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Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
Taxonomy
Anatomy
Geography
History
Care
Breeds
Colouration
Breeding
Genetics
Disease
Parting words
The Betta Bible
The art and science of keeping
bettas
Marble HMPK bred by the author
by Dr Martin Brammah
About the author
Dr Martin Brammah received both his
MA in Natural Sciences and his PhD in
Zoology from the University of
Cambridge, UK. He is co-author of the
paper Genetic divergence between and
within two subspecies of Laudakia
stellio on islands in the Greek
Cyclades, based on his PhD research,
which was published in The
Herpetological Journal in 2010. Dr
Brammah is an Associate Member of the
Society of Biology and a full member of
the Chartered Institute of Ecology and
Environmental Management (CIEEM).
He currently works as an ecological
consultant and lives in Cambridgeshire
with his beautiful wife, two dogs and a
room full of bettas.
© 2015 by Martin Brammah
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means including information
storage and retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the author.
The only exception is by a reviewer,
who may quote short excerpts in a
review.
www.thebettabible.com
Foreword
You might be thinking, who is this guy
writing the foreword to The Betta
Bible? For the people who do not know
me, let me introduce myself. My name is
Joep van Esch and I am from the
Netherlands. Besides being a biologist
and researcher (PhD), I have been
breeding show bettas since 2003 and
some of you might be familiar with my
personal website www.bettaterritory.nl.
In addition I am co-founder of the
international Bettas4all forum
(www.bettas4all.nl) and the Bettas4all
Standard as well as manager of the
Holland Betta Show
(www.hollandbettashow.nl). I am
extremely honoured to be invited to
write the foreword to this book written
by my friend Dr Martin Brammah.
Martin and I first met in person at the
Holland Betta Show 2013, where he
won several prizes for his marble
halfmoon plakats (although no first prize
that time!). I remember one evening after
the show I was showing him some
photos and videos of the very first
halfmoon bettas that were stored on my
laptop. It was then that he announced that
he was in the process of writing a book
about bettas. Who knew that I would
now be sitting here writing the foreword
to that book?
I got to know Martin in 2007 when he
became a member of the Bettas4all
forum under the username 'Bluejax'. He
asked a lot of questions, many of which I
was thankfully able to answer! Over the
years we have had numerous interesting
conversations about bettas.
In 2014, Martin became a Bettas4all
Advisor (moderator) at the forum and I
am proud to have him on board as part
the training program to become a
certified Bettas4all Judge.
Dr Martin Brammah is a dedicated and
knowledgeable betta hobbyist who has
made a great effort to bundle the
knowledge he gathered during his study
and during his years as a hobbyist (by
reading books and articles, participating
in discussions, exhibiting at shows and
of course learning from the experiences
he made in his own fishroom) into The
Betta Bible.
I really enjoyed reading this book and it
is nice to see a relatively ‘young’
hobbyist sharing his knowledge and
views. The Betta Bible provides a
broad overview of all aspects of our
beautiful hobby by discussing such
important subjects as anatomy, history,
breeding, care, genetics and disease,
making it a must-read for both the novice
and more experienced betta hobbyist
alike.
In the chapter on breeding, Martin says:
“Anyone can buy themselves a huge
betta collection, the same way that a
collector buys works of art. And there’s
nothing wrong with being a collector.
In fact, all of us are collectors to start
with. But just think how much more
meaningful that collection would be if
you had painted every piece.
Here’s what I think: If you have the
chance to be an artist, then be an
artist… and paint beautiful bettas!”
I couldn’t agree more.
Go breed those beauties!
Dr Joep H. M. van Esch
Introduction
It’s a funny thing, falling in love. It just
happens. You meet someone, a
connection is made and suddenly you
wake up one day and can’t imagine life
without them. They’re a part of you. And
even if it doesn’t last, the memory of that
love will always remain.
I fell in love with bettas when I was
eleven years old. My parents had bought
me a large glass aquarium for my
birthday and amongst the first fish to
inhabit it was a male veiltail betta. He
was a rich royal blue, with long flowing
fins and a pugnacious attitude and I was
very proud indeed to be his owner.
Sadly, he didn’t last long under my
novice care. The scant information
contained in my many tropical fish books
hadn’t equipped me to properly care for
him.
I was completely devastated, as only a
child can be, to lose such a beautiful fish
and vowed that I would read everything
about bettas that I could get my hands on,
so that the next time I brought one home I
would have more success.
Shortly afterwards I purchased a copy of
Walt Maurus’s A Complete Guide to
Bettas and it change my life. Here was a
book that not only answered all of my
questions about bettas, but was also
written in such a way that you couldn’t
help but affected by the author’s
enthusiasm for his subject.
Twenty-two years later, after a dalliance
with Central American cichlids, I find
myself keeping bettas once again. I
returned to betta keeping in 2007, just at
the point when one or two people in the
UK had started to import show quality
bettas from Asia. Having seen photos of
modern show bettas online I was
captivated by their colour and finnage. I
had to get my hands on some! Through
the importers I started to build a
collection of high quality bettas, turning
most of my fishroom over to their care. I
then embarked on what has turned out to
be one of the most enjoyable journeys of
my life: The quest to understand and put
into practice the art and science of
keeping and breeding bettas. I turned to
the world wide web for help.
It is no easy task to learn everything you
need to know about the modern betta
hobby by using the internet alone. Most
of the information is spread far and wide
across a plethora of websites that vary
in both the quality and accuracy of the
information they provide. Of course, if
you know where to look, there are some
brilliant websites out there that provide
excellent information, but for most
people starting out in the hobby finding
the information they need can be a
daunting prospect. In the end many either
give up or find themselves in an endless
cycle of posting questions on social
media pages in order to get answers
(some better than others).
It is for this reason that when I first sat
down at my computer three years ago, to
begin the process of writing The Betta
Bible, I had just one aim: To put as much
information as possible about keeping
and breeding bettas in one place, so that
others could save themselves from the
countless hours of scouring the internet
that I had to go through in order to teach
myself how to do so.
Not for me a basic beginner’s guide to
bettas, or a coffee table book full of
photos and no useful content. I wanted to
write a proper reference book that
anyone could pick up, knowing
absolutely nothing about bettas, and use
to educate themselves about every
aspect of this wonderful hobby.
This is the book you now hold in your
hands. In it I have tried to cover every
aspect of betta keeping, from taxonomy,
anatomy, geography and history right
through to how to keep and breed bettas,
descriptions of the various types of
betta, their colour patterns, and no less
than a whole chapter on genetics. I have
also included a section on common
diseases found in bettas and how to treat
them. Put simply, if there’s an aspect of
betta keeping that isn’t covered in this
book, then it’s probably not worth
knowing; and if it is worth knowing, then
please tell me and it will appear in the
next edition. After all, this is only the
beginning.
Bicolour halfmoon plakat male © Eugenio Fornasiero
Marble halfmoon plakat (short-finned) male © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Marble halfmoon male © Kitti Watcharaworatham
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is defined as the process of
defining groups of biological organisms
on the basis of shared characteristics,
and giving names to those groups. Each
group is given a rank and groups of a
given rank can be aggregated to form a
super group of higher rank in order to
create a hierarchical classification.
This may all sound wonderfully
complicated, but in fact most of you will
have at least heard of these ranks before
if you have ever watched a wildlife
documentary, or paid any attention at all
in Biology class.
The most commonly used ranks, from
most inclusive to least inclusive, are:
kingdom, phylum, class, order, family,
genus, species and subspecies. Every
single species on earth (or at least all
those that have thus far been described
by science) has a taxonomic
classification that includes these ranks.
To give an example of a taxonomic
classification that should be close to
your heart, here is the taxonomy of
humans:
KINGDOM - Animalia
Animalia is the kingdom that describes
ALL animals. In terms of their shared
characteristics, animals are eukaryotic
(i.e. they have cells that contain complex
structures contained in membranes) and
mostly multicellular; they are
heterotrophic (i.e. they ingest other
organisms or their products for
sustenance); they lack rigid cell walls
(unlike plants and fungi); they are motile,
if only at certain life stages; their
embryos pass through a blastula stage (a
hollow sphere of cells is formed during
an early stage of embryonic development
- this is exclusive to animals); and for
the most part they create descendants via
sexual reproduction (i.e. offspring
receive 50% of their genes from each
parent).
PHYLUM – Chordata
This phylum describes all animals which
are either vertebrates, or one of several
closely related invertebrates, all united
by having (for at least some period of
their life cycle) a notochord, a hollow
dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an
endostyle, and a post-anal tail.
Basically, the phylum Chordata includes
all animals with a spinal cord.
CLASS – Mammalia
The class Mammalia describes air-
breathing vertebrate animals
characterised by the possession of
endothermy (i.e. warm blood, thanks to
an ability to regulate
their own body temperature), hair, three
middle ear bones, and mammary glands
functional in mothers with young.
ORDER - Primates
This order describes all of the animals
we think of as primates; lorises, lemurs,
monkeys, lesser apes, great apes and
humans.
FAMILY - Hominidae
The family Hominidae describes the
great apes (chimpanzees, orangutans,
gorillas and humans)
GENUS - Homo
The genus Homo includes modern
humans and species closely related to
them.
SPECIES - sapiens
This is the species name that describes
you, me and all other humans. So, to give
us our full title, we are Homo sapiens.
That is to say, we are the sapiens
species within the genus Homo and we
all share diagnostic characteristics that
can be used to differentiate us in
taxonomic terms from all the other
species in the genus Homo, such as
Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo
ergaster (all of which are now extinct).

***

How to write scientific names


Genus names must ALWAYS be written
with a capital letter at the start and
ALWAYS be presented either in Italics
or underlined. There are NO
exceptions.
Species and subspecies names must
ALWAYS be written with a lower case
letter at the start and ALWAYS be
presented either in Italics or
underlined. There are NO exceptions.
Why we use Latin for scientific names
There are basically two reasons: The
first is that Latin is no longer in use as
a language and therefore does not
change over time. We can rely on a
Latin name to mean exactly the same
thing it does today as it did 300 years
ago.
The second reason is that by using a
language that is no longer spoken we
can assign a scientific name to any
given species that will be the same
anywhere in the world. Whilst there can
be several common names in different
countries for the same species - for
example ‘dog’ (English), ‘chien’
(French) and ‘perro’ (Spanish) are all
names for the subspecies Canis lupus
familiaris - or conversely, the same
common name can be used for several
different species - for example the term
‘parrot’ is used for a range of different
species - the scientific name for a
particular species is always the same
ANYWHERE in the world.
If you are talking you about Canis lupus
familiaris, regardless of the country you
are in people will know exactly what
animal you are talking about.
***

Now that we understand a little more


about taxonomy, we can take a look at
the taxonomic classification of the
subject of this book:
KINGDOM – Animalia
Bettas share the same kingdom as
humans. We are both animals.
PHYLUM – Chordata
Bettas also share the same phylum as
humans because they, like us, have a
spine.
CLASS – Actinopterygii
The class Actinopterygii describes all
ray-finned fishes.
ORDER – Perciformes
This order Perciformes describes
‘perch-like’ (hence the name) ray-finned
fishes.
SUBORDER – Anabantoidei
The suborder Anabantoidei describes
perciform, ray-finned freshwater fish
that are distinguished from other
suborders by the possession of a lung-
like labyrinth organ, which enables them
to breathe atmospheric air.
FAMILY – Osphronemidae
The family Osphronemidae describes all
gouramis and gourami-like fishes.
Typically these fish have an elongated
ray at the front of their pelvic fin, are
either mouth-brooders or bubblenest
builders, and have a labyrinth organ
which allows them to breathe
atmospheric air.
GENUS - Betta
The genus Betta describes a large
number of small, often colourful,
freshwater, ray-finned fishes in the
family Osphronemidae.
SPECIES – splendens
This is the species name of the subject of
the book, the Siamese fighting fish or
betta.
I give you Betta splendens.

Now, although this book is primarily


about Betta splendens, you should be
aware that there are a great number of
other Betta species out there, the
majority of which make excellent
aquarium subjects and exhibit a subtle
beauty that, as a fish enthusiast, you will
be hard pressed to ignore. To my mind,
spending a little time looking at these
other species is worthwhile, not only for
the purposes of broadening your
horizons, but also because at least two
other Betta species have played a
pivotal role in the creation of what we
now think of as the modern show fighting
fish.
So, how many species are there in the
genus Betta? Well, the short answer is
that there are around 70 species.
However, as with all fish genera, the
number of species goes up and down all
the time, as more work is done by
taxonomists to put fish together in what
they believe to be the most appropriate
groups – usually based on how closely
related those fish are.
For those of you who are already
aquarists (and in particular those of you
who have experience with cichlids), you
will be all too familiar with the constant
naming and renaming of species. It all
comes down to whether you think it
makes more sense to group similar
populations into one species, or invest
time and effort into studying minute
differences in order to split similar
populations into new species (or, if the
differences really are small,
subspecies). A lot of species have
geographical variants (an effect of those
populations being isolated from the
wider gene pool). Some would like to
see many of those geographical variants
given new species names, whereas those
who like to keep things simple are
content to use just one species name and
talk in terms of geographic variants or
colour morphs.
Personally, I am undecided. On the one
hand I can definitely see the merit in
studying populations in detail to see
where they ‘fit’, as this has huge
implications for conservation. On the
other hand, from a practical point of
view, going too far down the route of
separating geographical variants and
colour morphs can make things
unnecessarily complicated. All things
considered, I think simpler is often
better.
Helpfully, the Betta genus has already
been grouped by taxonomists into twelve
species complexes for conservation
purposes. I have attempted to list these
below.

Betta species complexes


akarensis complex:
Betta akarensis
Betta antoni
Betta aurigans
Betta balunga
Betta chini
Betta ibanorum
Betta obscura
Betta pinguis

albimarginata complex:
Betta albimarginata
Betta channoides

anabatoides complex:
Betta anabatoides
Betta midas

bellica complex:
Betta bellica
Betta simorum

coccina complex:
Betta brownorum
Betta burdigala
Betta coccina
Betta hendra
Betta livida
Betta miniopinna
Betta persephone
Betta rutilans
Betta tussyae
Betta uberis

dimidiata complex:
Betta dimidiata
Betta krataios

edithae complex:
Betta edithae
foerschi complex:
Betta foerschi
Betta mandor
Betta strohi
picta complex:
Betta falx
Betta pallida
Betta picta
Betta simplex
Betta taeniata

pugnax complex:
Betta apollon
Betta breviobesus
Betta cracens
Betta enisae
Betta ferox
Betta fusca
Betta kuehnei
Betta lehi
Betta prima
Betta pugnax
Betta pulchra
Betta raja
Betta schalleri
Betta stigmosa

rubra complex:
Betta dennisyongi
Betta rubra

splendens complex:
Betta imbellis
Betta mahachaiensis
Betta siamorientalis
Betta smaragdina
Betta splendens
Betta stiktos

unimaculata complex:
Betta compuncta
Betta gladiator
Betta ideii
Betta macrostoma
Betta ocellata
Betta pallifina
Betta patoti
Betta unimaculata

waseri complex:
Betta chloropharynx
Betta hipposideros
Betta pardalotos
Betta pi
Betta renata
Betta spilotogena
Betta tomi
Betta waseri

Discussion of the biology and captive


care of the entire Betta genus is beyond
the scope of this book, not least because
I have limited experience in keeping
them. I do hope, however, that the
photographs I have included below will
pique your interest sufficiently that you
will feel compelled to keep and breed
these other species if you get the chance.
All too few of the other Betta species
are widely available to aquarists, so the
more people who are keeping and
breeding these delightful fishes in
captivity, the better.
From the point of view of this book only
one species complex will be of
relevance from this point forward: The
so-called ‘splendens complex’. It is this
group of species that includes not only
the subject of this book, Betta
splendens, but also two related species
(Betta imbellis and Betta
mahachaiensis) that have played such an
important role in shaping modern show
bettas that to leave them out would, quite
frankly, be criminal.
Betta hendra © Manyork Zhou
Betta pallifina © Manyork Zhou
Betta ideii © Manyork Zhou
At this point I think it’s worth spending a
bit of time talking about how the betta
got its name.
The species Betta splendens has four
basic names in the English language.
These are: Siamese fighting fish, fighting
fish, fighter and betta. The first of these
names used to be the most prevalent;
however this has been superseded in
recent years by the latter term thanks to
its common usage on online discussion
forums.
Before we delve any further into this
book, I’d like to clear something up. The
use of the word ‘betta’ as a common
name for Betta splendens is deeply
unhelpful. As we saw in the previous
section, the genus Betta contains
somewhere in the region of 70 different
species. How then can we justify using
the genus name itself to describe just one
member of that genus? Yes, Betta
splendens may be the most widely kept
species in the genus, but that still doesn’t
make it worthy of this honour.
Something that is often overlooked by
novice aquarists is just how much you
can learn about an organism from its
species name. The world of fishkeeping
is full of wonderful examples of species
names that perfectly describe their
subject. For example the Convict cichlid
has the Latin name Amatitlania
nigrofasciatus, which translates as
‘black-striped fish from Lake Amatitla’
and the Jack Dempsey has the name
Rocio octofasciata, which loosely
translated means ‘eight-striped star-
spangled fish’. There are hundreds more
examples.
What is my point? Well, my point is that
if we’re going to look at common names,
we should first consider what we can
learn from a species’ scientific name.
So, let me tell you how the betta got its
name.
Dr Theodore Edward Cantor first
described the subject of this book in
1849, when he gave it the Latin name
Macropodus pugnax – literally
‘aggressive fish with big feet’. The
genus name Macropodus was already in
use at this time to describe the paradise
fish (Macropodus opercularis) and
presumably the reference to big feet
relates to the elongated pelvic fins in
this species. Clearly Cantor’s original
name was quite fitting for an aggressive
fish with long pelvic fins.
The name provided by Cantor was first
changed by Bause in 1897, who moved
the fish out of the genus Macropodus and
into the genus Betta. Thus, the fish
became Betta pugnax.
The genus name ‘Betta’ is believed to be
derived from the local (presumably
Malay) term for this fish: ‘ikan bettah’.
‘Ikan’ is the Malay word for fish and the
word ‘bettah’ comes from the name of an
ancient warrior-like tribe in south-east
Asia known as the Bettah. The locals
presumably regarded these fish as being
imbued with the fighting spirit of long
dead warriors, and for good reason. In
any case, Bause’s nomenclature
translates loosely as ‘aggressive
warrior’. Also very apt.
In 1909, Charles Tate Regan renamed the
fish yet again, after he found out that
there was already another Betta species
with the species name pugnax. It was
Regan who chose the name Betta
splendens – the ‘splendid warrior’. To
my mind, this is a perfect description of
the modern show fish, with its vibrant
colours, impressive fins and fiery
temper, but sadly I can’t see it really
catching on as a common name. The
word splendid isn’t exactly in regular
use these days (outside of the British
aristocracy) and I can’t imagine anyone
would use the term warrior to describe
their fish!
Good alternative names for Betta
splendens are - I’m forced to admit -
somewhat lacking. Personally, I am quite
a fan of the term fighting fish, or simply
fighter. Yes, it’s true that the other
species in the splendens complex all
have males that will fight aggressively
amongst themselves, but only Betta
splendens is so aggressive as to make
keeping unrelated males together
practically impossible – and this applies
to show fish as much as it does to wild
fish. Betta splendens is truly the king of
fighters (but more on that in later
chapters).
Reluctantly, I must admit defeat in the
face of popular opinion and will
therefore be using the term ‘betta’ to
describe Betta splendens for the
remainder of this book. Given that The
Betta Bible is as much about show fish
as it is about their wild counterparts
there is little real value in using the term
‘fighting fish’, and although ‘splendid
warrior’ is wonderfully apt, it is a touch
too grandiose, even for my tastes!
Scientifically erroneous it may be, but
the name ‘betta’ is here to stay.
Pair of wild Betta splendens spawning © John
Skillcorn
Anatomy
In order to talk about bettas and describe
their characteristics it is useful
(essential, even) to learn the correct
terminology for their external anatomy.
This is of relatively minor importance to
those of you whose interest in bettas
takes the form of buying a betta to keep
either singly as a pet, or as part of a
balanced community aquarium, as you
are perhaps less likely to talk about your
fish’s attributes with other people.
However, if your goal is to breed bettas,
or you are part of a group of betta
keepers – be it online or otherwise –
then you will want to learn betta
anatomy, so that you can convey the right
information about your fish to your
fellow betta enthusiasts without the need
for the fish to be present. This can be
particularly useful when asking for help
in diagnosing diseases in your fish.
Wild male Betta splendens flaring © John Skillcorn

To help you learn about betta anatomy I


have included the two black and white
diagrams below, which illustrate the
external anatomy of a male (top) and
female (bottom) shortfin betta. The good
news is that unless you wish to pursue a
career in betta biology, this is all the
betta anatomy you will ever need to
know. I strongly recommend that you
take a moment to learn these terms, as
you will see them referred to again and
again throughout the course of this book.
You’ll thank me for it in the end, I
promise!
Fin ray terminology
Understanding fin ray terminology is
useful for beginner and experienced
betta keepers alike, as the information it
provides can be useful when choosing or
buying fish for breeding purposes.
The so-called ‘ray-count’ of a betta
applies only to the caudal fin (although
some bettas have multiple ray branching
in their dorsal and anal fins as well) and
is easily defined as the maximum number
of branches per individual caudal ray at
the outer edge of the caudal fin.
If you look at the tail of a betta, you will
see several individual bony rays
emerging from the caudal peduncle
(where the body stops and the tail
begins), like the spokes of a wheel.
These thicker rays are called primary
rays.
Depending on the type of betta you are
looking at, each of the primary rays will
split into two or more rays as you follow
its progress towards the outer edge of
the caudal fin.
In wild bettas (and domestic bettas with
wild-type finnage) each primary ray
usually branches just once into two
secondary rays. Such bettas are
referred to as 2-ray bettas and are said
to have primary branching (as this is
the first time the caudal ray has split).
Note that veiltail bettas are also 2-ray
bettas.

Male crowntail plakat with primary branching in the


caudal fin - a 2-ray betta © Kitti Watcharaworatham
Modern show bettas have an increased
caudal span, which is believed to be the
result of genetic mutations that have
increased not only the amount of
webbing between the caudal rays, but
also the degree of branching in the
caudal rays.
In fish with greater than primary
branching there is quite a degree of
variation:

In 4-ray bettas each of the two


secondary rays splits into two
tertiary rays. This is secondary
branching.
In 8-ray bettas each of the four
tertiary rays splits into two
quaternary rays. This is tertiary
branching.
In 16-ray bettas each of the four
tertiary rays splits into two
quaternary rays. This is tertiary
branching.
In 32-ray bettas each of the eight
quaternary rays splits into two
quinary rays. This is quaternary
branching.

Even within each of these ray count


categories there is individual variation,
as all of a betta’s caudal rays don’t
always branch in the same way. For
example, a betta that is essentially an 8-
ray bettas may exhibit some 9-ray or 7-
ray branching in their caudal fin.
Male HMPK with secondary branching in the caudal
fin - a 4-ray betta © Kitti Watcharaworatham
Male over-halfmoon showing tertiary branching (8-
ray betta) © Kitti Watcharaworatham
At the extreme end of the scale are those
bettas that have more than thirty-two
rays at the caudal edge as a result of
inheriting genes for extreme ray
branching. Such fish are usually referred
to as either ‘rosetail’ or ‘feathertail’
because the large number of rays causes
the caudal fin to ruffle, giving the
appearance of petals (in the case of
rosetails) or feathers (in the case of
feathertails). Both forms are rather
obvious in appearance and therefore the
ray count terminology is not generally
used to describe them.
Close-up of the caudal fin of a feathertail betta
showing extreme branching © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Longevity
The question of how long bettas live is
not as straightforward to answer as it
might at first appear, as there are so
many variables that can have an effect on
the life expectancy of bettas.
These include:

The age of the betta at time of


purchase
The level of care the betta receives
The betta’s diet
The size of the betta’s container
The amount of exercise the fish
does
Whether or not the betta gets
injured through fighting and/or
spawning
The betta keeper’s knowledge of
common illnesses in bettas and
their treatment

In the wild, bettas probably have


relatively short lives thanks to the effects
of predation, damage sustained from
fighting and/or spawning, and
environmental effects. In pretty much all
cases, domestic animals far outlive their
wild counterparts. With this in mind it
would not surprise me if wild Betta
splendens lived for two years, at the
most.
The average lifespan of a captive-bred
betta that is properly looked after in
captivity is probably somewhere
between two and three years. However,
that is not to say that bettas can’t live for
much longer than this.
In ‘A Complete Guide to Bettas’ Walt
Maurus famously talks about a university
laboratory experiment that looked into
the longevity of bettas. Male bettas were
kept in two experimental set-ups: One
group was kept in small containers (jars)
with limited space for exercise. This
was the control group. The other group
was kept in tanks of several gallons and
exercised daily by the students, who
would use a stick to chase each fish
around its tank for a prescribed period
of time. This was the experimental
group.
Both groups had the highest levels of
care, with all their nutritional and
environmental needs met, in order to
make it a fair experiment.
The results of the study were startling.
The experimental group males lived to
be over nine years old! They far outlived
the control group males, who were all
long dead by year nine.
The males from the control group that
died were autopsied and the scientists
found that, for the most part, these fish
had died early as a result of fatty
degeneration of organs and tissues.
Basically they ate too much fatty food
and didn’t do enough exercise.
What this neat little experiment tells us
is that, in essence, the difference
between long and short life in captive
bettas, given identical nutritional and
environmental parameters, appears to be
down to whether or not the betta is given
enough room to exercise and enough
stimulus to do so.
This information is interesting from the
point of view of a breeder as, in most
cases, we keep our breeding stock in
small containers with little room for
exercise. In fact, the only real exercise
the fish get is during spawning, when
they are invariably given a much larger
container to exercise in and a spawning
partner, who provides all the stimulus
they need to exercise their muscles. The
lessons? Well, perhaps we should be
keeping our star breeders in bigger
accommodation and providing daily
stimulus. Or at the very least we should
ensure that we spawn our breeders as
often as possible (providing they are in
good spawning condition) to keep them
fit, healthy and stimulated.
Funnily enough, it is common practice
when keeping bettas side-by-side in
small transparent containers to prevent
them from seeing one another via the use
of an opaque screen placed between the
containers (I use rectangles of cardboard
cut from boxes). The purpose of this is
to prevent the fish from continually
displaying at one another and burning up
all the energy they should be saving for
spawning. However, the neat flip side of
using dividers is that it allows the betta
keeper to control the period of time two
fish are allowed to display to one
another - in effect the length of time that
the fish are stimulated into exercising
their muscles. As a result, many betta
breeders recommend allowing males
kept in such a set up to display to one
another for a few minutes each day to
build their strength.
An alternative method of encouraging
your betta to exercise is to put a small
mirror by the betta’s container for a few
minutes, which fools the fish into
thinking there is a rival next door and
causes it to display to its reflection.
I’d never really thought about it before
writing this book, but by encouraging
these small bouts of vigorous exercise
every day, we as betta keepers have
(albeit inadvertently) being doing the
same thing that the scientists mentioned
above were doing in their experiment.
We have been providing controlled daily
exercise. Okay, perhaps the effect would
be greater with larger containers, but all
the same I wouldn’t be surprised if it
turned out that this daily exercise made a
difference to the longevity of bettas kept
in this way, versus those kept purely in
isolation, with no daily stimulation.
The other interesting thing to note about
exercising bettas is that, in the long-
finned varieties at least, being stimulated
into flaring (i.e. opening the gill covers,
extending the gills downwards and
spreading all the fins wide) on a regular
basis will strengthen the muscles used
during this process, with the positive
result that the fish will not only hold its
fins better (very important if you plan to
enter the fish into a show), but also
swim better (as there is less risk of the
fin rays curling).
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Giving
your betta room to swim and providing
a regular stimulus that encourages the
fish to exercise its muscles will help to
ensure your betta lives a long and
happy life.
Letting your betta flare for a few minutes each day
might help him live longer © Kitti Watcharaworatham
Geography
Although, as one of its other common
names suggests, the wild form of the
Siamese fighting fish probably originates
from Siam (or Thailand, as it is now
known), the natural range of Betta
splendens extends well beyond the Thai
border into neighbouring Cambodia,
Laos and Vietnam.
Interestingly, thanks to their huge
popularity as aquarium subjects, bettas
have also been introduced into a number
of other countries, where they are now
well established in the wild. These
countries include Brazil, Colombia,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the
Dominican Republic. In fact,
populations of Betta splendens are
likely to exist in yet more countries as a
result of the international trade in
tropical fish and their ability to adapt to
a wide range of water conditions. Whilst
great for the bettas, this is almost
certainly bad news for local aquatic
ecosystems, as the successful
introduction of non-native (and, in
particular, predatory) fish into any
aquatic ecosystem generally results in
that ecosystem becoming unbalanced, to
the detriment of native species. A classic
example of this is the introduction of
Tilapia cichlids into lakes all over the
world, from Africa to South America, as
a cheap source of dietary protein for
local people. Tilapia are extremely
hardy fish, have a generalist diet, and
reproduce and grow quickly. It is no
surprise that they have displaced many
local fish species from large parts of
their original range.
Southeast Asia

Wherever they are found wild bettas


tend to inhabit shallow water bodies that
are choked with vegetation, such as
swamps and rice paddies. So ideal are
rice paddies for bettas, that I would
wager that both the history of rice
farming and the history of betta keeping
in south-east Asia are closely linked.
After all, what better way for people to
first come into contact with bettas than
as a result of seeing them swimming
amongst the stems of rice plants?
Betta habitats are generally oxygen-poor
as a result of the increased rate of
evaporation of gases brought about by a
combination of shallow water and high
air temperature. From an evolutionary
perspective, it is likely that this deficit
in dissolved oxygen was a major
selective force in the evolution of the
labyrinth organ found in all Anabantoid
fishes, which enables these fish to utilise
atmospheric air for respiration.
Whatever the common ancestor of this
group of fishes was, it would be
reasonable to assume that it inhabited
oxygen-poor waters, where genetic
mutations that enabled it to utilise
atmospheric oxygen would convey a
huge survival advantage over less well
equipped individuals. In any case, an
ability to survive in far shallower water
than other fish species has allowed the
Anabantoids to occupy environments
where competition for resources from
other fish species is much lower.
The tropical weather conditions in the
betta’s natural range result in extreme
variation in water availability, clarity,
chemistry and temperature. The rainy
season typically lasts from May through
to October; air temperatures ranges from
15°C in December to 40°C in April; and
water hardness can vary from pH 6.9 to
pH 8.2. These incredible environmental
fluctuations have played a crucial part in
making the betta a fish that is highly
adaptable to a wide range of aquatic
environments. This adaptability is also
seen in captivity, and is one of the main
reasons for the popularity of this species
with novice and experienced aquarists
alike.
Although I have been lucky enough to
see rice paddies in Malaysia, Indonesia,
Thailand and Cambodia first hand, I
haven’t yet had the pleasure of trapping
bettas in the wild. As such, everything I
know of betta habitats in the wild comes
as a result of researching the topic in
books and on the internet. Thanks to
online video-sharing, it is now possible
with the click of a mouse to see not only
video of wild betta habitat, but also the
fascinating methods used by local
people to capture bettas in those
habitats.
When I first began to research and keep
bettas (20 years ago!) all the books I
read talked about bettas living in
oxygen-poor, rather acidic water
conditions. In my mind I imagined
relatively clear, un-vegetated, shallow
pools of water, dyed brown from the
tannins released by fallen leaves. Now
that I have seen video of actual betta
habitat, I know that nothing could be
further from the truth. Through
researching this book I have learned that
bettas actually inhabit shallow water
bodies that are literally choked with
emergent aquatic vegetation. I had
always wondered how a body of water
could sustain a population of Betta
splendens when this species is so
famous for the inability of males to
tolerate one other without confrontations
escalating into fights. In the betta habitat
of my imagination, males would see
each other regularly and spend all their
time fighting. In reality, the sheer density
of plants may mean that males are often
hidden from each other’s view by
vegetation, enabling a higher density of
territories than would be possible in an
open water body, devoid of plants.
There are three lessons to be learned
from this section: Firstly, bettas are
highly adaptable fish that have been able
to successfully colonise water bodies all
over the world thanks to their tolerance
of a wide range of water parameters and
the possession of a lung-like labyrinth
organ, which enables them to breathe
atmospheric oxygen. Secondly, bettas
naturally inhabit shallow, slow-moving
waters that are low in dissolved oxygen
and of relatively high temperature.
Thirdly, betta habitat contains a high
density of emergent aquatic vegetation,
which is likely to act as a screen
between aggressive males, provide
protection for females from males during
spawning, and provide cover for fry as
they grow.
Keep these three lessons in your mind,
as they have shaped the manner in which
we keep bettas in captivity.
A rice paddy in Cambodia - typical betta habitat.
Photo by Shankar S.
(flickr.com/photos/shankaronline/7291535936),
available under a Creative Commons Attribution
licence (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
History
Most people have heard stories about
betta fighting in Asian countries where
large sums of money are bet on the
outcome of fights between male bettas
bred and trained for this purpose, but
how did we get from a situation where
the only bettas in captivity were in Asia
to the situation we have now, where
many of us can go to our nearest aquatics
store and see bettas of all shapes, sizes
and colours?
The short answer is that no-one really
knows. Historical information about
how bettas were first brought out of Asia
and described by science is patchy, to
say the least. Almost every website
about bettas has its own version of the
same story, which goes something like
this:
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Nangklao Chao
Yu Hua (a.k.a. Rama III) was the third
king of Siam under the House of Chakri,
ruling from 21 July 1824 to 2 April
1851. In 1840 the king, who was an avid
fan of betta fighting (and collected tax on
licensing betta fights), gave away some
of his prize fighting fish to Theodore
Cantor, a doctor in the Bengal medical
service, as a gift.
It was Cantor who, in 1849, published
the first article describing these fish and
giving them the scientific name Betta
pugnax.
The history of betta keeping continues
beyond 1849 with references on multiple
websites to bettas being imported into
Berlin, Germany, in 1896, by the
German tropical fish expert Paul Matte.
According to our old friend Wikipedia,
Matte imported ten pairs of bettas into
Germany from Moscow, from a strain
bred by either Pierre Carbonnier or J.
Jeunet in France, which tells us that
bettas were already in France and
Russia by 1896.
After 1896 the trail goes dead for
several years. I did, however, stumble
across a paper written by Edgar Waite
and published in Records of the
Australian Museum entitled ‘The
breeding habits of the Fighting Fish
(Betta pugnax)’. This paper was
published in 1904 by the Australian
Museum, Sydney, and in it the author
states that the fish he had under
observation “were kindly obtained at
my request by my friend Captain H. de
C. Wetherell, who procured them from
Pinang during a voyage to the Strait
Settlements.” We know, therefore, that
bettas were in Australia in 1904.
There is yet more information to be had
from reading Edgar Waite’s paper. In the
introduction, he credits French
naturalists for revealing to the world the
breeding habits of the Anabantoids. In
particular he thanks the Parisian
naturalist Pierre Carbonnier, going on to
mention two papers by Carbonnier
that he feels are likely to contain
observations on fighting fish. One of the
papers includes the term ‘poissons
combattantes’ (French for fighting fish)
in its title. The papers are dated 1874
and 1881, so bettas were almost
certainly in Paris as early as 1874.
Interestingly, Carbonnier was also one
of the first people to breed the paradise
fish Macropodus opercularis in 1869,
the year that it was first introduced into
the European hobby. It is not, therefore,
so surprising to learn that he was also
keeping bettas around that time.
Although I was unable to track down the
two papers by Carbonnier, another
online resource (www.datz.de)
reinforces the French influence on the
domestication of Betta splendens. This
site claims that Carbonnier first acquired
his specimens in 1874. The same site
also claims that Betta splendens was
first bred in Europe by Jeunet, another
Parisian, in 1892 (some sources say it
was 1893).
Thus, it would appear that bettas had
been imported to France and bred in
captivity there well before their first
introduction to Germany in 1896.
In The Betta Handbook, Robert J.
Goldstein states that bettas were first
imported into the US in 1910. Although I
can’t find any further information on this
import, there is some information about
a later shipment of veiltail bettas to the
US, from Cambodia, in 1927. Again this
is a story recounted on many different
websites and again there is a lack of
detail. In any case, it appears that the
bettas in question were delivered to
Frank Locke and Hugh Smith of the U. S.
National Museum in San Francisco, who
reported that some of the bettas in the
shipment had pale bodies with red fins.
This is believed to be the first historical
record of domesticated bettas that had
been selectively bred for their colour
and finnage and therefore marks a major
turning point in the history of betta
keeping.
From this point onwards, the history of
betta keeping splits along two very
different paths. Along one path we have
the continuation of hundreds of years of
work to perfect the ultimate fighting
machine. Along the other, an entirely
new direction for betta keeping; the
dawning of a new era in which bettas
are kept for their ornamental value and
not for their killer instincts.
What follows is my attempt to provide
you with an overview of the history of
these two, extremely divergent, paths.
As we are already heading down the
path that resulted in the first show bettas,
it is this path with which I would like to
begin.

The origins of the show


betta

Veiltail
Without a doubt, the first step along the
path towards what we now think of as
show bettas was the creation of the
veiltail betta. As we saw above, the first
record of veiltail bettas comes from the
1927 shipment to Frank Locke and Hugh
Smith in San Francisco. However, in
October of the same year Hermann
Meinken described veiltail bettas in an
article he wrote for the publication
‘Aquatic Life’ in Germany.
The fish Meinken described showed a
high degree of elongation in all three
unpaired fins (dorsal, anal and caudal)
and also in the ventral fins. Although the
mutation had an effect in female bettas,
making their fins slightly longer than
those of wild fish, the effect in male
bettas was startling. Males with the
long-fin mutation grew fins that were
twice as long as those of their wild
counterparts and twice as impressive.
Because their long finnage was
reminiscent of a bridal veil, these bettas
were given the name ‘veiltail’, a name
which is still used today.
Veiltail bettas were a real game changer
in the aquarium world. Male veiltails
became the must-have show fish thanks
to their incredible beauty and ease of
care. Seeing an opportunity to cash in on
‘betta fever’ , Asian breeders were
quick to put their vast experience with
bettas to good use, manipulating the
genetic make-up of Betta splendens
through selective breeding to produce
veiltails in a wide range of colours, to
meet the demands of an ever increasing
market.
The Asian breeders weren’t the only
ones working hard to improve veiltails.
In the 50’s an American named Warren
Young made a significant contribution to
the betta world through his creation (as a
result of carefully selecting the fish he
used for breeding) of a particularly large
strain of veiltail with even longer fins.
He named this fish the ‘Libby betta’,
after his wife.
For decades the only show bettas
available were veiltails, and it is
testament to the huge popularity of this
breed that you can still readily find
veiltail bettas in fish shops all over the
world. Long may it remain thus – a
really good veiltail can, to my mind,
easily rival a betta of any other tail type.

Doubletail veiltail
In around 1960 a genetic mutation
allowed India betta breeders to produce
bettas that had two caudal fins. These
were the first so-called doubletails, and
probably arose in veiltail stock. As well
as having two tails, these fish typically
had extremely broad dorsal fins and, in
some cases, reduced body length. The
reduced body length meant that some
males were unable to breed successfully.
In an attempt to overcome the negative
effects of reduced body length, breeders
crossed doubletail fish to singletail fish.
This yielded offspring with normal body
length, but much broader dorsal and
caudal fins.
These fish were the ancestors of what
we now called deltatail bettas.

Deltatail
The first deltatail bettas seen in Europe
were bred in the 60’s by Edouard
Schmidt Focke of Germany. His fish
were not as long finned as Warren
Young’s ‘Libby’ bettas and instead had
broader fins like those of modern day
bettas. The tail was symmetrical and
triangular.
In 1967 the IBC (International Betta
Congress) was formed by a group of
betta breeders. The IBC aimed to
breed fish with fins that were broad in
body and symmetrical instead of long.
This goal came about in part because
the IBC founders felt that in some
veiltails the fins were so long that the
fish were unable to swim properly,
resulting in concerns over animal
welfare.

Superdelta
The start of the next chapter in the
history of show bettas wasn’t until 1982.
This was the year that the American
betta breeder Peter Goettner managed to
produce a male betta with a caudal
spread of almost 180˚ (a so-called
superdelta).
He named the fish Mr Great. Mr Great
was the forefather of all the bettas we
now refer to as halfmoons, so called
because their caudal fins are shaped like
a half moon (or a semicircle, if you
prefer!).
Mr Great was special for two reasons.
Firstly, as I have said, he had a very
wide caudal spread; secondly, he had
secondary branching in his caudal fin
rays. If you remember, secondary
branching is where each caudal ray
splits to form two rays, which in turn
also split in two, resulting in four rays at
the outside edge of the fin. Remember
this fact, because it will be important
later on!
Anyway, returning to our story, Peter
Goettner’s breeding stock originally
came from another American betta
breeder, Chuck Hale, who had sold
some of his bettas to another breeder by
the name of Parris Jones in 1977.
Goettner bought his breeding stock from
Jones and used it to produce Mr Great.
We now skip forward to the early
1980’s, when a Frenchman named Guy
Delaval imported some bettas produced
by both Peter Goettner and Parris Jones
(from Chuck Hales’ original stock).
Delaval line bred these fish, selectively
breeding the best fish from each spawn
in a particular sequence (in this case
brother to sister, then father to daughter),
to produce fish in the resultant
generations that were progressively
closer to his desired goal.
By applying this process to the
American bettas he had imported,
Delaval succeeded in producing some
male bettas with a caudal spread of a
full 180˚ between the lower parts of the
caudal rays. It is important to remember
that Delaval’s fish still exhibited the
curved upper rays of their veiltail
predecessors. Although the fish were
stunning, they were overlooked by show
judges in 1987.
It wasn’t until 1988, at a fish show in Le
Mans, that anyone paid any attention to
Delaval’s bettas with their 180˚ caudal
spread. It wasn’t a show judge however,
but fellow betta enthusiast Rajiv
Masillamoni, who had travelled to the
show from Switzerland. Masillamoni
knew all about Mr Great and the
progress made by the American
breeders, so when he saw the caudal
spread of Delaval’s bettas he
immediately suspected that they came
from American bloodlines. After
confirming this with Delaval,
Masillamoni bought two of the three
180˚ caudal males at the show,
alongside five other males and two
females from the same line. His plan
was to breed these fish upon his return to
Switzerland.
Unfortunately, this was not to be: Once
back in Switzerland Masillamoni
discovered that all seven of the males he
had purchased from Delaval refused to
spawn properly. They courted the
females fine and even built bubblenests,
but all seven failed to wrap the females
successfully and fertilise any eggs.
Masillamoni consulted two other
breeders who had purchased stock from
Delaval (Laurent Chenot and Marc
Maurin) and found that they too had
experienced similar problems with their
fish. All three breeders put their lack of
success down to the fact that Delaval’s
fish had gone through too many rounds of
inbreeding, with the result that the males
had lost their spawning instinct.
With the males not performing,
Masillamoni was left with only one
option: To spawn the two females he had
purchased from Delaval with lower
quality bettas from a pet store, in the
hope that the genes for the 180˚ spread
would
appear in the next generation. Although
he carried out the spawns, the resultant
offspring were nowhere near the quality
of Delaval’s bettas in terms of their
form. To make matters worse, one of the
two females died!

Halfmoon
Eventually, Masillamoni was able to
acquire a melano doubletail male betta
(see chapter on fin types) from the Parris
Jones line through his connections with
the American chapter of the International
Betta Congress (IBC). He bred this fish
to his remaining Delaval female and as a
result managed to produce one fish
which stood out from the rest: a green
male betta with a perfect 180˚ caudal fin
with straight rays. He dubbed this fish
R39.
R39 is really the reason we have
halfmoon bettas today: Masillamoni
bred this male with every single one of
his females. He then loaned R39 to two
other breeders - Laurent Chenot and Jean
Luc Corso - and they bred him to their
females as well. The offspring of these
crosses were the basis of the very first
true halfmoon breeding line.
All halfmoon bettas today are the
descendants of R39.
It is tempting to stop the history lesson at
this point, but first I want to share a story
with you about the work that Rajiv
Masillamoni and two of his co-
conspirators did, to further spread the
popularity of halfmoon bettas and make
them the hugely popular fish they are
today.

