of each spawn can be determined.

bangchik

betta livida breeding, seri iskandar.