The story of the


CHENMASWIL breeder
team
With the arrival of R39 and his progeny
the world had seen its first halfmoon
bettas, but this tail type was still little
known in fishkeeping circles and had yet
to be given any recognition at fish
shows.
Again it was Rajiv Masillamoni whose
actions saved the halfmoon betta from
the realms of obscurity. In the early 90’s,
enthused by his success with R39,
Masillamoni teamed up with betta
breeders Jeff Wilson in America and
Laurent Chenot in France to try and fix
halfmoon traits into a reliable line that
would breed true, generation after
generation.
The three men regularly exchanged
breeders to make sure that they were
working with the best fish available for
each subsequent spawn. Sometimes a
single male would be passed between
them, siring spawns in America, France,
and Switzerland! By using the best fish
from each other’s spawns, Masillamoni,
Wilson and Chenot were able to quickly
and efficiently produce a reliable line.
Thus, the CHENMASWIL line of bettas
was born (the name is a combination of
the three men’s surnames). A green
halfmoon male from the CHENMASWIL
line (bred by Masillamoni) was entered
into the show at the IBC Convention
1993 in Tampa, Florida. Masillamoni
had assumed that there was no chance
that a halfmoon could win, as the judges
were still favouring the other tail types.
He was wrong. Despite strong
competition from bettas of more
traditional tail types, this fish was
awarded Best of Show Male. It also
made the front cover of the December
1993 issue of FAMA (Freshwater And
Marine Aquarium) magazine, which
included a story about the origins of this
tail type.
Thanks to the magazine coverage,
breeders in the States and Europe went
halfmoon crazy, desperate to keep, breed
and show this tail type. Halfmoons soon
began winning competitions across the
United States on a regular basis.
The high demand for halfmoon bettas
(and their mesmerising beauty) didn’t go
unnoticed by breeders in Thailand who
managed to obtain stock from Europe
and America in the late 90’s. Thanks to
the ideal weather conditions and the
considerable skill of the Thai breeders,
by 2003 Thai halfmoons were being
produced that far outstripped anything
seen previously, either in Europe or
America.
The arrival of halfmoon bettas set the
standard for betta shows, but man is a
fickle beast and once stable halfmoon
lines were established all over the
world, breeders naturally turned their
attention to creating new tail types using
halfmoon genes.
At this point, the chronological order of
when particular varieties of betta were
developed goes out the window, as it’s
not clear when all the following breeds
were first created. In fact many of them
may have been created in different
countries at roughly the same time! As a
result, rather than try to put them in any
particular order, I’m just going to briefly
talk about the tail types that have
appeared on the betta scene in the early
part of this century.

Doubletail halfmoon (a.k.a.


full moon)
Breeding the doubletail gene into
halfmoon stocks, in an attempt to
improve their finnage, would have given
rise to the first doubletail halfmoons.
These fish are characterised by a wide
dorsal fin and two relatively wide
caudal fins (one above the other). The
shape of the two caudal fins is much
more rounded in the doubletail halfmoon
than in the doubletail veiltail, where
both caudals are long and almond
shaped. In combination with the anal fin,
the unpaired fins form a full circle,
hence the other common name for this
breed, ‘full moon’ betta.

Over halfmoons
Selective breeding of halfmoons resulted
in the creation of so-called ‘over
halfmoon’ bettas. Whilst the angle
between the upper and lower caudal
rays in halfmoons is 180˚, in over
halfmoons the angle is greater than 180˚,
so that the upper and lower caudal rays
bend forwards towards the head of the
fish, overlapping with the dorsal and
anal fins.

Rosetail and feathertail


Spawns designed to increase the degree
of caudal ray branching eventually gave
rise to the rosetail betta, where there is
so much branching in the caudal that
outer edge has folds like a rose, and the
feathertail betta, again with extreme
caudal branching, but this time with a
feathered appearance.

Halfmoon plakat
By crossing long-finned halfmoons with
short-finned plakat bettas, breeders
produced the halfmoon plakat. This is
essentially a short-finned betta with a D-
shaped caudal, like a halfmoon.
Different categories of halfmoon plakat
are recognised by the IBC (and other
betta organisations with show
standards), but I will leave discussion of
these to a later chapter on tail types.

Crowntail
The next betta fin type to take the world
by storm was the crowntail, a form
created by the Indonesian betta breeder,
Ahmad Yusuf. Crowntail bettas carry a
gene that causes the webbing between
the fin rays to be reduced. This gives the
impression that the fin rays extend
beyond the edges of the fin, like a crown
(hence the name). Where there is only
minor webbing reduction, the fish is
called a combtail. A halfmoon betta with
slight webbing reduction is called a
‘half sun’. There are several variations
of crowntail betta, which I will discuss
in the section of the book relating to this
fin type.

Newer forms
Other forms that have been subsequently
been produced include dumbo bettas,
which carry a gene for elongated
pectoral fins; giant bettas, some of which
can be over 3.5” long; doubletail
halfmoon plakats; and over halfmoon
plakats.
The most recent development in bettas is
probably the crowntail plakat, a short-
finned version of the crowntail. This tail
type is rapidly becoming very popular
(although some people think they look
like insects!).
Now that we have reached the end this
not-so-brief history of how the various
types of show betta came to be, I hope
that I have managed to make the point
that domestic betta stocks are constantly
evolving (both figuratively and literally)
as new genetic mutations crop up in
breeders’ tanks. Just when you think
there won’t be any more tail types, a
new one appears on the scene. It all
makes for a very exciting future!
I do think that breeders will always
come back to the halfmoon, as there is so
much that a breeder can work to perfect
in this breed and there is no denying that
a good halfmoon betta is a joy to behold.
However, one of the best things about
bettas is that there is a tail type to suit
everyone’s tastes.
Personally, I am a huge fan of short-
finned bettas. I just think they hold their
fins better than longer finned varieties
and seem to have so much more energy,
like little rockets!
But enough of that, there is more to learn
in this chapter on the history of bettas. In
the next section I want to rewind our
journey back to the point where the story
of bettas split in two, between fish bred
for their beauty and fish bred for their
brawn. It’s time to learn about the real
fighting fish.

The real fighting


fish
“You have to know the past to
understand the present.”

- Dr Carl Sagan
The fighter plakat - a lean mean fighting machine ©
Kitti Watcharaworatham
Any book on bettas is, in my opinion,
incomplete without some mention of fish
fighting. After all, this is the reason
bettas became so popular in the first
place. People have kept bettas for
fighting purposes for far longer than they
have kept them as show fish, and they
have been doing so very successfully
without the use of modern materials and
fancy aquarium gadgets. Thus, there is
much that we, as modern show betta
keepers, can learn from the old ways of
keeping fighting fish. Whether you
approve of it or not, without fish fighting
we simply wouldn’t have any of the
show betta strains that are available
today.
In this part of the book I would like to
present you with an overview of fish
fighting – what it involves and why
people do it. My aim is certainly not to
encourage anyone to take up fish
fighting, but rather to provide more
detail about what it involves, so that
even if you are against the practice, you
can at least appreciate the level of
dedication and skill involved on the part
of the competitors.
Let’s start with the mechanics of a fight.
The premise is very simple: Bets are
placed on the outcome of a fight between
two male bettas. Each betta handler is
allowed to choose which of his males to
use against his opponent’s fish. Males
must be evenly matched in terms of size
in order to be allowed to fight one
another and methods vary between
countries as to how this size-matching is
achieved (either by sight or weight). The
two chosen males are then placed into a
jar to fight until one male defeats the
other. The fights are frenetic and brutal,
with both fishes dealing and receiving
vicious bites that can result in severely
torn scales and fins. Very occasionally,
the losing fish will die, either through
exhaustion or asphyxiation. However, in
researching this book I have learned that
the death of a fish is the exception rather
than the rule in betta fights. It turns out
that in most cases one of the males will
stop fighting back. This fish will then
usually be given the opportunity to flare
at a so-called ‘police fish’ in a separate
fighting jar. If it flares at the police fish,
then it can continue to fight. If it does not
flare, it has lost the match and the other
fish is declared the winner. The prize
money is then distributed. After a
tournament, each handler takes his males
home to be healed up ready for the next
tournament.
Something I never really thought about
before, but which is pretty obvious on
reflection, is the fact that most
competitors who take their fish to a
tournament want to take those fish home
again. Think about it. If you’d put all that
time and effort in to breeding some
champion bloodline fish, cared for them
to keep them in peak physical health, and
then trained them for several days to get
them ready for the arena, would you be
happy if they were all allowed to die in
their first fight? Of course not. You’d
want there to be rules in place to give
you the chance of rehabilitating any fish
that loses so that next time you might
pitch it against a different opponent that
it would have a better chance of beating.
Sure, two males fighters will fight to the
death, but only if they are left together in
a confined space with no-one on hand to
intervene. The fact that matches are
stopped when one fish no longer shows
any inclination to fight back means that
the losing fish has a chance of recovery.
A chance to win on another day.
Betting on animal fights is clearly not a
new thing. Throughout history people
have waged money on the outcome of
such fights, the most notorious examples
being dog fighting and cock fighting,
both of which are historically more
widely practiced than fish fighting (and
both of which are far more brutal). In
terms of fish fighting, records from the
reign of Phaya Lithai, king of the
Sukhothai kingdom from roughly 1346
until his death in 1374, talk of fighting
fish being reared for sport. What this
means is that Thai people have been
keeping and breeding bettas for the
purposes of fighting purposes for over
650 years! It therefore goes without
saying that they have more than a little
expertise in terms of what it is that
makes a champion fighting fish. In fact,
the term ‘plakat’ that we use today to
describe short-finned bettas comes from
the Thai ‘Pla Kat’ meaning ‘biting fish’
– although in Thailand this term is also
used for other Betta species, not just
Betta splendens.
Two fighting cocks square off in Bali, Indonesia.
Photo by Yusuf IJsseldijk
(flickr.com/photos/ijsseldijk/8680249631/), available
under a Creative Commons Attribution licence
(creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
It is fitting that the country responsible
for giving the world Muay Thai (the
fierce martial art more commonly known
as Thai boxing) has such a long-standing
cultural connection with the fighting fish.
This is a country that understands the
glory of a good fight, hard won.
I have often wondered if there is more to
the fact that Thailand is the major
exporter of bettas in the world. Maybe,
just maybe, it’s a case of national pride;
perhaps the betta symbolises the
strength, tenacity and beauty of a nation.
So what is it about fish fighting that
made it such a popular past time? To
answer this question is really to answer
the question “Why does any sport
become an institution?” Clearly there is
potential for writing an entire book in
answer to this question (indeed, many
such books have been written on the
subject), but to spend too much time
answering this question would detract
from my goals for The Betta Bible.
Instead, I’m going to limit myself to a
few paragraphs with the aim of
persuading you that there’s more to fish
fighting than two fish forced to kill each
other in a glass jar.
Betta fighting is a sport, and all popular
sports have the following in common:

They are a public demonstration of


a competitor’s knowledge and skill
that is the result of extensive
training;
They bring people together (to
watch and to participate);
They engage the audience
emotionally;
They involve money at the
professional level, and people
often bet on the outcome of
matches.

This is as true of football (soccer) as it


is of betta fighting. By taking each of
these statements in turn and applying
them to fish fighting, it is clear how this
came to be such a popular pastime.
When it comes to a betta fight, it may
seem odd to suggest that it is the handler
of a fighting betta who is showing off his
skill and not the fish, but it’s true. To
successfully compete in betta fighting a
handler needs to have invested a lot of
time in learning about bettas: How to
choose, condition and train a fighter;
how to get the most out of that particular
fighter’s abilities during a tournament;
and even how to breed more champion
fighters from their winning fish. So, a
betta handler whose fish consistently
wins is not just lucky. He wins because
he has in-depth knowledge of every
aspect of his sport.
Like any spectator sport, betta fighting
brings people together, whether they are
actively participating in it or simply
spectating: Entire families devote their
lives to breeding fighting bettas to
supply an eager (international) market;
betta handlers meet with rivals to pick
their brains in the hope that they will let
slip some secret of their success;
spectators crowd around the jars,
thinking of the winnings they will
receive when the fish they have backed
wins.
Before the fight, all the jarred fighters are examined
and matched by size © Precha Jintasaerewonge
Although the simplicity of betta fighting
suggests that it was originally a poor
man’s pastime, betta fighting has proven
equally popular among the higher
echelons of society. Much as boxing
became hugely popular across the social
(and racial) classes in the western
world, betta fighting bridged the social
divide in South East Asia. Let’s face it,
even the Thai royal family was involved
in betta fighting at one time!
The following excerpt from an article
written by Khouth Sophakchakrya and
published on 18 September 2008 for
Cambodian newspaper ‘The Phnom
Penh Post’ highlights the range of
people involved in fish fighting:
“Vat Channa, a 23-year-old student at
Sisowath High School in Daun Penh
district, said
he and his classmates regularly buy
fish from Kong Sotheary. “Fish-
fighting is good for me, because it
helps me alleviate stress,” Vat Channa
said. But in addition to helping unwind,
the betting game often leads him to
parties. “We bet on fish fights for our
weekend parties - winners and losers
all party together, but the loser pays.”
... Theav Buny, who drives to the fights
in a Land Cruiser, took a bit of a hit at
the underwater smoker. “I lost $200,
but I’m not angry,” he said, adding that
some days he loses $500 and on others
wins $400-$500.”
The excerpt above highlights the fact that
betta fighting is a sport enjoyed by all
levels of society and all age groups.
Anyone who is a fan of sports will
understand the thrill of watching two
people or two teams compete against
one another for a prize. Likewise,
anyone who has ever competed in a
sport will understand the highs and lows
that plague such contests, as you switch
from a position of strength to one of
weakness and back again. Spectators at
betta fights are desperate for the fish
they have bet on to win and as a result
experience the whole gamut of emotions
as the two fish do battle. The stakes can
be financially very high, so the outcome
of a fight can have a big impact on a
person’s life. The betta handler has
mixed feelings too: For him it is not only
his pride and reputation that are at stake,
but also the life of his betta (and the
future earnings that betta might bring in).
He is hoping that his choice of fish, and
the conditioning and training that went
into that fish, are going to pay off.
Betta fighting (not unlike many sports in
the West) has a strong association with
gambling. Gambling is the ‘dark side’ of
betta fighting. On the face of it there is
nothing wrong with gambling at a small
scale to spice up a contest, however
when the stakes become much higher and
winnings increase, so too does the
likelihood of incurring serious debt
through significant losses. It is the latter
that inevitably causes the biggest
problems for gamblers and their
families. As we saw in the article
above, people from all walks of life
come to fish fights and these people
place bets ranging from pocket money up
to several hundred US dollars. At the top
end of the scale it’s easy to see how, as
with any form of gambling, things could
get quite addictive!
Interestingly, in one article I read that an
entrance fee must be paid in order to
enter a betta fighting establishment. For
this reason I suspect that, like a Las
Vegas casino, regardless of how much
the individual competitors and
spectators win or lose, the house always
wins.
When I first hear about fighting fish as a
child, I was very much given the
impression that competitors took fish
from the wild and pitted them against
one another. Nothing could be further
from the truth. The fish that appear in the
arenas are not wild fish by any stretch of
the imagination. They may resemble
wild fish, but everything about their
appearance and behaviour is the result
of hundreds of years of selective
breeding for particular traits that will
benefit those fish in the fighting arena.
Hopefully you’ve now learned little bit
about how betta fighting works and can
understand how it became such a
popular sport in Asia. In the next section
I’d like to take a look at what makes a
good fighting fish and how handlers
choose which fish to breed together to
get the next generation of champion
fighters.
A typical fighting plakat - note the short ventral fins
and compact finnage © Kitti Watcharaworatham
***

Fish fighting and the law.


Interestingly, it is illegal in Thailand to
bet money on the outcome of a fight
between two fighting fish, although the
actual sport itself is legal. No prizes,
then, for guessing that the prevention
of uncontrolled gambling is of greater
concern to the Thai government than
issues of animal welfare!
Here in the UK it is illegal to put two
male bettas in a tank to fight in the first
place, as this would contravene Animal
Welfare law.

***
How to build a fighting
machine
All male bettas will, given the chance,
fight. It’s a behaviour that’s hard-wired
into their genetic make-up. But what
makes one male a better fighter than
another? And if you could recognise
these characteristics, then would the key
to owning a winning male simply be to
find a male with as many of those
characteristics as possible from the
wild? Would you need to train your fish,
like a trainer would train a champion
boxer? What if you knew all the winning
characteristics? Could you selectively
breed a prize-winning male?
There are so many questions, but what
are the answers? In order to find out, we
must start by learning some new
terminology. You are hopefully now
aware that the Thai word for fighting
fish is ‘Pla Kat’ (or more commonly
‘plakat’). What you probably didn’t
know is that there are several words
that, in combination with the word ‘Pla
Kat’, can be used to describe different
types of fighting fish. Some of these
words are:

‘Par’ = forest/wild
‘Tung’ = fields
‘Mor’ = Pot
‘Chin’ (or ‘Cheen’) = Chinese
‘Thai’ = Thai (obviously!)

Pla Kat Par is a general term for wild


Betta species and thus usually refers to
B. splendens, B. imbellis or B.
smaragdina. Pla Kat Tung is used to
describe Betta splendens that have been
collected from flooded fields, ditches or
marshes. Pla Kat Mor is the term for the
domesticated strain of fighting fish
(again Betta splendens), which was
traditionally bred in clay pots. Pla Kat
Cheen is the term used in Thailand for
the long-finned strains of Betta
splendens (presumably because it was
the Chinese who popularised this strain).
Finally, Pla Kat Thai is the modern term
for Thai fighting fish (in the literal
sense).
The reason for learning these names is
simple: A fight between two male Pla
Kat Tung (i.e. naturally occurring wild
fish) lasts up to 15 minutes. A fight
between two male Pla Kat Thai (the
result of several years of careful
selective breeding for stamina and
aggression) can last as long as SIX
HOURS!
Evidently, if you knew the physical
characteristics that made a good fighter,
you could theoretically select the best
fighter from a group of wild males by
choosing the fish that expresses those
characters the most. However, what
makes this process of selective breeding
even more interesting is the fact that Pla
Kat Thai have more stamina and
aggression than Pla Kat Tung - two
attributes that aren’t visible to the naked
eye and can’t be assessed until a fish
enters the arena. From this we can
surmise not only that it has been possible
to selectively breed bettas for the
physical attributes that make a good
fighter, but that selective breeding from
winning males has allows breeders to
produce males that are better at fighting
than their wild counterparts in terms of
their behaviour too. Interestingly, even
female Pla Kat Thai are more aggressive
than wild fish and will nip and flare at
one another fiercely.
Serious breeders of Pla Kat Thai will
only ever use the winner of a fight for
breeding and will even refuse to breed
that male with females of unknown
origin. What they are really after is
females from other winning lines that
will suit their male. The attributes that
makes a female suitable will depend on
the goal of the breeder in terms of the
traits he believes are most important in
order to produce top level fighters (I
discuss some of these traits in the next
section). Such beliefs differ between
breeders and are a much debated
subject. Ultimately breeders get to test
their theories during a match, when their
fish (the outcome of their breeding
programs) will prove them right or
wrong.
It is this process of trial and error,
constantly striving for better fighting
ability, that drives the evolution of
fighting bettas in Asia. In order to be
successful in business terms, a good
breeder must be able to produce high
quality fighting fish in a consistent
fashion, and that means picking the right
breeding pairs in the first place.
In the next section I’m going to look at
the effect that body shape has on fighting
ability.

What are the traits of a top


class fighter?
The answer to this question is not as
straightforward as you might think, as
opinions vary between fighting fish
breeders as to which traits are the most
important. There are however five basic
physical attributes that dictate a fish’s
fighting ability that I would like to
discuss first. These are:

Overall size - bigger fish have


higher stamina and bigger bites!
Body shape - short and stocky
bettas are slower, but tougher. Long
and thin bettas are faster but more
vulnerable to attack
Fin length - short fins means less
fin damage and increased agility
Width of caudal peduncle - the
wider the peduncle, the more
powerfully a fish can attack
Scale thickness - thicker scales
means thicker armour

So what did the original betta breeders


have to work with? Let’s take a look at
the basic form of the wild-type Pla Kat
Tung.
The wild form of Betta splendens is a
rather attractive fish: It has a thin, dark-
coloured and rather streamlined body,
short, rounded fins (usually coloured red
and metallic blue/green), a broad caudal
peduncle, and a relatively large head
with an upturned mouth (for surface
feeding). Okay, it’s not in the same
league as some of the modern show
bettas, with their fancy fins and bright
colours, but compared to the other Betta
species, it’s certainly no slouch!
In the early days of the sport, people
would have collected wild bettas for
fighting competitions, so there would
have been little control over the fighting
ability of the fish. I imagine it was
largely a case of pot luck as to who had
the best fish, with the most successful
people being lucky enough to capture
specimens that just happened to have the
right balance of physical traits and
fighting instinct to be winners.
As the sport gained in popularity, with
people betting larger and larger sums on
the outcome of fights, the sensible thing
to do would be to increase the odds of
winning fights by ensuring your fighters
came from winning stock. This is how
people first began to selectively breed
bettas in captivity. Whereas now most of
us breed them for their beauty, back then
they were breeding largely for fighting
ability.
Given that there are a range of physical
traits that could make a good fighter,
what do you think the best combination
of traits would be? Is it better to be more
heavily armoured and stocky so you can
last longer, or to be faster and more
agile, so you can run rings around your
opponent and win the fight more easily?
According to an excellent account by
experienced fish fighter Precha
Jintasaerewonge, the handlers of Pla Kat
Thai have favoured three main body
types over time, in their endeavours to
create the ultimate fighter:

Channa type (long head/long


body) – The most popular form in
Thailand. The main structural form
of the Channa type, as the name
suggests, is similar to that of the
snakeheads (predatory fish,
common in Asia, in the genus
Channa). Channa type Pla Kat Thai
have a thick and rounded head with
a long, cylindrical body and
relatively short fins. According to
Jintasaerewonge, Channa type
fighters are highly resilient and
won’t retreat even when badly
injured. They attack their opponent
using a rapid series of strikes. In
combat terms they adopt a strong
offensive strategy in order to win
bouts.
Anabas type (short head/short
body) - An old form of Pla Kat
Mor. This type gets its name from
the fish Anabas testudineus
(another species common in South
East Asia) which has a very blunt
facial profile and stocky body
shape. The distinguishing
characteristic of the Anabas type is
a thick and short body structure,
widest at the point where the
pectoral fins emerge from the body.
The mouth is short but has thick
lips. As a result of its shorter body
length this type is slower than other
types and so adopts a strategy of
inflicting maximum damage with
each attack, aiming for the eyes and
mouth in order to prevent its
opponent from fighting back. In
general the slower speed of this
type make it less effective in the
arena and more susceptible to
defeat by faster types in the short
term, however if it can get a hard
strike in early and weaken its
opponent, the improved stamina of
this type can lead to victory.
Chitala type (upturned
mouth/long body) – This type gets
its name from the South East Asian
knife fish genus Chitala, all species
of which have a strongly curve
facial profile and long, vertically
narrow bodies. Hence Chitala
fighters have a rather upturned
mouth coupled with a flat and slim
body trunk. Compared to other
fighter types, the pelvic fins and
unpaired fins are longer. This is
another fast type, like the Channa
fighter, however as it is relatively
narrow and hence composed of less
muscle it is unable to hit its
opponents very hard. It does
however
have a sharp bite and this, coupled
with its speed, enables it to attack
its opponent a number of times in
quick succession leaving significant
damage in the process. There are
however a number of weak points
to this type of fighter. The most
important of these is a result of
their unique facial profile, which
leave their relatively weak mouths
exposed. Significant damage can
occur in this area after a few mouth
locks. In addition the longer fins
are an easy target and the thin body
means that this type is less resilient
to attacks from the side.
Like a general leading an army, a betta
handler needs to know the strategies,
strengths and weaknesses of his fish and
be able to judge the strengths and
weaknesses of his opponent’s fish. As
we have just seen, a fighter’s structural
form relates directly to its fighting style,
so the more the handler knows about
physical structure and fighting habits of
bettas the better he will be in matching
his fighter to an appropriate challenger.
It is no surprise that, according to
Jintasaerewonge, two of the main factors
that result in a player losing a match are
not matching a fighter carefully and not
understanding the fighter’s structural
form.
The similarity to the gladiatorial death
matches of the Roman empire is uncanny,
both in terms of the format of the fight,
but also in terms of its participants.
We’ve all seen cinematic recreations of
fights between huge, lumbering armour-
clad gladiators and faster, more lightly
armoured slaves. In the films at least, the
opponents appear to be relatively evenly
matched: on the one hand the gladiator is
better protected and his weapons likely
to inflict more damage, but he is too
slow to be very effective; on the other
hand, the slave with his inferior sword
is unimpeded by heavy armour and so
can strike more times (a significant
advantage), but he is less well protected,
so one hit could end the fight (and his
life). The same applies to a fight
between a Chitala type and an Anabas
type: the Chitala type is fast and can
strike quickly, but without much force;
the Anabas type has better armour and a
stronger bite, but lacks the speed of his
opponent.
Each structural form type has its own
advantages and disadvantages. Fighting
bettas in top condition are ready to fight
all the time, regardless of type, so it’s up
to the handler to improve his fighter’s
chances of winning by giving it a fair
match in the game. In terms of body
shape and proportions, however, the
ultimate fighter would possess the best
attributes from all three fighter types.
Hence the fish would have the
cylindrical form of the Channa type; the
thick neck and body of the Anabas type;
and the speed of the Chitala type. The
fish would also be structurally balanced.
Short, neat fins, a compact body (but not
too short!) and a strong caudal peduncle
to enable a powerful attack.
Interestingly, there may be other factors
that influence the fighting prowess of a
fighting betta. In his excellent book
‘Bettas: A Complete Pet Owner’s
Manual’’ Robert Goldstein discusses an
alternative means of categorising Pla
Kat Thai (he refers to them in the book
as Pla Kat Mor) in terms of their
colouration. According to Goldstein, at
the time the book was produced the top
fighter strains in Thailand fell into three
colour categories:
Hakmokwai - Grey-blue/ green
body with no red in the unpaired
fins and black pelvic fins.
Angchae - Green body and
unpaired fins half red in colour.
Honkamten - Brown body with
rows of green spots and a crescent
pattern in the tail similar to B.
imbellis

Apparently, these colours are used by


breeders to enable them to identify
which fish from a spawn will have the
best fighting ability. Clearly there is an
assumption that fighting prowess is in
some way linked to the genes that
determine colour. Because fighting
ability per se cannot be seen in young
fish, the idea is that breeders can (or at
least they believe they can) use the
colouration of their growing bettas to
keep track of which offspring are likely
to be good fighters and which are not.
Personally, when I first read about this I
was rather sceptical. After all, how
likely is it that the genes that control
aggression and stamina are linked to
genes for colouration? Surely the fact
that the offspring showing Hakmokwai
colouration are good fighters is simply
that they have inherited certain genes
from a champion male that resulted in
particular physical traits that affect
fighting behaviour? If this is correct,
then any fish from the same spawn that
do not show these ‘fighting’ colours must
surely have just as much chance of
possessing similar characteristics of
aggression and stamina. It makes you
wonder how many perfectly good
fighters are overlooked!
However, it is (just) possible that these
breeders are onto something. My own
observation of aggression levels in
modern (non-fighting) bettas is that red
fish are generally more aggressive. I
don’t know why, but all the red fish I
ever kept have been particularly fierce
towards other bettas, particularly the
female fish. Other betta keepers I have
spoken to over the years have made the
same observation. So, perhaps
aggression is linked in some way to the
expression of red pigment and it is this
that (at least in part) makes fish with the
above colour patterns better fighters. I’m
sure there’s a wonderful PhD thesis in
there somewhere!

Is fish fighting still


practiced?
Whenever you read about fish fighting, it
always sounds like something that used
to happen a long time ago. This is not the
case. Fish fights are as common now as
they were 700 years ago. In fact they are
probably more common now than they
have ever been; the result of bettas
becoming established in many countries
outside of Asia and the effect of
improved postal links between Asia and
other countries.
I don’t know of anyone in the UK who is
involved in betta fighting (I suspect if
they were they wouldn’t want to make
much noise about it for fear of
prosecution), but betta fights certainly
take place in the US and other countries
and ‘five-star’ fighting bettas regularly
sell for big money ($50 plus) on online
fish auction sites.
So what does the modern Pla Kat Thai
look like? Is he a Channa type or an
Anabas type? Or is he something
completely different?
A quick search online for photos of Pla
Kat Thai will tell you that nowadays
there is much overlap of the three main
types. Pla Kat Thai have been crossbred
with other lines from Cambodia,
Vietnam and Malaysia in a bid to
produce better and better fighters, so it
is impossible to distinguish between
them on the basis of body shape or
colouration. Perhaps the modern fighting
fish is in fact a combination of all three
fighter types.
To help you identify a Pla Kat Thai (in
case you want to buy one, or avoid
buying one) here are some more tips for
recognising a fighting fish.
For the most part fish that are bred for
fighting can be easily recognised by the
following characteristics:
They have large black heads
They have relatively big mouths
They have VERY short pelvic fins
They have a maximum of double
branching in the caudal fin
They are usually dark bodied or
blue in colour, occasionally with
red in the fins
On auction websites, they usually
have a star rating, which
corresponds to their purported
fighting ability

So let’s say you live in one of the


countries where betta fighting is
practiced (and legal!) and you’ve
managed to get hold of a decent male
from a prize-winning line of fighters.
How do you go about conditioning your
fish so that he will rise to victory in the
arena?

Fighter training

“I hated every minute of training, but I


said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live
the rest of your life as a champion.”

- Muhammad Ali

The oldest definition of sport in English


(from 1300) is “anything humans find
amusing or entertaining”. More recent
definitions demand that this activity
involves some form of physical exertion.
A game on the other hand is defined as,
“A competitive activity in which
players contend with each other
according to a set of rules”. Fish
fighting involves elements of both:
Bettas must be trained for the arena, as
athletes are for sport; and betta handlers
must use all their cunning and guile to
outwit their opponents’ strategies, just
like in a game.
It is interesting that there are often two
strategies at play: The first is a long term
strategy, where the handler strives
through selective breeding to obtain
A modern fighter plakat - note the short ventrals and
compact unpaired fins © Precha Jintasaerewonge

better fighters than his competitors; and


the second is a short term strategy,
where the handler trains his fish to be
great fighters and then hopes to match the
right fish from his collection to his
opponent’s fish in order to maximise his
chances of winning.
As any good boxer knows, the key to
winning a fight is the training that comes
before it. The same goes for betta
fighting. Every handler has his own
methods (the same goes for breeding, as
you will discover later on in this book),
but here is an overview of some of the
more common methods used by handlers
to get their males fighting fit.

Priming
The first stage is to prime the fighter.
There are three basic techniques that
handlers use to prime a fighter:

Isolation
Conditioning
Medication

First the fighter is separated from its


spawn. When fighters grow up together
they are less aggressive to one another
as they use up a lot of energy engaging in
relatively minor skirmishes throughout
the day. The handler wants his fighter to
be as aggressive as possible, hence the
need to isolate the fish in the first
instance, so that it will respond very
aggressively when placed in the arena.
Next the fighter is conditioned, by
adding more protein to its diet (mosquito
larvae, bloodworm and brine shrimp
(Artemia salina)) and getting it up (or
down) to a suitable fighting size. Plump
fish are fed less and skinny fish are fed
more with the goal of achieving a fish
that, when viewed from above,
graduates slowly from wide to thin, from
the head to the tail. This process usually
lasts a week.
Finally, herbs are added to the fighter’s
container to prevent - and in some cases
cure - any ailments. The most commonly
utilised plants are:

Banana (Musa spp.) - dried leaves


Indian almond (Terminalia
catappa) - dried leaves
Gruay (Casearia grewiifolia) -
dried leaves

Coconut (Cocos nucifera) - dried


leaves or husk
Golden shower tree (Cassia
fistula) - dried seed pod or bark
Teak (Tectona grandis) – dried
leaves
Black myrobalan (Terminalia
chebula) - dried leaves
Mimosa (Acacia catechu) seed -
dried seeds

Looking at this collection of plant


species in relation to their medical
properties I have discovered that the
majority of them have a laxative effect,
although in some case (such as banana)
the plants have antibacterial properties
as well. In my opinion, it’s no accident
that the top betta breeders in the world
today still swear by the addition of
certain herbs (Indian almond leaves in
particular) to water used to keep bettas.
Although it hasn’t been shown in any
quantitative way, I have read several
accounts by betta breeders that the
primary cause of dropsy in bettas is as a
result of overeating. This seemed
feasible, given that the first sign of
dropsy is that the fish has a bloated
appearance. The inclusion of plants that
have a laxative effect in water used to
keep bettas would be a great way to
stimulate the bettas’ digestive system,
thereby removing or at least reducing the
risk of dropsy.
Dried Indian almond leaves - betta breeders all over
the world swear by the antibiotic properties of this
plant
Alongside their medicinal effects, the
aforementioned herbs also lower the pH
of the water, making it more acidic,
which can encourage the fish to produce
a healthy mucous layer and acts to
inhibit the growth of bacteria. Thai betta
handlers will also tell you that adding
these herbs will toughen the scales of a
fighter, making it less prone to damage in
the arena.
During the first week of the preparation
process, handlers let the herbs turn the
water a dark tea-like colour. In week
two, half of the old water and any
detritus on the floor of the container is
removed and new water is added.
The following week, the fighter is
moved to a new container with new
water. Often this causes the fish to
become more active, behaving
aggressively and showing intense
colouration.
The final step is to carry out a pre-
training check that consists of examining
the fish’s mouth, gills, eyes, fins, scales
and body surface, followed by a
behavioural examination to make sure he
is flaring and behaving normally.

Training
A quick search online will produce a
plethora of pages (mostly from Thai
sellers) outlining various training
techniques for getting a fighting fish
ready to compete. For the most part
these methods are designed to build the
stamina of the fish; boost its confidence;
and boost its aggression.
Methods vary a great deal (every betta
handler has his own secret formula!), but
they are all roughly similar to the
following two-week pre-fight training
schedule:
Days 1-7
The fighter is kept in isolation in aged
water containing Indian almond leaves
(or treated with almond leaf extract) for
a week. According to my research, the
purpose of this is apparently to help the
fish to develop tough scales.
In my experience, isolating bettas for
several days generally has the effect of
increasing their responsiveness to other
members of the same species. For this
reason, it is often recommended that
bettas be isolated prior to any attempt to
spawn them, as this makes both parties
more responsive to one another and
therefore improves the chances of
spawning success.
Day 8
The fighter is moved to a new container
containing aged water (conditioned with
dry banana leaf). Shortly after moving
the betta to its new container, a small
female is added to the container for a
few minutes. The presence of the female
causes the male to flare and chase the
female around. Eventually the male will
try to bite the female, at which point she
is removed.
The exercise is designed to improve the
confidence of the fighter and reinforce
his dominant status. When the female is
removed, the male perceives that he has
‘won’ the first fight since coming out of
isolation. This is why a small female is
used, as there is no chance that she will
be more aggressive than the male. He is
guaranteed to win.
The process of adding the small female
is repeated again in the evening.
Days 9-11
A circular tub is filled 30 cm deep with
aged water. A small bottle containing a
female is placed in the centre of the tub.
This is followed by a small aquarium
water pump, which is positioned so that
it can propel water in a circle around the
tub. The pump is not switched on at this
stage. Next, the male is added to the tub.
Upon seeing the female the male will
swim around the bottle trying to attack
her. At this point the water pump is
turned on, causing the water to flow
around the tub and forcing the male to
swim against the current in order to keep
his position next to the female’s bottle.
The male is left to swim like this for 15
minutes. The process is repeated twice a
day after feeding, once in the morning
and once in the evening.
This method is used by betta handlers to
improve a fighter’s stamina and strength.
It is also designed to help the fish
develop good breathing techniques, as it
still has to get to the surface to breathe
atmospheric air whilst swimming against
the current.
Days 12-13
The fighter gets a rest from strength
training and instead repeats the exercise
from day 8, with small female being
added to and then removed from his
container. This time he only completes
the exercise once a day.
On the eve of the fight the fighter is fed
less food than normal.
Day 14 (fight day)
The fighter is given a small meal in the
morning. He is then placed back into the
circular tub, but this time there is no
water pump and the female is added
directly to the tub without the bottle. The
male is allowed to fight the female for
five minutes. He is then ready to be
taken to the show.

Pre-fight checks
The handler has to judge very carefully
whether or not a fighter is ready for the
arena. The key indicators are that the
fish is very active and very aggressive.
The fighter should attack immediately
when it sees another fish (or the
handler’s finger!).
Some handlers test their betta’s
readiness for battle by placing another
male into a plastic bag of water and
floating this bag in their betta’s
container. This allows the handler to
assess how willing his betta is to attack
another male betta without running the
risk of either fish becoming injured. If
the betta in the container attacks the betta
in the bag vigorously, then he is ready to
fight.
I have even seen video footage of one
handler using a betta ‘puppet’ (made by
cutting out the silhouette of a male betta
from a sheet of black rubber) attached to
a chopstick as part of training, to
simulate another male. Amazingly, his
fish responded to this puppet as though it
was a live fish and proceeded to attack
it viciously.
It’s worth pointing out that modern show
bettas also need to be trained in order to
perform at their best It is very common
for breeders to train their fish to flare
(i.e. to spread their gill covers and fins)
in response to a particular stimulus.
These stimuli typically include pointing
a finger at the fish, letting it see another
betta, or showing it a small mirror. The
flaring behaviour is easily conditioned
by presenting the stimulus to the fish and
then rewarding it with food each time it
responds by flaring. The betta soon
learns to connect the two events and will
flare upon seeing the stimulus even
without the food. This type of training
ensures that when the fish is being
judged in a show, it will show off its
fins beautifully. Fish that don’t flare are
often disqualified from judging, which
underlines the importance of training.

Rules of the ring


I wanted to end this section with some
rules from experienced breeder and
handler of fighting fish, Precha
Jintasaerewonge, who has written many
excellent articles on the topic of fish
fighting, all of which can be found on his
website (www.plakatthai.com).

Precha Jintasaerewonge’s rules of the


ring:
Don’t take a sick fish to the fight.
Don’t take a fighter with faults or
imperfections (physical or
behavioural) to the fight.

Don’t take a fighter you have never


seen fight before to a big stakes
match.
Don’t take a fighter to a fight if you
only have chance and luck on your
side.
Don’t become over-confident in
your fighter.
Don’t under-estimate your
opponent’s fighter (match the fish
not the handler).
Don’t let your opponent’s fighter be
much larger than your own.
Don’t fight fish with your close
friends.
Don’t fight fish with the real hard-
core player when playing for
money.
Don’t fight if you do not have the
time to take care of your fighter.

I love this list! It really reinforces for me


the fact that betta fighting is so much
more than sticking two bettas in a jar and
seeing which fish wins.
Betta fighting requires knowledge and
skill at every stage: Choosing a fish;
conditioning it; training it; and matching
it to the right opponent. These all require
serious attention to detail and, above all,
serious commitment to the betta’s needs.
It is only by truly studying their bettas
and gaining an intimate knowledge of
their behaviour that handlers are able to
work with those fish to win fights.
It makes me laugh that people would buy
a 5-star fighting fish from the auction
website AquaBid.com for $100 and then
take that same fish to a fight the
following week. Do they know the fish?
No! Are they aware of its precise
fighting style? No! Do they have any
guarantee that the fish is from a
champion bloodline? No! Is the seller
laughing all the way to the bank?
Probably.
Everything about bettas, be it betta
fighting, keeping bettas as a pet, or
breeding show bettas, depends entirely
on doing your research, meeting the
basic needs of your fish, and learning its
behaviour. You have to know your fish.
Know your fish and you will succeed.
Rely on luck and you will soon find
failure.
Care
A good story should have a beginning, a
middle and an end. The story of bettas
clearly begins in the flooded plains of
Thailand, which gave rise to the mighty
Pla Kat Thai and the proud art of fish
fighting, and it is for this reason that I
have devoted most of the previous
chapter to these humble beginnings.
However, the best is yet to come. There
is so much more to bettas than fish fights
and gambling. The remaining pages in
this book are devoted to an entirely
different world. A world in which
colour is more important than
aggression; where stamina is important
for holding elaborate finnage erect, not
for lasting the duration of a fight; a
world in which bettas compete
indirectly to win awards for their beauty
and top breeders compete to be the first
to perfect a strain, or even better be the
first to create a new one.
Today, the vast majority of bettas in the
western world are kept not for fighting,
but for their beauty as aquarium subjects.
The modern captive bred betta appears
to be an entirely different animal to its
wild counterpart, to the point where
most people would not believe that they
are the same species. I have devoted two
entire chapters of The Betta Bible to the
myriad betta varieties available today,
so I will not go into detail here, other
than to say that modern bettas are
available in more colours and with more
elaborate finnage than you could
possibly imagine, and that the number of
new strains is increasing all the time.
Despite the seemingly endless variety of
breeds and colour patterns that have
been produced in the betta world, strict
standards have been set for showing
bettas. These standards were put in
place by the International Betta Congress
(IBC) in order to allow bettas of
different breeds to be judged against one
another in a way that was fair to all
concerned. The IBC standards have in
turn inspired the creation of other
standards, such as the Bettas4all
Standard, which differ slightly in terms
of what is considered good form in a
show betta.
The middle of our story is all about the
glitz and the glamour of betta keeping,
but before we can begin our journey into
the modern world of betta husbandry I
want to show you how the practice of
keeping bettas in captivity has evolved
since those early days in Thailand, when
fish were kept in earthenware bowls.
Your introduction to keeping bettas starts
here.

Betta keeping basics


Bettas need three things in order to
thrive in captivity:
Clean water
A high temperature (25-28°C)
A regular supply of appropriate,
high quality and varied foods

That’s it!
If you can provide these three things then
you can keep bettas. You may think I’m
over-simplifying matters, but I’m really
not. These three rules apply to all betta
keepers regardless of if they are (as you
may be) a newcomer to the hobby, or an
internationally renowned breeder of
show quality fish.
Of course there are logistical issues to
overcome depending on the number of
bettas you want to keep, and everyone
has their own opinion of what makes a
high quality diet for feeding bettas, but
essentially that’s all there is to it.
In the rest of this chapter I will take each
element in turn and hopefully guide you
through the maze of betta keeping so that
you can find a method that works best
for you. That’s really my goal for this
entire book. I want to give you all the
information, so that you can decide what
keeping bettas is all about for yourself,
once you’ve weighed up all the options.
Hopefully you’ll write back to me one
day and tell me your methods. I have no
doubt that you will teach me a thing or
two!
But for now let’s get started: Your first
purchase (apart from this book!) should
be an appropriately-sized container that
will meet the needs of your betta. As it
turns out, you might have something
suitable already…
Housing your betta
FACT: You can keep a single betta in
any glass or plastic vessel that holds
water and is big enough for the fish to
turn around in.
This will no doubt be a shock to many
people reading this book and will
probably not sit too well with those at
the more extreme end of the animal
rights spectrum, but the fact remains that
if you wanted to, you could quite happily
keep a single betta alive for many years
in a large wine glass.
Before you run off to call the animal
welfare officer, let me explain: Most
tropical fish available to fishkeepers are
totally reliant on dissolved oxygen in
water. If you were to place such a fish
into a very small container, like a wine
glass, the rate at which the fish uses
oxygen in breathing is likely (depending
on the size of the fish) to be faster than
the rate at which more oxygen can
dissolve into the water from the
atmosphere. As a result the oxygen in the
water would run out and the fish would
ultimately die from asphyxia
(suffocation). Bettas, as we know, have
a specialised labyrinth organ that allows
them to utilise atmospheric air. Hence,
unlike fish that lack this organ, they do
not rely on the water they inhabit to
provide their bodies with the oxygen
required for life. Instead, they are able
to acquire oxygen easily by swimming to
the water surface and taking gulps of
atmospheric air. Thanks to this ability,
bettas are very rarely at risk of
suffocation in a captive environment.
HOWEVER…
…there are some very important caveats
to the ‘wine glass’ scenario:

The water would need to be the


right temperature for bettas.
The betta would need to be fed the
right food on a daily basis.
The water in the wine glass would
need to be kept scrupulously clean
to prevent disease and poisoning.
Without all of the above three things,
even if you put a single betta in a
swimming pool full of water, it would
surely die eventually.
ALSO…
…and this is very important: Just
because you can keep bettas in small
containers doesn’t mean that you should.
Let me say it again:
Just because you can keep bettas in
small containers doesn’t mean that
you should.
Personally, I’m a great believer in the
idea that fish in captivity should have
room to swim around and an
environment that is stimulating. Sadly it
is not always possible to provide this
and I have to confess that not all my
bettas have the luxury of spacious
accommodation, but this is more a
reflection of the limited space in my fish
room than my desire to let my fish swim
freely. Without doubt, the most attractive
betta set-ups I have seen have involved
displaying bettas in glass aquaria against
a naturalistic background of submerged
wood and thick stands of luxuriant green
plants – the perfect back-drop for a
perfect show fish.
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Thanks to
their labyrinth organ, bettas can be
kept in a wide variety of containers
and your choice of container depends
on why you want to keep bettas, how
many bettas you want to keep and
your budget.
Most people opt to keep bettas in a glass
or acrylic aquarium, as they are readily
available from pet stores and nowadays
come in a huge variety of shapes and
styles to suit any home and any wallet.
Transparent tanks obviously have a
major advantage over all other
containers in that they are transparent,
and therefore allow you to easily see
your fish and monitor its health. If you
really want to show off your betta, then a
glass or acrylic tank is definitely the
way to go. In recent years the aquarium
hobby has seen a huge rise in the
popularity of ever smaller tanks (so-
called ‘nano tanks’). These are perfect
for showing off bettas and the majority
of them have the benefits of being both
stylish and functional, often
incorporating some form of lighting and
biological filtration.
Clean Water
FACT: In order to keep bettas long
term, clean water is essential.

“Aquarists don’t keep fish, they keep


water.”

- Modern fishkeeping proverb

This phrase is commonly heard in


fishkeeping circles and it makes a very
important point. Nine times out of ten, if
your fish aren’t doing well, it’s down to
a problem with the chemistry of their
water.
There are two things to think about when
it comes to water chemistry. The first is
that fish from different parts of the world
generally require water in captivity that
is similar in chemistry to the water in
their natural habitat (this is especially
true of wild-caught fish). Luckily for us,
species that have been bred in captivity
for many years are often less reliant on
this and can cope with a wider range of
water parameters than their wild
counterparts. Modern bettas can pretty
much cope with any domestic water
supply, as for the most part this is around
pH 7. Here in Cambridge my tap water
is pH 7, but has a high carbonate
hardness (we joke about liquid rock
pouring out of the taps!). My bettas
thrive in it.
So if most of us are keeping our bettas in
tap water, what aspect of water
chemistry do we worry about? The
answer is: ‘Any chemical which, if it
reaches too high a concentration, will
poison our fish and either kill it or
compromise its immune system’.
Let’s return to our wine glass scenario.
Your betta is happily swimming around
in its glass, breathing atmospheric air
and generally looking okay. Providing it
is fed an appropriate diet, it will be
happy with this situation for several
days, maybe even a week. However, if
you don’t eventually change the water in
the glass for fresh water of the same
temperature, the health of your betta will
decline rapidly. The reason for this
decline in health is ammonia poisoning,
caused by a natural process known as
the nitrogen cycle.
When fish excrete waste, they do so in
the form of ammonia, which is highly
toxic to fish. In nature, so-called
nitrosifying bacteria that are commonly
present in water feed on this ammonia
and convert it into nitrites (see the
chemical equation below):

NH3 + O2 → NO2- + 3H+ + 2e-

Nitrites are also toxic to fish in high


concentrations. Luckily water bodies
also contain nitrifying bacteria, which
feed on nitrites and convert them to far
less toxic nitrates. The equation for this
is shown below:

NO2- + H2O → NO3- + 2H+ + 2e-

It is thanks to these two types of bacteria


and their role in the nitrogen cycle that
our streams, rivers and lakes can support
the large numbers of fish that they do.
Without them the fish would soon
succumb to poisoning.
HOWEVER…
…in our wine glass scenario, there will
be insufficient nitrogen fixing bacteria to
prevent poisoning in the long term. Even
if there were enough bacteria to convert
all the ammonia to nitrites and all the
nitrites into nitrates, the ever increasing
concentration of nitrates would still
ultimately poison the betta. Hence the
need for frequent water changes.
Stress caused by significant but non-
toxic levels of dissolved ammonia,
nitrites, or nitrates in the water will
inevitably have a negative effect on a
betta’s immune system, making it more
susceptible to water-borne fish diseases
that a healthy fish would be able to fight
off.
The nitrogen cycle

For this reason, many keepers of


freshwater tropical fish opt to include
some form of biological filtration in
their aquarium. Biological filters
essentially provide a material of high
surface area that can be readily
colonised by hundreds and thousands of
nitrogen fixing bacteria. The filter
mechanism draws aquarium water over
this substrate continuously, so that the
bacteria can feed on any ammonia or
nitrites and convert them ultimately into
nitrates which, as we have already
covered, are less toxic to fish.
It is important to note that all a
biological filter does is buy the
fishkeeper a bit more time between
water changes. Even with the best
biological filters, there will come a day
when the concentration of nitrates is high
enough to poison fish.
Some aquarists use aquatic plants to buy
even more time between water changes.
Plants utilise both ammonia and nitrates
for growth and so provide a means of
removing both compounds from water.
However, this only works when the
plants are provided with optimal
conditions for growth and again the
ammonia and nitrate removal can only
last so long until a water change will,
eventually, be required.
ALSO…
...the size of the container you keep your
betta in will determine how often you
need to change the water. Small
containers need frequent water changes
(say, every couple of days), large
containers need less frequent water
changes (maybe once a week, as it will
take longer for toxins to build up).
Likewise, tanks with biological filtration
and/or plants will need even less
frequent water changes (like once every
two weeks) thanks to the effects of
nitrogen fixing bacteria. Be aware that
the number of fish in the container will
also affect the frequency of water
changes. Without wishing to state the
obvious, here’s a simple equation:

More fish = More fish waste = More


toxins = More water changes!
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Unlike a
river, lake or stream, an aquarium is a
closed system and so ultimately (no
matter what clever ideas you come up
with!) toxins will build up and harm
your fish. In order to keep your betta
healthy you must carry out water
changes to keep its water clean.

Filtration
FACT: You do not need to filter water
to keep bettas in excellent health.
When it comes to filtration, there is only
one question you need to ask yourself:
“How much time do I want to spend
changing water?”
In the section on clean water, I discussed
the importance of keeping your betta’s
water clean. I also talked about using
filtration and plants as a means of
reducing the frequency of water changes.
Hopefully you’re starting to get the
message:

You need to change your betta’s water


to keep it healthy. The more filtration
you have, the less often the water will
need changing.

In my opinion, betta keepers fall into


three basic categories:
Those who want one or more male
bettas to kept individually as show
fish
Those who want to keep bettas as
part of a tropical freshwater
community aquarium
Those who want to breed bettas

If you are in the first or second category,


you will most likely be looking to set up
a single tank (either for a single betta, or
for a collection of tropical fish that
includes bettas) and as such, you would
be well advised to include filtration as
part of that tank set-up. This is
particularly true if you plan to have an
aquarium that you want people to look
at, where what really matters is the
design of the tank, the beauty of the
tank’s inhabitants and the clarity of the
water (no-one want to look a tank fully
of muddy water).
In both scenarios my advice would be to
include some form of biological
filtration in your set-up, as this will
benefit your fish and reduce the
frequency of water changes. You
absolutely must include biological
filtration if you are in the second
category and plan to keep bettas
alongside other tropical fish. Without it
the majority of tropical freshwater
community fish will not survive, due to
the combined effects of reduced
concentrations of dissolved oxygen and
ammonia/ nitrite/ nitrate poisoning.
Let’s look at a couple of readily
available filters that you might consider
purchasing for your aquarium set-up.

Internal air-driven sponge


filters
Commonly available in pet shops, these
filters essentially look like a sponge
with an uplift tube coming out of it. The
section of the uplift tube that is hidden
by the sponge has holes in it. The basic
principle is that a separate air-pump
pumps air into the uplift tube at the
bottom. This air bubbles up the tube,
which draws water through the sponge,
into the tube (via the holes in the tube)
and out of the top. Over time,
denitrifying and denitrosifying bacteria
colonise the sponge and, as the water is
drawn through the sponge, remove the
harmful nitrogen compounds. An added
bonus of the sponge is that it also filters
out any suspended particles in the water,
keeping it clear of debris (i.e.
mechanical filtration).

Internal impeller-driven
sponge filters
A second, more advanced, type of
sponge filter operates on exactly the
same principles, except that this time the
sponge is encased in a plastic housing
with holes in it (to allow water in) and
instead of relying on an air pump to
drive water through the sponge, water is
drawn through the filter by an
electrically powered impeller.
In terms of filtration, sponge filters are
the simplest type and I cannot
recommend them highly enough as a
cheap and efficient filtration mechanism
for tanks housing relatively few bettas.

External canister filters


A canister filter is essentially a box full
of different types of filter medium with a
hose leading into the bottom to deliver
dirty water from the tank, and a hose
leading from the top to return filtered
water back to the tank. The filter media
usually comprise a sponge and some
filter wool for mechanical filtration, as
well as another filter medium of very
large surface area - either ceramic or
plastic - which acts as a home for the
beneficial bacteria.
Canister filters are also driven by an
electrically powered impeller (usually
located in the lid of the filter) which
actively pumps water through the filter.
Most canister filters have a higher flow
rate than either of the sponge filters
discussed above, which makes them
more suitable for larger tanks housing
many fish. This is because high flow
rates are not suitable for long-finned
bettas, as they cannot swim well against
a current. Some aquarists overcome this
problem by attaching a spray bar to the
return hose of the filter, so that the
filtered water returns to the water
surface as spray (like rain), reducing the
amount of turbulence greatly.
If you are intent on keeping a single male
betta in a simple glass or plastic
container for your own personal
enjoyment, then you have the choice (as I
explained in the previous section) of
foregoing biological filtration, but if you
do so you must keep on top of your
water changes every few days or your
betta will suffer.
Coming back to the list of the three
categories of betta keeper: If you are
planning to breed bettas then you will
ultimately have a lot of bettas to look
after. At this point, there is a
compromise to be made in terms of
whether or not all of your bettas will
live in containers that are filtered. In all
likelihood some of them will and some
of them won’t. Let’s park this issue for
now. I will cover it in more detail in the
chapter on breeding bettas.

Home-made filters
One of the great things about bettas is
that they can be maintained long-term
without the need for fancy equipment.
One of my bugbears when it comes to
tropical fishkeeping (having kept
tropical fish for the best part of 20
years) is the cost of all the equipment
required to keep your fish in good
health. The fact is that most tropical fish
species do need a minimum amount of
equipment in order to keep them healthy,
particularly if you wish to breed them.
As bettas are such hardy fish, the idea of
spending a lot of money on hi-tech filters
and tank systems can seem excessive.
HOWEVER…
…something that the beginner to tropical
fishkeeping (and indeed betta keeping)
often overlooks is the fact that with a bit
of imagination you can make much of
this equipment yourself. This is
particularly true of biological filters.
Sure, you will need to spend money on
an air-pump, but a quick search on any
internet search engine will quickly
provide you with inspiration for how to
make your own filter. Here are three sets
of instructions to start you off, one for a
sponge filter, one for a bottle filter, and
one for a so-called Hamburg
Mattenfilter.
DISCLAIMER: If you are a child then
please ask a grown up to help you to
build these filters. I don’t want to be
held responsible for any power-tool
related accidents!

Bottle filter
The simplest filter you will ever build.
To build it you will need:

a small air pump


an airstone
a length of airline tubing to connect
the pump to the airstone (make sure
it’s long enough)
a small plastic soda bottle
filter medium e.g. gravel, filter
wool, activated carbon etc.
a drill

Drill a couple of rows of holes around


the base of the bottle. Remember that
these holes have to be smaller than the
particle size of any media you are using
(you don’t want all your gravel to fall
straight out!). Add your filter media
through the neck of the bottle. Place the
bottle in the tank and wait for it to fill
with water. Attach the airstone to the
airline tubing and push the airstone into
the bottle, above the filter media.
Connect the other end of the airline
tubing to the air pump. Turn on the air
pump. Good job! You’re done!
The real plus for bottle filters is how
easy they are to make, and they work
well too. Plus you have the choice over
whether or not the filter is mechanical
(containing only foam/filter wool, to
remove particles from the water),
biological (containing only filter media
with high surface area to house billions
of bacteria) or both (foam/filter wool in
the bottom, biological filter media on
top).
The major downside to this design is
that if you decide to include foam or
filter wool they are almost impossible to
clean out, as everything is stuck inside
the bottle. Still, providing that you keep
on top of your water changes to prevent
the filter clogging up and don’t
overstock the tank, there’s no reason one
of these simple filters couldn’t last for a
year or more without needing to be
replaced. Also, when the filter has
become clogged it is a simple matter to
cut the bottle open, remove the filter
media, wash it and put it into a newly
drilled bottle. After all, plastic bottles
are very easy to come by!

Sponge filter
The second simplest filter you will ever
build. To build it you will need:

a small air pump


an airstone
a length of airline tubing to connect
the pump to the airstone
a square/rectangular piece of rigid
filter foam at least 5 cm thick (these
are easy to buy in fish shops as
replacement foam for canister
filters)
a length of plastic tubing wide
enough to fit the airstone inside
a saw
a pencil
a pair of scissors
a drill

With the scissors, cut a slit in the centre


of one side of the foam to about half
way. Use the saw to cut a length of
plastic tubing the same height as your
rectangular piece of foam. Insert the tube
into this slit and with the pencil mark on
the tube the point where it emerges from
the foam. Remove the tube and drill
several small holes in the section of tube
that will be hidden inside the sponge.
Re-insert the tube into the sponge and
submerge it in your tank. Now wait for
the sponge to fill with water, so that it
rests on the tank floor, with the tube
pointing upwards. Attach the airstone to
the airline tubing and push the airstone to
the bottom of the tube sticking out of the
sponge. Connect the other end of the
airline tubing to the air pump. Turn the
air pump on and congratulate yourself.
You have just made a sponge filter!
I used this design for several years in
one of my guppy Poecilia reticulata
tanks with absolutely no problems, so I
can vouch for their effectiveness.
Remember that sponge filters are both
mechanical and biological filters. For
the biological filtration to work, you
must avoid letting the foam become too
clogged with debris and waste. Luckily
this design is incredibly simple to
maintain: Simply pull the sponge off the
tube, give it a good rinse in water
(preferably water that you have
syphoned from the same tank into a
bucket) and put it back.

Hamburg mattenfilter
The third simplest filter you will ever
build.
Note: This design is only for bare-
bottomed containers with rectangular
ends e.g. standard glass aquariums.
To build this filter you will need:

a small air pump


a length of airline tubing to connect
the pump to the airstone
a small airstone
a rectangular piece of rigid filter
foam (5 cm thick) of identical area
to the end of your tank
a length of plastic tubing at least 60
cm long with a diameter large
enough to admit the small airstone
easily
a plastic elbow joint suitable for
your chosen diameter plastic tubing
a tube of aquarium silicone
a saw
a pair of scissors
a drill
an elastic band/plastic cable tie

These instructions assume you have a


bare-bottomed aquarium that has been
filled with water and contains a heater in
preparation for you adding bettas.
Measure the inside width of your
aquarium and, using the saw, cut a piece
off the plastic pipe of the same length.
Place this length of plastic pipe against
the end of the aquarium. Now take your
rigid filter foam and position it so that it
is parallel to the end of the aquarium and
pushed up against the length of plastic
pipe (the pipe is only there to act as a
spacer to allow water flow behind the
filter foam). Next, cut two more -
identical - lengths off the plastic pipe
and connect them to the plastic elbow
joint using aquarium silicone (you may
need to stop at this point to allow the
silicone to dry).
Once the silicone has set, drill or cut a
hole in the middle of the filter foam pad,
right at the top. Push one arm of the
plastic ‘L’ shape through this hole, with
the other arm sitting behind the filter
foam. Attached the airstone to the airline
tubing and push it up into the tube that is
hanging down behind the filter pad now.
Making sure that the airstone is still in
place, bend the airline tubing up along
the plastic tube and fasten the elastic
band/cable tie around both the tube and
the airline to hold it in place. Attach the
other end of the airline to the air pump
and switch it one. You’ve just built your
first Hamburg Mattenfilter!
ALSO…
…you can get creative with plants. Some
readily available plants can act as good
filters for bettas as they grow quickly
and therefore help to reduce the
concentration of ammonia and nitrate in
the aquarium water. I tried this myself
once by placing an aerial root from one
of my Swiss cheese Monstera deliciosa
plants into my 120 litre aquarium. It
worked great: The fish seemed happier,
water-tests showed a reduction in
nitrates and the plant never looked
better! The only reason I stopped the
experiment was because the plant
absorbed so much water that the water
level in the aquarium would drop a few
centimetres each week. I was constantly
topping the tank up with fresh water!
Even so, it was clear that using smaller
plants (my Swiss cheese plant is around
10’ tall!) would have a beneficial result
for a betta container. I have since seen
some really good set-ups that use so-
called ‘lucky bamboo’ to help filter
water in aquaria. A quick internet search
should give you plenty of ideas!
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Biological
filtration is a blessing when you are
short on time and will make it easier
for you to maintain your betta(s) in
good health, but if you have the time
(and enthusiasm!) to carry out regular
water changes then it’s not essential.
Décor
FACT: Bettas have no need for a
substrate, or tank décor.
If you look at the shape of a betta’s
mouth you will notice that it curves
upwards. This upturned mouth indicates
that bettas have evolved to live (or at
least feed) at the water surface, which
makes good sense, given that they rely
on the surface of the water for most
aspects of their existence, including
breeding, feeding and respiration.
Because bettas are beautifully adapted to
life near the water surface, it goes
without saying that they have little need
for any particular type of substrate. They
are not like many of the catfish or cichlid
species that must sift through a sandy
substrate for particles of food, nor do
they rely on a moveable substrate in
order to seek shelter or dig nursery pits
for their fry.
For the aquarist this means that you have
free reign to choose any substrate you
like for the bottom of your aquarium, and
indeed I have seen everything from sand,
to glass marbles, to multi-coloured
gravel and so on.
Personally, I’m a big fan of no substrate
when it comes to keeping bettas, but
again this is because I approach betta
keeping from a practical point of view.
Having a clear bottom to the tank means
it is much easier for me to siphon off any
debris, waste and uneaten food that may
accumulate there. However, I have kept
bettas in community aquaria in the past
and in those situations it seems a shame
not to provide a substrate, as having one
improves the look of a display tank
immeasurably.
For the most part, when it comes to
keeping bettas, the beginner will only be
looking to house one fish and so décor is
again down to personal choice.
Your betta doesn’t need a tank filled
with plants, rocks, wood etc., but if
you want to provide those things then
that’s no bad thing.
At the very least it will provide you fish
with somewhere to hide…from you! In
some cases, particularly with newly
acquired specimens, this will help
prevent the fish from becoming stressed
and susceptible to illnesses, although
personally I think it’s important to train
your betta to get used to your presence
(using food as an incentive) as quickly
as possible, so that it greets you eagerly
every time to approach the
aquarium/container. Doing so will make
it much easier to inspect your fish and
make sure it is healthy.
There are two scenarios in which I
would actively advise the use of décor
in a betta tank. The first is when you are
planning on housing bettas (a single
male, or multiple females) in a
community aquarium with other tropical
fish. Let’s say you want to add a single
male betta to an existing aquarium full of
commonly available, small tropical fish
species. Bettas are not naturally
gregarious (in fact quite the opposite),
so they are not used to being surrounded
by lots of other fish. For this reason
some form of shelter from the hustle and
bustle of daily tank life is to be
recommended for your betta’s sake.
The other scenario is when you want to
keep several bettas in a single-species
aquarium. Hopefully I don’t need to tell
you that you can’t keep two male bettas
in the same aquarium (remember that
whole chapter on fish fighting?!). It is
however possible to keep multiple (at
least five) female bettas together in a so-
called ‘sorority tank’. Remember that
female bettas can be every bit as
aggressive as males and will often
bicker amongst themselves to establish a
pecking order when sharing a tank. In
order to prevent all out war breaking
out, it is of paramount importance that
the aquarium is furnished with plants and
other décor that will provide shelter to
those females that are lower down the
pecking order. You can of course use
plastic replica plants, but be careful as
some types of plastic plants have sharp
edges can rip a betta’s fins (silk plants
won’t do this, and they look more
realistic too).
Bettas don’t need décor to thrive but the beauty of a
naturalistic planted tank is hard to deny
Food
FACT: Bettas need a regular and
varied diet.
Bettas in captivity should be fed twice a
day, using different food types on
different days, or alternating food types
between the morning feed and the
evening feed.
Suitable commercial dried foods include
flake, granules, pellets and freeze-dried
live foods. Essentially, bettas will eat
any commercial fish food, providing that
it is relatively high in protein and of the
correct particle size.
In my opinion, the two best staple dried
foods available to betta keepers in the
UK are the pellets that have been
specifically formulated for bettas (there
are several brands) and the red granule
food that people usually buy for feeding
to discus fish. The former make feeding
time extremely simple, as you can easily
control the amount of food your fish are
eating (on pellet days I feed two pellets
to each fish, morning and evening). The
latter have a high protein content and
have the added bonus of containing
carotenoids, which are organic pigments
that boost red colour and improve
immune system response. Most
organisms can’t synthesise their own
carotenoids, so must get them from their
diet. The red granules provide an easy
way to boost both the health and, in the
case of red fish, the colour of your
bettas.

Two types of dried food used by the author to feed


his bettas: Red granules on the left, pellets on the
right

The diet of wild bettas consists almost


entirely of aquatic crustaceans
(freshwater shrimps) and insect larvae.
There are three ways to replicate this
diet in captivity. The first is to buy the
organisms in frozen form (either as
cubes or slabs) from your local fish
store. The companies that make frozen
food blocks do so by harvesting or
farming vast quantities of live foods,
washing away any dirt and debris and
then freezing them for sale to the
aquatics trade. Although more expensive
than dried foods, frozen foods are an
excellent way of introducing variety into
the diet of your bettas (and they go crazy
for it!).
The following types of frozen food are
suitable for adult bettas and are
available in the UK:

Adult brine shrimp (Artemia)


Glassworm
Black mosquito larvae
Bloodworm
Tubifex
Daphnia
White mosquito larvae
Mysis shrimp
Beef-heart
Cyclops

The second method for obtaining these


organisms is to buy bags of live
organisms from your local fish store.
The two most commonly available foods
in this form are bloodworm and daphnia,
but other types are available from time
to time. Buying bags of livefood is
generally not very cost effective in
comparison to buying frozen food,
especially as most fish stores will offer
some kind of discount if you buy frozen
food in bulk. Frozen food also lasts
much longer than livefood, for the
obvious reason that you can freeze it
almost indefinitely and it won’t go off.
To my mind there are two reasons to
feed live food to your betta: 1) watching
your betta hunting down its food makes
for pretty entertaining viewing; and 2)
providing mental stimulation for any
captive animal can only be a good thing
and bettas are no exception.
Of course there is a cheaper, if not
easier way to feed your betta live foods:
Collect them yourself. Many suitable
food species are available in water
bodies all over the world (especially
mosquito larvae – mosquitos are
everywhere!). In the UK it’s relatively
easy to find ponds that are home to
hundreds of organisms that would make
perfect betta food. In fact, many people
don’t realise that their own garden pond
is a fantastic source of live foods.
The following species are easily
collected from ponds during the warmer
months of the year in the UK:

Mosquito larvae
Daphnia
Cyclops
Mosquito larvae make excellent food for bettas.
Photo by Darron Birgenheier
(flickr.com/photos/darronb/14261861522), available
under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
licence (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

It is worth pointing out that many of


these insect larvae feed themselves on
green organic matter, so although we
think of bettas as being reliant on a high
protein diet, they do in fact obtain green
matter indirectly through the prey they
eat. Thus a proper diet for bettas in
captivity should consist of food that
duplicates the digestive contents of these
larvae as well.
If you don’t happen to be lucky enough to
be surrounded by ponds full of Daphnia
and aren’t prepared to pay the rent of
your local fish store owner by buying
bags of live food every week, then there
is yet another option available to you
that I urge you to investigate, namely
culturing your own live foods. I am
convinced that there must be hundreds of
organisms that could readily be cultured
in order to feed our fish, but at the
moment the live foods most commonly
cultured to feed to bettas (and their fry)
are:

Baby brineshrimp
Microworms
Vinegar eels
Grindal worms
White worms
Wingless fruit flies
Starter cultures of all these live foods
are usually available to aquarists either
via local fishkeeping clubs or online.
Sellers tend to provide instructions with
each starter culture to ensure that you
know how to look after them and ensure
a constant supply of live food for your
bettas.
In my opinion, the most useful live food
to learn how to culture is baby
brineshrimp, as these tiny shrimp are the
ultimate fry food and have literally
transformed my ability to breed bettas.
The next most useful livefood to culture
is probably grindal worm, as it is very
useful for achieving rapid growth in
young bettas (many excellent betta
breeders I know swear by it). Personally
I don’t use grindal worm for growing
bettas, as every time I have tried to
maintain a grindal worm culture it has
always been infested with mites!
However, having seen the results
achieved by fellow aquarists who do
feed their growing bettas on these
worms, I am 100% convinced that they
are worth the effort if you can keep the
mites out.
A bowl of adult brineshrimp. Photo by me and the
sysop (flickr.com/photos/pyxopotamus/5913886924/),
available under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NoDerivs licence (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nd/2.0/)
Bettas love bloodworm. Chopped up it makes great
fry food. Photo by istolethetv
(flickr.com/photos/istolethetv/3187177450), available
under a Creative Commons Attribution licence
(creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Home-made betta food:


Now, if you really want to be in control
of what your betta is eating, you can
actually make your own betta food using
a food processor. Many of the world’s
top betta breeders have their own
special formula, and judging by the
vitality of the bettas they produce, they
are right to do so.
As far as I can see, the only drawback to
making your own betta food is the cost.
Commercial fish foods are made in big
factories on a huge scale, which enables
the suppliers to keep the price down. As
you will be buying your food fresh from
your local convenience store, you will
undoubtedly end up paying more on an
annual basis. Having said that, the health
benefits to your fish will certainly be
worth it, and you could always opt to
feed a combination of commercial and
home-made foods to keep the costs
down.
For those of you interested in
experimenting with home-made betta
food, here’s a simple recipe to get you
started. I have used this recipe myself
and I can attest that bettas love it!
Ingredients:

Prawns/ frozen bloodworm/ raw


fish (no added salt or other
additives)
Boiled egg
Fresh garlic (1 clove)
Spinach

Take equal volumes of prawns/fish, egg


and spinach. Blanche the spinach in
boiling water and crush the garlic clove
with a garlic crusher. Finely chop the
prawn/fish. Combine the ingredients in a
food processor and blend them together
to form a smooth paste.
Put the paste into a zip-lock bag and
flatten the bag, using a rolling pin, to
form a thin layer in the bag. The bag and
its contents can now be frozen.
To feed your bettas, simply remove the
frozen sheet of food from the freezer,
break off a piece big enough for your
bettas to finish eating in under five
minutes and drop it into the tank.

Temperature
As we learned in an earlier chapter,
bettas are adapted to life in relatively
shallow water of a high temperature.
This is something that we need to
replicate in captivity in order to keep
our bettas happy.
Your method for achieving this will
depend on where you live in the world
and the size of the container you have
chosen. If you are fortunate enough to
live in a country where the ambient air
temperature is constantly 26°C or above
then you are in luck my friend, because
once it reaches room temperature, the
water in your betta container will be
warm enough for bettas. My only advice
would be to not leave the container in
direct sunlight at any point, to avoid the
risk of cooking your fish!
Those of us who aren’t so fortunate must
resort to some form of artificial heating
in order to maintain the water in our
betta containers at the correct
temperature.
The easiest way to do this is simply to
buy an aquarium heater that is small
enough to fit submerged in your
container. Such heaters have been
around for decades and are readily
available from aquatics stores. The
heater should be set to the correct
temperature (anywhere between 26 and
28°C is fine) and oriented in the
container/aquarium according to the
manufacturer’s instructions.
For containers that are too small to
accommodate a heater, it is possible to
use a heat mat of the type designed for
keeping reptiles to keep the water warm.
When I was younger I successfully kept
nine male bettas in this way for the
duration of a biology experiment I was
carrying out. Each male was kept in a
blue plastic storage jar and all nine jars
were placed on top of a large heat mat.
These males thrived on daily feeds and
twice weekly 100% water changes. The
only downside with using the heat mat
was that it was hard to control the
temperature very precisely, as these mats
work by increase in heat relative to the
ambient temperature of the room they are
in. Having said that, I imagine that this
could be achieved by using the mat in
conjunction with a thermostat unit.
The final method for getting the water in
your betta containers to the right
temperature is, of course, to heat the
whole room to that temperature. At first
this might sounds crazy, as surely the
costs of heating a whole room far
outweighs the cost of running a single
aquarium heater, but the benefit of
heating the whole room quickly becomes
clear when you start to add more bettas
and more containers to your collection.
Eventually a point is reached where it
becomes far more cost effective to heat
the room than it is to run all those
individual heaters. There is a reason
why most betta breeders in cool climates
opt to have a heated fish room in
preference to several individually
heated tanks. It’s all down to running
costs.
I’ve already mentioned that bettas should
ideally be kept at a temperature
somewhere between 26 and 28°C.
However, bettas can actually survive
(note I said survive, not thrive) at
temperatures slightly beyond this
recommended range.
In fact, in his book ‘A Complete Guide
to Bettas’, Walt Maurus talks of bettas
surviving for several hours, after being
left in a car in winter, at a temperature of
7˚C! This is reassuring for two reasons.
Firstly, it means that in the event of a
power cut, those of us in cooler climates
have a longer time window than might
be expected in which to find an
alternative heat source for our fish, until
the electricity supply is turned back on.
Secondly, it helps to explain how, when
bettas are transported around the world
in their thousands, packed individually
in tiny little plastic bags, they are more
than capable of coping with the
inevitable drop in temperature that
comes once the exporter’s heat packs
stop giving out heat.
An aquarium heater is the simplest way to heat the
water in your betta’s tank to the correct temperature

Light
Do bettas need light? The simple answer
is yes, of course bettas need light, but
only in the way that most animals need
light: To see things better!
Bettas evolved in the tropics, where the
sun rises around 06.00 and sets at
around 18.00, so in effect they are
‘designed’ to live in places where they
get natural sunlight for roughly 12 hours
a days, all year round (is it just me, or
does that make anyone else want to
emigrate?!).
Despite this, bettas don’t need any
special lighting arrangements in
captivity. They will live and breed quite
happily in the ambient light available in
whichever room in your house you care
to put them. If you want to use standard
fluorescent or LED aquarium lighting to
light their tank then that’s up to you, but
they really don’t need it.
Please note, I am not suggesting
keeping your betta in the dark. These
are living organisms that are to be
cared for and admired, not shut away
and forgotten about!
Obviously, if you are planning to use
live plants in your set-up, then you will
need to provide a light source in order
that those plants can photosynthesis and
stay alive.
IMPORTANT: Never put your betta’s
container in a location where it
receives direct sunlight, as the sudden
increase in temperature can kill your
fish.
One of the author’s LED strip lights

Shopping list
Okay, so now we’ve covered the basics
of betta care: a container (furnished or
not), clean water (filtered or not), high
temperature (heated tanks versus heated
room) and food (dried, frozen, collected
or cultured). In theory you should now
be fairly well placed to head to your
nearest pet store and buy everything you
need to get started with betta keeping,
but before you do, here’s an example
shopping list of everything you might
need to house one betta:

A small rectangular aquarium with


a lid (bettas are good jumpers!)
A suitably sized aquarium heater
(with built in thermostat)
A small air pump (to drive the
filter), ideally with an adjustable
air flow.
A length of airline tubing long
enough to reach from the pump
when plugged in at the wall to your
proposed aquarium location.
A non-return valve (to prevent
water being siphoned out of your
aquarium into the air pump and all
over the floor in the event of a
power cut).
An air-driven sponge filter (unless
you are going to make your own
filter, in which case you need the
parts to make the filter)
Any décor you wish to include in
the set-up e.g. gravel,
plastic/silk/real plants
A lighting unit and bulb (if you
want one and it isn’t included as
part of the aquarium)
A tub of suitable dried food
(ideally a floating variety in pellet
or granule form)

Of course, if you wanted to make this


shopping list shorter (and make your life
easier) you could buy an all-in-one
‘nano’ aquarium. These small aquaria
come in a range of aesthetically pleasing
designs, have built-in lights and filters,
and make excellent homes for individual
bettas. If you can afford to, I heartily
recommend you go for this option, as it
will save you some hassle and probably
give you a better end result in terms of a
display tank to show off your betta.

Setting up your first tank


Before you even think about buying a
betta, you need to set up your tank.
The following set of instructions
assumes you have bought all the items on
the above shopping list. If instead you
opted to buy an all-in-one nano tank,
then simply follow the manufacturer’s
instructions!
Here’s how to set the tank up:

Wash the aquarium, heater, filter,


filter sponge and all décor to get
rid of residue left from the
manufacturing process.
Wash any gravel or other substrate
repeatedly until the water running
off is clear (this is especially
important with coloured gravels).
Place the aquarium in its final
location (away from direct
sunlight) on a level surface. If the
surface is uneven, you should
consider cutting a piece of
polystyrene (or carpet, or
cardboard) to sit underneath the
aquarium, which will absorb
irregularities in the base of the tank
and prevent it cracking.
Add the heater (don’t switch it on
yet!)
Add any décor.
Connect the sponge filter to the air
pump using the length of airline
tubing and install the non-return
valve somewhere along the length
of airline tubing (don’t switch the
pump on yet!).
Add the sponge filter to the
aquarium.
Fill the aquarium up with water
from the tap, leaving a 1cm gap at
the top to allow air flow
(remember, bettas need to breathe
atmospheric air!) and put the lid on.
Plug in the heater, air pump and
light, and switch them all on.
If necessary, adjust the air flow
from the air pump to make sure that
the filter is bubbling very gently.
Bettas don’t like Jacuzzis!
Pat yourself on the back – you’re
done!

IMPORTANT: Please do not buy a


betta until you have set up its tank
and allowed the filter run for at least
two weeks, to allow the water to
condition. Luckily, those two weeks
will give you plenty of time to read the
rest of this book!
In the rest of this chapter I will be
discussing where you can buy bettas,
how to make sure you choose a healthy
betta, the potential pitfalls of keeping
bettas together, and some options for
keeping a lot of bettas individually.
An example of a beautifully decorated betta tank,
complete with soil, gravel, bogwood and live plants.
Photo by Joel Carnat
(flickr.com/photos/21708387@N02/8431450190),
available under a Creative Commons Attribution
licence (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Where to buy bettas


In this day and age, buying tropical fish
has never been easier. There are three
basic options and I have decided to
discuss each in turn, with their
respective pros and cons.

Your local fish store


For most people, their local fish shop
(often abbreviated to LFS on online
forums) is the first place they will ever
see a betta, and therefore (logically) it’s
the first place they will look when the
time comes to buy one.
Depending on where you live (by which
I mean the country as well as the
town/city) and what breed of betta you
are looking for, heading to your LFS will
either be a great way to buy your bettas,
or a total disaster. This is because fish
shops vary greatly in the quality of the
fish that they import and the quality of
care those fish receive once they arrive
in the shop. In addition, like most
businesses, fish shops are keen to
maximise their profit margin and
therefore tend to stock only those
species of tropical fish that they know
there is a big market for. As such the
variety of betta breeds on offer is often
somewhat limited. For the most part, if
you were to visit a random fish shop in
any country and ask to see their bettas,
they will show you a bunch of veiltails
and not a lot else.
The breeds of betta available and their
quality do of course vary between
countries. In Asia bettas are hugely
popular, and because the vast majority of
bettas are bred in Asia, fish shop owners
there can get a variety of bettas from
local farms that are not only of much
higher quality than those found in other
countries, but also much cheaper to
acquire. Similarly, in America there are
a number of large chain pet stores that
import thousands of bettas from Asia in
order to provide a high degree of variety
to attract their customers. Here in the UK
relatively few tropical fish stores stock
anything other than veiltails and poor
quality plakats. There are, however, an
increasing number of chain stores and
well established outlets that are willing
to import specific betta breeds for their
customers. Some stores even stock the
more fancy breeds all year round, in
custom made display racks.
As I said before, the level of care
varies. Bad shops keep males and
females together in the same tank; or
keep long finned bettas with other fish
species that are known to nip fish with
long fins (such as tiger barbs, or serpae
tetras); or keep male bettas in absolutely
tiny plastic cups with no room to swim
(common in America). Good shops will
give bettas appropriate tank mates,
filtered tanks and frequent water changes
to keep them in optimum health.
Pros:

Buying from your LFS is


convenient.
You can see the fish in person to
assess its health.
Your LFS might be able to order a
particular breed of betta for you.

Cons:
The fish can be overly expensive
(the shop wants to make a profit
after all!).
The fish might not be kept in very
good conditions (depends on the
shop).
The variety of breeds available is
likely to be limited (depends on the
shop).
If you should choose to breed the
fish, you have no way of finding out
its genetic background.

Online Retailers
Some of the best quality bettas in the
world can be purchased online and
shipped right to your front door. I have
personally bought fish from Thai
breeders (sent via a UK transhipper) and
had them delivered from Thailand to me
in England in the space of a few days.
The quality of those fish was outstanding
and spawning them has had a huge
impact on my breeding programme.
In terms of convenience, buying bettas
online is hard to beat. You don’t even
have to leave the comfort of your home!
The world is your oyster. However,
there are some downsides that are worth
considering.
First of all, when you buy a fish from a
website you are usually basing your
choice on a photograph of the fish in
question. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, the
breeder will include a video of the fish,
which is much better, but usually it’s just
a photo of the fish taken from both sides.
Either way, neither a photo nor a video
is as good as being able to see the fish in
the flesh. To highlight this, a common
complaint from customers using online
fish auction sites is that the fish they
receive doesn’t look like the fish they
saw in the advert. Sometimes
this is down to unscrupulous breeders
sending a completely different fish (the
exception rather than the rule). More
commonly, this is simply the effect of
time. Many of the modern colour
patterns can change their appearance
dramatically in a short space of time
thanks to carrying the marble gene.
Similarly, a betta’s finnage can change a
lot as it grows, so if the photo/video was
taken when the fish was younger it is
entirely possible that it won’t look the
same when it is delivered. This problem
doesn’t occur when you are looking at a
betta in a fish shop. The fish you see is
the fish you will get!
Buying fish online from overseas
suppliers can be risky in that the bettas
have to be shipped a long way.
Although, in my experience, fish sent
from overseas arrive alive and well,
there is always a risk that they won’t
make the journey and that you will take
delivery of dead fish. Sadly, this is
usually due to factors out of our control
(e.g. adverse weather conditions or
rough handling in transit). Having said
that, there is considerable variation in
the care with which breeders pack their
fish for shipping. My advice is to ask
around to find out which sellers other
people have used in the past (or read
their feedback from customers) and only
use those with great feedback or those
that are recommended as sellers who
pack their fish up well. That is precisely
what I did the first time I bought fish
from AquaBid.com and I have to say that
the level of service I received (from two
different breeders) was fantastic.
The other issue with buying bettas online
from overseas suppliers is that it can be
very expensive, thanks to the cost of
shipping and associated paperwork.
Usually, once you’ve bought the fish on
the site you then have to pay an
additional handling charge to the
exporter, a handling charge to the
transhipper, and a delivery charge to the
transhipper. What might seem like a
bargain online can soon turn into a
serious investment! In my case I feel that
it is worth the additional expense to get
the precise fish I want for my breeding
projects because if I can breed that fish,
then the offspring will be good quality
and selling some of them will help
recoup the costs involved. I think that if I
was looking for a male betta to keep as a
pet, or a pair of bettas to practice
spawning them, then I probably wouldn’t
look at buying fish from abroad.
Of course, in many countries you can buy
bettas online from shops based in the
same country. The UK has several web-
based tropical fish shops that will
deliver fish nationally. Plus there is a
plethora of eBay stores! Buying from
online stores based in your country will
reduce the costs, but you still need to
bear in mind that you won’t get to see the
fish in the flesh and you won’t be able to
control the means by which it gets to
you.
In my experience, buying bettas online
(whether international or national)
always carries with it some inherent
risk, but once you’ve found a reliable
supplier much of this risk is removed,
allowing you to buy with confidence.
Pros:

Buying online is convenient.


You can buy fish of excellent
quality in any shape or colour you
want!

Cons:

The fish you receive might not look


like the one in the advert (for
legitimate (e.g. it has the marble
gene) or illegitimate reasons!)
The fish might not survive the long
overseas journey (if applicable).
The process can be very expensive.
Again, you cannot know the genetic
background of the fish.

Breeders
By far the best way to buy bettas has to
be to visit a breeder of high quality
bettas and buy the fish directly from
them. This route has many benefits and
few, if any, downsides. Firstly, you will
be able to view the fish directly,
allowing you to make a well-informed
choice (often with the breeder’s help);
secondly, the breeder will usually be
able to tell you the genetic background
of the fish you want to buy, or at the very
least tell you what the parents were like
(or even show you the parent fish);
thirdly, they will be able to tell you how
their fish are kept in terms of diet, water
parameters and temperature, so you can
replicate those conditions; and finally
(my favourite) you get the opportunity to
make a new acquaintance who will be
able to give you plenty of advice and
improve your skills as a betta keeper.
What’s not to like about that?
Pros:

The quality of the fish is usually


excellent.
You can examine the fish up close.
You will know the genetic
background of the fish.
You can buy a matched pair of fish
from the same line.

You will get all the information you


need to keep the fish healthy.
You might make a new friend!

Cons:

The only thing I can think of is that


you might become even more
obsessed with bettas after seeing
someone else’s betta set-up!
The easy way to get a matched pair, like these black
dragon HMPK, is to visit a breeder © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Choosing a healthy betta
For anyone who intends to buy a betta,
be it as a pet, an addition to a community
tank, or in order to spawn it, knowing
how to choose a betta that is healthy is
extremely important. After all, you want
your purchase to give you many years of
pleasure, not drop dead the minute you
get it home.
With that in mind, here are my tips for
choosing a healthy fish in situations
where you can see the fish in person i.e.
from a pet store or from a private
breeder. You can also apply the checklist
when an online seller has provided you
with a link to a video of the fish you are
thinking of purchasing (this is not
uncommon on Aquabid.com and is the
becoming the standard when it comes to
advertising fish for sale on Facebook; at
least in the UK).
Obviously, if all you’ve got is
photographs of the fish, then the only
thing you can do is try to get as many
clear photos as possible and base your
judgement on those.
IMPORTANT: Never buy a betta that
you haven’t seen, either in the flesh,
in a photo showing both sides of the
fish when it is flaring (and ideally a
view looking down on the fish from
above), or in a video that shows both
sides of the fish.
Step 1 – Living conditions
and tankmates
The first thing you need to do is look at
the container, or tank, in which the betta
is being kept. Is it clean? Are there other
fish in it? Do those fish show any signs
of disease? Even worse, are any of them
dead?

If you see dead fish in the same tank


as the betta you are looking at, walk
away and buy your new betta from
somewhere else. The chances are
that the other fish in the tank,
including the betta, are likely to be
suffering from whatever disease
killed the dead fish.
If the dead fish’s demise hasn’t
been caused by disease then the
other likely culprit is bad
husbandry on the part of the store,
or person, from which you are
planning to buy your fish. If that’s
the case, my advice would again be
to walk away and buy your betta
somewhere else.

Typical signs of illness in tropical


freshwater fish sold in pet shops are as
follows:

Swimming with the pectorals held


close to the body (often referred to
as ‘shimmying’). This is very
common in sick livebearers like
guppies, platies, swordtails and
mollies.
White spots on the skin caused by
Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, a
protozoan which is commonly
referred to as ‘ich’ or simply white
spot disease.
White patches of slime or cotton
wool on the skin and fins, which
indicate a fungal infection.
Constant scraping on objects in the
aquarium, which usually indicates
parasites or the onset of white spot
disease or velvet disease (see
below)
A powdery coating on the skin
surface caused by dinoflagellate
parasites of the genus
Piscinoodinium (commonly
referred to as velvet disease)
Constant gasping at the water
surface, which indicates either low
oxygen levels or a high level of
toxins in the water.
Lying motionless on the substrate.
Note, however, that some
commonly available fish – mostly
catfish – are adapted to live on the
substrate and can often remain still
for long periods of time.

If your betta is being kept in isolation


then check whether or not its tank is
connected to all the other tanks in the
shop as part of a continuous system with
one huge filter. If it is, then check (or
ask) if they use ultraviolet (UV)
filtration as part of that system, which is
designed to kill off water borne
pathogens. If they don’t have a UV filter,
then check the other tanks in the system
for dead fish or signs of disease. As
before, if you see dead fish or fish that
show signs of disease, then walk away,
because ultimately the betta you are
looking at is sharing its water with those
other sick or dead fish.

Step 2 – Behaviour
Once you’ve established that the betta
you are looking at isn’t in water riddled
with disease, take a step back from the
betta’s container and watch its behaviour
for a few minutes. What is it doing? Is it
active? Is it hiding? Does it swim
strongly and carry its finnage easily, or
is it lethargic and dragging its fins?

A healthy betta should be able


carry its fins and swim with ease.
If the fish you are looking at is
clearly having trouble swimming,
or doesn’t seem strong enough to
open its unpaired fins (dorsal, anal
and caudal) then it’s probably not
healthy.

Healthy bettas are active,


inquisitive and aggressive to
conspecifics (i.e. other bettas).
Often bettas are kept in tanks next
to one another and males in
particular can be seen displaying to
one another through the glass. The
latter is definitely a good sign of
heath, as sick bettas lose their
willingness to display. Sometimes
(for example in the USA, where
bettas are often sold in small
plastic cups) it is possible to place
the betta next to another betta
briefly to see if it will flare its fins
and react aggressively. The same
effect can be achieved by placing a
mirror next to the fish to enable it to
‘fight’ its reflection (this works for
males and females). The fight test
is a good way to test the health of a
prospective purchase (although for
some reason the practice seems to
be frowned upon by the majority of
pet shops in the UK). In a tank
containing only female bettas, the
females should interact with one
another, flaring and bickering to
some extent. Even if you can’t do
the fight test you can still assess the
betta’s health based on how active
it is. If the betta you are looking at
keeps its fins closed and either
hides the whole time, or barely
moves whilst you are watching,
then if I were you I would avoid it.
Likewise if the fish remains
constantly motionless at the surface
or on the substrate it is to be
avoided.
If the betta is male and kept in
isolation, is there a bubblenest?
Healthy males will build
bubblenests even in the absence of
females. This isn’t essential if the
fish appears otherwise healthy, but
is another really good indicator of
good health in male bettas,
alongside willingness to flare and
fight.
Does the betta eat readily? If
possible ask to see the fish eat. In
captivity, bettas very quickly learn
that people near their containers
means food, so it is normal for
healthy bettas to swim to the front
of the tank when people approach,
swimming excitedly back and forth.
A healthy betta should eat readily.
If the betta ignores the food then
there is something wrong with it.
Don’t buy it!
Step 3 – Appearance
Now take a closer look at your intended
purchase. Here’s a checklist that you
should run through each time you buy a
betta:

Are all the fins present and


correct (two pectorals, two
ventrals, a dorsal, an anal, and a
caudal)? If so, mover to the next
point. If not, don’t buy the fish. The
only exception to this rule is if you
are buying from a private breeder
and they tell you that the fish did
not develop ventral fins as a result
of being overfed microworms. This
is not a genetic illness, but rather an
unfortunate side effect of feeding
young betta fry on a limited diet.
The offspring of such fish will
develop ventral fins as normal if
cared for correctly (I can vouch for
this as I have carried out this exact
cross several times with good
results).
Does the fish have damaged fins
(rips, tears, redness cause by
septicaemia)? If yes, this could be
a sign of disease, breeding,
fighting, or having been attacked by
tankmates. If you are buying from a
breeder they may be able to explain
the fin damage and reassure you
that it is natural ‘wear and tear’ and
not the result of disease. For
example, the damage may be there
because the breeder has used the
fish for breeding, which often
results in torn fins. In a shop you
will have to use your judgement,
but essentially if the edge of the
tear or rip is clean then the damage
is probably not a problem. If the
torn edge is red, or has any type of
white slime or cotton-like growth
associated with it, walk away.
Are the gill covers intact and
devoid of any deformity (some
bettas have bent gill covers)?
Bent gill covers are unattractive
and may indicate some form of
genetic weakness, or the presence
of a tumour behind the gill cover.
Are the eyes clear (as opposed to
cloudy)? Cloudy eyes are a sign of
poor water quality, indicating that
the health of the fish may be
compromised. However, if this is
the only issue, it would probably be
okay to buy the fish, as this usually
clears once the betta is rehoused in
clean water conditions.
Is the body clear of damage?
Check the betta’s body for ulcers or
lesions caused by infected wounds.
Likewise, bettas can get tumours,
which appear as obvious lumps on
the body. If you see anything like
this, don’t buy the fish.

Does the betta have a bent spine?


Look at the betta from the side. If
you imagine a straight line from the
fish’s mouth to the middle of the
caudal peduncle, there should be a
roughly equal amount of the betta’s
body above and below this line. If
this is not the case then the betta
may have a bent spine, but this is
usually very obvious, as the fish
will appear ‘hump-backed’ and
may have difficulty in swimming.
Next look at the betta from above to
make sure it doesn’t have any bends
in its spine when viewed from this
angle. Sometimes a betta will
appear perfectly normal when
viewed from the side, only to
reveal a severely bent spine when
viewed from above. Again, this is
usually obvious in that it affects
how the fish swims.
Is the fish bloated, with raised
scales that give it a ‘pine-cone’
appearance? If so, the fish has
‘dropsy’, a common symptom in
bettas that is actually caused by a
wide range of diseases. Either way
it is pretty much incurable, so if you
see a betta with raised scales like a
pine-cone then avoid it like the
plague!

That’s it. If you have run through the


above list and are happy that the betta
you are looking at is in good condition,
then congratulations, there’s every
chance that you are looking at a fish that
will bring you years of happiness.
A healthy betta is plump, active and alert with
undamaged fins, like this female HMPK bred by the
author
Keeping bettas together
If you’ve paid any attention to what I’ve
been trying to tell you in the previous
chapters, you should be aware that
keeping multiple bettas together in the
same aquarium is, at the very least,
going to present you with something of a
challenge. They aren’t called fighting
fish for nothing!
There are, however, people who insist
that it is possible to keep a single male
betta in the same tank as multiple
females. I have read this countless times
in beginner tropical fishkeeping books
and on betta forums and after giving it
some consideration I have arrived at this
conclusion:
Yes, it is possible to keep a single male
betta with a small group of females in
the same tank, but this is the
exception rather than the rule and
depends heavily on the aggression of
the individual bettas involved.
Not a very satisfactory conclusion, I’m
sure you’ll agree.
To illustrate my point, here’s the story of
my first attempt to keep a male and
several female bettas in a community
aquarium: I must have been 13 years old
and I had a nice 120 gallon glass
aquarium that housed a bunch of
peaceful community fish including a
breeding group of red wag-tail platies
Xiphophorus maculatus, a shoal of
peppered corydoras Corydoras paleatus
and a suckermouth catfish Hypostomus
plecostomus. One day I was in a pet
shop and I decided to purchase a group
of bettas (a male and three females), to
see if I could get them to live together
harmoniously.
The male was a blue veiltail, the
females were probably wild-type
plakats – I remember them being reddish
brown with some colour in the unpaired
fins. I had read that you could keep a
male betta with a harem of females in
one of my fishkeeping magazines and I
couldn’t wait to try it out. After all, who
doesn’t like the idea of a tank in which a
spectacular male betta is constantly
showing off to an adoring harem of
females?
Once I got home, I added the bettas to
my community tank and sat for around an
hour watching them. It was a stunning
display with the male chasing and flaring
at the females, and the females either
flaring back at him or swimming away
whenever he got too aggressive. At the
time the tank had a prolific growth of
Indian fern Ceratopteris thalictroides
about two inches deep across the entire
surface. The bettas loved it. With their
shorter fins and greater agility my three
females had no problem evading the
male’s attentions by darting into the fern.
All was well for a day or so, but then I
suddenly noticed that the male’s fins had
been bitten and he was looking rather
listless. Then the next day it was worse.
His fins were shredded and he was
actively swimming away from the
females, when they chased him. There
had been a change in the dominance
hierarchy. The male had worn himself
out trying to impress the females, but to
no avail. Rather than being impressed,
they turned on him and quickly reduced
him to a bedraggled, torn-up mess.
This experience taught me that you
should never be complacent when it
comes to keeping adult bettas together.
Some female bettas can be every bit as
aggressive as males, and tanks
containing one male and several females
can go from good to bad very quickly
indeed.
My golden rules of keeping
bettas together
Having learned from my mistake, I now
follow three very simple rules for
keeping multiple bettas together. These
rules are as follows.

Fry from the same spawn can be


kept together to grow up in the
same container to adulthood, as
long as aggressive individuals are
isolated and removed from the
group as and when they start
attacking their siblings.
Fry from different spawns can be
combined and reared in the same
container providing they are young
when they are introduced to one
another (i.e. not yet showing signs
of aggression) and roughly the same
size. They should then be
maintained in accordance with the
above rule.
Never put two unrelated adult
bettas in the same container unless
they are a male and a female and
you are trying to spawn them.

If you stick to these rules, then you will


never go wrong.
These three rules are all well and good,
but they do not cater for the betta
enthusiasts among us who choose to
keep several female bettas together in a
‘sorority tank’.

Sorority tanks
A lot of betta enthusiasts keep all-female
community tanks in the belief that female
bettas get along just fine and it’s only
male bettas that are aggressive and cause
problems. And who can blame them?
Tropical fish books, magazines and web
pages all seem to be convinced that this
is a good idea.
Whilst I fully acknowledge that there are
people out there successfully keeping
multiple female bettas together in the
same tank, I am personally of the opinion
that this has nothing to do with female
bettas being peaceful and
everything to do with the betta keeper in
question having successfully managed
the situation (i.e. by providing hiding
places for weaker, less dominant
females and removing super-aggressive
females) to enable the fish to coexist.
I say this because it’s just not true that
female bettas aren’t aggressive. They
can be every bit as aggressive as male
bettas, downright murderous in fact. I
have at one time or another owned
female bettas that have killed males,
killed other females and even killed
other tropical fish in the same tank!
The thing is, when people set up all-
female community tanks they generally
put together a whole bunch of unrelated
adult female bettas. These females, upon
finding one another, invariably do what
bettas do best when they meet a strange
betta. They fight. The reason for this
fighting is to establish a dominance
hierarchy, with the most dominant fish
typically enjoying access to all areas of
the aquarium (and first dibs on any food)
and the weaker fish having a pretty rough
time of it. Females lower down in the
pecking order have to constantly be on
the lookout for the more dominant
females, who are liable to attack them,
just to remind them who’s boss. Often
the weakest fish will end up with torn
fins as a result of all the skirmishing,
sometimes she is hounded and killed by
the most dominant female.
That’s what can happen if all the females
are added to the tank simultaneously.
However, the usual process is that once
a few females have been added to the
sorority, the owner of said females
decides to add another female. And
another. And another. What these well
meaning betta fans perhaps don’t realise
is that every time a new female is added
to the tank, the fighting must start again
to establish a new pecking order.
Sometimes they get lucky and a truce is
called. Other times the new addition
will severely unbalance the whole
community and there will be losses.
This tank of females looks peaceful because there are
so many fish that one cannot possibly terrorize the
rest. Even so, some of them have nipped fins. Photo
by The Wandering Angel
(flickr.com/photos/wandering_angel/3176135732/),
available under a Creative Commons Attribution
licence (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/).

Ultimately, the reason some people are


able to maintain a beautiful community
tank of colourful female bettas is either:
because the dominance hierarchy has
stabilised (either as a result of careful
management or luck); because there are
so many females in the tank that no one
individual fish can be targeted; or
because the females are all sisters and
grew up together in that tank.
The bottom line is that bettas are not
gregarious fish. They have not evolved
to tolerate living in close proximity to
one another in a confined space as
adults. If you want to keep females
together, please don’t let me stop you,
but just be aware that you will need to
pay attention to the dominance hierarchy
and be ready to intervene rapidly if
things go wrong.
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: The most
stable sororities are those where the
same females have been kept together
for a long time, with no new additions.
The only way to keep several adult
bettas of both sexes together in the
same tank is to grow a whole spawn
up together to adulthood, and even
then don’t expect all the fish to stay
‘fin perfect’. They will still tear each
other up to some extent. Ignore this
advice at your peril!
How many bettas to buy -
advice for beginners
This decision depends entirely on how
you are planning to keep those bettas and
whether you want to keep males, females
or both. Many beginners sensibly start
by keeping one colourful male in its own
beautifully decorated tank. More
individually housed males can then be
added to the collection over time. I have
seen some wonderfully creative
examples of book shelves being put to
good use to house colourful collections
of male bettas, and they look great!
Clearly, if you have enough containers
and time to keep a lot of bettas
individually, then you are free to buy as
many male (or female) bettas as you can
accommodate. For those of you keen to
attempt a sorority tank, then my advice
would be to start by introducing a
minimum of five females to the tank in
order to spread the inevitable
aggression. Remember to add all the fish
at the same time and provide plenty of
hiding places to allow weaker fish to
escape from aggressive tank mates.

Keeping a lot of bettas -


advice for breeders
For those of you who are completely
new to betta keeping, it might be jumping
the gun a little to talk about how you
might house a large number of bettas all
at once, but I thought it would at least be
worth mentioning how this is usually
achieved. I have no doubt that for some
of you this will become a necessity. You
need to be prepared!
One way to keep many bettas is to have
lots of tanks, each with its own filter and
heater, as mentioned above. So you
might have several individually housed
males and a big tank for a well-managed
group of females (you already know my
feelings on keeping males and females
together). Now, this is all well and
good, but it takes up space and running
separate heaters can become expensive.
Here are two space-saving and cheaper
alternatives that allow both sexes to be
kept together in one large tank: The first
is to divide the tank into sections using
plastic mesh and house one betta per
section. The second is to isolate male
bettas inside chimneys (2 litre plastic
bottles with the tops and bottoms cut off
and holes drilled around the sides) and
then have the females swimming freely
around them in the tank. Both methods
allow the males to interact with the
females without damaging them (or
being damaged by them) and the holes
mean that all the fish are sharing the
same body of water, which removes the
need to change the water so frequently. I
know of several people who have used
both of these systems very successfully
to house adult bettas of both sexes
together, usually with the aim of
maintaining a collection of adults for
breeding. The great thing with either set-
up is that you only need one filter and
one heater in the tank, which reduces the
running costs dramatically.
By far the best way to keep a lot of
individuals of any tropical fish is to
have a dedicated fishroom, with fully
insulated walls (and ideally floor), and
heat the entire room to the desired
temperature using the most energy
efficient radiator you can find. Because
the room is heated, any water in it is
always at the right temperature, so you
only ever need to think about filtration.
With a fishroom, the number of fish you
can keep is limited only by the size of
the room, the number of shelves that will
fit inside it and, as always, your time
(where less time usually means having
more filtered tanks and more time means
having more unfiltered containers and
doing very regular water changes).
Fishrooms make life considerably easier
when it comes to keeping and breeding
any tropical fish, but sadly not everyone
has the space or resources to own one.
All I can say is that necessity is the
mother of invention. If you find yourself
needing to house a lot of bettas in a
small space, then you will find a way. If,
like me, you can dedicate a whole room
to your bettas, then count yourself
extremely lucky.
A shot of one wall in the author’s fishroom
A collection of fighting bettas. The water is brown
from the addition of medicinal leaves. © Sirinut
Chimplee
Breeds
People often talk about liking a
particular ‘type’ of betta, but what
exactly do we mean when we say
‘type’? Well, that’s actually quite a
difficult question to answer, for several
reasons. You see, you could say that the
word ‘type’ in this context refers to the
different fin lengths of bettas (i.e. long
fin or short fin). Or you could use it to
describe fin shape, for example
crowntail. However, it would be just as
valid to use the word ‘type’ to refer the
scales of a fish, for example if it has
metallic or non-metallic scales. A third
way of discussing ‘type’ might be in
terms of colour. You could even use the
word ‘type’ to talk about the distribution
of colour on the fish (i.e. its pattern),
such as solid colour (the fish is all one
colour) or bicolour (the fish has a body
of one colour and fins of another).
In actual fact, the word we ought to be
using is ‘breeds’. The Oxford English
Dictionary defines a breed as, ‘a stock
of animals or plants within a species
having a distinctive appearance and
typically having been developed by
deliberate selection.’ This sums up the
history of the modern betta fancy in one
sentence: The types of betta that we
recognise are all members of the species
Betta splendens (give or take a few
genes borrowed from elsewhere - but
more on that later!); they have distinctive
appearance (a crowntail is as different
to a doubletail halfmoon as a Chihuahua
is to a great dane); and they are all the
result of deliberate selective breeding
by man for particular genetic traits. We
happily talk about breeds of dogs, pigs,
horses, chickens. Why not bettas? It’s
precisely the same scenario as for these
other domesticated animals.
The beauty of thinking in terms of breeds
is that we can achieve some kind of
order in how we describe our fish. By
using fin type as the breed name, all
other descriptive elements (i.e. colour,
scale type and distribution of colour)
can be applied to that breed name. As an
example, think of Labrador retriever
dogs. Most people know what a
Labrador is, and also know that they
come in three colours: golden, chocolate
and black. Hopefully it is obvious to you
that the breed name is Labrador i.e. the
name that tells you roughly what to
expect in terms of what the animal will
look like when you see it. The terms
‘golden’, ‘chocolate’ and ‘black’ simply
describe the colour of that particular
Labrador.
To illustrate this, imagine I told you that
I had a black dog, you would have
absolutely no idea what the animal
would look like in terms of size and
shape – it could be a bulldog, or it could
be a greyhound. If I told you I had a
Labrador, but didn’t tell you its colour,
you would have a much better idea what
the animal would look like in terms of
its size and shape. So it is with bettas:
The fin type tells you what the fish looks
like in terms of size and shape; the other
descriptive elements tell you what it
will look like in terms of its scaling and
colour pattern. Thus, in the same way
that we refer to Labradors, poodles and
beagles as breeds of dog, technically we
should also refer to halfmoons,
crowntails and veiltails as breeds of
betta i.e. they have been bred to look a
certain way and exhibit a certain set of
behavioural characteristics.
Okay, enough of the semantics. I realise
that I’m not about to change the way
people talk about bettas any time soon.
My real purpose in this section is not to
discuss what terminology we should or
shouldn’t be using, but to teach you as
best I can to differentiate between the
different breeds of betta. When most
people talk about breeds of betta, what
they are usually talking about is fin type,
which is why I have chosen to discuss
these first.

Betta fin types


As with the History chapter, I have
presented the various betta breeds
below in what I hope is the
chronological order that they appeared
in the hobby, in the hope that you will be
able to fully appreciate how far we’ve
come from the wild betta.
Although it was tempting to do so, I have
decided against presenting each breed in
terms of the show standards of the
International Betta Congress (IBC). One
reason for this is that I live in the UK
and as yet there is no IBC chapter here.
Hence, from my own perspective there
are no UK standards that my bettas are
required to meet and I therefore don’t
want to impose any particular standards
on any of you reading this book. In fact,
it is my firm belief that unless you plan
to show your bettas, you should keep and
breed what you like. After all this hobby
is supposed to be fun!
Having said that, there are traits in each
betta breed that are desirable across the
majority of show standards and where
this is the case I have described these
traits in terms of what is considered to
be ‘ideal’ from a show perspective. By
seeking to obtain and breed bettas that
meet these ideals, you will be on the
right path to owning and producing fish
that have the potential to compete in
shows at the international level, should
you choose to do so.
It is worth pointing out that betta shows
vary as to whether or not you are
allowed to show fish that you have
bought as opposed to fish that you have
bred. In my opinion, there is something
inherently wrong about winning a betta
show with a bought fish, as you are
taking the credit for someone else’s
careful breeding, but perhaps it is better
to compete with a bought fish than to not
compete at all.
As an aside, if you do decide to show
your bettas, then I cannot stress enough
the importance of studying the show
standards for the breed you wish to
show. If your fish doesn’t match these
standards then it has no chance of
winning a prize and you will have
wasted your time bringing the fish to the
show. I urge you to do your homework
beforehand if you want to stand any
chance of winning.
For my part, I have had the tremendous
pleasure of showing my fish at the
Holland Betta Show - Europe’s biggest
betta show - which judges all competing
bettas to the Bettas4All Standard. To my
mind this standard encourages the
breeding of bettas with excellent
comportment and I therefore enjoy trying
to produce fish with the correct form to
win places at this show. This being said,
I also have plenty of other spawns that
are for my own personal enjoyment.
Often these are experimental crosses
between particular fish to see what pops
up in the next generation.
Coming back to the topic of this chapter,
please note that the descriptions I have
provided below for males and females
of each breed are only in terms of
differences in finnage. All the rules for
telling apart the two sexes that I
presented in the Anatomy section at the
start of this book still apply.
You will see that, where possible, I have
provided details of the key genes (or
alleles - see below) that give rise to
each breed. In most cases I have used my
own choice of symbol for these
genes/alleles, based on the rules
commonly used by geneticists for
determining genetic symbols. The reason
for this is that official symbols do not
exist for the majority of betta alleles and
(with the utmost respect to those
incredible individuals who have
popularised the study of betta genetics)
those that are in common use do not
appear to properly reflect the relative
dominance of these alleles to one
another.
Please don’t be scared by the word
‘allele’. It is short for ‘allelomorph’ and
is simply the term used to describe
different versions of a particular gene.
These different versions often result in
changes in the appearance of whatever
trait it is that the gene codes for. For
example, the gene that determines flower
colour in pea plants has two alleles:
Purple and white. The important thing to
remember about alleles is that there can
be multiple alleles of a particular gene,
and that these alleles can vary in
dominance. Where an individual inherits
a dominant allele from one parent and a
recessive allele from the other, the
physical traits that result from the effects
of the dominant allele are expressed in
favour of those that result from recessive
allele.
In bettas - for any given gene - a fish
will inherit one allele (i.e. one version
of a given gene) from its mother and one
from its father. Often these two alleles
are identical, but where two or more
alleles exist for a particular gene there is
a chance that two different alleles will
be inherited. As I mentioned above, the
dominance of these two alleles relative
to one another typically determines
which trait is expressed.
Here is an example, which I am
providing as it explains some of terms I
will be using in the remainder of this
chapter:
Put simply, the gene that controls fin
length in bettas has two alleles: one for
long fin length and one for short fin
length. The allele for short fin length is
recessive to the allele for long fin length.
If a fish inherits two copies of the short
fin gene (one from each parent), it will
have short fins. This fish is ‘homozygous
recessive’ i.e. it has two identical copies
of the same recessive allele. If the fish
inherits two copies of the long fin gene it
will have long fins. This time the fish is
‘homozygous dominant’ i.e. it has two
identical copies of the same dominant
allele.
Now comes the fun part...
If the fish inherits one copy of the long
fin allele and one copy of the short fin
allele, the fish will have long fins. Why?
Because the long fin allele is dominant
to the short fin allele. This fish is
‘heterozygous’ for fin length i.e. it
carries two different alleles of the same
gene.
Note that because the last fish has one
copy of the short fin allele, we say that it
is a ‘carrier’ for this allele. The fish
does not express the short fin trait, but it
has the potential to pass the short fin
allele on to its offspring. Understanding
about carriers becomes very important
when you start breeding bettas, because
if you know which alleles are being
carried by two fish that you plan to
breed, you can make predictions about
what their offspring will look like. This
will all be covered in far greater depth
later on, in the Genetics chapter.
If you are simply trying to decide what
breed of betta to buy as your first pet,
then please feel free to ignore the above
information. For those of you looking to
breed bettas, this information may well
prove invaluable, as it will help you to
plan your spawns in order to get the
results you want.
I have entitled the following sections
devoted to each betta breed with the
common name for that breed and also,
where applicable, the most commonly
used abbreviation among betta keepers.
For example, a short-finned betta is
generally also referred to as a ‘plakat’ or
‘PK’, and a betta with a D-shaped
caudal that spreads to 180˚ is generally
referred to as a ‘halfmoon’ or ‘HM’.
Okay, enough of the preamble, let’s kick
things off by taking a look at the first of
our breed, the wild (or wild-type)
plakat.

Wild (or wild-type) plakat


(PK)
The wild Betta splendens is a stunning
fish in its own right, with its dark body
and fancy red and iridescent fins. I have
seen wild bettas described as ‘drab’,
‘dull’ and ‘nondescript’ in so many other
fish books and I have to say that I
completely disagree. You have to
remember that modern bettas are the
result of hundreds of years of artificial
selection by man. Breeders have twisted
the genetic make-up of bettas this way
and that, constantly trying to arrive that
their own personal idea of the perfect
fish. Wild bettas are a different story.
They are the product of natural selection.
Perfectly designed to live and reproduce
in their natural habitat, they are pint-
sized, pugnacious perfection!
If you’ve ever seen photos of wild
bettas, or been lucky enough to see one
in the flesh, then perhaps you can
understand why many people who
specialise in keeping other Betta species
refuse to keep domesticated varieties of
Betta splendens in favour of the wild
fish. Believe it or not, they find the
modern strains ugly in comparison!
Wild male Betta splendens © Manyork Zhou

Unless you specifically order them from


a reputable seller, it is unlikely that you
will ever buy a truly wild betta. Most
wild-type bettas for sale in the West
probably come from fighting fish stocks
which, although similar in appearance to
wild fish, are actually the result of many
years of selective breeding for traits that
make better fighters. As such, if you see
a fish that looks superficially like a wild
Betta splendens, you should refer to it
as a ‘wild-type’ betta unless you know
for sure that it was caught in the wild.
A wild-type betta is a dark-bodied fish
with red and iridescent blue/green fins
and a dusting of iridescent blue/green
scales on the dorsal (upper) half of the
body.
Male:

The unpaired fins are short, but the


ventrals are relatively thin and
long;
The dorsal fin is rounded or
slightly pointed to the rear;
The caudal fin is rounded or
slightly pointed in the middle and
each caudal ray only splits in two
once before reaching the edge of
the fin (primary branching);
The first rays of the caudal fin (at
the top and bottom of the fin) are
rounded and often relatively short;
and
The anal fin is trapezoid in shape,
shorter at the front and pointed at
the rear, with the tip extending
beyond the lower edge of the
caudal fin.

Female:

Females are similar to males but


have far shorter unpaired fins and
short ventrals.

Wild and wild-type bettas all carry two


copies of the short-fin allele, which is a
recessive allele and causes bettas to
have short fins. Because the term given
to domesticated short-fin bettas is
‘plakat’ (remember your betta history?)
this gene is also sometimes referred to
as the plakat allele.
Short-fin allele symbol = f+

Traditional plakat (Trad


PK)
The traditional plakat has similar
finnage to a wild Betta splendens but is
available in all the same colours as
other domesticated bettas. In addition,
because traditional plakats are
considered to be show fish, their finnage
is typically a little bit longer than that
seen in wild Betta splendens. As with
wild bettas, this breed is asymmetrical,
meaning that the rear tip of the anal fin
extends beyond the bottom of the caudal
fin.
Male:

The unpaired fins are short, but the


ventrals are relatively thin and long
(approximately two thirds the
length of the body);
The dorsal fin is rounded or
slightly pointed to the rear;
The caudal fin is rounded or
slightly pointed in the middle
(spade-shaped) and each caudal ray
only splits in two once before
reaching the edge of the fin
(primary branching);
The first rays of the caudal fin (at
the top and bottom of the fin) are
rounded and often relatively short;
and
The anal fin is trapezoid in shape,
shorter at the front and pointed at
the rear, with the tip extending
beyond the lower edge of the
caudal fin.

Female:

Females are similar to males but


have far shorter unpaired fins and
short ventrals.
Note: Unlike the majority of wild and
wild-type plakats, traditional plakats
can, as a result of selective breeding,
have 180˚, or more, between the
upper and lower caudal rays. The key
difference between these bettas and
show bettas is that the first rays will
curve strongly towards the end of the
caudal fin.
Traditional plakats, as with wild and
wild-type plakats, have two copies of
the short-fin allele.
Short-fin allele symbol = f+
Yellow female traditional plakat bred by Gianne Souza
- note the 2-ray caudal branching © Gianne Souza
This red male traditional plakat nicely illustrates the
pointed anal tip and spade-shaped caudal © Daniella
Vereeken
Veiltail (VT)
The veiltail is the classic pet betta. The
fish that most people think of when they
hear the words ‘Siamese fighting fish’.
Male veiltails have a very characteristic
appearance and are almost impossible to
misidentify. Female veiltails can be
harder to distinguish accurately, as in
some cases they resemble females of
other breeds. There are however some
key characters that can help you to
identify a female veiltail.
Male:

The unpaired fins and ventral fins


are long and flowing;
The dorsal and anal fins are shorter
at the front than at the back and
often longer than the fish’s body;
The upper rays of the caudal fin are
markedly more curved than those
lower down the fin, giving the
caudal fin a hump-backed
appearance;
A stunning red male veiltail. Photo by Neil Mullins
(flickr.com/photos/npmullins/7568741246), available
under a Creative Commons Attribution licence
(creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

The caudal rays only split in two


once before reaching the edge of
the fin (primary branching),
although modern veiltails
sometimes show tertiary branching
in some of the caudal rays. Note,
however, that anything above
primary branching is not desirable
in a show fish.

Female:

The unpaired fins resemble


shortened versions of the long
flowing fins seen in males, with
similar shape;
The caudal fin shows primary
branching, does not spread very
wide and is often shaped like an
almond or a piece of sweetcorn;
and
The anal fin rays are usually longer
than the caudal fin rays, particularly
at the rear of the fin.

The general consensus among betta


enthusiasts is that the veiltail trait in
bettas is the result of a single genetic
mutation that resulted in increased fin
length. Whilst this is clearly part of the
story (supported by the fact that veiltails
retain the primary branching in the
caudal fin of their plakat ancestors), I
personally do not believe that this fully
explains the characteristic shape of the
tail in veiltails. In veiltails the tail is
asymmetrical (the upper caudal rays are
markedly more curved than those lower
down the fin). If the mutation simply
caused longer fin rays then you would
expect the degree of extension to be the
same in all rays, giving a long, but
symmetrical tail. My hunch is that there
may be more genes involved in
producing the veiltail finnage than just a
single allele for longer fins, and that
these additional genes became fixed in
betta stocks thanks to artificial selection
by breeders for the desired asymmetrical
tail shape. In any case, the production of
veiltails certainly requires the allele for
long fin length, which is dominant to the
allele for short fins.
So far, so straightforward, but coming
back to what I said about asymmetry in
veiltails: If you choose to use veiltails in
your breeding projects, there is a high
probability that you will produce long
finned fish with a degree of asymmetry
in the curve of the caudal rays. For all
other types of betta, this asymmetry is a
highly undesirable trait, and for that
reason most betta breeders who aren’t
specifically trying to breed veiltails
avoid using them in their breeding
programs.
Interestingly, the IBC has never
produced a show standard for veiltail
bettas. It is not entirely clear why, but I
suspect that it has much to do the fact
that, when the IBC was in its infancy,
veiltails were the most widespread form
of domesticated betta available. It
wouldn’t surprise me if they still are.
They are
certainly still very common in tropical
fish shops (especially the big pet shop
chains) throughout the UK. The IBC was
founded partly in response to the fact
that many veiltails at the time had such
heavy finnage that they were unable to
swim properly. The organisation sought
to discourage the breeding of such fish
and whilst promoting the breeding of
healthy show bettas with good form.
Essentially, in the eyes of the IBC, the
vast majority of shop-bought veiltails
are considered to be substandard show
fish and hence there will be no IBC
standard for veiltails until the quality of
veiltails improves.
Personally I think that veiltails suffer
from a lack of quality control. Unlike the
other fin types, which are subject to
fairly rigorous selection by breeders
prior to sale, veiltails are bred en masse
in fish farms and churned out in their
thousands, to be shipped all over the
world. And because they are seen as
‘run-of-the-mill’ bettas, they are sold
ridiculously cheaply in comparison to
all the other fin types. This is really sad
because once upon a time the veiltail
was the most desirable tropical fish in
the world. Now they are the persona
non grata of the betta world.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however.
Veiltails can be stunning, and to this day
the bettas with the best solid red
colouration are all veiltails. Plus their
cheap price tag makes them an excellent
starter fish for the beginner betta
enthusiast. Veiltails are often the fish that
first get people hooked on bettas. This is
definitely true in my case: The first
tropical fish I ever bought was a royal
blue veiltail male and the first pair of
bettas I ever spawned were both
multicolour veiltails. If those fish hadn’t
given me so much joy twenty years ago, I
would not be writing this book today.
Recently, breeders have started to work
with veiltails to produce fish with more
colour patterns (there was time when the
choice was limited to red, blue,
Cambodian or multicolour), which is
opening up a whole new world of
possibilities. In addition several betta
non-IBC betta shows now include a
veiltail class, in recognition of the fact
that veiltails were the starting point for
the production of so many of the
wonderful fin types we have today.
My great hope is that modern breeders
will continue to improve the quality of
these fish so that veiltails start to regain
some of their former glory. Wouldn’t it
be nice to see more veiltails like the one
pictured above in the tanks of our local
fish shops?
Long-fin allele symbol = F

Doubletail veiltail (DTVT)


I have chosen to present doubletail
bettas several times in this list of breeds,
to assist you with identifying the various
types, as the doubletail trait has been
bred into several of the singletail
breeds.
The doubletail trait is believed to have
first appeared is in veiltail betta stocks
in India. Like their singletail
counterparts, male doubletail veiltail
bettas are hard to mistake for anything
else thanks to their two long and roughly
almond-shaped tails, positioned one
above the other. The doubletail mutation
also imparts a greatly enlarged dorsal
fin with a wide base, which mirrors the
width of the anal fin, as the photos
below show so clearly.
This rarely-seen breed is unfortunately
not as popular as the other doubletail
breeds. It is, however, an integral part of
many singletail veiltail breeding
programs, as breeding doubletail
veiltails to singletail veiltails will
improve the size of the finnage of
singletails in the next generation. As
such, the breed is maintained and
occasional specimens crops up in betta
exports from Asia.
Four beautiful doubletail veiltail males bred by
Preecha Ammara © Preecha Ammara

Male:

All unpaired fins and ventrals are


long and flowing;
The fish has two caudal lobes;
The dorsal fin is similar in size to
the anal fin;
The dorsal and anal fins are shorter
at the front than at the back and
often longer than the fish’s body;
The inner rays of each caudal lobe
(i.e. those rays closest to the
imaginary mid-line through the
middle of the fish when viewed
from the side) are more curved than
the outer rays. As a result the two
tails appear to bend away from
each other;
The caudal rays only split in two
once before reaching the outer edge
of the fin (primary branching).

Female:

The fins resemble a shortened


version of the male’s finnage;
The fish has two caudal lobes,
neither of which spread particularly
wide and both of which are
somewhat almond-shaped;
The dorsal fin is as large and wide
as the anal fin;
The caudal rays only split in two
once before reaching the outer edge
of the fin (primary branching); and
The anal and dorsal fin rays are
longer than the caudal fin rays,
particularly at the rear of the fin.

The doubletail mutation is partially


dominant (also known as codominant),
which means that it has a complete effect
when two copies of the allele are
inherited and a partial effect when only
one copy is inherited.
Thus, when a fish inherits two copies of
the doubletail gene it will be a
doubletail, growing a dorsal fin that is
similar in size to the anal fin, and two
distinct caudal lobes, one above the
other. When a fish is a carrier for
doubletail (i.e. caries one copy of the
doubletail allele) the action of the
doubletail gene resulted in a larger-than-
normal dorsal fin with a much wider
base. The doubletail gene can also affect
the caudal fin, increasing its spread.
The key goal when breeding any
doubletail breed is symmetry. The aim is
to produce fish in which the dorsal
perfectly mirrors the anal fin (ideally
with a very similar number of fin rays
and similar shape) and where the two
caudal lobes are identical in size and
shape.
It should be noted that there are some
negatives to the doubletail gene: It tends
to produce shorter-bodied fish with deep
bodies and wide caudal peduncles, all
of which can cause complications during
breeding. In addition the doubletail gene
commonly gives rise to deformities,
particularly crooked spines. The extent
of spine bending varies a great deal,
with some fish having no deformity at
all. More commonly there is a mild bend
at the caudal peduncle, which is
generally acceptable when showing
doubletail fish, as it is such a common
occurrence. Major spinal deformity is of
course not to be encouraged and most
breeders would cull such fish (more on
culling in a later chapter).
The doubletail veiltail type is not
commonly seen in the UK. I have only
ever seen it in female bettas in one of my
local fish shops and even then the fish
had uneven caudal lobes (a trait that
requires careful selective breeding to
fix). The shop in question imports low
quality mass-bred female fighters in bulk
and occasionally these orders include
doubletail veiltails. I can only assume
that their supplier maintains the
doubletail gene in their veiltail stocks
for the reason I discussed above, to
produce veiltail fish with broader dorsal
and caudal fins. Breeding the doubletail
mutation into singletail lines is widely
practiced because, as I have already
mentioned, bettas that carry one copy of
the allele exhibit wider dorsals, broader
fins and better branching.
I have never seen a male doubletail
veiltail in the flesh, but looking at the
males pictured above, I can’t help but
feel that it’s a shame more people aren’t
breeding this tail form. Clearly there is
plenty of potential for producing some
stunning bettas!
NOTE: Most breeders avoid spawns
between two doubletail fish, as such
crosses often produce a large number
of deformed fry. If you want to
produce healthy doubletails, the best
method is to breed together two
carriers (i.e. two fish that carry the
mutation), or to breed a doubletail to a
carrier.
Doubletail allele symbol = Td

Intermediate forms
The following are examples of betta fin
types that are commonly discussed in the
hobby, but which are not a breed in their
own right, as they are intermediate forms
produced as a result of trying to produce
a recognised breed.

Spadetail
Spadetail bettas are really just a
variation of veiltail, hence their
placement here in this list of betta
breeds. They are not generally
recognised as a breed in betta shows and
would need to be shown in an ‘Any
other variety’ or ‘Form and variations’
class in order to have any chance of
winning a prize.
Male spadetail bettas have caudal fins
shaped like a spade (as in the suit in a
deck of cards, not the gardening tool).
This is the result of the outer caudal fin
rays curving towards one another in
equal amounts. Females usually don’t
show this trait and instead look like
females of other betta types.
Interestingly, some males from shortfin
plakat lines show hints of spade tail,
with the posterior edge of the caudal
narrowing to a point, so it is perhaps
possible this tail type is influenced by
the amount of wild type genes in the
lineage of the fish.
Male:

Spade-shaped caudal fin;


All other traits are identical to male
veiltail.

Female:

Occasionally females have a


spade-shaped caudal fin, but more
commonly they are
indistinguishable from female
veiltails.
As spadetails are usually sports that
appear in veiltail lines, you can think of
them as veiltails when it comes to
genetics. The only thing I would say is
that spade tails do appear to have
symmetrical tails, unlike veiltails. Also,
wild-type bettas can have spade-shaped
short-fin tails. Could it be that in fact
spadetail bettas were the first long-fin
bettas and that veiltails were created
subsequently via selective breeding? We
will probably never know, but it’s
always nice to consider the
possibilities!
Long-fin allele symbol = F

Roundtail
Again, not strictly a breed but an
intermediate, roundtail is the term given
to any single-tailed long-finned betta
with rounded upper and lower edges to
its caudal fin, giving the tail a round
appearance. The effect is caused by the
upper and lower caudal branches
curving downwards and upwards
respectively to give a ‘C’ shape.
Because there are no restrictions about
the degree of caudal branching, this tail
type is relatively common as it can
randomly appear in almost any long-
finned betta spawn. Roundtails typically
crop up in spawns of delta, superdelta
and halfmoon bettas.
I am of the opinion that the trait results
from fish inheriting ‘wild-type’ plakat
genes, as traditional plakats by
definition exhibit this inward curving of
the outer caudal rays. I have crossed
male halfmoons to wild type traditional
plakats multiple times and can vouch for
the fact that a high proportion of the
resulting offspring were roundtails.
Before the arrival of halfmoon bettas,
roundtail bettas were very popular and
they can be stunning, but nowadays they
are not held in particularly high regard
in comparison to the more impressive
superdelta and halfmoon bettas. This is
probably down to the fact that their
finnage is less impressive overall.
Not the best example of a roundtail betta, as the
caudal isn’t fully round in shape, but you can clearly
see the inward curving of the outer rays, which
results in this tail shape. © Kitti Watcharaworatham

Male:

Rounded caudal fin;


Can have primary branching or
greater in the caudal.

Female:

Rounded caudal fin;

Female roundtails are hard to distinguish


from females of several other tail types,
as the curved caudal rays can make them
resemble short-finned betta breeds.
Roundtails appear as part of natural
variation in long-finned betta spawns.
The trait is therefore not controlled by a
particular gene.
Long-fin allele symbol = F
Turquoise male deltatail betta bred by the author.
Note the missing ventral fins, caused by overfeeding
the fish with microworms as a fry.

Deltatail and superdelta


(SD)
Deltatail and superdelta bettas are two
intermediate tail types that are frequently
encountered during attempts to breed
halfmoon bettas. They are not breeds in
their own right, as they are not the
desired outcome of these spawns (the
desired outcome in this instance being
halfmoon bettas).
Deltatails differ from the roundtails
discussed above in that they are long-
finned bettas with straight caudal rays.
In deltatails, the angle between the top
and bottom caudal rays is relatively
shallow, and nowhere near the 180˚ of
halfmoon bettas. The tail looks more or
less like a triangle with a rounded
outside edge (imagine a slice of a round
cake, viewed from above). In
superdeltas, the angle between the top
and bottom caudal rays is much closer to
the desired 180˚.
Male:

Long fins with straight caudal rays;


At least tertiary branching in the
caudal fin;
An angle of up to 150˚ between the
upper and lower caudal rays in
deltatail males;
An angle of 150˚ to 175˚ between
the upper and lower caudal rays in
superdelta males;
All unpaired fins of approximately
equal length and often (due to the
reduced caudal spread) no overlap
between the rear edge of the anal
fin and the caudal fin, when the fish
is viewed from the side.

Female:

Short fins with straight caudal rays;


Caudal fin has tertiary branching
and delta or superdelta spread;
Anal fin roughly rectangular,
extending beyond the edge of the
caudal fin.

There is no way to differentiate between


superdelta females and females from
halfmoon or over-halfmoon lines, as
females from the latter two breeds will
only rarely exhibit a caudal spread of
180˚ or more.
A note on breeding deltas and
superdeltas…
If you cross two deltatails, the majority
of the spawn will be deltatails, with
some chance of producing superdeltas
and a very small chance of producing
halfmoons (depending on the genetic
background of the parent fish). Likewise
if you cross two superdeltas, you
increase the chances of getting
halfmoons in the next generation, but
again the percentages will be relatively
small. It is worth remembering that there
is a chance of producing one or two
halfmoon fish from a superdelta spawn,
especially if you have a limited choice
of breeding stock available.
Several genetic mutations are involved
in the production of the halfmoon-type
finnage seen in deltatail and superdelta
bettas: The caudal fins need to have
more webbing between the rays, to
allow the fin to spread wider between
upper and lower caudal rays; the caudal
rays must also have more branches to
support this webbing; and the caudal
rays have to be straight.
Experiments have yet to be carried out
that will enable us to understand the
genetics of increased caudal fin webbing
and branching, and the straightening of
the fin rays.
Long-fin allele symbol = F
Male superdelta with veiltail influence, bred by the
author. The caudal spread is wide, but nowhere near
180˚.

Standards for halfmoon-


type bettas
Thanks to a lack of official standards,
differentiating between deltatails,
superdeltas, halfmoons and over-
halfmoons can often be rather subjective.
This is due to the apparent overlap in the
angle of caudal spread between the top
of the deltatail range and the bottom of
the superdelta range, the top of the
superdelta range and the bottom of the
halfmoon range, and so on.
Clearly, if you want to be strict about it,
a halfmoon betta is a fish that has a
caudal spread of precisely 180˚,
because the whole point of the name is
that the tail is a semi-circle. That’s all
well and good in theory, but in practice,
how many fish really have a spread of
exactly 180˚?
Personally, I would rather see some
actual guidelines as to what range of
caudal spread should be allocated to
each tail type.
To my mind, this is where the cut-offs
are:
Deltatail = Up to 150˚
Superdelta = 150˚ to 175˚
Halfmoon = 175˚ to 185˚
Over-halfmoon = 185˚ and over
I’m sure there will be those of you out
there who disagree with me on this.
Why? Are they over generous? Or over
restrictive? Contact me. I’d love to hear
your opinion!
Ultimately, the need to differentiate
between these fin types is primarily so
that hobbyists can talk accurately about
their fish, whether it is at a fish club
meeting or in a betta forum online. In a
show situation, it is usually only
halfmoons and over-halfmoons that are
present, and these are readily told apart.

Halfmoon (HM) and over-


halfmoon (OHM)
The halfmoon is perhaps the pinnacle of
the modern betta fancy. It is easily the
most popular breed of betta, and it is not
hard to see why. With their enormous
fins, male halfmoons provide a vast
canvas for showcasing the amazing
colours, and colour patterns, that have
been produced in bettas. As a result they
present the most eye-catching of
displays. Even people who view the
fishkeeping hobby with considerable
disdain find it impossible to ignore the
beauty of halfmoon bettas. Put simply, if
ever there was a fish that deserved to be
called living art, the halfmoon is it.
So, what does a perfect halfmoon look
like? Well, the theory goes that, when
viewed from the side, you should be
able to draw an imaginary ellipse
around the perfect fish. The line starts at
the mouth; curves up to meet the start of
the dorsal fin; follows the dorsal fin
round to seamlessly join the caudal fin;
follows the caudal down to seamlessly
join the anal fin; and follows the anal fin
round, past the ventral fins, back up to
the mouth. Such a fish would be a
perfectly balanced halfmoon. The fish
pictured below is a great example.
A male halfmoon. The angle between the outer
caudal rays is 180˚, giving a ‘D’ shape © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

The creation of such a fish has (as we


know from the history section) proved to
be easier said and done, but thanks to the
hard work of several dedicated
breeders, the halfmoon betta is very
much here to stay. Furthermore, thanks to
their immense popularity with breeders
all over the world, halfmoons just keep
getting better and better!
From a show perspective there are a few
other traits that are desirable in the fins
of a good halfmoon betta, alongside the
obligatory D-shaped halfmoon caudal. In
particular, the fish should have relatively
straight rays in the dorsal and anal fins,
the front end of both fins should ideally
point forwards towards the head of the
fish, and the first rays of both fins should
be long, and in proportion to the rest of
the rays in the fin. Finally, all three
unpaired fins should overlap.
Male:

Long fins with straight rays;


At least quaternary branching in the
caudal fin;
An angle of 180˚ (plus or minus 5˚)
between the upper and lower
caudal rays;
All unpaired fins of approximately
equal length and, when fully
spread, overlapping so that there
are no gaps between the unpaired
fins when the fish is viewed from
the side;

Female:

Short fins with straight rays;


Caudal fin with at least tertiary
branching and superdelta or
halfmoon spread;
Anal fin roughly rectangular,
extending beyond the edge of the
caudal fin.
Female halfmoons can be hard to tell
apart from females of other long-finned
breeds, although if you make sure you
buy a fish with four rays per branch at
the caudal edge, you will at least
discount the possibility of the fish being
a veiltail, traditional plakat, or wild-
type plakat (as these have only two rays
per branch at the caudal edge).
In terms of genetics, halfmoons carry the
gene (or genes) for at least quaternary
branching in the caudal; the gene (or
genes) for straight fin rays (ideally in all
the unpaired fins); and the gene (or
genes) for increased webbing between
the caudal rays. They also (obviously)
carry at least one copy of the dominant
gene for long fins.
Most betta breeders (and authors of betta
books!) make it very clear that there is
no single ‘gene for halfmoon’ and that
halfmoon bettas only occur when a fish
inherits the right combination of genes
from its parents (both of which need to
have those genes available in the first
place). I have given this a bit of thought
and, whilst the first of these statements is
clearly true, it appears to me that the two
major factors that determine whether or
not a fish has halfmoon caudal spread
are the straightness of the upper and
lower caudal rays and the degree of
webbing between the primary rays of
the caudal fin, or rather the angle
between these primary rays. The first of
these traits is marginally less important
than the other, as super deltas and
deltatails can have very straight upper
and lower caudal rays, but they still
aren’t halfmoons. I do, however, think
it’s worth noting that if the upper and
lower caudal rays are even slightly
curved (after the point where the
primary branches end) then a fish with
otherwise halfmoon spread (at the base
of the caudal) will only ever be a
superdelta.
Female halfmoon showing typical branching and
straight rays in the caudal and long anal. © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
The second trait is far more important.
Bettas have a relatively constant number
of primary rays in the caudal fin,
typically twelve rays. Given an
essentially fixed number of primary rays,
the only thing that can make a betta a
halfmoon is an increased angle between
these primary rays. Without this, the fish
will never be a halfmoon. In my opinion
it is the heritability of these two traits
that is unpredictable, and the reason why
halfmoon x halfmoon crosses never give
rise to 100% halfmoon offspring. From
what I have seen, the third trait (a
minimum of quaternary branching in the
caudal fin) is inherited somewhat
predictably.
Interestingly, young superdeltas that are
close to 180˚ can be ‘trained’ to
ultimately acquire halfmoon finnage by
encouraging the fish to spread it fins and
flare (either at its own reflection or
another betta) on a daily basis. This
daily training does appear to work and
is regularly used by professional betta
breeders and show competitors to
maximise the potential of their fish.
Finally, a breeding tip: If you want to
guarantee the production of halfmoon
bettas from a spawn, you really need to
pair male fish that are already halfmoon
(or over) in terms of caudal spread, with
at least quaternary branching, to females
that have as wide a caudal spread as
possible, ideally 180˚.
Long-fin allele symbol = F
An over-halfmoon male. The angle between the outer
caudal rays is well over 180˚. © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Doubletail halfmoon a.k.a.


fullmoon (DTHM)
As with the doubletail veiltail,
doubletail halfmoon bettas have two
caudal lobes, which ideally should be of
equal size to one another and have a
split between them, extending to the
caudal peduncle. The dorsal fin usually
has twice the number of fin rays of a
normal singeltail betta and should nicely
mirror the anal fin in length and width to
give the fish a symmetrical appearance.
As with all other breeds, the fins should
be in proportion to the body size, to give
a fish of balanced appearance, and the
fish should carry the fins with ease.
Doubletail halfmoons have the most
finnage of any of the betta breeds and as
such some breeders have stressed the
importance of avoiding producing fish
that have ‘heavy’ fins with excessive ray
branching, as this can put an unnecessary
strain on the fish and impair its ability to
swim as it gets older and the fins get
heavier. The ideal is therefore to
produce a fish in which the fins produce
a full circle when fully spread, with the
two caudal lobes together making a nice
D-shaped caudal and the outer edges of
the anal and dorsal fins leading nicely
into the caudal. When bettas are
produced like this they are truly
deserving of the title ‘fullmoon’ betta.
A doubletail halfmoon. Note the wide dorsal and two
caudal lobes, one above the other © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

As mentioned above in the doubletail


veiltail section, doubletail x doubletail
crosses are not recommended as these
often result in deformed fish with short
bodies and crooked spines. Having seen
several doubletail halfmoons in the
flesh, it is clear that it is hard (but not
impossible) to completely eradicate
spinal deformities in these fish,
particularly at the caudal peduncle.
It is possible to selectively use only
those doubletail halfmoons with the
longest bodies to try and overcome the
problem of body-shortening associated
with this trait. The latter is particularly
important if you want to produce
breeding males, as males with short
bodies cannot successfully wrap females
during spawning, which renders them
sterile for all intents and purposes.
It is worth remembering that when it
comes to doubletail halfmoons most
show standards allow for a very minor
bend in the spine at the caudal peduncle
and also a slightly shorter body length,
in the interests of allowing more fish to
compete in this category.
Remember that the doubletail gene is a
partial dominant, resulting in a larger
dorsal fin and greater caudal spread in
fish that only carry one copy of the gene.
Fish with two copies are full
doubletails.
Doubletail allele symbol = Td

Rosetail (RT)
Rosetail bettas are characterised by
excessive branching in all three of the
unpaired fins (in particular, excessive
branching and the overlapping rays in
the caudal). This breed arose as a result
of selectively breeding for increased
branching and straight caudal edges in
order to make the perfect halfmoon.
In the caudal fin the rosetail trait usually
manifests itself as a minimum of 16 rays
per branch at the caudal edge and
(thanks to all the branching) a caudal
spread of over 180˚. The result of this
excessive branching is that the fins take
on a ruffled appearance, which can often
look like the overlapping petals of a
flower (although this varies depending
on the extent to which the trait is
expressed). This overlapping petals
effect is where the term ‘rosetail’ comes
from.
Although they can be exceptionally
beautiful, rosetail bettas are something
of a double-edged sword when it comes
to breeding. On the one hand, there are
several positive factors that come from
using rosetail bettas as part of a
breeding program. The two main
benefits are increased ray branching and
increased caudal spread, both of which
are perfect for improving a halfmoon
line, or indeed creating a halfmoon line
from superdelta stock.
On the other hand, once the rosetail traits
have been introduced into your breeding
stock they can have negative
consequences and are almost impossible
to get rid of!
When you use rosetails in your line you
automatically increase the percentage of
rosetail in the next generation.
Sometimes this will be a good (or even
excellent) thing and the result will be a
good proportion of fish that develop
superb form. The flip side of this is that,
as a result of the genes involved, some
extreme rosetails exhibit deformities.
These can include greatly reduced
ventral fin length, smaller dorsals,
unwanted paler body colouration, scale
defects, reduced growth and impaired
swimming capabilities.
Extreme rosetails are the result of
breeders trying too hard to increase ray
branching without paying enough
attention to producing fish that are strong
enough to hold their finnage with ease.
Fish that exhibit these deformities are
referred to in the hobby as ‘x factor’
fish, to indicate the negative effect of the
deformities.
Although the deformities mentioned
above are generally found in the more
extreme forms of rosetail, the outcome of
using rosetail bettas for breeding
purposes is that most spawns will leave
you with some deformed fry. For this
reason, some breeders refuse to use
rosetails in their breeding programs.
Even those that do use rosetails for
breeding will cull any fry that exhibit the
extreme forms. Such breeders will
carefully select from only the normal
bettas and those showing only mild
rosetail influence in order to create the
next generation.
The caudal fin of this rosetail male shows clearly the
results of excessive ray branching © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Male:

Long ruffled fins with straight


caudal rays;
At least quinary branching in the
caudal fin (16 rays at the caudal
edge);
An angle of 180˚ or more between
the upper and lower caudal rays;
All unpaired fins of approximately
equal length and, when fully
spread, overlapping so that there
are no gaps between the unpaired
fins when the fish is viewed from
the side.

Female:

Short ruffled fins with straight


caudal rays;
At least quaternary branching in the
caudal fin;
Anal fin rays often slightly long
than caudal fin rays;
Some females have superdelta or
halfmoon caudal spread.

As yet we don’t know if the extreme fin


ray branching seen in rosetail bettas is
the result of a mutation in the gene (or
genes) that cause ray branching, or a
mutation in the gene (or genes) that
regulate the degree of ray branching.
Both theories are plausible, and in both
scenarios the mutation would be
heritable.
Rosetail allele symbol = X

Feathertail (FT)
Feathertail bettas are basically extreme
rosetails that were lucky enough to have
avoided inheriting lethal genes, or genes
resulting in serious deformity. As such,
they are very rare in the hobby, as any
serious attempt to produce feathertails
would yield a lot of extreme rosetails,
resulting in the majority of the spawn
being culled. Feathertail bettas will
always be viewed like Marmite: Some
people adore them, some people hate
them with a passion.
I have to say that, when they are good,
feathertails can be truly spectacular. The
caudal ray branching is so extensive that
the caudal fin looks for all the world as
though it is made up of individual
feathers arranged into a fan! No prizes
for guessing where the breed name
comes from.
Sexing is the same as for rosetails, with
the only difference between the breeds
being the unique feathered appearance of
the caudal fin feathertails.
The genetics of feathertail bettas are the
same as for rosetails, as the former is
simply an extreme example of the latter.
Rosetail allele symbol = X
A feathertail male with extreme caudal ray branching.
Not to everyone’s taste! © Kitti Watcharaworatham

Asymmetrical halfmoon
plakat (HMPK)
The asymmetrical halfmoon plakat
combines the basic form of a traditional
plakat with the additional caudal spread
and caudal ray branching of a halfmoon,
and a rounded tip to the rear of the anal
fin. In terms of behaviour, however, they
are more similar to wild-type or
traditional plakats: Vital and aggressive!
A stunning marble male asymmetrical halfmoon
plakat bred by Eugenio Fornasiero © Eugenio
Fornasiero

They are referred to as asymmetrical


because if you draw an imaginary
horizontal line through the fish, the top
half does not mirror the bottom half, on
account of the anal fin extending beyond
the bottom of the caudal.
One of the major differences between
long and short-finned betta breeds (aside
from the obvious fin length) is in terms
of their character. Extensive selective
breeding for form in the long-finned
betta breeds seems to have resulted in
them losing a good deal of their
aggression and vitality. The short-finned
bettas on the other hand have remained
vigorous and full of life; traits which
have kept them popular with breeders
despite their less impressive finnage.
When halfmoon bettas arrived on the
scene they stole the spotlight from short-
finned bettas. Traditional plakats,
despite being colourful, became less
popular because their finnage was
deemed less impressive than that of the
new halfmoons. Luckily, it was only a
matter of time before breeders decided
that it would be a good idea to try and
introduce those wonderful halfmoon
traits (straight, multi-branching rays with
wide caudal spread) into a short finned
betta. This is how the halfmoon plakat
came to be. Halfmoon plakats are also
referred to as show plakats, as they have
more impressive finnage than traditional
plakats and are hence more popular as a
show fish.
Male:

The unpaired fins are short, and the


ventrals are generally wider and
shorter than in a traditional plakat;
The dorsal fin is roughly semi-
circular and snaps open like a fan,
ideally with the first rays being of
similar length to the rest of the
dorsal rays and pointing forwards
towards the head of the fish;
The caudal fin has at least tertiary
branching (four rays at caudal
edge) and a spread of 180˚ (plus or
minus 5˚);
The caudal rays are straight and
ideally the top and bottom points of
the fin are sharp, not rounded;
The anal fin is trapezoid in shape,
shorter at the front and longer at the
rear, extending beyond the lower
edge of the caudal;
The first rays of the anal fin should
ideally point forwards towards the
head of the fish and the rear tip of
the fin should be round not pointed;
All three unpaired fins should
ideally overlap.
Female:

Females have shorter fins than


males, but the same ideals apply in
terms of fin shape.

Asymmetrical halfmoon plakats carry


similar finnage genes to halfmoon bettas
(i.e. genes for straight caudal rays,
multiple ray branching, extra webbing).
They also, like all plakats, carry two
copies of the recessive short-fin allele.
Short-fin allele symbol = f+
Two lovely examples of show quality male
asymmetrical HMPKs bred by Joep van Esch © Joep
van Esch

Symmetrical halfmoon
plakat (HMPK)
The symmetrical halfmoon plakat (a.k.a.
short-fin halfmoon, or shortmoon) was
created in an attempt to incorporate all
the ideals of the long-finned halfmoon
into a short-finned betta.
As with long-finned halfmoons, the goal
is symmetry. In a good symmetrical
halfmoon plakat, the rays of the dorsal,
caudal and anal fins should all be the
same length, such that you could draw an
imaginary line from the top of the first
dorsal fin ray round all three unpaired
fins to the first anal fin ray, in a seamless
arc. Hence the name symmetrical: If you
draw a horizontal line through the fish,
the top half will more or less mirror the
bottom half (ignoring the ventral fins).
In terms of form, symmetrical halfmoon
plakats should meet the same criteria as
their long-finned halfmoon counterparts.
As with asymmetrical halfmoon plakats,
because good symmetrical halfmoon
plakats have a caudal spread of 180˚,
they are commonly sold under the catch-
all names of ‘halfmoon plakat’ or
‘HMPK’.
Male symmetrical HMPK bred by the author (the rear
edge of the anal fin should ideally be shorter)

Male:

The unpaired fins are short;


The ventrals are full and relatively
short to maintain the overall
balance of the betta’s fins;
The dorsal fin is roughly
rectangular;
The caudal fin is a D-shaped with
at least secondary branching (four
rays at caudal edge) and a spread
of 180° (plus or minus 5°);
The caudal rays are straight;
The caudal fin ideally has sharp
corners at the top and bottom; and
The anal fin is roughly rectangular
in shape and similar in size and
shape to the dorsal. It ideally
should not extend beyond the
bottom of the caudal.

Female:

Females are similar to males but


have shorter unpaired fins and short
ventrals.

Symmetrical halfmoon plakats carry


similar finnage genes to halfmoon bettas
(i.e. genes for straight caudal rays,
multiple ray branching, extra webbing).
They also, like all plakats, carry two
copies of the recessive short-fin allele.
Short-fin allele symbol = f+

Doubletail plakat (DTPK)


There are doubletail versions of both the
asymmetrical and symmetrical halfmoon
plakat, which are simply halfmoon
plakats that carries two copies of the
doubletail gene. In such fish, the ideal is
to produce a betta with two even caudal
lobes in a D-shape, with either
asymmetrical or symmetrical dorsal and
anal fins, depending on the goal.
Sexing doubletail halfmoon plakats is
the same as sexing doubletail halfmoons,
except that the fins are shorter, in both
sexes.
All of the warnings relating to breeding
any of the doubletail betta breeds apply
equally to the breeding of doubletail
plakats. Thus, in order to avoid large
numbers of fry having deformities,
breeding two doubletails together should
be avoided and instead breeders should
aim to spawn two doubletail carriers
together, or a doubletail with a
doubletail carrier.
Doubletail allele symbol = Td
A plump red female DTPK bred by Joep van Esch, all
ready for breeding! © Joep van Esch

Crowntail (CT)
Crowntail bettas are characterised by
having greatly reduced webbing between
the rays of all three unpaired fins. The
fin rays protrude beyond the edge of the
webbing, giving the fin a spiky
appearance like a crown, hence the
name.
The creation of the first crowntail betta
is said to have occurred in 1997 and has
been attributed to an Indonesian breeder
by the name of Ahmad Yusuf. His
original name for this breed was ‘cupang
serit’ (‘ikan cupang’ is the Indonesian
term for betta). The name ‘crowntail’
came much later and was coined by a
well-respected crowntail breeder named
Henry Yin.
The amount of webbing reduction is
important in defining what is and what is
not a crowntail. According to the IBC, in
order for a male betta to qualify as a
crowntail, the degree of webbing
reduction must be equivalent to at least a
third (33%) of the length of the fin rays,
in all three unpaired fins. Any fish with
less than 33% webbing reduction would
be classed as a ‘combtail’.
Personally, I see no reason to argue with
these definitions, as to my eyes male
bettas with anything less than 33%
reduction just don’t look like crowntails!
Male black copper double-ray crowntail with nice
webbing reduction in all fins © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Females tend not to exhibit the same


degree of webbing reduction as males.
Therefore the minimum degree of
reduction in webbing (according to the
IBC) is 25%. This too seems fine to me.
Technically, bettas of any breed (long-
and short-finned; single- or double-
tailed) can be crowntails, and this
includes veiltails. However, the fish that
most people recognise as a crowntail
has the basic fin proportions and
structure of a long-finned superdelta
betta, only with the 33% webbing
reduction. Note that crowntails rarely
have straight rays in the dorsal and anal
fin - the rays usually curve backwards.
Similarly, only the central caudal rays
tend to be straight, with the upper and
lower rays curving backwards to some
degree.
The best crowntails, much like
halfmoons, have a caudal spread of
180˚, but this is rare, due to the
prevalence of curved upper and lower
caudal rays.
Double-double-ray crowntail - four rays extend
beyond the webbing instead of two © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Crowntail variations
I have added this sub-heading for the
simple reason that the topic of
crowntails demands a little more
attention. This is because breeders have
succeeded in producing several
variations of crowntail, all of which
have been given names to help identify
the traits they exhibit. Thankfully, most
of these variations deal only with
differences in the appearance of the
caudal fin.
The most basic form is the single-ray
crowntail (or SRCT). These fish exhibit
primary branching and have the same
degree of webbing reduction between
the primary fin rays as between the
secondary rays, such that the webbing is
in the shape of a semi-circle, with
individual ray ‘spikes’ of roughly equal
length extending beyond the webbing.
The next form up from this is the double-
ray (DRCT). DRCTs differ from single
ray crowntails in that the webbing
reduction is greater between the primary
caudal rays than between the secondary
rays. As a result, the secondary branches
are conjoined, near the base, and project
as a pair of spikes from the rest of the
caudal fin. The DRCT is probably the
most commonly seen type of crowntail.
Expanding on the theme of web
reduction on two levels (lower between
the primary rays than between the
secondary rays), breeders succeeded in
creating the double-double-ray
crowntail (DDRCT). As you might
expect, this fish is similar to the DRCT,
expect that instead of having two
conjoined spikes emerging from the rest
of the fin, it has four; the result of the
fish in question having tertiary
branching.
Now things get more interesting:
Through selective breeding, breeders
were able to produce DRCTs in which
the two spikes were curved away from
one another. By working to maximise
this effect, they produced the first cross-
ray crowntails, so called because the
central spikes of the caudal fin cross one
another.
Not content to stop there, breeders have
since pushed the boundaries even further
to produce a betta in which all of the
caudal spikes cross one another. This
fish is the most desirable crowntail form
of all and enjoys the lofty title of king
crowntail!
The traits exhibited by a king crowntail
are not controlled by a single gene and
therefore a breeder is very lucky if
he/she can produce such a fish, as it is
pure luck that the right combination of
genes comes together.
Needless to say, thanks to their rarity,
king crowntails usually fetch a high
price.
Male:

The unpaired fins are long, of equal


length, and show at least 33%
reduction in fin webbing;
The ventrals are spiky, thin and
long;
The caudal fin has secondary or
tertiary branching (two or four rays
at caudal edge) and ideally a
spread of 180˚;
The primary caudal rays are ideally
straight.
Female:

Females are similar to males but


have shorter unpaired fins, short
ventrals and fin webbing reduction
of at least 25%.

The crowntail trait is codominant,


meaning that if you breed a crowntail
betta to a non-crowntail betta, the
offspring will all show some degree of
webbing reduction, but not to the same
extent that a full crowntail would (i.e.
less than 33% web reduction in male
offspring and less than 25% web
reduction in female offspring).
Crowntail allele symbol = Ct
Long-fin allele symbol = F

Doubletail crowntail
(DTCT)
Incredibly, breeders have also
succeeded in producing a doubletail
version of the crowntail, which is a
crowntail that also carries two copies of
the doubletail gene. These fish are very
hard to perfect, as the ideal doubletail
crowntail should have the form of a
good doubletail halfmoon, with the
webbing reduction of a good crowntail.
Because they are such a challenge to
produce, doubletail crowntails are very
rarely seen in the hobby. Personally I
would like to see more people take on
this challenge, as the few examples I
have seen online were real show-
stoppers.
Crowntail allele symbol = Ct
Long-fin allele symbol = F
Doubletail allele symbol = Td

Crowntail plakat (CTPK)


One of the newest breeds in the hobby is
the crowntail plakat, which is essentially
a shortfin version of the standard
crowntail. As with all breeds, the aim is
to produce a balanced fish and in the
case of crowntail plakats it is desirable
to have a fish that is more symmetrical in
appearance, so that the anal fin does not
extend beyond the length of the caudal
fin rays.
The crowntail plakat is an excellent
challenge for a breeder, because it is not
easy to achieve the same level of
webbing reduction in all three unpaired
fins. Another challenge is that, in
crowntail plakats, the exposed ends of
the caudal fin rays often fuse together, so
that the spiky ‘crown’ effect is more
blocky, like the turrets of a castle. Many
breeders are working to perfect this
breed and I have no doubt that we will
start to see some stunning examples in
the coming years.
The eye-catching CTPK is a breed that is sure to
increase in popularity over the years © Daniella
Vereeken

Sexing crowntail plakats is pretty much


the same as sexing any other shortfin
betta, so I won’t reiterate what has
already been said above.
In terms of genetics, crowntail plakats
are homozygous for the crowntail gene
and also homozygous for short fins.
Because professional breeders are very
protective of their female crowntail
plakats, it is not easy to simply buy a
pair of crowntail plakats for breeding.
Most European breeders I know have
been forced to produce their own
crowntail plakat lines by breeding long-
finned crowntails to halfmoon plakats
and then spawning the offspring to one
another to produce some short-finned
crowntail plakats in the second
generation. Another route is to cross a
male crowntail plakat to a female
halfmoon plakat to produce combtail
plakats in the first generation. These can
then be crossed to one another or bred
back to their father to produce crowntail
plakats.
Crowntail allele symbol = Ct
Shortfin allele symbol = f+

Dumbo
Dumbo bettas have greatly elongated
pectoral fins that are usually opaque.
They get their name from the fact that
when viewed from the front the fins look
like great big elephant ears sticking out
of the sides of the fish’s head, just like
the Disney character Dumbo, which is
also why some sellers refer to such fish
as ‘elephant ears’ bettas. I haven’t been
able to find out who created the first
dumbo bettas, but having spoken to
various breeders that I know it is clear
that elongated pectoral fins do crop up in
spawns occasionally on a random basis,
so it’s not so hard to envisage how the
first dumbos would have created from
such fish. The dumbo gene is recessive,
affects only the pectoral fins and
behaves in a predictable manner, such
that fish with two copies of the gene
have dumbo pectorals and fish with only
one copy have normal pectorals. Dumbo
pectoral fins have been bred into long
and shortfin halfmoon bettas, and this
phenotype is most commonly seen in
bettas with so-called ‘salamander’
colouration, although in the last year or
so I have seen dumbos in gold,
pineapple and platinum white. I even
saw a photo of a male crowntail plakat
that had dumbo pectorals!
Because dumbos exist in shortfin and
longfin forms (with respect to the
unpaired fins and ventrals), the ideal
form for these fish and the methods for
telling apart males and females are
exactly the same as they would be for the
fish if it did not have the enlarged
pectoral fins.
Dumbo allele abbreviation = dm
Dumbo bettas get their name from their long flowing
pectoral fins © Kitti Watcharaworatham

Giant
Giant bettas are well deserving of their
name. They are BIG bettas! They have
also caused considerable controversy in
the hobby, as betta enthusiasts are
somewhat divided as to whether or not
they believe that giantism in bettas is
caused by a single gene, or is simply the
result of careful selective breeding for
increased size. The truth may well be a
mixture of the two: At the end of the day,
we know for a fact that it is possible to
breed large betas simply by selecting the
largest fish to breed over successive
generations. However, experiments
undertaken by Dr Gene Lucas when giant
bettas first appeared in the hobby
suggested strongly that the giant
phenotype might be produced by a
partially dominant gene, as bettas
inheriting one copy of the ‘giant gene’
grew larger than normal bettas (so-
called ‘half-giants’) and bettas carrying
two copies of the gene grew to be giants.
Personally I think there is some truth in
the hypothesis that the first giants were
produced from an individual betta with a
genetic mutation that resulted in it
growing to an extraordinarily large size.
Certainly the account of how the first
line of giant bettas was created would
seem to suggest as much.
According to giant betta breeder Surat
Bhutipanya, the first giant bettas were
created by three Thai breeders who
called themselves Team Giant. This team
comprised Athapon Ratanapichad (a.k.a.
Uncle Sara), his son Natee, and Wasan
Sattayapun (wasanbetta on
Aquabid.com). In 1999 Athapon and
Natee discovered an unusually large
green male fighter plakat in amongst the
other bettas on their farm. Athapon had
already noticed that his green bettas
seemed to grow much larger than those
of other colours, but this fish was over
three inches long! To my mind the size of
this fish was almost certainly the result
of a genetic mutation (or genetic
mutations) that perhaps increased the
rate of development, or affected
whatever it is that limits growth in adult
bettas. As it turns out, whatever the
mechanism, this was a very lucky
mutation for the betta hobby!
The Ratanapichads bred this giant male
to the largest female they had available
at the time, in the hope of producing
more giant bettas and creating a whole
new strain. In the first generation, only a
small percentage of the fry grew to be
large. However, by continually selecting
the largest fish in each subsequent
generation for breeding, they were able
to increase the percentage of giants in
each brood. From what I have read, it
would appear that it took Team Giant as
little as five generations to produce the
first three inch long bettas, with those
bettas made up about a fifth of the fry in
the spawn.
Once they were consistently producing
giant bettas, Team Giant began to expand
their range by outcrossing those giants to
normal-sized bettas of various other
breeds, in a range of colours. Each time
they pursued a new colour, they had to
repeat the painstaking process of
selecting the largest fish from each
brood in order to produce fish of the
right size.
Thanks to the hard work of Team Giant
and an ever increasing number of
breeders worldwide, the giant betta is
here to stay and is available in an ever
increasing range of forms, although the
two most common are asymmetrical
halfmoon plakat and halfmoon (and the
inevitable delta and superdeltas that
come as part of the halfmoon package).
Giant betta fry are reported to grow at a
much faster rate than normal betta fry
and as such they require far more food in
order to reach their full potential. As a
result of this, differences in size between
giant and normal fry are apparently
visible from only a few weeks old.
Some strains of giant betta can attain a
length of three inches (including the
caudal fin) in just five months!
Once adult, giant bettas require less
food, but will still happily consume
more than twice the amount of food
required by a normal betta on a daily
basis. Note that in order to cope with the
increase in waste produced as a result of
eating all this food, giant bettas should
be kept in larger containers than normal
bettas and receive more frequent water
changes.
Adult giant bettas are prone to
constipation, which can lead to death if
not carefully treated. Live brine shrimp
and live/frozen daphnia should be made
a regular part of their feeding regime, as
both these foods act as a mild laxative.
Similarly it is a good idea to add Indian
almond leaves or leaf extract to a giant
betta’s water. If the giant does become
constipated, the best treatment is to
starve the fish for a day or so (I would
also recommend adding a little salt to
the water).
The giant trait is heritable and appears,
for now, to be codominant, with carrier
individuals being a ‘halfway house’
between normal and giant bettas with
respect to their final adult size. Put
simply, if you breed two giant bettas
together, the offspring will all be giants
(although their final adult size will
vary); if you breed a giant to a normal
betta, then the offspring will carry the
giant gene (if indeed it is a single gene),
and as a result will grow to an
intermediate size between normal and
giant. Such fish are referred to as ‘half-
giants’. Breeding two carriers together
will give you 25% full giants, 50% half-
giants and 25% normal bettas (more on
this in the Genetics chapter).
Giant allele symbol = G
A pair of gold giant HMPKs (male top, female
bottom) - note the deep body of these fish © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Colouration
When I first got into betta-keeping, as
teenager living in West Yorkshire in the
early 1990s, bettas only came in three
colours: Red, blue or tri-colour (white,
red and blue), and they were always
veiltails. There wasn’t a whole lot of
choice!
Nowadays, bettas are readily available
in a vast array of fin types, colours and
colour patterns. Some of those colour
patterns can even change over the course
of the fish’s lifetime! Pretty cool, huh?
No wonder bettas are more popular now
than ever before.
For me, the arrival of the modern betta
breeds and colours into the UK was like
getting a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s
Chocolate Factory. These wonderful
mutations are the reason I got back into
bettas after a break of many years. I
strongly suspect that if they hadn’t
become available in the UK, my fish
room would still be packed to the rafters
with Central American cichlids.
Anyway, I digress. The main purpose of
this section is to give you a quick
introduction to betta colours and colour
patterns. I think that by the end of this
chapter you’ll agree that having too little
choice is no longer the problem!

The Layers Concept


When talking about colouration in bettas,
it helps to think in terms of the different
colours occupying different layers in the
skin, one above the other. According to
the layers concept, modern bettas have
three basic layers of cells in the skin in
which each of the basic colour pigments
are expressed, plus a fourth base layer in
which no pigment is expressed. The
three outer layers house iridescent
(turquoise, royal blue or steel blue),
black and red. The innermost layer is
pigment free, and I will refer to this
layer as the ‘cellophane’ layer for
reasons which will become clear later
on.
The idea is that each pigment-carrying
skin layer can be masked either fully or
partially by the layer above. Hence
iridescent can mask black, black can
mask red, and red can mask cellophane.
Similarly, if a fish inherits genes that
switch off or greatly reduce the
pigmentation in one of the upper layers,
the layer sitting above the affected layer
can mask the layer that lies below it.
Hence the iridescent layer can mask the
red layer when the black layer contains
no pigmentation.
It therefore follows that a red betta is
one in which the iridescent and black
layers show greatly reduced
pigmentation and the red layer shows
increased
pigmentation; a black betta is one in
which the iridescent layer shows greatly
reduced pigmentation and the black layer
shows increased pigmentation; and an
iridescent betta is one in which the
iridescent layer shows increased
density. I am simplifying things a bit, but
hopefully you get the idea that it is
changes in the density of pigment in each
of these skin layers that determines what
colour the betta will be.
Note that in wild bettas all three outer
layers contain pigment to some extent:
Red and black pigments overlap on the
body to produce the brown body colour,
iridescence appears as a dusting of
iridescent scales on the upper part of the
body, and the fins are typically red near
the body and iridescent towards the
outer edges (unpaired fins only).
Hundreds of years of selective breeding
and the exploitation of novel genetic
mutations has resulted in dramatic
changes to this wild-type appearance
and has vastly increased the artistic
palette available to modern betta
breeders. Not only do we benefit from
the improvements brought about by
selective breeding, we also have a suite
of entirely new genetic mutations with
which to manipulate the expression of
colour in bettas.
As with the betta breeds described
above, it is pretty much impossible to
talk about colouration in bettas without
some discussion of the genetic mutations
involved, as without these mutations and
their effect on the production of pigment
in skin cells, these colours and patterns
would simply not be available! As a
compromise I have tried to keep any
reference to genes to a bare minimum in
the hope that the descriptions provided
will be enough to stem your curiosity
until we get to the Genetics chapter
proper.
As with the breeds above, I have
provided symbols for each of the alleles
involved in the production of each
colour (or at least those we know
about), which will hopefully prove
useful when calculating the outcome of
crosses between two bettas that you
either know carry those particular genes,
or that you suspect carry those genes,
based on their appearance.
Whilst it is clearly useful to have some
understanding of how genetic mutations
have resulted in all of the stunning
colours now available in bettas, I feel
that I must point out the huge gaps in our
understanding as to whether or not
certain traits are caused by single or
multiple genes, and likewise whether or
not these genes affect the two sexes in
different ways. To further complicate
matters, it is quite possible that the same
colour in different betta strains could be
produced by entirely different genes! For
now, I’d much rather you pay attention to
the beautiful photos I have used to
illustrate this chapter. After all, we first
fall in love with bettas for their beauty,
not for their genetic make-up!
This betta has dense red and iridescent layers, but
reduced pigmentation in the black layer, particularly
in the fins.
In this betta the iridescent layer is spread across the
body and fins, masking the black and red layers
beneath

Wild-type colouration
Wild-type bettas, as I mentioned above,
show some degree of pigmentation in all
of the skin layers. In researching this
book, I have read numerous references
to a theory that wild Betta splendens
have a different arrangement of the
pigment layers when compared with
domesticated bettas; namely that the
black and red layers are reversed, with
red on top and black beneath. I have as
yet been unable to find any scientific
support for this theory and therefore, for
the sake of simplicity, I have chosen to
ignore it, particularly as I can see no
biological reason why this should be the
case.
Wild-type bettas (by which I mean wild
bettas and domesticated forms with
wild-type appearance) tend to have a
rather fixed colouration and are pretty
hard to mistake. Typically they have a
dark brownish red body with
iridescence in the dorsal half, and a
combination of red and iridescence
(royal blue, turquoise or steel blue) in
the three unpaired fins. The ventrals are
typically red with white tips. Whichever
way round the black and red layers are,
the brownish red body colour is the
result of both layers expressing pigment
to some extent. The iridescent layer is
always on top.
Note that the head region in wild-types
is usually darker i.e. there is either less
red pigmentation or more black
pigmentation in the anterior half of the
fish.
A whole bunch of genes are involved in
producing the wild type colouration. The
take home message is really that all of
the other colours and colour patterns we
will discuss are the result of mutations
in the wild-type (here meaning ‘as found
in the wild’) version of the genes
controlling colouration.
As there is no single allele for ‘wild-
type colouration’, it follows that there is
no allele symbol to signify wild-type
colouration. There is, however, a
symbol that geneticists use to describe
the wild version of a gene, which is ‘+’.
Don’t worry too much about this right
now, but it is worth storing away
somewhere in your brain for when we
get to the Genetics chapter.
Wild allele symbol = +
A pair of traditional plakats bred by the author, both
showing wild-type colouration

The iridescent layer


The iridescent layer is responsible for a
wide spectrum of colours in bettas, from
deep blue through to green. However,
there are really only three iridescent
colours: Turquoise, royal blue and steel
blue. Interestingly, the expression of
these three colours is controlled via the
interaction of just two alleles. One allele
codes for turquoise colouration and the
other codes for steel blue colouration.
These alleles show incomplete
dominance with respect to one another,
so if an individual inherits one copy of
the turquoise allele and one copy of the
steel blue allele, the result is royal blue.
It is important to remember that whilst
steel blue and royal blue are relatively
fixed in terms of how the colour actually
appears to our eyes, turquoise bettas can
vary a great deal (anything from bright
turquoise to green). This is important as
it affects how we describe the
colouration of our fish. It is all too
common to see turquoise fish being
referred to incorrectly as royal blue or
steel blue, and vice versa, which only
adds to the confusion of newcomers to
the hobby.
Let’s consider how these iridescent
colours are produced. Like most fish,
bettas remove metabolic waste products
from their body via the kidneys,
digestive tract and gills. However, not
all waste product are removed from the
body in this way. Some non-toxic waste
products called ‘guanines’ are
Male royal blue OHM - this is the richest of the
iridescent colours © Kitti Watcharaworatham
Male OHM with turquoise body © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Male OHM with steel blue body © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
instead deposited in the skin, eyes and
fins of the fish. Guanines are either
deposited in crystalline form in the outer
layer of the skin (the epidermis), or as
random granules in the skin cells
underneath (the dermis). When layered
as crystals in the epidermis, the guanines
refract light, which gives the skin an
iridescent appearance. This is why we
refer to the colours produced by this
effect as ‘iridescent’ and the epidermal
cells that contain crystalline guanine as
‘iridocytes’. Also, because the
iridescent colours are not produced by
pigment, they are sometimes referred to
as ‘structural’ colours. The inheritance
of a particular combination of iridescent
alleles changes the thickness and depth
of the guanine deposits in the epidermis,
which in turn affects how light is
refracted in the iridocytes, which
changes the shade of blue or green we
see.
Wild bettas have most of their iridocytes
in the dorsal half of the body and in the
unpaired fins, with very few on the head
and belly regions of the fish. So how
come nowadays we have fish that are
blue all over? Well, one answer is that
over the years breeders have succeeded
in producing fish with more and more
iridescent colour on their fins and
bodies by choosing only those fish with
the most iridescent colouration in each
generation for breeding. But this could
only succeed in spreading the colour so
far. A genetic mutation was required in
order to succeed in spreading
iridescence all over the body and fins.
The name given to this gene when it was
first identified was ‘spread iridescence’,
because it did precisely that. What’s
more, the gene was dominant, so that any
fish that carried one copy of the gene
would show the spread iridescence
phenotype of having iridescence across
the body and fins.
The story doesn’t quite end there,
because although the spread iridescence
gene could fill in the gaps on the body
and fins, the head always remained a
much darker colour, the result of
underlying black pigmentation showing
through a much thinner iridescent layer
in this region. To achieve a solid-
coloured fish, breeders had to wait for
the ‘mask’ gene to appear on the scene.
This gene first arose in hybrid fish
produced from crosses between Betta
splendens and one of either Betta
imbellis or Betta mahachaiensis
(pictured opposite). Although variable,
the main effect of the gene was to extend
the spread of iridescence onto the head
and mouth of a betta. I will talk about the
mask gene in more detail in the Genetics
chapter, but I wanted to mention it here
in passing, to help you understand how it
is that we are able to produce entirely
iridescent bettas.
Turquoise allele abbreviation = Blt
Steel blue allele abbreviation = Bls
Spread iridescence allele abbreviation
= Si
Betta imbellis © Manyork Zhou
Betta mahachaiensis © Manyork Zhou
The red layer
In bettas, the colour red appears to be
caused by two different types of
pigment. These pigment types are called
pterins and carotenoids, and both can be
present in bettas either independently or
at the same time, depending on the
genetic background of the fish in
question.
Pterin pigments are involved in the
metabolism of the waste product uric
acid and are comprised of small
molecules called pteridines. Pteridines
are similar in structure to guanine and,
much like the guanines responsible for
iridescence in bettas, are deposited in
the cells of the dermis when surplus to
metabolic requirements.
Whilst pteridines are produced as a
result of metabolic processes in the body
and give rise to only red colouration,
carotenoid-based red colouration is
usually only maintained through dietary
supplementation (i.e. by eating foods that
are high in carotenoids). The commonest
dietary carotenoid is astaxanthin, which
as it happens is found in high
concentrations in Spirulina algae, a
common ingredient in commercial fish
foods. Interestingly, paprika is also high
in carotenoids and would make a cheap
addition to home-made betta food if your
goal was to produce vibrant red fish,
assuming of course that your bettas come
from a line that can metabolise these
carotenoids.
As an aside, the need to ingest dietary
carotenoids in order to maintain strong
red colouration is probably why so many
animals have evolved to utilise
carotenoid-based red colouration as part
of their sexual signalling. In theory, only
the fittest males (those with the best
traits for survival) will be able to source
enough of the required dietary
carotenoids to maintain intense red
colouration, so all a female need do is
pick the male that shows the most intense
red and she is guaranteed to produce
good strong offspring in the next
generation, thereby maximising the
chances that her genes will be passed on
to future generations. It would be
fascinating to do a choice experiment
where female bettas are given the choice
between size-matched males with a high
degree of carotenoid pigmentation and
males with a low degree of carotenoid
pigmentation, as a means of testing
whether or not female bettas use red
colouration to assess male fitness.
So, we now have some idea as to how
red colouration is produced, but that
doesn’t explain how we come to have
solid red bettas. If we think back to our
discussion of the layers concept, the key
step in creating the first red bettas must
have been the reduction of black
pigmentation in the skin. As you know,
red pigmentation is already present in
the skin of wild bettas. It is therefore not
hard to imagine that selective breeding
for reduced black pigmentation would,
eventually, result in a red fish. It is
sensible to assume that this is one route
via which breeders were able to create
increasingly red bettas.
Another route to creating a red betta
would be to hope for a random genetic
mutation that reduces the density of
black pigmentation or removes it
altogether, thereby removing the need for
selective breeding (or at least reducing
the timescales involved). Amazingly,
there are at least three known mutations
in bettas that produce this effect:
Cambodian – which removes all black
pigmentation in the body and fins, but not
the eyes; blonde – which dramatically
reduces the density of black
pigmentation in the skin; and marble –
which, although unpredictable in its
effect, is capable of removing all traces
of black from a fish.
Let me be very clear: When I am talking
about the first red bettas, what I am
referring to is fish with essentially dark
red bodies and fins, with probably quite
a lot of iridescence. These early red
bettas would probably have had a much
darker head region. Much like the
iridescent bettas discussed above, the
production of solid red bettas required a
further step, namely the arrival of the so-
called ‘extended red’ gene.
Male (dark bodied) red HM - the depth of colour
comes from the presence of melanin © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

To all intents and purposes, the extended


red gene does for the expression of red
pigmentation exactly the same thing that
the spread iridescence gene does for
iridescence: It spreads the colour over
the anterior (front) half of the fish. Like
spread iridescence, extended red is also
variable in the degree to which it
spreads colour on a fish, such that some
fish have a full coverage of the head and
other fish show incomplete coverage.
The extended red gene is dominant to the
gene (or genes) that control normal
(wild) red colouration, so once a fish
carries a copy of the gene it will
generally show red pigmentation on the
head. The extended red gene also has
another important effect, which is to
increase the density of red pigmentation
in the skin, resulting in a very red fish.
Earlier on I mentioned that there was
some confusion over the order in which
the black and red layers appear in the
skin of bettas, and that there was some
argument that in wild bettas the red layer
sits above the black layer, with the
opposite being true in domesticated
bettas. The reason I bring it up here is
that, in my opinion, the existence of the
extended red gene probably explains
why some betta enthusiasts might choose
to think of the red layer being above the
black layer: In the hobby we tend to
refer to bettas with normal (i.e. wild-
type) black pigmentation as ‘dark-
bodied’ bettas and bettas with blonde
(i.e. low density) black pigmentation as
‘light-bodied’ bettas. Essentially this is a
simple way of referring to the density of
black pigmentation that, at least to our
eyes, appears to lie under any other
colours the fish may show. Hence you
can have light-bodied and dark-bodied
versions of any colour or colour pattern,
with just three exceptions: The rule
doesn’t apply to Cambodian, cellophane
or marble fish, as these either lack black
pigmentation entirely or lack it in
patches and as a result don’t fall into
either category.
Male (light bodied) red HM - the paler colouration
comes from the lack of melanin © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Now, in red bettas that carry the


extended red gene those that are dark-
bodied are a much deeper red than their
light-bodied counterparts, which have a
bright cherry red colour. When you look
at such fish, it plainly looks like the red
layer has spread over the top of the
black layer to produce a deep red fish,
or over a blonde layer in the case of the
light-bodied cherry red fish. This effect
is emphasised by the fact that (in dark-
bodied fish) it is often only the curved
outside edge of each scale that exhibits
any visible black pigmentation (an effect
that breeders are continually trying to get
rid of via selective breeding).
In actual fact, there is no reason to
assume that one layer is masking the
other. It could just as easily be that one
of the effects of extended red other than
spreading pigmentation onto the head
and increasing pigment density is to
reduce the density of black pigmentation
and limit its expression to the outer edge
of the scales. Not that under the latter
scenario the black layer could sit above
the red layer and we would get an
identical effect. Needless to say, the jury
is still out as to whether or not extended
red has any effect on the distribution of
black pigment. The bottom line is that
more research is required to get to the
bottom of this!
For me, whilst it is easy to see that
iridescent colours must sit above the
other colours in the skin (by definition
they only appear iridescent when the
guanine crystal are in the outermost layer
of skin) the case for red being above
black or black being above red is less
cut and dry. To my mind what we see as
one layer above another could easily be
two pigments distributed differently
within the same layer (or layers).
We have discussed dark-bodied red and
light-bodied red bettas, so it’s only right
that we should also talk about the other
type of red betta: the Cambodian-based
red. In a bid to get rid of the black
pigmentation, breeders turned to the
Cambodian gene to remove all the black
pigment from the body
and fins. In theory this was an excellent
idea, as without the black pigment, the
fish would be very red and the only
remaining obstacle would be figuring out
how to reduce or remove the iridescent
layer. In practice, having a flesh-
coloured (cellophane) base layer
beneath the red pigment meant that these
fish, although very red, were less vibrant
than the cherry-red blonde-based bettas.
The lesson? Red bettas have better red
colouration when there is some black
pigmentation present.
All breeders striving to produce the
perfect solid red betta face the same two
problems: The first problem is that,
despite the fact genes exist that can turn
off the expression of black pigment, is it
extremely difficult to remove black
pigmentation (such as the black scale
edges) from a red fish without
compromising the intensity of its colour.
The second problem is that iridescence
is very hard, if not impossible, to
remove completely. Both factors
continually act to prevent the breeder
from reaching that Holy Grail of betta
breeding: a perfect bright red betta with
no visible black or iridescence
anywhere.
For those of you inspired enough to
embark upon your own quest for this
Holy Grail of bettas, here are some key
things to remember:
Introducing the Cambodian gene
into your red betta breeding
programme will remove all black
pigmentation other than in the eyes,
but it will also reduce the intensity
of the red colouration in your fish;
Introducing the blonde gene will
allow you to maintain an intense
red colouration, as there will be
enough black pigment in the skin to
give you a strong red without giving
you black scale edges, but this
method may still give you
noticeable spots of black pigment
in the fish;
There is no gene that completely
removes iridescence, so your only
option is to selectively breed for
reduced expression of iridescence.
Note that steel blue is the best type
of iridescence to have in red bettas,
as it is the lightest and therefore the
least obvious of the three iridescent
colours.

Red allele symbol = R+


Extended red allele symbol = Er
Blonde allele symbol = bd
It is hard to deny the beauty of a solid red HMPK -
those pictured here are seriously high quality bettas
© Kik7

Orange and yellow


Orange and yellow bettas are something
of an enigma in the world of betta
keeping. This is because there appear to
be several routes by which these colours
can be produced. Unless you know the
genetic background of a particular fish,
you will struggle to know what fish to
pair it to in order to produce more bettas
of that colour. Even if you do know the
fish’s history, it will still be hard to
identify precisely what the root cause of
its colouration is.
One thing we do know is that yellow and
orange bettas came from red betta
stocks. As such, the common consensus
is that yellow or orange colouration in
bettas is caused by a mutation of the red
gene, which has been dubbed ‘non-red’.
Non-red is recessive to wild-type red
and is thought to have two alleles: Type
1 which codes for yellow pigmentation
and type 2 which codes for orange.
This all sounds rather neat, but you
should be aware that not only is there is
a wide degree of variation in terms of
the saturation of either colour in bettas
(i.e. very pale to very rich colouration),
but there are also other factors (such as
other genes and diet) that may also play
a role in producing the final colour.
Yellow halfmoon male © Kitti Watcharaworatham

It has been fascinating to read various


theories as to how yellow and orange
bettas came to be, because the same
‘facts’ about the non-red gene are
regurgitated time and time again, but no-
one appears to be able to provide a
satisfactory answer to the question,
“What makes these fish yellow or
orange?” I certainly don’t have the
answer, but what I can do is provide
some informed conjecture as to how we
come to have orange and yellow bettas.
In order to be yellow or orange a betta
must have inherited two copies of the
appropriate recessive non-red allele.
Given that the current hypothesis is that
there are two alleles, we should assume
that orange and yellow are to be treated
as discrete colours and not different
shades of colour along a gradient.
The first observation I want to make is
that the best solid yellow and solid
orange bettas have no black
pigmentation and are therefore likely to
have come from Cambodian-based red
stock, as these fish have no black
pigmentation at all. My initial
understanding from what I had read
about yellow and orange colour in bettas
is that the non-red genes somehow alter
the metabolic pathway that results in the
production of red pigment so that an
intermediate yellow or orange pigment
is produced (and deposited in the
dermis) in its place. This is certainly the
most basic explanation and may well be
the correct one in many instances.
However, there are gaping holes in our
understanding of how yellow and orange
are inherited, because currently neither
yellow nor orange bettas tend to breed
100% true, often producing red or
Cambodian offspring in their spawns. In
lines where such fish do breed true
(perhaps in lines where the
yellow/orange is produced by one of the
aforementioned non-red alleles), the
offspring have been documented to get
paler over successive generations, so
that the vibrant colour of the parents is
progressively lost. It is not clear why
this should be the case, unless perhaps
there is a dietary effect whereby the
original breeder was feeding his fish a
diet that boosted their colour, which the
subsequent breeder did not, or could not,
replicate.
In modern betta breeding (forgetting for
a moment which genes may or may not
be involved), the key to increasing the
intensity of yellow or orange bettas
seems to be via crossing them back to
red, or Cambodian-red bettas. If the
yellow or orange alleles were truly
recessive, as is thought to be the case for
both of the ‘non-red’ alleles, such
crosses should result in only red
offspring. However, this is not the case
in most modern betta stocks. Instead the
result is a mixture of red, Cambodian
and either yellow or orange offspring
(depending on the parent fish) with good
colour intensity. Thus it may be that the
intense yellow and orange bettas we see
today are the result of an interaction
between the genes responsible for red
coloration and new alleles for yellow
and orange.
A further twist in the tale is that modern
betta types can exhibit red, orange and
yellow colouration all at the same time,
which suggests that there are more genes
at play controlling all three colours than
the three we have covered here (wild-
type red, non-red type 1 and non-red
type 2).
Personally I think there may well be a
separate gene for the expression of
yellow colouration, because the
difference in colouration between the
early yellow bettas (which were
basically flesh-coloured with a yellow
tint) and the intense yellow show bettas
we see today is so dramatic that I can’t
believe it is solely down to selective
breeding. It is clear that more research is
needed to fully understand yellow and
orange colouration in bettas. For anyone
wishing to breed these colours, I can
only advise you to spawn related fish
where possible, to avoid introducing
genes for yellow or orange that may be
totally different to those held by the line
you are working on; and to outcross to
red bettas only when the intensity of
colour decreases. I suspect also that
feeding yellow or orange bettas a diet
high in carotenoids would help to get the
best possible colour intensity out of
them, assuming that your particular fish
are capable of metabolising those
carotenoids. It is certainly worth a try!
Yellow allele symbol = nr1
Orange allele symbol = nr2
Some bettas can have red, yellow and orange in their
fins, like this ‘Armageddon’ HMPK © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Orange male halfmoon plakat © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Intense yellow female halfmoon plakat © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

The black layer


It is strange that black bettas are
produced in droves by breeders across
the world and yet when it comes to their
genetics, black bettas are just as poorly
understood as other colour varieties.
When I first started hearing about black
bettas, just two types were described.
These were ‘melano’ and ‘black lace’.
Nowadays, there are many more terms
for black bettas, including ‘black
orchid’, ‘super black’ and ‘double
black’. As always with bettas, just when
you think things are about to get nice and
simple…they don’t!
Let’s start things off by looking at what
causes black colouration in bettas. The
primary cause of black colouration in
bettas is the pigment melanin. It is from
the word melanin that we get the term
‘melanistic’, which is used to describe
animals that express an excess of
melanin, making them black or very dark
in colour. The most famous example of
this is the black panther, which is the
common name given to a melanistic
leopard Panthera pardus (in Africa or
Asia) or a melanistic jaguar Panthera
onca (in the Americas). Interestingly,
melanism is caused by a dominant allele
in jaguars, but a recessive allele in
leopards, which presumably means that
panthers occur much more frequently in
jaguars than in leopards, as a jaguar
would only need to inherit one allele for
melanism in order to appear black.
Coming back to bettas, in wild-type
bettas melanin is distributed relatively
densely on the body of the fish, resulting
in a dark body colour. Melanin exists in
two forms: an oxidized structure and a
reduced structure. The former is black in
appearance, the latter is brown. It would
therefore appear that in wild bettas it is
the reduced version of melanin that is
more prevalent, giving the fish’s body a
brown appearance, whereas in the
modern black betta strains it is oxidised
melanin that gives the fish their deep
black appearance. It has been suggested
that the degree of oxidized melanin
present in a black bettas might be related
to dietary or environmental factors. This
would certainly be worth looking into if
you are interested in breeding black
bettas.
Now let’s have a think about how the
first black bettas might have been
created. Production of the first black
bettas would ideally have required four
things: 1) the removal of red
pigmentation; 2) an increase in the
density of black pigmentation; 3) the
spreading of black pigmentation into the
fins; and 4) reduction of the iridescent
layer.
Two genetic mutations have been found
in bettas that can deliver the removal of
red pigmentation. These are ‘non-red’
(where the fish is born without red
pigment, but technically may express
yellow or orange pigment to varying
degrees of intensity) and ‘red-loss’
(where the fish loses red pigment as it
ages). These genes will be mentioned
again later on in the Colour Patterns
section when we look at chocolate and
pineapple bettas.
The second and third requirements
appear to have been met by the effects of
two unrelated genes, namely the gene for
melano and the gene for black lace,
which gave rise to the two varieties of
black betta mentioned at the start of this
section. The effects of both these genes
are similar to those of ‘spread
iridescence’ and ‘extended red’ in that
they bring about the spread of a pigment
(this time melanin), at increased density,
across the whole fish. As the genes are
unrelated it is likely that they achieve
these effects in different ways, which
probably explains the differences in the
appearance of the two colours.
The key differences are in the depth of
colour (melano bettas are a much darker
black); the spread of colour in the fins
(melanos have more or less solid black
fins, whereas black lace bettas have fins
that fade from black to clear at the
edges); and the amount of iridescence
(black lace bettas have a lot of
iridescence in both the body and
unpaired fins, melanos typically have no
iridescence in the fins). Some melano
bettas (like the one pictured below) can
appear to have clear fin edges, but this is
as a result of carrying genes for the
‘butterfly’ colour pattern (see relevant
section in Colour Patterns below).
Melanos were the first black bettas to
appear in the hobby. Interestingly, female
melanos cannot be used for breeding
because although the eggs are fertile and
the embryos begin to develop, the yolk
membranes spontaneously rupture,
causing the embryos to die. As a result,
breeders have to breed melano black
males to females that carry only one
copy of the melano gene (these are
fertile), in order to produce 50%
melanos in the next generation. Breeders
typically select steel blue females as this
type of iridescence shows up least
against a black background.
This melano shows typical dark black colouration
with iridescence on the body © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Black lace is a newer form of black than


melano. Surprisingly, unlike melano
females, black lace females are fertile
and can be used for breeding without any
problem. When breeders first
discovered that black lace females were
fertile, they were excited at the prospect
of breeding a melano male to a black
lace female, in the hope of producing
darker black bettas that would breed
true. Unfortunately, because melano and
black lace colouration are controlled by
two different recessive genes (as
opposed to being two alleles of the same
gene) such crosses did not result in
black bettas at all, as having only one
copy of each gene meant that none of the
offspring were black.
So, what about the other varieties of
black betta I mentioned earlier? Well,
‘black orchid’ is a commercial term that
was coined by Henry Yin to describe a
particular line of melano black
crowntails that had excessive steel blue
iridescence, particularly in the fins. The
term is now used for pretty much any
black betta (crowntail or otherwise)
with extensive iridescence spreading
into the fins. ‘Super black’ and ‘double
black’ are two terms for the same thing,
namely a black betta that has inherited
two copies of the recessive gene for
melano and two copies of the recessive
gene for black lace. In terms of
appearance these bettas are the blackest
of the black and exhibit very little
iridescence, although I have yet to
confirm whether the latter is down to
genetics or careful selection by breeders
for fish with reduced iridescence. Either
way, the double black betta is a stunning
fish! The first double blacks were
presumably created by spawning two
bettas that each carried one copy of the
melano gene and one copy of the black
lace gene, resulting in a small number of
double blacks. Female double blacks are
fertile, so spawning a pair of these
double blacks would have produced all
double blacks in the next generation, as
any offspring would inherit two copies
of both genes.
Black lace HM male showing typical iridescence
spreading into the fins © Sirinut Chimplee

It is interesting that female double blacks


are fertile, as this suggests that the
effects of carrying two copies of the
black lace gene in some way overcomes
the negative effects of carrying two
copies of the melano gene.
Melano allele symbol = bm
Black lace allele abbreviation = blc
Red-loss allele symbol = Rlos
A ‘super black’ male HM - perhaps the most
desirable of the black bettas © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
The cellophane layer
True cellophane bettas are bettas that
have no pigmentation in their body or
fins. As a result they generally have a
pinkish hue, resulting from the blood in
their veins and arteries showing through
the translucent skin cells.
From my research it would appear that
there are probably several types of
cellophane betta that are produced via
different routes. The most common route
is almost certainly as a result of carrying
the ‘marble’ gene, which has the effect of
randomly removing or adding
pigmentation to the cells of a betta as it
ages (more detail on this in the Colour
Patterns section below). Pretty much all
true cellophane bettas are in fact marble
bettas. They started life all colourful and
then, over time, thanks to the effect of the
marble gene, they lost that colour and
wound up colourless (although quite
often one or two small blotches of
colour still remain). Of course,
cellophane is just one of an infinite array
of possible outcomes from spawns
involving the marble gene. Strangely, it
is very common for cellophane bettas to
crop up in a marble spawn, but it is very
rare for such a spawn to consist entirely
of cellophane bettas.
So, genetically speaking, most of the
bettas we think of as cellophanes are in
fact coloured bettas that have had the
various colours ‘switched off’ all over
the body and fins by the marble gene (or
genes - see Marble section below), as
opposed to just being switched off in
some areas. What I haven’t been able to
determine is whether or not the gene (or
genes) responsible for this complete loss
of colour is/are heritable (i.e. whether
or not a cross between two cellophane
bettas will yield significantly more
cellophanes than coloured marble
bettas). My guess is that the effect is
random and unpredictable.
Combinations of other genes that, if
inherited, could result in a betta that is -
at least visually - similar to a cellophane
include a combination of non-red and
Cambodian, or a combination of red-
loss and Cambodian, both of which can
result in the loss of red and black
pigmentation together. The first
combination is typically that of a yellow
or orange betta, as we discussed above.
Thus, some cellophanes you see may
actually be extremely pale non-red
bettas. Given the propensity for non-red
betta lines to lose their depth of colour
over progressive generations it is easy
to see how you could produce a
cellophane-esque line that would breed
true without the need for the marble
gene. Personally I would not count such
fish as true cellophanes. Very pale
yellow bettas are still technically
yellow, whereas to my mind a true
cellophane betta is not. I do appreciate,
however, that you would have a hard
time telling the difference between the
two if the non-red betta was sufficiently
pale.
The second combination (red-loss plus
Cambodian) would be a further route to
producing what I would consider to be a
true cellophane (i.e. a flesh coloured
fish), but this would depend heavily on
how much iridescence the fish
expressed. Iridescence would need to be
very minimal, and probably of the steel
blue variety if the aim was to produce a
very ‘clean’ cellophane via this route.
Bizarrely, I have read many references
online of breeders choosing to use
cellophane bettas with good form to
improve their coloured lines, in the hope
that the lack of colour in the cellophane
would mean that the colour of their line
would not be affected. I imagine that this
will only work in some instances, as the
genes carried by cellophanes that cause
them to have their colourless appearance
(be they non-red, red-loss, Cambodian
or marble), would presumably not be
very welcome in betta lines of certain
colours. Most likely this refers to non-
red cellophanes (the first combination I
discussed), as non-red and Cambodian
are recessive traits, unlike marble and
red-loss. The marble gene is highly
unpredictable in its expression, so I
suspect in this case, that outcrossing to a
cellophane would be a very good way to
ruin the colour of your line! Some
breeders might argue that it would be
worth it, if the improvement in form
were good enough.
Marble allele symbol = Mb
Cambodian allele symbol = c
Yellow (non-red) allele symbol = nr1
Red-loss allele abbreviation = Rlos
Cellophane female HMPK bred by Joep van Esch -
no red or black but plenty of iridescence! © Joep van
Esch

The truth about colouration


in bettas
Now we’ve got to the end of this quick
introduction to betta colouration I think
it’s only fair that I come clean and admit
that, in reality, betta colouration is far
more complicated than the text above
would have you believe. This is due to
the nature of pigment cells (a.k.a.
chromatophores). Pigment cells in fish
develop from embryonic stem cells.
These stem cells can develop into a
range of different chromatophores that in
actual fact can concentrate pigments of
more than one colour. To give you an
idea, here’s a list of different types of
chromatophore and the pigments they can
contain:
Xanthophores (usually yellow) can
contain:

- carotenoids (yellow, orange or red);


- pteridines (red, yellow, black, blue or
orange); or
- a combination of the above.

Melanophores (usually black) can


contain:

- melanin (yellow, brown or black);


- carotenoids (yellow, orange or red); or
- a combination of the above.
Erythrophores (usually red) can
contain:

- carotenoids (yellow, orange or red);


- pteridines (red, yellow, black, blue or
orange); or
- a combination of the above.
From the above it is clear that the layers
concept is not as cut and dry as perhaps
we’d like. This is because each of our
layers technically also contains pigments
of other colours. The concept is still a
useful one, however, as for the most
part, the distribution of pigment in the
skin does follow this pattern.
As well as understanding that
chromatophores can exhibit more than
one colour, we also need to recognise
that it is highly unlikely that some of the
colours we see in bettas are caused by a
single gene. Let me explain: Pigments
are the molecular end-product of
metabolic pathways involving several
enzymes (substances produced by living
organisms that act as a catalyst to bring
about specific biochemical reactions).
These enzymes act to alter the structure
of particular molecules at each stage of a
metabolic pathway to result in the final
product, in this case a pigment. Each of
these enzymes is coded for by a different
gene. If there is a mutation in a gene that
codes for a particular enzyme, then the
structure of that enzyme usually changes,
altering its effect on the pathway and
resulting in a different end product, in
this case a pigment with a different
structure and – more importantly – a
different colour. The key point is that
there may well be multiple routes to
producing the same colour in bettas.
Thus, a yellow betta might be the result
of genetic mutations that change enzymes
involved in the carotenoid, pteridine or
melanin pathways, as changes in the
structure of all three pigments can make
them appear yellow. This fact makes it
harder to predict the outcome of crosses
between unrelated bettas of some
colours, as they may have an entirely
different genetic basis for their
colouration.
I realise that this information is
somewhat daunting, but it illustrates why
breeding closely related individuals
(line breeding) is so important when
trying to stabilise the genes for a
particular colour within a betta line, as
this offers the highest probability of the
right genes passing on to the next
generation.
Colouration is complex, but careful breeding can
compensate for gaps in our knowledge © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Factors that affect the
structural colours
Okay, so you’ve hopefully now got some
understanding of how the different basic
colours are produced in bettas and how
bettas of certain colours have been
created by breeders. We’ve also
established that the situation isn’t as
clear cut as perhaps we would like, in
that there are likely to be multiple
metabolic pathways that result in the
same colour. This being said, I have also
hopefully made it clear that many of the
genes that are responsible for these
colours are inherited in a predictable
way so that, for the betta breeder looking
to use those genes to achieve a particular
goal, all is not lost.
In this section I want to take a look at a
handful of genes that affect the structural
(iridescent) colours only (i.e. those
colours produced by the reflection of
light from guanine crystals in the outer
layers of the skin). These genes have
given us pastel, opaque, metallic, and
dragon bettas.
This multi-coloured male over-halfmoon has a pastel
body © Kitti Watcharaworatham

Pastel and Opaque


I have grouped pastels and opaques
together as to my mind they are two ends
of a continuum, with both effects being
expressed in bettas with iridescent
colouration.
Formally, a pastel betta is a non-red
betta with spread iridescence in which
the base colouration appears to be
greatly muted and the skin has a soft,
powdery appearance. Imagine taking a
steel blue, royal blue, or turquoise
iridescent betta and then dramatically
reducing the saturation of that colour
over a light (non-red) background until it
is almost gone and you have some idea
of what a pastel betta looks like. The
pastel effect is essentially caused by a
change in the location where the guanine
crystals are deposited in the skin. As we
know, when the guanine is deposited as
crystalline arrays in the epidermis (the
outer layer of skin), the fish is iridescent
and has a shiny iridescent sheen.
However, if the guanines are deposited
as granules lower down in the skin (in
the dermis), the fish is no longer shiny
and instead will have the matt, powdery
appearance of a pastel (as in the
example on the facing page).
White opaque male - note the more dense
appearance of the body colour HM © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

The difference between the pastel and


opaque bettas is essentially down to the
density of the guanine granules in the
dermis. The granules have a white
powdery appearance that sits on top of
whatever the base colours underneath
are. Pastel bettas have a low density of
guanine granules in the dermis and hence
have a faded pastel appearance.
Opaques have a very high density of
guanine granules in the dermis and this
gives them a characteristic white
powdery appearance. In truth there is
much overlap between the two, to the
extent that young opaque bettas that don’t
yet have the white powdery appearance
are often shown in the pastel category
until they have fully developed.
In the September 1982 Freshwater And
Marine Aquarium column ‘Bettas…and
More’, Gene Lucas described the
opaque factor as “a suffusion of creamy-
white colour which tended to partially
mask whatever other colour was
present”. He also stated that the trait
appeared to affect the head and gill
covers (opercula) in particular.
The redistribution of guanine in the skin
that results in pastel and opaque appears
to be caused by a single gene, which
further supports the theory that pastels
are in fact opaques and vice versa. This
gene is believed to be partially
dominant, with carriers expressing the
trait a little bit and homozygous
individuals expressing the trait more
strongly. Note that the pastel/opaque trait
affects the iridescent colours and
therefore comes in the same ‘flavours’
i.e. steel blue, royal blue, or turquoise.
Generally speaking, the opaque trait is
most often discussed in relation to
opaque white bettas (see photo on
previous page). Genetically these are
Cambodian-based steel blue opaques
and are probably the whitest bettas in the
hobby. The first opaque whites were
created by Gene Lucas in the mid-1960s.
An interesting fact is that the opaque
factor used to produce these fish was
obtained by outcrossing his fish to
opaque bicolour bettas that were
donated to him by Walt Maurus. Yet
another great example of betta fanatics
helping each other out for the good of the
hobby.
Opaque (and pastel) allele symbol =
Op

Metallic
Depending on where you live in the
world and the number of fish shops you
have locally that stock bettas, the
chances are that you will have seen
metallic bettas. They are pretty hard to
miss, as rather than having the relatively
matt appearance of the early betta colour
varieties, they have a very shiny,
metallic appearance.
The fascinating thing about metallic
bettas is that the first metallics were
created as a result of crosses between
Betta splendens and at least two of its
close relatives in the Splendens
complex: Betta imbellis and Betta
mahachaiensis. A third species, Betta
smaragdina, may also have been
involved.
This fact has some interesting
ramifications for the hobby. The most
important of these is the realisation that
pretty much all modern day bettas are
hybrids, which is to say that they carry
genes from Betta splendens and either
one or two (or possibly even three)
other species!
This stunning red-green bicolour halfmoon betta has
a metallic green (turquoise) body © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

We know for a fact that the metallic gene


was brought into Betta splendens from
another species. The current consensus
is that the most likely source of the
metallic gene was Betta imbellis, as
there is historical photographic evidence
that this cross has been carried out on
more than one occasion. Both books A
Complete Guide to Bettas by Walt
Maurus (published in 1981) and
Kampffische by Hans Gonella and Rajiv
Masillamoni (published in 1997) depict
long-finned bettas that resulted from a
Betta splendens x Betta imbellis cross.
In more recent years, Victoria Parnell-
Stark also carried out Betta splendens x
Betta imbellis crosses as an experiment,
which led to the creation of her metallic
‘Armadillo’ line of bettas. Her attempts
to cross Betta splendens to Betta
mahachaiensis all met with failure,
which adds at least some support to the
argument that it is most likely Betta
imbellis from which we get the metallic
gene.
A copper rosetail - notice how different areas have a
purple, green or yellow sheen © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

In 2005, Dr Leo Buss studied the skin of


several Betta imbellis under a
microscope and found that it displayed
what was described at the time as ‘new’
yellow-reflecting iridophores. That
same year, Dr. Rosalyn Upson
discovered that the yellow-reflecting
iridophores described by Buss were
present in the skin of both Betta imbellis
and metallic Betta splendens. It seems
clear from these findings that it is the
presence of these previously
undescribed iridophores that reflect
yellow to yellow-green wavelengths that
gives metallic bettas their unique
appearance.
Following several breeding
experiments, Leo Buss concluded that
the metallic gene behaves as a single
Mendelian dominant. As such, only one
copy of the metallic gene is required in
order to produce a metallic phenotype.
However, it is not always easy to spot
the metallic phenotype with the naked
eye, as the degree of effect varies.
In terms of how the metallic gene acts, it
would appear that it affects the
epidermal cells (i.e. the iridescent
layer), changing the structure of the
guanine crystals within iridophores so
that they produce the metallic sheen.
Perhaps the best thing about the
discovery of the metallic gene is that it
enabled us to produce the first ‘copper’
bettas (see example opposite). Copper
bettas get their incredible colouration as
a result of carrying two copies of the
steel blue iridescent allele and two
copies of the metallic gene (i.e. they are
metallic steel blue bettas). Strangely,
whilst having two copies of the metallic
gene results in a dramatic change in
colour in steel blue bettas, the same
effect is not seen with the other two
iridescent colours, royal blue and
turquoise. Royal blue and turquoise
bettas that carry two copies of the
metallic gene are more or less the same
in terms of their colour, only more shiny
in appearance.
On the subject of copper bettas, I have
often wondered where the name
‘copper’ came from, as the colour of a
copper betta is far closer to that of silver
(often with a purple, yellow or green
sheen) than it is to copper. Either way,
copper is amongst the most popular
colours in bettas, and rightly so!
Metallic allele symbol = Mt

Dragon
The dragon trait can be thought of as an
extreme form of metallic iridescence. It
is characterised by the very thick
silvery-white (and sometimes blue or
turquoise) metallic appearance of the
scales on the body.
Credit for creating the first dragon bettas
has been attributed to the Interfish
breeder team from Thailand, who
introduced the first red dragon bettas to
the world. Interestingly, it appears that
the key to producing the dragon trait was
to breed Betta splendens not to Betta
imbellis as you might expect, but instead
to Betta mahachaiensis (a much harder
cross to achieve, as we discussed
above).
To produce the first red dragon bettas,
the Interfish team used three fish: a
super-red plakat, a red-copper plakat
(i.e. copper body, red fins) and a Betta
mahachaiensis. The first step was to
cross the Betta mahachaiensis to the
red-copper plakat in the hope of
enhancing the metallic trait from the red-
copper in the next generation. The fry
from this spawn were then raised to
adulthood and a male was chosen to sire
the next generation. This male was
crossed to the super-red plakat female.
This next generation was then raised to
adulthood and another male chosen for
breeding. This time, instead of crossing
the male to an unrelated female, the
Interfish team chose to carry out a back-
cross, spawning the male with his super-
red mother. It was this pairing that gave
rise to the very first red dragon bettas.
Orange dragon bettas like this stunning OHM are a
rare sight. What a stunner! © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

The first generation of red dragons was


far from perfect in terms of form and
finnage, but careful selective breeding
by the experienced Interfish team quickly
improved the strain. The first photos of
red dragon bettas were published in the
December 2004 issue of a Thai
fishkeeping magazine called Fancy Fish.
Once the people caught sight of these
amazing looking fish, the world went
dragon betta crazy! Red dragons quickly
found their way into breeders’ tanks and
soon enough new colour varieties of
dragon betta were produced. If I was to
make an educated guess I would say that
the first colour varieties would most
probably have been yellow or orange
(non-red) dragons, as these colours crop
up fairly regularly in red betta spawns.
These would have been followed by the
arrival of the now hugely popular black
dragon. As with all new betta traits, the
dragon trait has also been bred into
long-fin varieties to produce beautiful
dragon halfmoons and, more recently,
dragon crowntails.
In terms of genetics, most of the
information we have about how the
dragon trait is inherited comes from a
series of crosses undertaken by Joep van
Esch, starting in 2007. The first cross
was between a yellow dragon female
and a copper male HMPK. This
produced a spawn consisting entirely of
red-copper fish with thickened body
scales, presumably the effect of the
dragon gene. As we discussed above, a
betta can only be copper if it inherits
two copies of the steel blue allele and
two copies of the metallic gene. As a
result, the yellow dragon female must
have passed on steel blue and metallic.
The female must also logically have
passed on the dragon gene, as the
offspring all had ‘thicker’ scaling. As the
sire was not a dragon, this tells us that
the dragon gene is partially dominant,
because although the offspring only
inherited one copy of the gene, they still
exhibited ‘thickened’ scales. So, the
silvery-white scales of dragon bettas
appear in some way to be dependent on
the fish being genetically copper (i.e.
metallic steel blue) and also carrying the
dragon gene. Clearly only having one
copy of the dragon gene is not enough to
have true dragon appearance, as the
above cross demonstrates. It is therefore
likely that two copies of the dragon gene
are required. A further cross undertaken
by Joep van Esch supports this
hypothesis: Two siblings from the above
spawn were bred to one another, both
red-coppers with dragon-influenced
scales. Although most of the resulting
offspring were culled due to having
rosetail traits, there were at least some
fish that would be considered true black
dragons (like the fish pictured on the
previous page). My hunch is that these
fish inherited two copies of the dragon
gene from their parents.
Black dragon HMPK © Kitti Watcharaworatham

In the introduction I mentioned that some


dragon bettas have blue or turquoise
scale colouration. To some people these
are not true dragons because they are not
white, but personally I think that if a fish
carries two copies of the dragon gene
then it is a dragon by definition. From
what we have discussed above, I suspect
that the reason these fish are blue or
turquoise is because they are either
metallic royal blue or metallic turquoise
dragons. Of course, this is all conjecture
until someone carries out the necessary
experiments!
Coming back to dragon scales, I am not
aware of any scientific work that
demonstrates that the scales of dragon
bettas are actually physically thicker
than those of non-dragon bettas. It may
well be that they simply have this
appearance thanks to the way in which
the dragon gene from Betta
mahachaiensis affects the structure of
crystals in the iridophores of dragon
bettas.
An interesting fact about dragon bettas,
which separates them from normal
metallic bettas, is that metallic bettas
appear to develop their metallic
appearance at a very early stage in
development, whereas dragon bettas
start life without any dragon scaling and
slowly develop more dragon scales as
they get older until finally as adults their
bodies are covered in dragon scales.
Dragon gene symbol = Dg
Colour Patterns
This section is all about the various
colour patterns that have been produced
in bettas. When I say colour pattern,
what I mean is the distribution of
different colours on the bodies and fins
of bettas.
Any discussion of betta colour patterns
is somewhat complicated by the fact that
nowadays there are just so many colours
patterns out there, many of which have
been assigned particular names by
particular breeders. In fact there is often
more than one name in common usage
for the same colour pattern.
My aims for this section of the book are
simple: The first is to introduce you to
the more widely recognised colour
patterns i.e. patterns that have been
around for a long time and are better
understood. The second is to briefly
describe some of the modern colour
patterns and introduce you to some
commercial names, so that when you see
descriptions of bettas for sale you will
have a better idea of what those fish
might look like. Again, I have tried to
illustrate each colour pattern with a
representative photograph. As you will
see, most of these colour patterns have
been bred into every betta fin type.
Colour patterns like this are a relatively new addition
to the hobby © Kitti Watcharaworatham

Cambodian
The first commercial colour pattern ever
produced in bettas was called
Cambodian, after its country of origin.
The original Cambodian bettas had a
cellophane body and red fins, although
nowadays we also have blue
Cambodians (i.e. cellophane body and
blue/turquoise fins).
The Cambodian appearance comes as a
result of carrying two copies of the
recessive Cambodian gene, which acts
to suppress the expression of all pigment
from the body cells and the expression
of black pigment in the fins. More recent
discussions suggest that there may even
be two genes involved in producing the
Cambodian pattern, both inherited
simultaneously: One that brings about the
loss of black pigmentation in the fins;
and one for the loss of all pigmentation
on the body.
Cambodian bettas are often used by
breeders to remove black pigmentation
from their extended red breeding lines.
Extended red bettas often end up with
black edges to their body scales. By
introducing the Cambodian gene(s) into
such a line, extended red bettas with two
copies of the Cambodian gene can be
produced that do not show these black
scale edges.
The Cambodian gene has played an
enormous role in the creation of many of
the colour varieties we see in bettas
today, thanks to its ability to remove
black pigmentation. Obvious examples
include pastel and opaque white bettas.
Cambodian allele symbol = c
Female halfmoon with Cambodian colouration -
cellophane body with red fins © Sirinut Chimplee

Bicolour
The term bicolour is used to describe
bettas that have a body of one colour and
fins of another. Cambodian bettas do not
fall inside this group, as technically the
body has no colour.
Clearly there are myriad possibilities in
terms of the colour combinations that
could go into bicolour bettas and list of
combinations that have been achieved
gets longer every day. In the early days,
the most popular bicolour bettas
generally had yellow fins and were split
into just two groups: Chocolate bettas
and so-called ‘mustard gas’ bettas.
Chocolate bettas have a black or brown
body and yellow (or orange) fins. The
term ‘mustard gas’ was invented by Jude
Als to describe his particular line of
bettas that had iridescent bodies and fins
with three distinct colour bands (yellow
near the body, then white, with black at
the fins edges). Sadly for Mr Als, the
term mustard gas has since come to be
used to describe any betta with an
iridescent body and yellow fins.
Bicolour HM with orange fins and chocolate body
with royal blue iridescence © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Examples of modern bicolour


combinations include (with fin colour
denoted first) red-copper, red-blue,
melano-steel blue, black-copper and
yellow-copper. Many of these have been
given commercial names in their own
right, which I will discuss later on.
Dragon bettas are also typically
considered to be bicolour.
During my research for this book I was
shocked to discover that no-one has tried
to study the genetics of bicolour bettas.
However, when you think about it, the
wild betta is essentially a red/brown
bicolour fish, so it shouldn’t be
surprising that we have bicolour bettas.
Nor should it be surprising that the
majority of bicolour bettas have yellow,
orange or red fins. It would appear that
the wild (evolved) state in bettas is for
increased melanin in the body cells and
not in the fins, resulting in a bicolour
pattern. As such, we should be more
surprised that we have solid-coloured
bettas! Thankfully, we already know of
several genes that are responsible for
spreading colour across the body and
fins of bettas, such as ‘extended red’ and
‘spread iridescence’.

Multicolour
Multicolour is a catch all term used to
describe bettas that have three or more
different colours, but do not fit into any
other colour pattern category.
Multicolour HM © Kitti Watcharaworatham
Grizzled
The grizzled pattern is a random
speckling, spotting, or peppering of any
iridescent colour over a pastel or
opaque body.
Grizzled male CTPK © Kitti Watcharaworatham
This male halfmoon has a grizzled body, but also
shows partial butterfly pattern in the fins © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Butterfly
Butterfly bettas are easily recognised by
the fact that their unpaired fins are split
horizontally into different bands of
colour. Usually there are two bands of
colour in the fins with the lower band
being the same colour as the body and
the upper band being white (although
this is not always the case). Ideally the
colour split in the fins should be very
neat (no blurring at the edges) and also
roughly equal in terms of the area of fin
covered. This should be the same in all
three unpaired fins. Butterfly bettas can
also have a multiple-band fin pattern
(three bands). Again, all bands should
be relatively equal in width and breadth
regardless of their number, and have
clear separation of colour.
The butterfly trait is caused by the
‘variegated fin’ mutation. This gene is
dominant but the effects are highly
variable from fish to fish. As with the
marble gene (discussed below), the
pattern of butterfly bettas is prone to
change as the fish grows, so what may
have been a perfect butterfly pattern in a
young fish can wind up looking nothing
like butterfly once the fish matures.
When you cross two butterfly bettas
together the resulting fry will all express
the butterfly trait to some extent, but as
we have discussed, only a few of them
will retain this appearance for any length
of time before they start to look like
marble bettas, with no defined pattern.
Butterfly allele symbol = Vf
Royal blue butterfly rosetail © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Marble
Marble bettas are characterised by
having areas of different colour all over
the body, as well as some areas with no
pigmentation at all. To put it simply, they
look like an accident in a paint factory!
The distribution of colours and the
patterns they produce change over the
lifetime of the fish, so you really can
wake up to a new fish every day. To
some (myself included) they are
stunningly beautiful. To others, they are
less so.
The genetic mutation that produced the
first marble bettas was first discovered
by a prison inmate named Orville
Gulley. Gulley was trying to create a
black butterfly betta and in doing so
inadvertently produced a number of fish
with either solid-coloured blotches on a
cellophane body, or vice versa. Excited
by his find, he sent some of these fish to
Walt Maurus and a handful of other
well-known breeders in the IBC, who
liked the appearance of these fish and
began breeding them in earnest.
At that time, presumably because Gulley
had originally been working with black
bettas, all the marble bettas were
basically black and white fish. It was
therefore originally hypothesised that the
action of the marble gene was to
randomly suppress or activate the
production of melanin in discrete
patches all over the body and fins.
However, since that time marble bettas
of every colour imaginable have been
produced and it is clear that this gene
affects the production of other pigments
too.
The appearance of marble bettas is now
thought to result from the action of so-
called ‘transposable elements’. It was
Barbara McClintock who first identified
transposable elements, in maize, a
discovery that earned her a Nobel prize
in 1983.
A transposable element (or transposon)
is a DNA sequence that can change its
position (i.e. transpose itself) within the
genome (an organism’s complete set of
DNA), sometimes creating or reversing
mutations and altering the cell’s genome
size. Transposable elements were
formerly thought to be found only in a
few species, but now they are
recognized as components of the
genomes of virtually all species. In fact,
transposable elements occupy
approximately half the human genome!
Transposons are ubiquitous in all living
things, and are highly successful in
propagating themselves. Their ability to
change position, or ‘jump’, within the
genome has earned transposons the
common name ‘jumping genes’.
It is important to note that the change in
the position of jumping genes within the
genome is not always permanent and
therefore the effects produced by such
genes are subject to change over time.
This is particularly relevant in the
case of marble bettas, whose colour
patterns, as I have said, change more or
less continually throughout their lives.
Other than sharing the ability to ‘jump’
within the genome, transposons show
considerable diversity. Some code for
an enzyme (a so-called ‘transposase’)
that cuts the transposon out of the
genome. This causes the cell to make a
copy of the transposon to fill the gap.
The cut out transposon then reinserts
elsewhere, where it can have an effect.
Other transposons are non-replicative,
meaning that they move without making a
copy of themselves. Because of their
ability to affect the DNA sequence of an
organism’s genome, transposons are
major forces in the evolution and
rearrangement of genomes: Some
transposition events inactivate genes,
since the coding potential or expression
of a given gene can be disrupted by
insertion of the transposable element. In
other cases, transposition can activate
nearby genes by bringing an enhancer of
transcription (located within the
transposon) close enough to a gene to
stimulate its expression. If the target
gene is not usually expressed in a certain
cell type, this activation can have a
negative effect, although the reverse is
necessarily also true. In other cases,
because the transposon is inserted in a
location where it has no effect on gene
expression, no obvious effect results
from the transposition. Thus, transposons
can activate, inactivate or have no effect
on nearby genes, depending on exactly
where they insert in the genome, their
orientation and a range of other factors
that I won’t go into for the purposes of
keeping things simple!
In the case of the first marble bettas, it
would appear that their distinctive black
and cellophane colouration was the
result of a jumping gene inserting itself
into a location on the genome that
inactivated the gene for melanin
production. This had the effect of
preventing the production of melanin in
particular cells, and all daughter cells
(clones) derived from them, giving rise
to bettas with patches of cellophane
colouration. These cellophane patches
changed in size over time - sometimes
disappearing, sometimes getting larger -
due to the fact that jumping genes can,
and do, change position within the
genome contained in the cells.
Note, however, that jumping genes don’t
always jump. If a jumping gene present
in the genome did not insert in a location
that prevented melanin production, for
the duration of a particular marble
betta’s growth period, then the fish
would not exhibit any marbling and
would remain a black fish. Likewise, if
a jumping gene inserted in a location that
prevented melanin production in all
cells of a betta and never changed
location, the fish would remain
cellophane all its life. Fish regularly
crop up in marble spawns that show no
signs of marbling (but are subsequently
confirmed to be carriers of the marble
trait in subsequent spawnings). As we
know, cellophane bettas are generally
produced from marble betta spawns,
which nicely illustrates that jumping
genes don’t always leave once they have
inserted into the genome.
It is all well and good understanding
some of the theory behind how jumping
genes gave us the first ‘black and white’
marble bettas, but the fact of the matter
is that most modern marble bettas are not
black and white; they are every colour of
the rainbow! How on earth do we
explain how this original marble gene,
which affected only melanin production,
was suddenly able to affect all the other
pigment pathways as well?
Marble OHM © Kitti Watcharaworatham

It is relatively straightforward to
hypothesise that the effects on other
pigment pathways are the result of the
actions of other types of jumping gene,
totally unrelated to the original ‘marble
gene’ unknowingly discovered by
Orville Gulley. After all, there is no real
reason why several transposons couldn’t
all be inherited at once. What is slightly
confusing is how, if there really are
several different marble genes, it took so
long for these genes to take effect and
crop up in betta breeders tanks. Of
course it may simply be that the
necessary mutations resulting in the
modern marble genes have only
occurred relatively recently as a result
of selective breeding by betta breeders.
On the other hand, we don’t know
whether marbling in other colours is
simply the result of a mutation in the
original marble gene that has enabled it
to have an effect on several different
pigment pathways. Until we know more,
it is probably safest to consider
marbling in bettas as being the result of
the actions of a single gene.
In terms of genetic inheritance, marble is
considered to be partially dominant (for
the sake of simplicity, let’s assume that
this applies to transposons that are
responsible for marbling in all the
different colour pigments, not just
melanin). Thus, crossing a marble betta
to a non-marble betta will usually result
in mostly fish that don’t look marble,
plus a small number of obvious marbles.
Note that if the marble gene were
dominant, we would expect 100%
marbles from such a cross, which is not
the case.
Breeding marble to marble will usually
give you a mixture of solid (dark- or
light-bodied), cellophane, butterfly and
marble bettas.
A point that is often made in betta
literature, specifically in relation the
marble gene, is the fact that once this
gene has been introduced into a line of
bettas, it is notoriously hard to eradicate
from that line. The reason for this is that
solid-coloured fish from spawns
involving the marble gene can carry the
marble gene without expressing any
signs of marble. As such, it becomes
difficult to identify which fish do and do
not carry the gene, making it very hard
when choosing solid-coloured fish to
breed in the next generation to ensure
that those fish don’t carry the marble
gene.
Marble dragon HMPK © Kitti Watcharaworatham
It is worth reminding ourselves that the
first marble bettas arose from butterfly
betta stock. These two traits (marble and
butterfly) seem to be very strongly
linked. Marble spawns often result in
butterfly bettas (and vice versa).
Marble allele symbol = Mb

Mask
The mask trait first appeared in bettas
that resulted from crosses between
copper (i.e. metallic steel blue) bettas
and normal iridescent bettas.
In normal iridescent fish (i.e. those that
do not carry the metallic or mask genes),
the body and fins of the fish are royal
blue, turquoise, or steel and the head is
brown or black.
This black copper HM does not carry the mask gene,
hence the black head © Kitti Watcharaworatham
Spawning such fish to metallic bettas
usually introduces both the metallic gene
and the masked gene into the next
generation. The former gene brings about
changes in the colour of the subsequent
offspring; and the latter brings about the
spread of colour into the face and head
area of the betta, producing a solid-
coloured fish.
Note that the mask gene can work
independently from the metallic gene, so
it is possible to breed a non-metallic
iridescent fish to a metallic fish in order
to get the masked trait in the next
generation, and then selectively breed
away from the metallic gene, but keep
the mask gene in the strain, thereby
producing a solid iridescent fish.
In addition, the degree of masking
produced by the mask gene can be
reduced or increased through selective
breeding to produce anything from a fish
with barely any masking to a fish with a
fully masked head.
Interestingly, because the mask trait is
now so prevalent in bettas, some
breeders are now trying to produce betta
strains that have the dark heads of
earlier strains. This has proved difficult,
because the mask gene, once it is
introduced into a line of bettas, it is very
hard to remove. The tell-tale sign that a
fish still carries the mask gene is the fact
that the fish still shows metallic
colouration on its lips, despite the rest of
the head being dark coloured.
Mask allele symbol = Mk
This male betta has a full mask covering his entire
head © Kitti Watcharaworatham

Commercial names for betta


colour patterns

Armageddon
The so-called Armageddon betta is a
betta with a non-red body, iridescent
scaling, and yellow fins that have large
red blotches (see photo on page 160).
Often these fish have a black or
iridescent edge to the unpaired fins.

Black Orchid
Black orchid is a commercial term that
was originally coined by Henry Yin to
describe a particular line of melano
black crowntails that had excessive steel
blue iridescence, particularly in the fins.
It is now commonly misused by sellers
to describe any black betta with a high
degree of iridescence in the body and
unpaired fins.
Black orchid crowntail male © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

Chocolate
Chocolate is the term used for yellow-
black bicolour bettas. In terms of
genetics, chocolate bettas are likely to
be extended red fish that express the
non-red gene (making their fins and body
yellow) and the normal black gene
(making their bodies brown).

Dalmatian
The term Dalmatian has traditionally
been used to describe orange bettas with
red spots in the unpaired fins. Now it is
sometimes used for marble bettas that
have a cellophane or white body and
small dark spots (like the dog).

Devil
The term devil is constantly misused by
betta sellers, but is most commonly used
to describe a dark-bodied betta with
metallic body scales and unpaired fins
that are red near the body and black at
the edges.
The red spots are very clear in this orange dalmation
halfmoon male © Mr Majcha

Eagle
Used for bettas that have big forward-
facing dorsals (similar to skyhawk
bettas), but with slight webbing
reduction in the dorsal and anal fins,
making these two fins look like the
wings of an eagle.

Fancy
Fancy is simply a commercial term used
to describe multi-coloured marble
bettas. It is particularly used for marble
bettas that also have dragon scaling.
Koi
Koi is another term used for marble
bettas, although this term is specifically
for marble bettas that exhibit small
patches of red and black on a cellophane
body and fins. The term is used because
the fish have patterns resembling those
of the ornamental carp of the same name.

Monkey face
This term is used to describe coloured
bettas that have a colourless
(cellophane) head. Typically the area
between the mouth and the rear edge of
the gill covers is colourless.
Koi bettas have been hugely popular since they first
showed up on the betta scene © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Monster
A monster betta has a white head
(usually covered in dragon scaling),
with the head being very distinct from
the body colour.

Mustard gas
Mustard gas is a commercial name that
was given to a very specific true-
breeding strain of bettas created by Jude
Als. These bettas were dark-bodied
iridescent bettas (blue or turquoise) with
yellow fins that had black edges. Today
the term mustard gas is used to describe
any betta with an iridescent body
(including metallic iridescent colours,
such as copper) and yellow fins, often
with blue/black edges.

Pineapple
Pineapple bettas are yellow with a black
‘criss-cross’ pattern on the body.
Genetically they are extended reds that
express the non-red gene (making the
fins and body yellow) and the blond
gene (reducing melanin density to
produce the criss-cross effect), but do
not express the Cambodian gene.

Salamander
Originally, the name ‘salamander’ was
given to the line of bettas produce by
Marianne Lewis by outcrossing mustard
mas bettas she had acquired from Jude
Als to other lines. Jude objected to her
use of the term ‘mustard gas’ when
selling these new fish, as technically
they were not ‘pure’ mustard gas fish. As
a result, Marianne picked a different
commercial name for the outcrosses she
was producing and the term
‘salamander’ came into common usage.
Thus, the word ‘salamander’ should
really only be used for those bettas
produced by Marianne Lewis…which it
clearly isn’t!
In more recent times the word
salamander has been used to describe
extended red bettas with royal blue
iridescence on the body, but not on the
head. The iridescence gives them a
purple appearance. Such bettas often
have white edges to the unpaired fins
(see photo on page 130). It is said that
this colour pattern first arose as a result
of the mustard gas outcrosses undertaken
by Marianne Lewis (presumably by
crossing mustard gas fish to red bettas),
but I have not been able to confirm this.
Either way, the colour pattern is unique
and readily identifiable, and is therefore
perhaps worthy of its own special
moniker.
To add to the confusion, the term
‘lavender’ is also used to describe fish
with the above colour pattern. In reality,
this term is best used to describe pastel
bettas that are lavender in colour (i.e.
the colour of lavender flowers).
Samurai
Samurai is perhaps the newest fad in
naming betta varieties. It generally
applies to bettas with dragon scaling in
the dorsal half of their bodies.

Skyhawk
The term ‘skyhawk’ is regularly used to
describe bettas, usually halfmoons and
over-halfmoons that have particularly
large (i.e. tall) dorsal fins, with long,
forward-angled first rays.

Tiger
Tiger bettas are yellow or orange with
black marks on the body like a tiger’s
stripes.
This tiger butterfly over-halfmoon is truly unique -
what an amazing colour pattern! © Kitti
Watcharaworatham
Breeding
People breed bettas for many reasons.
Some breeders are driven by a desire to
witness the betta’s complex spawning
ritual for the first time, some hope to sell
their fish and make a profit, some strive
to produce fish with perfect form that
will bring them glory at betta shows.
The first of these reasons is one that I
have a lot of empathy for, as a previous
student of animal behaviour. Animals
have evolved via natural selection to
reproduce in ways that not even the most
imaginative of sci-fi authors could come
up with, and bettas are no exception.
I think all beginner fishkeepers must
read a description of the betta spawning
process and think to themselves, “Wow,
I would love to see that”. The first
spawn I ever witnessed (pictured
below) was between a giant Cambodian
halfmoon plakat male that I had imported
from Thailand and an extended red
plakat female, bought from my local pet
shop. I must have watched the pair for
hours as they danced their way through
the spawning process, completely
mesmerised. I have no shame in telling
you that I consider this, my first
experience of the betta spawning
process, to have been a pivotal moment
in my life. I certainly wouldn’t have
written this book had that spawn been
less successful. Watching those two fish
compounded my absolute awe at the
power of natural selection to drive the
evolution of complex animal behaviour.
How wonderful that such an incremental,
logical process can give rise to
something as beautiful and complex as
the betta spawning process? Seeing that
dance unfold in front of my eyes was an
amazing experience, and I still get the
same feeling of wonderment whenever I
am lucky enough to catch any of my
current pairs spawning.
On the subject of selling bettas for
profit, I sometimes wonder if breeding
any animal on a large scale for the sole
purpose of making a profit takes all the
joy out of what usually starts out as a
passion for that species. Having said
that, I am adamant that people should put
a value on the animals they breed. After
all, if you buy a cat for next to nothing,
or the same cat for a small fortune, you
don’t need to be a genius to realise that
you will take better care of the cat if it
costs more. It’s all about the perceived
value of the animal.
The good news is that many people are
able to maintain their passion for the
animals they breed and still operate a
profitable business. However, in the
case of bettas, it is my belief that the
only way to breed them and make a
profit is to do so in a tropical climate, in
order to remove the cost of heating the
water to the required temperature.
Anywhere else, the costs of heating will
rapidly eatinto your profits, or force you
to charge such high prices for your fish
that you won’t be able to compete with
overseas betta farmers.
I do sell my bettas, but for the same
reasons as most small-scale betta
breeders: To make space in my tanks for
the next generation; to help offset the
costs of keeping my fish; and to help out
other betta enthusiasts who want to buy
high quality stock for their own breeding
projects. I certainly don’t make any
profit!
At the end of the day, the point I am
trying to make here is that unless you
happen to live in a hot country, please
don’t try to breed bettas for the money,
because you won’t make any. Do it for
the love of the hobby instead. For the
reward of making something beautiful.
Another great reason to breed bettas is
to produce show fish. I went to my first
betta show (the Holland Betta Show) in
2013. What a fantastic experience! Lots
of like-minded betta fanatics to talk to,
lots of stunningly beautiful bettas to
admire, and lots (and lots) of fun.
I have to admit that before I went I was
terrified of having my fish judged against
the Bettas4all Standard, but as it turned
out, three of my males placed second,
third and fourth in the Male
Asymmetrical Halfmoon Plakat
(Marble) category, and one of my
females placed second in the equivalent
female category. Not a bad result for my
first show. I was over the moon!
What did I learn from this experience? I
learned that my research into the show
standards had paid off because I chose
the right fish to take to the show. I
learned that breeding your own show
bettas is a hundred times more
rewarding than just buying a fish and
taking it to a show. And I learned that,
thanks to generations of carefully
controlled individual breeding
programs, European bettas are easily
some of the best in the world!
So, in summary, breed your fish. If you
can. If you have the time and the right
fish, just do it. It is worth it just to see
the fry grow up. Anyone can buy
themselves a huge betta collection, the
same way that a collector buys works of
art. And there’s nothing wrong with
being a collector. In fact, all of us are
collectors to start with. But just think
how much more meaningful that
collection would be if you had painted
every piece.
Here’s what I think: If you have the
chance to be an artist, then be an artist…
and paint beautiful bettas!
Photographs of the first spawn ever witnessed by
the author. From the top down, these photos show:
The male courting the female; the female’s vertical
spawning bars; the spawning embrace beneath the
bubblenest; the male catching eggs as they fall from
the female; and the male collecting eggs to place
them back in the bubblenest.

The 10 stages to spawning


bettas in captivity

“The wise man knows he knows


nothing, the fool thinks he knows all”.

- Chinese proverb

My aim in this chapter is not to preach to


you about any one particular method for
breeding bettas, but to present you with
some basic principles that apply to all
methods. In addition I want to suggest
some variations in breeding
methodology that you may wish to try for
yourself. The reason for this is simple:
When it comes to betta breeding no
single method works for every breeder,
every time. There is no such thing as
right or wrong, only what works and
what doesn’t work. My strong advice is
that you find the method that works for
you and then stick to it! If you can
remember to do that, then I promise that
you will have fun and go far with betta
breeding.
In my opinion, betta breeding can be
split up into the following ten stages:

1.
Picking a goal for your spawn
2.
Selecting a pair to spawn
3.
Conditioning the pair for breeding
4.
Setting up the spawning tank
5.
Introducing the breeders
6.
The spawning process
7.
Raising the fry
8.
Culling deformed fry
9.
Jarring
10.
Deciding what to do with all those
bettas!

I’m going to look at each of these in turn


over the next few pages. By the end of it
you should have a pretty good idea of
how to breed bettas and which methods
are going to work best for you.
Even if you have already succeeded in
breeding bettas before, I urge you to
read this section in full. Who knows?
There might some ideas in there that
could be of use to even the most
seasoned betta breeder.

Stage 1 - Picking a Goal for


Your Spawn
Once you are comfortable with the
captive care of bettas, then the
likelihood is that you’ve probably
thought about breeding them. After all,
what better way to increase your
collection of beautiful bettas than to
breed your own bettas, from your best
fish?
Before you even begin to think about
spawning bettas, you must take some
time to decide what it is you want to
achieve by spawning them. What colour
(or colour pattern) and finnage are you
hoping to produce as a result of the
spawn?
If you just want to breed bettas for the
sake of saying you’ve done it, then it
doesn’t much matter which two fish you
spawn. However, if you have loftier
aspirations, like breeding a perfect red
fish, or a doubletail betta with perfect
form, then the two fish you start with
will have a huge impact on the speed
with which you will be able to achieve
your goal. The key message here is that
breeding bettas without a goal will
usually produce disappointing results.
The nice thing about bettas is that you
don’t have to be particularly
conservative with your goal. Thanks to
the interplay between the various genes
that control colour and finnage in bettas,
you really can let you imagination run
wild. It is amazing what breeders have
been able to produce in recent years, so
there really is plenty of scope for
thinking outside the box. It is worth
remembering, however, that if you make
your goal too ambitious, you will also
make the journey to reach that goal much
longer. For some breeders, it is
precisely the fact that this journey can be
so challenging that makes it fun!
It may surprise you to hear that for
bettas, all breeding goals generally come
under just three categories: Form, breed
and colour. Form covers everything to
do with the proportions of the fish i.e.
how balanced the fins are with respect
to each other and to the body; and the
shape of the body itself. Every breeder
has his or her own idea of what their
perfect betta looks like and for those that
don’t, there are several show standards
available to give you an idea, with
perhaps the two most well-known being
those of the International Betta Congress
(IBC) and the Bettas4All Standard.
Breed is self-explanatory: What fin type
of betta to you want to produce? Long-
finned or short-finned? Crowntail or
doubletail? Traditional show plakat or
asymmetrical halfmoon plakat? You get
the idea. Your goal might even involve
creating a new breed that no-one has yet
manage to produce. The possibilities are
endless.
For those of you who really want a
challenge then what about trying to breed
a doubletail crowntail with perfect ‘full
moon’ finnage? It has been done before,
but not often and even then, not
consistently well.
The third category is colour, by which I
mean the colour (or colours) present in
the fins and the body of the fish. As a
rule, most breeders breed for form
before breeding for colour, as colour
goals are usually much quicker to
achieve (although of course this all
depends on how imaginative you were
when it came to your original colour
goal!). The main reason for this is that a
betta’s form is the result of a much more
complex set of genetic interactions,
whereas colour and the distribution of
colour are more predictable in the way
they are inherited and expressed.
Funnily enough, colour goals are
challenging to achieve at either end of
the complication spectrum. Solid-
coloured fish that are truly just one
colour are very difficult to produce, as
are fish with very specific colour
patterns comprising many different
colours. In both cases a breeder might be
lucky to produce just a handful of fish in
his or her lifetime that really meet their
ideal.
Although I encourage you to have fun in
picking your goal, it is probably worth
taking into account what breeds of betta
are actually available to you before
picking your goal. If the only bettas
available to you are pet store veiltails,
then there is little merit in deciding you
want to produce crowntails. Instead your
time would be better spent working to
improve the form of those veiltails, or
breeding for better colour, or even a
combination of colours. Ultimately, the
production of high quality veiltails is
every bit as admirable a goal as the
production of high quality halfmoons,
and the process would be just as
rewarding.
REMEMBER: Goals are important as
they give our breeding projects
direction and help us to select which
fish to buy in the first place, to make
sure that our projects get off to a
good start.

Stage 2 - Selecting a Pair to


Spawn
Hopefully you’ve now given some
thought to the goal of your prospective
spawn and you have an idea of what two
fish you might need to breed together in
terms of their form, fin-type and colour,
to achieve your goal (or at least the first
step towards your goal, if you have
opted for something complicated!).
Before we discuss picking particular
fish to achieve a particular goal, let’s
consider some basic rules for choosing
potential breeders and also some of the
signs we can use to tell if a betta is
ready to spawn.
I will deal with the two sexes
separately:

Males
Ideally you should choose a male that is
fully grown, but not too old. Opinions
vary between breeders as to the optimum
age for breeding bettas, but most agree
that the fish should be at least three
months old and no older than a year. The
reasons for this are simple: If the fish is
too young, he may develop unwanted
traits as he grows older that you won’t
know about until after you’ve bred him.
He may also turn out to be physically too
small to breed with your chosen female.
If the fish is too old, he may not have
sufficient energy to successfully cope
with the rigours of spawning, which will
reduce your chances of success.
Of course, it isn’t so easy to age bettas
(unless you are buying from a breeder
who knows the age of his fish). Also,
different bettas from different breeders
are capable of attaining different sizes as
adults, so it’s hard to know if your fish is
full grown or not. How can we
overcome this problem? Well, if you
can’t find out the age of the fish from the
breeder, then the best advice I can give
you is to choose the largest, most active
male available that meets your
requirements (remember, you must
always have your goal in the forefront of
your mind!). This way you will increase
the chances that the fish is fully grown
and that he has plenty of energy for
breeding.
In terms of whether the fish is ready to
breed, the most obvious clue is if he has
blown a bubblenest in his container. The
bubblenest is a nest of saliva bubbles
that male bettas blow prior to spawning,
as a safe haven for the eggs and
subsequent fry. Males in good condition
that are kept in isolation will usually
blow bubblenests even in the absence of
external stimuli, such as another male or
a female. The bubblenest is therefore a
great sign of readiness for breeding.
However, it is not essential for a male to
have built a bubblenest for you to know
he is ready for breeding. There are clues
as well. For example, you could assess
the male’s response to being shown a
female betta. If he’s keen to breed then
he will immediately spread his fins and
gill covers wide (this is called flaring)
and dance for her, in a bid to impress
her. If you aren’t at liberty to show the
male a female then you could try
showing him another male or even a
small mirror. Basically it is worth trying
anything that will convince him to flare
so that you can assess his vigour. If he is
strong, active and aggressive, then you
should be reassured that he is a good
candidate for spawning.
In reality, once you have a bit of
experience with bettas you don’t even
need to present a male with a stimulus to
see that he is healthy. A betta in good
condition will hold his fins well, swim
without difficulty, and spend a lot of
time exploring his surroundings on the
hunt for food.
It is important to remember that often
you won’t be choosing your fish with the
aim of using him for breeding straight
away. Nine times out of ten, you will be
buying the fish from an unknown source
(a pet store or a breeder whose betta
set-up you haven’t seen), which means
that once you get it home the fish should
be quarantined, in isolation, for up to
two weeks, to ensure it isn’t carrying
any hidden diseases. Following the
quarantine period, you may also need to
spend time getting the fish into optimal
condition before you can even think
about breeding it. Having said that, the
need for quarantine and conditioning
prior to spawning does depend largely
on the condition of the fish when you get
it and where you get it from. Some bettas
are ready to breed the minute you get
them home, because they were kept
under optimal conditions at the place
where you bought them. I have had this
experience on several occasions,
particularly with fish that I have bought
from other breeders.
This pair of marble HMPKs is well matched both in
terms of colour and form © Kitti Watcharaworatham

Females
As with males, female breeders should
be fully grown, young and full of life.
Look for fish with deeper and wider
bodies, as these individuals will already
have invested energy into egg
production. In bettas of certain colours
you can even see the light-coloured mass
of eggs in belly of the fish! The key
when it comes to choosing breeding
females is to pick the ‘ripest’ female you
can find. This is because the fatter the
female is, the more eggs she will
produce and the more fry you will end
up with. Hopefully it is obvious that the
more fry you have, the more fry you can
afford to lose (although ideally you will
minimise this as much as possible) and,
importantly, the more fish you will have
to choose from to produce subsequent
generations (or take to fish shows, or
sell). Remember, breeding bettas is
ALWAYS a numbers game. Choosing a
plump female can dramatically improve
your odds of getting good quality
offspring.
In terms of tell-tale signs that a female
betta is ready for spawning, I tend to
look for a very bright white and
pronounced ovipositor (the ‘egg spot’),
a rounded belly region, and obvious
vertical bars (note that these may not be
visible on a pale-bodied female). As is
the case with bubblenests and male
bettas, female bettas that are in good
condition will often show vertical bars
in isolation from any external stimuli.
The presence of these vertical bars is a
very accurate predictor that a female
betta is ready to breed. Even better is if
these bars appear, or become more
obvious, when a female is presented
with a male betta.
Other than the rounded belly, protruding
ovipositor and horizontal bars, the basic
advice for choosing a breeding female is
the same as the advice for choosing any
betta: Pick an active fish that holds its
fins well, swims easily and is constantly
investigating its environment.
The other useful (but again, not 100%
rigid) rule when picking a breeding
female is that you should try to pick a
female that is of equal size or smaller
than your breeding male, as during
spawning it is very important that the
male is able to wrap his body around the
female. This will all become clear in the
‘Spawning’ section.
The pale vertical bars on the body of this female
indicate that she is ready to breed © Kitti
Watcharaworatham

A Side Note on Sex Ratio


Distortion
Although above I have encouraged you
to choose fish that are not too old for
spawning, you may want to bear in mind
that the age of the male and female bettas
you wish to spawn, relative to one
another, can have a dramatic effect on
the sex ratio of males to females in the
resulting fry. Studies carried out by Gene
Lucas in the late 1960s found that mating
young males to older females resulted in
significantly more males in the resulting
offspring, whereas mating young females
to older males resulted in relatively
more females being produced.
Generally speaking, in species where
females are able to manipulate the sex of
their offspring (as female bettas
apparently are), populations will tend to
maintain a relatively stable sex ratio of
1:1. The reason for this is that if the
numbers of one of the sexes increases,
females will favour the production of
offspring of the other sex (i.e. the sex in
more demand), so as to maximise the
chances that those offspring will
reproduce and pass on their (and her)
genes.
Let us use males as an example: If an
event occurs that reduces the number of
females in a given population, then there
will be fewer mating opportunities for
males, as there won’t be enough females
for every male to get a chance to mate.
Thus some males won’t mate at all and
therefore won’t pass on their genes to
any offspring. In contrast to this, all
females in this population are likely to
mate, as there are several males for each
female to choose from. Females
therefore have a reproductive advantage.
In such a population, if females are able
to manipulate the sex of their offspring,
then they clearly would benefit from
producing as many female offspring as
possible, as female offspring are the
most likely to reproduce when there is a
surplus of males. However, if all the
females only produce female offspring,
then the sex ratio will immediately start
creeping back towards a 1:1 ratio, as
now there will be more females around,
which will enable more males to
reproduce. Thus, the sex ratio is always
subject to fluctuation towards either
more males or more females, but once
the ratio shifts too far one way, the
reproductive advantage of producing the
other sex will tend to bring the ratio
back to 1:1.
Lucas’ study mentioned above serves as
scientific support for the fact that female
bettas are able to pick up on signals in
the environment telling them that there is
either a surplus of males or females and
produce offspring of the most
reproductively advantageous sex
accordingly. The theory is that old
females encountering only young males
will interpret this as there being a lack
of older males in the environment and
will therefore choose to produce more
male offspring, and vice versa in the
case of females meeting an older male.
Whether or not this assessment is purely
visual or based on chemical cues in the
water is not fully understood.
For my part, I can certainly vouch for the
fact that breeding younger males to older
females results in spawns skewed
heavily towards more male offspring,
and that spawns between siblings of the
same age tend to produce a relatively
even sex ratio.
This knowledge is therefore extremely
useful if you need to produce a lot of one
or the other sex. A commercial breeder
may want to produce more males, as
males are more flashy and therefore tend
to sell for more money. A breeder
working on a particular line may want to
produce more females, perhaps in order
to breed his best male to several female
siblings.
When carrying out a backcross of an
offspring to its parent in order to fix
particular traits and continue a line, the
best cross would therefore be a cross
between daughter and father, as this
would produce the most females to make
the next generation. The opposite cross
of son to mother would be most useful if
the aim was to produce a lot of males to
take to a show, or sell, or simply to
check the progress of the line in terms of
male form.

Choosing Fish to Achieve


Your Goal
Now that we’ve covered some basic
principles for choosing breeders, the
next step is to take a look at how we
choose fish to help us achieve our goal
for the spawn.
This ranges from being a very simple
task indeed to being heinously
complicated, depending on your
available funds and your goal.
A simple example would be if you
wanted to breed turquoise halfmoon
bettas, had plenty of funds and knew a
breeder with excellent turquoise
halfmoon betta stock for sale. You could
purchase the best available male and
female from this breeder and that would
more or less be the end of your journey.
Sure, not all of the offspring from this
pairing would be perfect halfmoons
(remember that halfmoon finnage is not
the result of a single gene), but I would
go so far as to say that you would be
very likely indeed to produce a
relatively high number of good quality
halfmoon bettas by going down this
route. Certainly enough to keep a line of
nice halfmoons going for a while.
Contrast this with trying to produce your
own line of crowntail plakats when the
only quality fish available to you (at
your budget) are long-finned crowntails
and short-finned plakats. In this situation
your first step might be to breed a
crowntail to a plakat to produce long-fin
‘combtails’ that carry the short-fin gene
in the first generation. You might then
choose to breed one of these
fish back to the short-finned plakat
parent, which would give you a spawn
of roughly 50% long-fin and 50% short-
fin, with a chance of some combtails.
The next step might be to take two short-
fin combtail siblings (maybe the male
and female with the most reduction in fin
webbing) and breed them together. A
both fish would carry two copies of the
short-fin gene and one copy of the
crowntail gene, there is a chance that
some of the resulting short-fin fry would
have two copies of crowntail gene.
These fish would be your first crowntail
plakats. The next stage of your project
might then be to improve the form of
these fish, and so on, and so on, until you
are consistently producing fish that meet
your expectations.
Not so simple, right?!
Whilst a large proportion of betta
breeding to reach a goal depends on trial
and error, I can’t emphasise enough the
importance of having a decent grasp of
betta genetics (or at least as good a
grasp as is possible, given the paucity of
information available). Yes, there are
big holes in our current understanding of
how betta genes interact, but a large
number of the genes do behave in a
predictable way, and to ignore this fact
is nothing if not foolhardy. If you pay no
attention to genetics when breeding
bettas, the best case scenario is that you
risk adding several months if not years
to the length of time it will take to reach
your goal. The worst case scenario is
that you take your breeding project down
a route that will never give you the result
you want.
This crowntail could be a key element in making your
first crowntail plakats © Kitti Watcharaworatham

Of course, we have to experiment


sometimes and I am not saying that we
shouldn’t try experimental crosses in
case we uncover a new colour pattern or
fin structure. The point I want to make is
simply that in situations where genetics
can provide us with answers, we should
use that information to make sensible
decisions about which fish to breed
together, as this is the most efficient path
to success. I therefore suggest that you
study the ‘Genetics’ chapter of this book
well. It will help you to focus your
efforts and you will be a better breeder
for it.
Okay, now that we’ve discussed some
general principles for choosing a
breeding pair, I want to give you some
more specific information that should
help you to choose the right pair.

Fin rays
As a general rule, breeding a fish with
less branching in the caudal fin rays to
one with more branching in its caudal fin
rays (e.g. a fish with primary branching
crossed to one with secondary, tertiary
or quaternary branching) will result in
fry that predominantly have more
branching in their caudal fin rays than
the parent with least ray branching.
To put it another way, if you breed a
traditional plakat with primary
branching to a halfmoon plakat with
secondary branching, most of the fry will
show some degree of secondary
branching.
This is a useful way to add more rays
into the fins of your betta line and also
applies to some extent to the other
unpaired fins (i.e. the dorsal and anal).

Fin length and spread


Don’t ask me how this works, but it is
common knowledge among established
betta breeders that defects in the fins of
one parent betta can be corrected in the
offspring by pairing that fish to a betta
whose fins compensate for those defects.
A common example is anal fin length.
Male bettas often exhibit well balanced
dorsal and caudal fins only to be let
down by an overly long anal fin. In order
to compensate for this undesirable form,
many breeders would select a female
with a short anal fin, in the hope that
some of the offspring from the spawn
would have well balanced finnage.
Although the genetic interactions
involved are clearly complex, this
approach appears to work in practice
and has been adopted successfully again
and again by a great many breeders.
Furthermore, it has been applied to all
the fins, both paired and unpaired, in
order to improve fin length and fin
spread.

Body shape
It isn’t just fin form that can be
influenced by your choice of breeding
pair. Body shape has been found to be
similarly malleable.
Among the most common unwanted traits
in bettas is so-called ‘spoon-head’. I
have no idea who first coined this term,
but it is very appropriate and applies to
bettas that have a concave facial profile,
such that the line from their forehead to
their mouth is curved upward, like a
spoon. This line should really be
straight, or even convex, to give the betta
a nice smooth ‘top-line’ from mouth to
caudal fin. The good news is that, as
with the fins, the body shape of fry can
be influenced by careful choice of
parents. Breeding a spoon-headed fish to
one with a better facial profile will
produce a percentage of fish that do not
exhibit the spoon-head trait. Spawning
these fish to each other, or to other bettas
that have good top-lines, will ultimately
enable you to eradicate the trait from
your line.
Facial profile is only one aspect of body
shape that you can influence through your
choice of breeders. Other examples
include body length, width and depth.
The ability to manipulate body length is
particularly important for breeders of
doubletail bettas, as doubletails often
have shortened bodies. If a short-bodied
doubletail has really good finnage that a
breeder would like to see in the next
generation, he or she will generally try
to breed this fish to a related doubletail
carrier that has a normal (long) body in
the hope that the offspring (50%
doubletail; 50% singletail) will inherit
the nice fins and the normal body length.
This works best where the short-bodied
doubletail is the female, as short-bodied
males are often unable to wrap females
during spawning.

Colour
To give you any specific guidance for
achieving your colour goals here would
add nothing to the information already
provided in the ‘Genetics’ section. All I
would say, is that you need to make sure
that the fish you buy carry the colour
genes you need to attain your goal. This
is more important for some colours and
colour patterns than others. For example,
there is no point buying two fish, neither
of which carry the marble gene, if your
goal is to produce marble bettas!

Form
I listened to an interview that my friend
Joep van Esch (a top breeder of
halfmoon plakats in the Netherlands and
co-creator of the Bettas4all Standard)
gave to an American radio station in
2012. In the interview he said something
that really resonated with me:
“At the end of the day, a betta has to be
able to swim.”

- Joep van Esch

It was such a simple statement, but really


this is what form is all about. A good
betta should be able to hold its fins erect
with ease, snapping them open like a fan.
The fin rays should be strong and show
no signs of curling to one side or the
other. The fins should be in proportion to
the size of the fish’s body – not too
large, not too small. Finally, the fish
should be able to swim with ease!
When experienced betta breeders talk
about the form of a fish, what we are
really talking about is the proportions of
the fins in relation to each other and the
fish’s body (i.e. how ‘balanced’ the fish
is), and how well the dorsal finnage
reflects the ventral finnage (i.e. how
‘symmetrical’ the fish is). In terms of
symmetry, show standards vary between
different breeds, and I have discussed
the nuances that separate the breeds at
length in the ‘Breeds’ chapter above.
Thankfully, most of the common show
standards for the different betta breeds
(IBC, Bettas4All or otherwise) tend to
favour good balance, so if anything,
working towards achieving the standards
of your favourite betta organisation will
help you to produce good balanced fish,
even if you never join the organisation
and never show your fish!
Ultimately, if you want to breed show
quality bettas, either to sell or to show
yourself, then all I can recommend is that
you learn what the bettas you work with
should look like in terms of the shape of
the fins and their size in relation to one
another, and then strive for consistency
of form.
In show bettas, form is EVERYTHING!

Selective breeding
Although the above suggestions will
help you decide on the fish you use for
your first spawn, they really come into
their own when you start thinking about
carrying out many spawns
(simultaneously, or one after the other)
in order to reach your goal, as you will
be able to select the fish with the best
form from
each generation to continue your project.
Each of these suggestions is simply
giving you the first step in a long process
of so-called ‘selective breeding’, which
in simple terms is the process of
selecting breeders based on the traits
they exhibit, in order to perpetuate those
traits in future generations.
REMEMBER: Pretty much every
domestic betta you will ever see is the
result of a particular breeder’s
selective breeding programme.
Intentional, or otherwise!
Given that good form takes more time to
achieve than good colour, in an ideal
world we would all start with a male
and female fish that exhibit the form we
want. This would, in theory, maximise
our chances of getting offspring with
good form, leaving us free to explore
various colour avenues without
worrying about producing unbalanced
fish. It’s a nice theory and it is definitely
the case that choosing fish with a form as
close to your ideal as possible will
improve your chances of achieving your
goals in terms of form, but in practice it
is often very difficult to find such perfect
fish and we are often forced to achieve
our goals via an alternative route.
Selective breeding enables new traits resulting from
new genetic mutations to be passed on to the next
generation. For example the unique caudal of this
one-of-a kind ‘swordtail’ betta could, if the trait has a
genetic basis, be the start of a selective breeding
program to produce a line of swordtail bettas. ©
Jirasak Vimonrattanakit

Stage 3 - Conditioning
bettas for spawning
To condition or not to condition? That is
the question.
Okay, so maybe it’s not the question, but
it certainly is a question that has caused
some controversy in betta keeping
circles and I suspect it will continue to
do so.
To clarify, conditioning bettas for
spawning simply means making sure that
they are sufficiently healthy and have
sufficient energy stores to cope with the
stresses of the spawning process.
The animal kingdom is full of examples
of animals using visual or physical
attributes of prospective mates in order
to gauge the genetic fitness of those
individuals (I won’t bore you with a
massive list of examples, but if you are
interested in this, the classic example is
the long-tailed widowbird – look up
Andersson’s 1982 study on Wikipedia).
The purpose of this assessment
(otherwise known as sexual selection) is
to ensure that they breed with the most
genetically fit partner available, thereby
equipping their offspring with the best
genes for survival. Bettas are no
exception, and as a result betta courtship
is a pretty strenuous test for both sexes.
It is for this reason that you need to be
sure your fish are up to the challenge
before introducing them.
Clearly there is a case for quarantining
your new breeders to ensure that there is
time for any diseases they may carry to
manifest itself. No-one wants to try and
breed sick bettas: If the adults don’t die
from the disease, the tiny fry will surely
succumb.
Most people keep any new bettas under
observation in isolation for at least a
week, sometimes two. It’s up to you how
long you want to quarantine for, but in
my experience a week is usually
sufficient to give me confidence that the
betta is healthy, or sick, as the case may
be. During this time you should aim to
get your bettas into breeding condition
by providing clean water conditions, a
higher temperature (29-30˚C) and a
regular supply of nutritious foods - in
particular livefoods (either living or
frozen).
Most people find bloodworm or daphnia
to be excellent conditioning foods,
supplemented with commercial pellet
food. I have read and been given advice
from successful breeders detailing very
specifically how many pellets to feed
each day and how much bloodworm etc.
in order to achieve optimal conditioning.
The advice even went so far as to offer
specific amounts of food for males
versus females! Personally, I have
always believed that a good aquarist
should know their fish and be able to
read their behaviour. In doing so, you
will soon learn your fish’s appetite and
will be able to tailor the amount of food
to the individual.
As far as I’m concerned there are only
three rules that make sense to me when it
comes to how much to feed during
conditioning for breeding:

1.
Offer the fish more food than it
would normally receive;
2.
Make sure that the conditioning
food is of higher nutritional
value than the staple diet you
offer your fish;
3.
Feed females more than males, as
they have higher energy demands
than males, as they need to
produce eggs.

When you think about the ecology of


bettas in the wild, the above advice
makes sense. In nature, bettas, like many
fish species, breed in response to rain.
Rain means an influx of fresh water,
food and access to better spawning
grounds. Because bettas commonly
inhabit shallow waters, the arrival of
monsoon-style rain has a number of
significant effects on their environment.
Firstly, the new rain water causes water
levels to rise. This causes ditches,
streams and rivers to overflow, flooding
nearby fields and providing new areas
of shallow water habitat. Secondly, the
influx of fresh water results in an
increase in the availability of dissolved
oxygen in the water. Diffusion of oxygen
into the water is further aided by the
effects of rain breaking up the water
surface. Thirdly, before being flooded,
these fields usually contain a huge
variety of terrestrial insects and worms
all of which get swept up in the
floodwaters, and all of which make very
nutritious betta food. Finally, because
the water in the flooded areas becomes
stagnant and shallow, the water
temperature in these areas is high.
What this means is that any bettas living
in ditches, streams and rivers are
suddenly presented with a lot more
space, cleaner water, more food (of
better nutritional value) and a nice high
temperature to help boost their immune
systems.
In practically every part of the world
where there is a seasonal pattern in the
abundance of food, animals have
evolved to focus their reproductive
effort on the time when food is most
plentiful, as this will give their offspring
the greatest chances of survival. Bettas
are no exception to this rule, and
because they have evolved to respond to
all the changes mentioned above, by
feeding them more, keeping their water
really clean and raising the temperature
in their container in preparation for
spawning, we are basically fooling them
into thinking it’s the rainy season i.e.
time to make baby bettas!
As a final note on conditioning, it’s
worth reiterating the medicinal value of
adding a piece Indian almond leaf (or
Indian almond leaf extract) to your
betta’s container during this process.
Although not essential, it will certainly
provide an additional boost to the fish’s
immune system prior to spawning.

Stage 4 - Setting up the


spawning tank
As with containers for keeping
individual bettas, spawning containers
are absolutely a matter of individual
preference. I have seen breeders use
glass tanks, plastic tubs, rubbish bins,
large noodle bowls, polystyrene boxes,
ceramic bowls and a host of other
vessels. Try a few different containers
until you find one that works consistently
well for you.
Some of my most successful spawning
experiences result from spawning my
bettas in two plastic vegetable drawers
rescued from an old refrigerator. I kid
you not! The reason it works is that these
drawers are large enough to allow the
female to hide from the male for her
protection, but not so large that the male
can’t find the female to keep her
interested in spawning.
As always, your choice of spawning
container is down to your budget and the
amount of space you have available, but
there are some variables that need to be
considered in order to ensure that your
chosen container is actually suitable for
spawning bettas.
You can use any container to spawn bettas. Pictured
are the author’s fridge drawer spawning tanks - full
of fry!

Container
The container should be large enough to
for the female to escape from the male if
he proves to be very aggressive; and
small enough so that the male can still
find the female and entice her to breed,
even when she is hiding.
One of the biggest risks faced by betta
breeders is that the male may kill the
female (or vice versa – it does happen).
For this reason, it is important to use a
container that is large enough to allow
the female to swim away from the male.
Conversely, if you provide too large a
container, there is a risk that the male
will lose sight of the female and one or
both partners will give up on the idea of
spawning altogether!
I have used a range of different tank
sizes and container types, but in general
my spawning tanks measure 25 x 25 x 30
cm. This should give you an idea of how
small you can go without risking your
female.

Hiding places
Spawning can be a dangerous time for
female bettas thanks to most male bettas
being very aggressive. You must provide
some form of hiding place in the
spawning tank. This is betta breeding
gospel. If you don’t provide somewhere
for your female to hide, you run the risk
of her being killed by the male (or vice
versa).
Males chase and bite females during
courtship as a test of their suitability as a
breeding partner. If you provide cover
for the female then the worst case
scenario is that at the end of this chasing
and biting she ends up with torn fins and
a few missing body scales. If she is not
ready to breed and there is nowhere for
her to hide then the male will kill her. I
guarantee it. You don’t want that to
happen, so please provide some cover
for her.
The type of hiding place varies between
breeders. In Thai betta farms they either
use a single large Indian almond leaf, or
native water plants. Hobbyist breeders I
know have used everything from
terracotta plant pots, to java moss tied to
a stone, to floating sections of plastic
pipe, to fully planted aquaria. I like to
keep things simple and easy to maintain,
so I use plastic plants. It is possible to
buy large (30 x 30 cm) mats of plastic
plants that are designed to provide a
floor covering of plants of the same
species in large tanks. The ones I buy
resemble an aquatic grass. I cut these
mats up to give me strips of plastic grass
which fit across the back of my
spawning tanks and provide the perfect
refuge for females during spawning.
They also make great cover for betta fry!

Water
Fill the spawning tank with clean, aged
water to a height of 10cm. Ideally the
water should be a few degrees warmer
than the water you keep your bettas in
normally.
I already told you that in the wild the
arrival of rain results in cleaner water
conditions, as the rain has a diluting
effect. This is a natural trigger for bettas
to spawn.
By using clean water you are replicating
this effect and maximising the chances
that the fish will spawn. You are also
reducing the speed with which pollutants
will build up in the spawn tank. This is
important, as when the eggs hatch you
will be raising the tiny fry in this water,
without a biological filter to keep the
water clean, for the first few weeks
(more on this later).
The water should be aged to allow any
chlorine to evaporate and avoid
damaging your bettas’ delicate gill
membranes.
In the wild, the heavy rains create new
areas of shallow water that bettas
migrate into to breed. It is important to
have shallow water in the spawn tank
for two reasons: Firstly, it mimics the
shallow conditions present for breeding
in the wild; and secondly, it makes it
much easier for the male to collect the
eggs released by the female during
spawning, thereby maximising the
number of fry you will get from the
spawn. This is clearly a good thing!
The water in these shallow pools is
warmer than normal (another spawning
trigger). Unless, like me, you have a
space-heated fishroom, you will need to
add a small aquarium heater to your
spawning tank to maintain the water
temperature between 28˚C and 30˚C. In
my fish room I have all my spawn tanks
on the top two tiers of my shelving unit.
Because hot air rises, these tanks are
always a bit warmer than the other
containers in the room.
There is an additional benefit to raising
the temperature: Several aquatic
pathogens are ineffective at higher
temperature. By spawning your bettas in
warmer water you reduce the likelihood
that the resulting fry will succumb to
disease.
I should point out that the higher
temperature is not absolutely essential. If
you don’t want to do this, your bettas
will still breed in water of the same
temperature that they are used to. All I’m
saying is that raising the temperature a
few degrees can improve your chances
of success.

A Lid for the Container


KEEP IT COVERED: Your spawning
container needs to have a close fitting
lid. This can be anything: a tea towel,
a slate roofing tile, a sheet of plastic…
anything. It doesn’t matter what it is,
as long as it’s there!
Putting a lid on the spawning tank is
important for two reasons. The first is
that bettas are fantastic jumpers. During
spawning, when the male is aggressively
chasing the female, it is not uncommon
for females to try and escape the male by
leaping from the container. This is
especially likely when you haven’t
provided enough places in the spawning
container for the female to hide. You do
not want to find your star breeding
female dried to a crisp on the floor after
she’s jumped out of the spawning tank. I
have learned this the hard way and I’m
telling you right now that it’s no fun at
all.
The second reason for having a lid is
that betta fry are extremely vulnerable at
the stage when they are developing the
labyrinth organ (this is the organ in the
head that allows them to breathe
atmospheric air). At this stage, the fry
begin to gulp air at the water surface. If
the air above the water isn’t relatively
still, warm and humid then the labyrinth
organ won’t develop properly, resulting
in mass fry death. The lid reduces
airflow across the water surface and
maintains both a high air temperature
and high air humidity.

Nesting Site
Finally, you need to put something in the
spawn tank under which the male can
build his bubblenest. Clearly this needs
to float. By far the two most popular
nesting materials are bubble-wrap and
Indian almond leaf, although I know
breeders who swear by a small piece of
polystyrene foam, or half a polystyrene
cup. As always, feel free to experiment
and find out what works best for you.
Personally I have had excellent results
with bubble-wrap and I honestly think
there is some truth in the theory that the
bubbles in the bubble-wrap fool females
into thinking that the male has built a
much larger nest than he may have
actually built, thereby encouraging her to
accept him as a mate and spawn. If you
decide to go down the bubble-wrap
route, cut a piece around 6cm x 6cm in
size and float it in the container. If you
wish, you can use a piece of sticky tape
to fasten the bubble-wrap in place in the
tank to prevent is moving around.
That’s really all there is to setting up a
spawn tank for bettas: A suitably-sized
container with a lid, filled with warm,
aged, shallow water that contains a
hiding place for the female and a nesting
site for the male. No substrate, no filter,
no lights. Easy.

Stage 5 – Introducing the


breeders
Okay, so we’ve decided on our goal for
breeding; we’ve carefully selected two
healthy fish that will take us a few steps
closer to our goal; and we’ve given
those fish a few days (or if necessary
weeks) of conditioning with good food
and clean water to get them into peak
condition. Now comes the fun part:
Introducing the two fish to each other in
the spawning tank!
Introducing male and female bettas can
be very tricky thanks to the aggression
that gives these fish their other common
name of fighting fish. The bottom line is
that some males are highly aggressive
and can do serious damage to females if
you don’t follow a similar protocol to
the one I am about to share. Ignore this
advice at your peril!
Generally I start by adding the male to
the spawning container. No particular
reason, I just think it helps for him to
have a few minutes to explore the
container and familiarise himself with it,
so that when the female is introduced he
is all done with exploring and can give
the female his undivided attention.
While the male is getting used to the
spawn tank, you will need to find a
transparent container of some sort that is
big enough to fit the female inside.
Different breeders have different
preferences here too, but often people
use a transparent plastic ‘spawning
chimney’ (see instructions for how to
make one below).
You also have the option, if your
spawning tank will allow it, of using a
clear divider in the tank and placing the
female behind this when she is
introduced to the male.
On Asian betta farms, breeders often
don’t bother with a divider at all and
simply place a female into a male’s
bowl once they see has had built a
bubble nest. Note, however, that this is
more to do with the scale of such
operations than it is to do with what
works best for the fish. If you have
thousands of bettas, the loss of one or
two females to overzealous males is less
of a problem. In any case the females are
still provided with hiding places, so they
do have the opportunity to escape from
the male.
An interesting point about spawning
chimneys is that it should have holes in
them to allow through-flow of water.
This is important, as chemicals play a
huge, but unseen, part in the spawning
process. Studies have shown that it is the
chemicals that the female picks up from
the male that trigger her to begin
ovulating. Clearly if she has a chance to
pick those chemicals up before being
released to the violent attentions of the
male, then that is all to the good, as she
will be more ready to spawn and less
likely to get beaten up.

***

How to make a spawning


chimney
First take an empty 1.5 l clear plastic
bottle, with the label removed. Now cut
off the bottom of the bottle, so that you
are left with the neck and sides. Next,
cut off the top half of the neck, leaving
the ‘shoulders’ of the bottle (the
narrowing at the top makes it harder
for females to jump out).
The final step is to punch holes into the
sides of your tube. I have found the
easiest way is to push the blunt end of a
sewing needle into a cork (from a bottle
of wine), which acts as a heat-proof
handle for your hole punch (the
needle). Now, holding the cork, you can
heat the sharp end of the needle over a
flame (a candle will do, or the gas
flame from a cooker) until it glows
orange. Once the needle is red hot, you
will find it really easy to push holes
into the side of your plastic spawning
chimney, as the plastic will melt.
Reheat the needle as necessary every
time the holes become harder to make.
You can’t really put too many holes in
the tube, but avoid making so many that
you obscure your view of the female
when she is inside it.
There you have it. One spawning
chimney, ready to go.

***

So, you’ve got your female in the


spawning tank, separated from the male
by the spawning chimney. The question
is, “When do you let her out?”
Well, two things need to happen before
you should even consider releasing the
female: The first thing is that the male
should have built a bubblenest; the
second is that the female should be
displaying vertical ‘spawning bars’.
I discuss both in the next stage.
Black copper DTHM female inside a home made
spawning chimney, in the author’s fishroom
Stage 6 - The Spawning
Process
For bettas, creating the next generation is
far from simple. In fact, given the
sequence of events involved in betta
courtship and spawning, it is a miracle
that bettas didn’t die out hundreds of
years ago! I say this because there is so
much that can go wrong when a male and
female betta meet to spawn. The two fish
have to get the steps just right in order to
achieve the successful fertilisation of the
female’s eggs by the male, and the
journey is often far from smooth.
I imagine that many of you reading these
words will already have some idea of
how bettas reproduce. Descriptions can
be found all over the internet and in any
tropical fish book worth its salt. Some of
you may even be lucky enough to have
bred bettas and seen this incredible
process in the flesh. For those of you
who haven’t, then that in itself is a
reason to breed bettas at least once, as
there is little in the natural world that
can rival the beauty of this dance - and it
really is a dance!
Let me explain the steps in relation to
our spawning set-up.
When the spawning partners first meet
(with the female inside her spawning
chimney), the intensity of colour in both
fish increases dramatically. Bettas are at
their most beautiful during spawning.
The male flares his gills and spreads all
of his fins, presenting himself side-on to
the female, so that she can admire his
finnage. Males often add to this display
by waving one of their ventral fins back
and forth, as if to say “Hey! Look at
me!”.
On seeing the male’s spread fins, the
female will often respond by flaring her
own gill plates and showing
characteristic dark vertical bars on her
body (a classic indication that the female
is ready to breed). Faced with this show
of bravado from the female, the male
begins to dance around her, waving his
body in an ‘S’ shape and trying to slap
the female with his tail.
The male will circle the female in the
spawning tube for several minutes
changing between waving his body at the
female, and trying to bite her through the
plastic.
Eventually he will get bored of this and
start work on building a bubblenest.
The betta bubblenest is a marvel of
nature: A floating nest made entirely of
hundreds of bubbles. Males produce
these bubbles by inhaling air from the
water surface and blowing bubbles of
saliva. The bubbles are sticky and, as he
produces them, they stick together,
forming a raft of bubbles at the water
surface. Like most nests, the function of
the bubblenest is as a safe-haven for
eggs and young (or in this case, fry).
The vertical spawning bars are clearly visible on the
female as the pair prepare to embrace © Gianne
Souza
The male wraps his body around the female’s belly
and flips her upside down © Gianne Souza
If you have set up your spawning tank
properly you will have included a site
for the male’s bubblenest, be it a piece
of bubblewrap, or half a Styrofoam cup,
or some floating plants. Either way, your
male is sure to find it and more often
than not he will build his nest beneath
that site. In the wild, male bettas usually
build their bubblenest in static
vegetation at the water surface. The
plants act as an anchor for the
bubblenest, preventing it being swept
away in the current and also
strengthening it.
In between bouts of nest building, the
male will return to the female in the tube
and attempt to persuade her out to come
out and play. The male will continue to
switch between nest building and
courting the female, until he is satisfied
that the nest is of a suitable size for
spawning. He will then redouble his
efforts to entice the female out of the
tube, to try and persuade her to inspect
the bubblenest. This is your cue to
release the female, BUT only on the
condition that she is still showing
vertical bars and flaring at the male.
Once the female is released, the pair
will circle each other again briefly,
caught up in display, but all too soon the
male will realise that he can finally get
at the female and will nip her to show
his dominance.
This causes her to swim away, at which
point the male will start to chase her
aggressively, biting at her scales and
fins. This is most dangerous stage of
spawning for females, as during this
phase males can cause a great deal of
damage to their prospective partners. By
attacking the female, the male
demonstrates to her that he is strong and
healthy; a good choice of mate.
Likewise, by successfully evading his
attacks, the female proves to the male
that she is a good match for him.
Although they can be extremely violent,
these chases don’t last long. Usually the
female escapes the males advances by
hiding in vegetation. She will hide until
she feels brave enough to face him again.
Note that, despite their best efforts, most
females will end up damaged in some
way during spawning, as a result of the
male’s attacks, whether it be a few lost
scales or torn and tattered fins. This is
just part of the process. Some females
remain unscathed.
Eventually the female will cotton on to
the fact that the male means her no harm
(for now) and will swim over to the
bubblenest to examine it. If the nest is
not to her satisfaction, she may well start
to destroy it, her way of telling the male
to try harder. If this happens the male
will chase her away again and set to
work making the nest bigger.
On the other hand, if the female is happy
with the nest, she will stay beneath it and
will typically assume a head-down
position with clamped fins. This is her
sign to the male that she has accepted
him as a mate and is ready to
spawn. With the female in the head down
position, the male will attempt to
manoeuvre the female into the first of
what will be many spawning embraces.
This spawning embrace (so called
because the male embraces the female
with his body) is the most important
stage of spawning, as it stimulates the
female into releasing eggs and enables
the male to fertilise them.
The male can’t succeed without the
female’s help. Without her cooperation,
the embrace will fail. First, the pair must
orient themselves side by side, facing in
different directions. Then several things
happen at once: The pair curve their
bodies towards one another and then, as
the male pushes against her body, the
female rolls over, belly up. As she rolls,
the male wraps his body around her
belly in a ‘C’ shape, so that his body is
above her with his head and tail hanging
down on either side of her upturned
body. The genius of the spawning
embrace is that it brings the vent of both
fish close together, thereby maximising
the efficiency with which the male’s
sperm can fertilise the females eggs as
they fall. It sounds incredible, but when
both fish get it right, the male’s body
literally locks into position around the
female!
The pair remain locked beneath the
bubblenest in this position for several
seconds, sometimes sinking slowly to
the substrate. It is this embracing
behaviour that causes the female betta to
start releasing eggs, allowing the male to
fertilise them. But females don’t
normally release any eggs during the
first few embraces. As a result, during
the initial embraces the male will
release the female after a few seconds
and quickly go back to displaying to her
to try and encourage her to embrace
again. Most pairs will embrace many
times before any eggs are released.
Practice makes perfect!
Eventually the two bettas will get their
embrace sorted out and eggs will begin
to fall in batches; several during each
embrace. As the female releases the
eggs, the male releases his sperm,
fertilizing the eggs as they fall to the
ground. After each batch of eggs has
been released, the male releases the
female and follows the eggs down
towards the substrate, picking them up in
his mouth as he goes. A good male will
catch all the eggs before they reach the
bottom. Once he has all the eggs, the
male swims back up to the nest and blow
the eggs up into it, where they stick to
the bubbles.
During the embrace the female releases eggs and the
male release sperm to fertilise them © Gianne Souza
While the female goes into a trance, the male quickly
collects all of the falling eggs © Gianne Souza
The male carefully spits the eggs into the bubblenest
before the pair embrace again © Gianne Souza
After potentially several hours and many spawning
embraces, the nest is full of eggs © Gianne Souza
The female will be oblivious to all this
activity because incredibly once the pair
lock into an embrace the female betta
goes into a trance, and will float to the
water surface on her side when the male
releases her, looking for all the world
like she is dead! This is one of the most
fascinating aspects of betta breeding
behaviour. Personally, I suspect that it
evolved to prevent females from eating
their eggs before males could get to them
and put them safely in the nest.
The female is only in a trance for a few
seconds, before she wakes up. At this
point different females behave
differently. Some do nothing, whilst
other swim down and start eating any
eggs the male hasn’t rescued. Some
females actually help the male collect
eggs and blow them into the nest! This is
all very short lived, as once he is
satisfied, the male will start to
encourage the female into another
embrace by doing his ‘S’ shaped dance
and manoeuvring her into position.
Bettas can literally spawn for hours on
end and will generally only stop when
the female’s supply of eggs has run out.
When this point is reached, the male
soon tires of the female’s presence and
will aggressively chase her away from
the nest. This is the end point of the
spawning process. Once she has been
chased off, the female has played her
part and will have nothing more to do
with the male or the fry once they hatch.
In the wild, the female betta would
simply swim away. In the captive
situation, the standard practice is for the
breeder to remove the female from the
spawning tank at this point, for her
safety. If the female is not removed, the
male’s natural instinct to protect the nest
from all potential predators means that
you run the risk of ending up with a dead
female!
So, the female’s work is done. The male,
on the other hand, takes on the job of
looking after the eggs. He works
tirelessly, mouthing the eggs to clean
them, eating any that are infertile or
diseased, and collecting any eggs that
fall from the nest, spitting them back into
it, alongside a few more bubbles to hold
them in place. All the while he keeps an
eye out for any predators, which he will
attack vigorously if they approach too
close to the nest.
When the fry hatch after a day or so they
are tiny and helpless, attached to huge
yolk sacs, which they must absorb
before they will be able to swim
properly. They lie under the bubblenest
with their heads in the bubbles and their
tails dangling down. Again, the male
betta keeps the fry clean and eats any of
them that are deformed of diseased. He
also catches any falling fry and returns
them to the safety of the nest. He
continues to do this until they are free-
swimming (i.e. when they have absorbed
their yolk sacs and can swim
horizontally), at which point the male
leaves his offspring to fend for
themselves.
And there you have it, the amazing
spawning behaviour of Betta splendens.
I should point out that bettas share this
amazing bubblenesting behaviour with a
large number of other fish in the
Anabantoid family (the rest being
mouthbrooders, where the male guards
the fertilised eggs and subsequent young
fry in his mouth).
For me, the most amazing thing about
betta breeding behaviour is that it has
all come about as a result of natural
selection. It blows my mind that such an
elaborate ritual exists for the sole reason
of enabling bettas to choose mates with
good genes for survival, so that those
genes will be passed on to their
offspring.
One of the author’s marble HMPK tending to eggs in
the bubblenest

Stage 7 - Raising the fry


At the end of the day, bettas are not the
most difficult fish in the world to breed,
so if you follow the advice in this book I
have no doubt that you will eventually
reach a point where you have a mass of
betta eggs, all bunched together in a
bubblenest, under the loving care of a
male betta. If this is you, then let me be
the first to congratulate you. You have
passed the first stage!
Unfortunately, stage two is often the
hardest one for new breeders to master,
and certainly the part of betta breeding
that I found hardest to get to grips with
when I first began breeding bettas.
Raising betta fry is all kinds of
challenging!
The most important thing to remember
about raising betta fry is, surprisingly, to
do nothing for a day or two after
spawning is complete. The eggs usually
take a day to hatch (sometimes longer,
depending on water temperature), at
which point the fry will hang vertically
under the bubblenest and begin
absorbing their yolk sac. During this
time they do not need any food at all, so
whatever you do, don’t panic and start
trying to feed them the minute they hatch!
All you will succeed in doing is
polluting the water with decomposing
uneaten food for a day or so, which will
ensure that your fry have the worst
possible start in life.
Be patient and after a couple of days
(sometimes sooner), you will notice the
first of the fry start to sit horizontally in
the water column, usually right beneath
the water surface. This is your green
light to start feeding them, as it means
they have absorbed their yolk sacs and
are ready for their first meal.

Starter foods
There are several options available to
you in terms of first fry foods and
different breeders swear by different
foods. The key requirement of the first
food is that it should be smaller than
newly hatched brineshrimp. Why? Well,
quite simply, this is to maximise the
number of fry you can raise. Breeding
bettas is ultimately a numbers game; the
more fry you produce, the more choice
you will have in terms of fish to use for
the next generation.
Baby brineshrimp (BBS) is the ‘magic
bullet’ solution for raising the fry of a
vast number of tropical freshwater fish
species kept in captivity, and bettas are
no exception – they love it! Indeed, some
breeders feed baby brineshrimp (BBS)
from day one, and say that the fry are
able to pull the shrimp apart no problem
and eat them up in small bites.
Personally I think this depends on the
size of the betta fry you are dealing with.
You see, there is no such thing as a
standard size for betta fry. Some female
bettas produce large eggs that hatch
into large fry that will quite happily
dismember BBS, but other females
produce lots of small eggs that hatch into
tiny fry. If those tiny fry don’t get tiny
food then I guarantee there will be
losses very early on. The solution? Well,
one of the solutions is actually a
solution! A solution of egg yolk, to be
precise. This is a first food commonly
used by betta breeders in Asia. You
simply hard boil an egg, remove the yolk
and then crumble this into water to
produce a yellow solution, full of tiny
egg particles. This solution is then drip
fed (or sprayed, using a mister) into the
fry tank, wherever the fry are
congregated.
The problem with egg yolk solution is
that it goes bad rather quickly, so you
really ought to make a new batch each
time you feed the fry. It’s also worth
making sure that the fry have eaten the
last helping before you feed them again,
to avoid fouling the water. With small
tanks any uneaten yolk solution can
quickly pollute the water.
A good, but less convenient, alternative
to egg yolk solution is to the feed the fry
with infusoria. I know many aquarists
who swear by this as the ultimate live
food for tiny fry. In theory it’s a perfect
fry food: tiny swimming freshwater
aquatic micro-organisms that stay alive
in the tank indefinitely, providing a meal
for the fry every day until they are all
gone. The only problem is that culturing
infusoria is a rather unpleasant
experience, as infusoria cultures tend to
smell awful!
Betta fry are tiny when they first hatch, so they need
appropriately small food in the first few days
Unless you are going to buy a culture, the
quickest way to culture infusoria is to
place a banana skin in a jar of rainwater
on a sunny windowsill. Eventually the
water will become cloudy with infusoria
as the population explodes thanks to the
abundant food in the form of the banana
skin. This solution can then be syphoned
off and fed to the fry, with less fear of
polluting the water in the tank. The
difficulty with infusoria is maintaining a
culture in the long term. When the
population gets too large, the waste
products produced will eventually kill
off the culture, so you end up in a cycle
of continually seeding new cultures with
infusoria from the previous culture. Not
as easy as just boiling an egg, but
potentially worth it if you end up in a
position of having lots of very tiny betta
fry to feed.
Probably the most popular first betta fry
food is microworms. Microworms are a
cinch to keep, thanks to the ready
availability of starter cultures online.
Once you’ve acquired a culture, take a
plastic tub with a tight fitting lid, make
some holes in the lid with a needle
(remember to heat the tip over a flame
first), add COLD porridge to a depth of
about 1 cm and then add your
microworm culture. Within days you
will see thousands of microworms
crawling up the sides of the container,
ready to be fed to your fry. If you want to
put the culture into overdrive, you can
even add yeast to the porridge to speed
things up, although personally I don’t
recommend this as it tends to make the
culture go off sooner, which means more
work for you!
When betta fry eat their bellies get big and turn the
colour of the food you give them - in this case liquid
fry food
Microworms are a great first fry food.
Betta fry LOVE them and they even stay
alive for a relatively long time after you
add them to the fry tank. There’s just one
problem with microworm…
If you overfeed with microworms,
then some, or most likely all, of your
fry will fail to develop ventral fins.
This is far and away the most common
cause of bettas developing without
ventrals. I’ve made this mistake myself
and I see it time and time again on betta
forum spawn logs. Mostly this problem
arises when people feed microworms
exclusively, in large volume, for the first
week. As far as I’m aware no-one has
yet figured out whether the fry actually
lose their ventral fins, or if they simply
fail to grow them. There are several
theories as to how the microworms
cause this effect. To be honest, you don’t
need to know how or why this happens,
only that it does. I can vouch for it
myself. So, what’s the answer? Don’t
feed microworms to your new fry for
more than a few days; and if you do feed
them for longer, make sure you are
feeding them something else at the same
time (e.g. BBS).
Note that there are at least two other
type of worms that you can buy that are
suitable to feed to your fry as first foods.
These are Walter worms and banana
worms. Both are similarly easy to
culture and as far as I know these worms
also cause the ventral fin problem if
overfed.
Interestingly, the lack of ventral fins
from overfeeding microworms is not
heritable. Bettas overfed with
microworms that don’t develop ventral
fins can be spawned together to produce
fry with perfectly normal ventral fins.
This is also something that I have tested
in my fish room. I crossed a male with
no ventrals (pictured on page 114) to his
sister, who also lacked ventral fins. I
decided not to feed the fry any
microworms. Lo and behold every
single one of them went on to grow a
perfect set of ventrals.
Personally I no longer use microworms,
for two reasons: Firstly, I got fed up of
going away for the weekend and coming
home to find my cultures had gone bad
(the smell is horrendous); and secondly I
don’t want to risk producing fry with no
ventrals when you can raise fry perfectly
well without them ever having seen a
single microworm. In fact, I don’t use
yolk solution, infusoria, or microworms,
but please do try all of these for
yourself, as they may be ideal for you.
What do I use instead? A commercial
liquid fry food.
Here in the UK there is a company that
produces a range of liquid fry foods.
These are all liquid suspension foods
that vary in the size of the suspended
particles. The solution with the smallest
particle size is my favourite first food
for raising betta fry. All you have to do
is unscrew the lid, look to see where all
the fry are in the tank and squeeze a drop
of food into that location. Here’s a tip: It
works best if you squeeze the bottle until
the drop sits at the end of the nozzle and
then touch the water surface with the
drop. This causes the food to spread out
across the water surface, where the fry
tend to be resting. If you drop the food
from a height, you run the risk of the
mass of food simply sinking to the floor
of the tank, where the fry will take much
longer to find it, which means more risk
of polluting the tank. A simple trick, but
it is very effective.
Now, some of you will already be
wagging your fingers and saying ‘Hey,
but that’s exactly the same as using yolk
solution!’. I assure you, it’s not. Yolk
solution, as I have said, goes off very
quickly. This commercial liquid fry food
seems to keep for ages. Don’t ask me
why (maybe it contains preservatives),
but one tiny bottle lasts me for months
and the fry are happy to consume the
contents all the while. At the end of the
day, much of fish keeping is about
making things easy for yourself. Liquid
fry food does exactly that. No
preparation and no nasty smells, just
clean, quick and easy fry food.
In my experience, the first few meals are
always the most fraught with nerves, as
there is a fine balancing act to perfect.
You need to provide the fry with food of
a small enough size for them to eat, but
only provide enough food that they get a
decent meal without leaving too much
uneaten food in the tank, which can
quickly pollute the water and kill the fry.
After a day or two of eating suitably sized foods,
your fry will turn into little eating machines!

Of course, too little food is also


undesirable because, although the water
will stay clean, your fry won’t get
enough nutrition for rapid growth, which
is the whole point of these first feeds.
You want to get your tiny fry to grow as
quickly as possible, because they will
then be less fragile and able to take a
wider range of foods that are easier to
manage.
Remember that the filter in the spawning
tank is still not switched on at this stage,
and you can’t turn it on for many more
days, until the fry are strong enough to
cope with the water turbulence. As such,
any food left uneaten will quickly start to
produce a film on the water surface,
which can be the kiss of death to a tank
full of newly hatched fry. It is therefore a
good idea to skim this film off the
surface off your fry tank regularly using
a cup or a net, taking care not to pick up
any fry in the process (more detail on
this later).

Weaning onto baby


brineshrimp
Hopefully after a few days on liquid fry
food/yolk/microworms/infusoria, your
fry will have rewarded you by still
being alive. They should also have
grown noticeably. There really is only
one choice for their next food: newly
hatched brineshrimp. This is, quite
frankly, the ultimate live fry food. Baby
brineshrimp are small enough that your
betta fry will still be able to tear apart,
even if they aren’t yet big enough to eat
the shrimp whole.
Hatching brineshrimp eggs is an art in
itself and the internet is packed with
tutorials and recommendations on how
best to do it. You can even buy special
brine shrimp hatcheries designed
specifically for that purpose! I have
provided details on how I do it later on
under the section entitled ‘How I breed
bettas’. If you’re into keeping things
really simple (as I definitely am) then
you will certainly find this useful.
You should be able to gauge from the
size of the fry whether or not they are big
enough to eat baby brineshrimp. I do,
however, accept that this could be hard
if you’ve never seen one! So, my advice
would be to err on the side of caution
and start feeding baby brineshrimp
(BBS) after three days of feeding your
starter food.
The key thing at this stage is that you
should continue feeding your starter
food, but start adding in the newly
hatched brineshrimp with each feed.
This means that the fry don’t have to
instantly switch to the new food, which
avoids the risk of them not instantly
taking to brineshrimp and starving as a
result. By providing both foods, you
ensure that there is always something for
them to eat, and eventually even the most
reluctant fry will be enticed by the
movement of the live shrimp to take a
bite.

Foods for growth


You can basically use brineshrimp to
feed your fry all the way to adulthood if
you really want, but it could be rather
labour intensive (not to mention
expensive), as an adult betta can eat a
huge number of shrimp!
As a result, most people use brineshrimp
to get their fry to a large enough size so
that they can switch them over to a
combination of dried food, live food and
frozen live food, which will be their
adult diet.
The transition to these other foods is
simple, and usually involves adding
powdered dried food (granules or flake)
to the regular feeds of brineshrimp until
the fry take to the new food type. This
new food is then used to grow the fish to
a size where they can take larger food
particles. Larger and larger food items
are then fed to the growing fry (a.k.a.
growouts) until they are fully grown and
can eat the same food as your adult
bettas. Remember that it is important to
keep the diet varied to allow the fish to
obtain all the nutrients they require for
health and growth.
These betta fry are eagerly munching on baby
brineshrimp
Caring for small fry
When the fry are small (less than 1 cm)
you will need to get into a regular
pattern of siphoning uneaten food, fish
waste and other debris off the floor of
the spawning tank and then topping up
the tank with fresh water of the same
type and temperature. This will maintain
the water quality and also make it easier
for the fry to find food on the floor of the
tank, which will mean that they grow
faster.
A top tip is to add small aquatic snails to
the tank. The important thing is that these
snails need to be small enough that they
won’t predate on your fry. Other than
that, they do an excellent job of cleaning
up uneaten food and, as a bonus, their
faeces encourages the growth of
infusoria in the tank, which provide a
secondary, tiny, source of food for the
fry. A lot of breeders use baby apple
snails Pomacea spp. for this purpose.
Interestingly, this species has been
banned from being imported into the UK
over fears that it could survive in our
climate and have a significant negative
effect on aquatic ecosystems.

Caring for medium fry


By the time the fry have reached 1cm in
length, they should have all of their fins
and be strong enough to cope with the
slight turbulence caused by turning on
the sponge filter so that it bubbles very
gently. Turning on the sponge filter to
bubble very gently at this stage will
further assist you in keeping the tank
water clean, alongside your continued
siphoning of the tank bottom.
Apple snails are the ultimate growout tank vacuum
cleaner. Just remember that big ones like this can eat
fry too.

Caring for larger fry


Once they are 1.5-2 cm in length your fry
should look like miniature adults and are
ready to transfer to a larger growout
tank. Please note that this is just a
guideline size. In cases where you have
a lot (hundreds) of fry, you may need to
move the fry sooner, to give them more
room for growth. Conversely if you have
only managed to raise a handful of fry,
you may well be able to keep them in the
spawning tank longer term.
Generally, you will have between 20
and 100 fry, which is too many to keep
for long in a small spawning tank. Thus,
you will need to move them.
The new tank should be prepared well in
advance of the move and contain (as a
minimum) the same things as the
spawning tank i.e. a heater, fresh (aged)
water, and a filter.
Different breeders have different
preferences when it comes to setting up
a growout tank. I continue to use a bare
tank, but I know several people who
have fully furnished naturalistic set-ups
for their betta growouts, complete with
sand, bogwood, live plants and artificial
lighting. Some of them even add other
community fish such as Corydoras
catfish. Ultimately, the purpose of the
growout tank is to grow your fry up to
adult size. Care of this tank will
generally involve feeding the fish and
performing weekly water changes of at
least 10% of the total volume of water,
cleaning the filter at the same time.
These young plakats already look like miniature
adults
Stage 8 - Culling fry
This is the tricky part. If you breed
bettas successfully, then you will almost
certainly find yourself in the position of
having to cull fry. This may be because
the fry are deformed (e.g. bent spines),
or terminally sick (e.g. dropsy), or can’t
swim properly (e.g. swim bladder
disorder), or simply (and this really
does happen) because you have more
fish than you can care for humanely.
Nobody with a heart likes the idea of
ending the life of another creature, and
for this reason the topic of culling fry is
often surrounded by controversy.
In truth, most serious betta breeders
operate according to the principal that
they are trying to achieve a particular
goal from breeding their fish, and that
any fish they have bred that are not
useful in achieving that goal should not
be maintained in their breeding program
if space is at a premium. This leaves the
breeder with two choices: Cull those
fish that are surplus to requirements, or
pass them on to someone else.
In the case of deformed fish, the decision
to cull is simple, as it is highly unlikely
that anyone else would want such a fish.
The same goes for fish with swim
bladder disorders, as these are fish that
can’t maintain neutral buoyancy and end
up lying on the tank floor looking
miserable.
Sadly, I know of unscrupulous breeders
in the UK who actually sells bettas in
such a condition as ‘special’ fish. Even
worse, people fall for the sob story and
actually part with money to take these
invalids in. I’d love to know what the
professional betta breeders in Asia
would say if they knew that here in the
UK people are paying money for sick
fish!
Where a fish simply doesn’t meet the
requirements of the breeder in terms of
form or colour, but is otherwise healthy,
then clearly the best option is to pass the
fish to someone else, either as a gift or
in exchange for cash; or to a shop,
perhaps in exchange for store credit.
However, when a breeder has limited
space to house fish and no takers for the
spares, then there comes a time when
fish that don’t make the grade have to be
culled in order to make room for new
fish of better quality. It is this latter
situation that causes the most
controversy. Some top breeders are
ruthless about culling and will regularly
cull a spawn of 300 young bettas down
to the 20 best fish. Others can’t bring
themselves to cull at all and will do
everything they can to either keep or
rehome as many fish as possible. Most
people, however, agree that deformed
fish should be culled.
At the end of the day it’s all down to
what you are comfortable with. My only
advice would be to focus on the goals of
your breeding program and don’t feel
forced to keep any fish that won’t help
you reach that goal. Yes it’s nice to give
your fish away, or sell them, but if those
options aren’t available, then culling can
be a useful tool to ensure that you are
only ever working with the best fish
available from your lines.
In terms of culling methods, the most
humane method is to use clove oil.
Clove oil is a sedative readily available
from most chemists which at high doses,
can be used to euthanise small fish.
When exposed to clove oil at a
concentration of 400 mg/l fish quickly
lose consciousness, stop breathing and
die from hypoxia. The clove oil should
be mixed with a little warm water first
before adding it to water containing the
fish slowly, over a 5 minute period. The
fish must remain in the solution for at
least 10 minutes to ensure that it is dead.
A far quicker, and to some more natural,
method of culling is to feed the fish to
another larger fish, or other fish-eating
animal. Breeders I know keep
snakeheads, large cichlids and turtles for
just such a purpose.
Large Central American cichlids like this jaguar
cichlid will make short work of bettas that need to be
culled

Stage 9 - Jarring
Assuming you have at the very least
culled all of the sick and deformed fish
from your spawn, you should now be left
with a bunch of half-grown bettas, some
of which you will already be able to sex.
The process of jarring is exactly as it
sounds: It is the process of removing
individual fish from your growout tank
and isolating them in a jar (or any other
suitable container). This process serves
three purposes. The first is that it allows
you to remove any overly aggressive
individuals (usually, but not always,
males) from the rest of the spawn,
thereby minimising damage to the fins of
your other fish. Secondly, it allows you
to isolate the best fish from the spawn in
terms of form (or colour, or breeding
potential) so that they won’t get damaged
and can be sold to buyers, or used for
breeding, or exhibited at shows
(depending on what you wish to do with
those fish). Thirdly, by isolating each
fish you can control its diet much more
effectively, ensuring that it is getting the
best food without having to compete
with its siblings, which will often result
in faster growth. It is a good idea to
place a card between each jar to prevent
the jars’ occupants seeing one another.
This will prevent exhaustion from
constant flaring!
As with all other aspects of betta
keeping, breeders vary in their approach
to jarring bettas. For example, if the goal
is to raise some fish with good genetics
to breed together and make the next
generation of bettas, then a few fin nips
won’t matter too much; you may as well
keep the whole spawn together, only
jarring the most aggressive individuals.
On the other hand, if the plan is to sell
the fish, then you will probably want to
jar all the fish that are likely to fetch a
good price, as buyers will definitely pay
more for a fish with undamaged fins. For
anyone breeding their fish to compete in
shows, the most important thing is to jar
any fish that look like they might
blossom into show champions.

These small jars are used by the author to transport


bettas to shows - much easier than using plastic
bags!

Jarring is a somewhat controversial


topic here in the UK, because people are
(in some cases rightly) concerned that
keeping bettas in unfiltered small
containers goes against the principles of
animal welfare. Personally, I don’t see
how anyone could breed bettas in this
country without jarring young males.
Spawns regularly run into the hundreds
of eggs, and with careful husbandry most
of the resulting fry will survive. It is
often stated that a minimum tank volume
in which one should keep a single betta
is 19 litres (5 gallons), but I guarantee
that no-one has the space to give every
fry that much water to live in.
In my humble opinion, providing that the
jars are cleaned regularly and the
breeder keeps on top of water changes,
there is absolutely nothing wrong with
jarring bettas. In fact it is far more
‘humane’ than trying to grow a whole
spawn to adulthood in one big tank, as
the fish will take far less of a beating as
a result of aggressive behaviour. It is
worth remembering that jars come in
many different sizes. In my fishroom I
use small jars when jarring small bettas
and large 3.5 litre jars for adults.
Although it is illegal in the UK to put
two male fighters in the same tank, I’d
like to see someone raise a betta spawn
without arriving at this situation at some
stage of the process! The ethical
arguments for giving bettas plenty of
space and not intentionally putting male
bettas together to fight are, of course,
very sound, but in practice there aren’t
any breeders who don’t grow males and
females from the same spawn up
together in the same tank. Individuals are
jarred as needed to manage aggression
or preserve fin condition.
This young male HMPK, bred by the author, has
been ‘jarred’ to prevent his siblings causing damage
to his fins
Stage 10 - Deciding what to
do with all those bettas!
Once you have begun jarring your betta
growouts, you will rapidly run into the
most common problem for those of us
who breed bettas: You will start to run
out of space (and time) to keep all those
fish in all those jars!
Now don’t get me wrong, having too
many beautiful bettas is a lovely
problem to have, but bear in mind that a
single betta spawn can leave you with
literally hundreds of fry, which
translates into hundreds of adult fish.
The bottom line is that no-one has the
resources to keep every fish they breed,
even if they really, really, really want to!
So, what’s the solution? Well, sadly, you
will have to get rid of some of your fish,
but you need to be careful about how you
do this.
The most important thing is to make sure
that you keep any fish from the spawn
that are going to be useful in achieving
your breeding goals. Here I am talking
about those fish with either the best
form, or the best colour, or those females
that look like they will produce a lot of
eggs (remember that breeding bettas is
as much about the number of fry per
spawn as it is about the form of the
parents).
Once you have decided on which fish
you definitely need to keep in your
breeding program (this will of course
depend on how much space and time you
have), then the rest of the spawn can go.
The simplest way to offload surplus
bettas is to give them away. Most
aquatic stores will very eagerly take free
fish off your hands, because when they
sell them on they know they will make
100% profit!
If you decide to give fish away, a better
solution is to give them to another betta
enthusiast. This is a nice way to ensure
that your betta line is kept alive in other
peoples’ tanks (in case something
happens to your stock) and it is also a
great way to make some new friends. If
you wish to look further afield, then
placing an advert in an online fish forum
or a local classified ads paper will
quickly turn up people eager to take your
surplus bettas off your hands.
If you aren’t keen to give your fish away
for free (after all, by this stage you will
have invested a lot of time and money in
them yourself), then another option is to
exchange your fish for store credit at
your local aquatics store. Giving away
your fish in exchange for store credit is a
great way to save money on the cost of
keeping your breeding program running.
The final option is, of course, to sell
your fish for money. This is easily
achieved, using the same resources that
you yourself probably made use of when
you first bought your bettas. For starters,
the internet is a fish breeder’s best
friend. There are myriad auction
websites, social media pages and
fishkeeping forums that are all set up to
enable you to post photographs or
videos and sell your bettas. If you are
web-savvy, you could even set up your
own website to sell fish from; or create
a Facebook page. Nowadays, to sell
your fish online, all you need is a smart
phone with a camera and an internet
connection. If you go down the online
route, you will generally have the choice
of having people come to your home to
buy the fish directly, or you will have to
post them to the buyer (note however
that there may be restrictions in your
country on what you can and cannot send
in the post).
Assuming you live somewhere where
posting bettas is allowed, then the
simplest way to post your fish is as
follows. Take a plastic fish bag
(generally long and thin bags work best)
and pour in water from your betta’s tank
until the water is around 5 cm deep.
Now catch your betta in a net and add it
to the water in the bag. Open the mouth
of the bag to allow air into it and then
grab the bag at the top firmly in a fist to
trap the air inside. Wrap your other hand
round the bag (below your fist) and run
this hand down the length of the bag,
keeping a tight grip, to push the air
down, making the bag expand with the
trapped air until it is rigid. Maintain
your grip on the bag to keep the trapped
air in place (you may find it easier if you
twist the neck of the bag) and then
release the other hand.
NOTE: Never, ever, breathe into a
fish bag to make it rigid, as you are
basically filling the bag with carbon
dioxide from your lungs, which will kill
the fish, as it will rapidly run out of
oxygen.
The next step is to check how much air
your have trapped in the bag. The aim is
to end up with a situation where the
water in the bag occupies one third of
the volume and the air you have trapped
occupies the other two thirds, so you
may need to carefully release some air
from the bag to reach this point. One this
point is reached, twist the neck of the
bag to make a cord and tie a knot in the
bag, at the top of the trapped air. Push
the knot gently downward to maintain the
air pressure in the bag.
This first bag should then be turn upside
down gently, moving the water and betta
to the knotted end. It should then be
pushed to the bottom of a second bag of
the same size (running a chopstick down
the inside, between the two bags, will
help with this, as it allow air in the
second bag to escape). This provides a
backup in case the first bag has a hole in
it (or develops a hole in transit). It also
provides another layer around the fish,
which will help keep the water warm.
The second bag is tied, with the knot
now at the bottom of the first bag. Again,
you want to try and maintain the air
pressure in the bag. The act of knotting
the second bag will ‘pinch in’ the
corners of the first bag, leaving your
betta in a nice rounded capsule (so it
can’t get stuck in a corner and
asphyxiate) containing one third water
and two thirds air.
Depending on how many fish you are
posting, you will need to repeat the
bagging process for every fish.
The next step is to wrap each bag in
newspaper to prevent the fish seeing
each other and also to provide yet more
insulation to keep the heat in. The
newspaper-wrapped bags are then
placed into a cardboard box lined with
polystyrene that has been carefully cut to
size to ensure there are no air gaps. The
polystyrene has two functions: Keeping
the bags warm; and protecting the bags
from being impaled by any sharp objects
in transit. Once the bags are in the box,
any remaining space in the box should be
padded with more newspaper, or any
other light packing material, before the
polystyrene lid is put in place and the
box is sealed ready for posting.
In cold weather, it may be necessary to
place a 24 hour (or longer) heat pack
wrapped in newspaper in the box with
the bags, to keep them warm for the
duration of the journey. These are
readily available online (often sold as
disposable hand warmers).
A small polystyrene box of bettas within a larger box
- the bettas are all double-bagged and wrapped in
newspaper
My method for breeding
bettas
My betta breeding process is pretty
straightforward. It sits somewhere
between the more simplistic methods
adopted in farms in the Far East and
some of the more complex methods
employed in the West, where we have to
cope with reduced access to good betta
stocks and are therefore prone to being
overly cautious when it comes to
spawning our fish.
Hopefully, by sharing my method with
you, I will achieve two things. Firstly,
for those of you who are new to betta
breeding, I hope to convince you that
spawning bettas can be easy - the most
important skill is patience! Secondly,
for those of you who already have some
(or a lot!) of experience with breeding
bettas, I hope that sharing my method
will give you something to think about
and perhaps help you to improve your
own success.
I have said it many times already, but the
key to keeping and breeding bettas
successfully is to identify what works
best FOR YOU, to get the result you
want. Once you have a method that
works, stick to it! If you try these
methods and they don’t work for you,
then change them until they do, or consult
the next section - which is all about
other methods - and see if they are a
better fit. My method fits my lifestyle
and the amount of time I have available
to spend on my bettas. If I had more
time, or space, or money, then I would
probably do things differently, but I think
that’s the point: You can breed bettas
(and good ones at that) on ANY budget.
I truly believe that.
So, let me tell you how I breed my
bettas...

Temperature
First off, let’s cover the basics. My
bettas are all kept in one room of my
house, the fishroom, which is space-
heated by a storage radiator. The
radiator is on a timer plug that switches
it on during my electricity provider’s
off-peak economy tariff time, in order to
keep the bills down. Basically, the
radiator heats up the bricks inside it,
which store the heat, overnight and then
the heat is released from the bricks over
the course of the day. What this means is
that my fish room starts the day very
warm around 27˚C and then slowly
loses heat over the course of the day to
around 25˚C at night.
The next things you need to know is that
there is a window in the fish room that
faces west and so receives a small
amount of direct sunlight in the
afternoons (when the English weather is
kind enough to deliver sunshine!). This
sunlight has the effect of elevating the
temperature inside the fish room in the
afternoons on sunny days.
The third point I want to make about
temperature, is that because the radiator
is at ground level and heat rises, the
temperature near the ceiling in my fish
room is a few degrees warmer than near
the floor.
To summarise, the temperature in my
fishroom fluctuates a great deal on a
daily basis, and is strongly affected by
the weather. This has an important
impact on my betta breeding process.
Firstly, because the temperature is higher
in the upper sections of the room, the
majority of my spawning tanks are on the
top two shelves of a shelving unit that
sits to the right of the window in the
fishroom. This was a calculated
decision on my part, based on the fact
that an increase in temperature is one of
several spawning triggers in bettas.
Having the spawning tanks on the top
two shelves means that when I introduce
my breeders (usually from cups or small
containers) into the spawning tanks to
breed, they will experience a slight
increase in water temperature, which
will hopefully encourage them to spawn.

Spawning tanks
My spawning tanks are a mixture of
plastic tubs (remember the refrigerator
vegetable trays I mentioned earlier?) and
small glass tanks. Whatever container I
am using, they all measure roughly 25
cm long x 20 cm high x 20 cm wide. I
find that this size works well for me,
providing enough space for females to
escape the aggressive courtship of males
without allowing the male to completely
lose the female (and lose interest in
spawning).
When I am setting up a spawn, the first
step is to completely drain the spawning
tank, add a tablespoon of salt and some
hot water to it, and give it a good scrub.
Household vinegar is also perfect for
this. The reason for cleaning the tank is
to remove any leftover detritus (and in
some cases the cysts of disease causing
protozoa) from previous spawns. Once I
am happy that the spawning tank is
clean, I pour in aged water to a height of
10 cm.
I use aged tap water for all my fish. In
Cambridge our tap water is very hard
and a little over pH 7, with a relatively
high nitrate concentration. Whilst this is
perhaps less than ideal, my bettas live in
it just fine. In the fish room I have a 100
litre (22 gallon) plastic water butt
containing a submerged aquarium heater
set to 26˚C. I fill this up regularly with
water from the cold tap and then use it
for water changes once the water is up to
temperature.
After adding water to the spawning tank,
I add a row of fine-leaved plastic
aquarium plants to the back of the tank,
which will provide the female and
subsequent fry with a hiding place. I use
plastic plants because they don’t break
down in the water, can’t harbour
anything that might harm the fry, and are
easy to wash between spawns.
Next I add a small sponge filter (which
remains off until any fry are at least 7mm
in length), half an Indian almond leaf
(for its antibiotic properties), a 6cm x
6cm square of bubble-wrap (the nesting
site), and a lid.
I cut most of the lids on my spawning
tanks myself from a sheet of acrylic, but
I sometime use either a small towel
(good if the pair is easily spooked by
your presence), or one of those plastic
condensation trays they sell in fish
shops, trimmed to size.
Introducing the pair
Having set up the spawning tank, I
introduce the male into the tank. As
most of my breeding males are kept in
large jars, I prefer to do this by gently
scooping the fish out of its jar by hand.
My bettas are used to being
manhandled, as I do the same when
transferring them to new jars whenever I
need to clean their old ones!
Once the male is in the spawning tank, I
give him a few minutes to get used to his
surroundings and find the bubble wrap.
Then I add the female to the tank. I let
the pair interact for a brief moment
before placing a clear plastic spawning
chimney over the female. This chimney
serves three very important functions: It
protects the female from being attacked
by the male during the time he should be
concentrating on building a bubblenest;
it allows the male to see the female,
thereby encouraging him to court her
through the plastic and build the
bubblenest in the first place; and it
allows the male to pick up chemical
cues produced by the female that tell him
she is ready to breed and vice versa
(hence the holes in the chimney).
With the female in the tube, I watch the
behaviour of both fish to work out
whether or not they are interested in one
another. I look for all the behavioural
signs that tell me the two fish are
interested in each other as prospective
mates:

the female should show clear


vertical bars (unless she has a pale
body colour) and should flare her
gills at the male through the plastic
and spread her fins.
the male should put on his best
courtship display for the female,
circling the tube with erect fins,
fanning his ventral fins and
generally looking pretty
spectacular!
between bouts of display, the male
should seek out the bubble wrap
and begin to build a bubblenest.
If I see these behaviours, then I know
there is a good chance that the fish will
spawn.
Waiting for the bubblenest
Now the pressure is on the male to do
his bit and construct a bubblenest. No
bubblenest means no spawn, so this is a
crucial phase.
Some males blow large nests that almost
cover the water surface of the spawning
tank, others barely produce a nest at all.
Either way most males indicate that the
nest is ready (at least in their eyes) when
they start spending more time courting
the female in the spawning chimney and
less time adding bubbles to the nest.
I usually put my pairs together in the
afternoon and give the male the rest of
the day and overnight to build his nest,
checking in the morning to see if he has
done his job.

Releasing the female and


spawning
Assuming the male has built a nest by the
following morning, I release the female
from her tube and pretty much let nature
take its course. I go to work for the day
and hope that I will come home to a nest
full of eggs being tended by the male,
and a relatively unscathed female hiding
for safety in the plastic plants. Believe it
or not, this is what works for me. A lot
of people advise against leaving
spawning bettas unattended, but the key
is to know your fish and in doing so, be
able to predict how they will behave. I
would never leave overly aggressive
bettas together to spawn without keeping
watch because to do so would be
foolhardy. For the most part I manage to
choose pairs that are evenly matched and
ready to breed, with the result that
neither fish gets seriously injured.

Removing the female


Once I have eggs in the nest I remove the
female to prevent her eating her own
eggs or getting injured by an over-
protective male. She is returned to her
previous accommodation, which will
have been cleaned out thoroughly and
refreshed with new clean water. If the
female’s fins are damaged I add a
teaspoon of 100% salt solution to the
container, along with a 2cm x 2cm piece
of Indian almond leaf.

Leaving the male with the


fry
Whilst the majority of information you
will find on betta breeding recommends
leaving the male to tend nest, eggs and
resulting fry up until the fry start to swim
horizontally, I am a firm believer in
leaving the male with the fry for much
longer if possible. I say “if possible”
because some males are prone to eating
their fry once they start free-swimming
and as such have to be removed.
Some males are amazing fathers. In my
experience males are an excellent judge
of fry strength and as a result do a great
job of eating any infertile of fungus
covered eggs, and culling the weakest
fry. If left with their offspring, males
will also hoover up any uneaten food
that the fry don’t eat, thereby reducing
the speed at which the water becomes
polluted through a build-up of
decomposing food. This saves me
having to syphon the food out manually
(although this can’t be completely
avoided) and works better than using
aquatic snails to carry out this job, as
larger snails can (and do) eat very young
fry. Don’t worry, the snails become
REALLY important later on!
It is my belief that fry that grow up with
their father grow at a faster rate than
those which don’t. I sadly haven’t got
any solid data to support this - it’s just a
gut feeling - but I would be interested to
hear if anyone else has observed the
same effect. I have heard similar
anecdotes about fry being reared with
guppies growing faster than those kept
only with their siblings. It seems to me
that this increased growth rate may have
something to do with the male (or the
guppies) keeping the tank floor cleaner
and thereby making it easier for fry to
find food, as opposed to sifting through
detritus. So, by now I have eggs in the
bubblenest, I have removed the female
and I am planning to leave the male with
the eggs and fry indefinitely.
The eggs usually hatch after a day or so
and the fry hang from the bubblenest
vertically. For the next couple of days
the fry will not require feeding as they
are living on the contents of their yolk
sac. Once this supply of energy has been
depleted, the fry will begin to sit
horizontally in the water, and swim
around. Now I’m ready to start feeding
them.

Raising the fry


Having learned how to breed bettas
coming from a background of breeding
Central American cichlids (where in
most cases the fry can be fed crushed
flake foods), it was a serious challenge
for me to learn how to deal with such
small fry. I tried everything from
microworms, to infusoria, to boiled egg
yolk with very limited success. In the
end, as I mentioned above, I found a
very
effective and simple solution in the form
of commercial liquid fry food (a.k.a. the
lazy man’s boiled egg yolk solution).
Rather than drop the food into the water
from a height, I have found that the fry
find the food more easily if you let a
drop form at the end of the nozzle and
then just touch the water surface with the
drop. This causes the food to spread
across the water surface a little way
before it starts to sink. Because betta fry
tend to hang out just below the water
surface, this makes it easier for the fry to
find the food. It also stops the food
falling as one big clump, which is far too
big for the fry to eat, and instead causes
the drop to break up into tiny particles,
which is perfect.
I put a drop in each corner of the fry tank
and one in the middle twice a day
(morning and night) and after two days
the fry are usually ready for me to start
combining baby brineshrimp with the
liquid fry food. It is easy to tell that they
are eating it because their bellies get fat
and are white in colour, because the
food is white.
Baby brine shrimp
Unlike many breeders, I don’t bother
with microworms at all. Instead I try to
get the fry eating baby brineshrimp as
fast as possible, as I’m a firm believer
that even tiny fry are capable of biting
chunks off any baby brineshrimp too
large to fit in their mouth. I usually start
my brine shrimp hatchery going on the
second day I feed the liquid fry food (it
usually takes at least 24 hours for the
shrimp to start hatching in my fish room).
My brine shrimp hatcheries are a very
simple affair: I cut the bottom quarter off
empty 2 litre plastic bottles, turn the top
three quarters of the bottle upside down
(with the lid firmly screwed on) and
push them into the bottom sections that I
cut off, so that they stand vertical; I then
tape around the point where the two
parts of the bottle meet to fasten them
together permanently. To each hatchery I
add 25 g of rock salt, 1 level teaspoon of
brineshrimp eggs (labelled as 85% hatch
rate or above) and water from my water
butt, until the top of the water sits 3 cm
below the top of the hatchery. Lastly, I
add an air stone to keep the eggs and
water moving around. After a day the
eggs start to hatch and I harvest the brine
shrimp by removing the airstone, waiting
for the shrimp to fall to the bottom of the
hatchery (the neck of the bottle) from
where I siphon them up using a syringe
with a length of airline tubing attached to
the nozzle. I sieve the brine shrimp from
the salt water using a brine shrimp sieve
and then swirl the sieve in the tank to
feed the fry. Each batch usually lasts me
up to three days. In between batches of
brine shrimp I keep the fry going with
liquid fry food and a finely crushed
dried food. Usually the spawning tanks
build up a natural population of
microorganisms that will tide the fry
over in any case.
One of the author’s home made brine shrimp
hatcheries, complete with brine shrimp sieve and
harvesting syringe

Cleaning
From day one, I monitor the tank floor to
make sure the detritus doesn’t build up
too much. The aim is to keep the bare
bottom of the tank as clean as possible,
so that the fry can easily find any food
you feed them that falls to the floor. This
makes sense: If the fry have to spend a
lot of energy searching for food, then this
is energy they can’t then use for growth –
and above all at this stage you want them
to grow! The bigger you can get them,
the more likely it will be that they will
survive to adulthood.
Keeping the tank floor clean requires a
regular regime of siphoning waste away
and replenishing the lost water with new
fresh water. To siphon the fry tanks I use
a long length of airline tubing fastened to
a chopstick in three places using a
rubber band (high tech or what?). When
they are small, the fry are very
vulnerable to shock, so I always try to
pour the replacement water into the tank
as slowly as possible to avoid causing
too much turbulence.
It’s not just the floor of the tank that gets
dirty. The surface of the water gets dirty
too. It is very common for a film to form
on the surface of the water as a result of
uneaten food floating there. I remove this
film whenever I see it using a plastic
cup. The process is simple: I take the
cup and, holding it at a 45˚ angle, I
lower it into the water slowly until the
lip of the cup is level with the water
surface, but the cup is still empty. Then I
push the cup down a little bit, which
makes the water flow into the cup, along
with the unwanted greasy film. The
technique does require a little practice,
but once you’ve got it down it is easy to
remove the film without accidentally
removing any fry. Having said that, I still
check the plastic cup every time before I
empty it in case there are any fry in
there!

Weaning on to dried foods


Once the fry get to around 7mm in length
I usually take out the male and start to
wean the fry onto crushed dried food. I
generally use a red granular fish food
rich in astaxanthin pigment, which
promotes colour, although sometimes I
also feed the fry with decapsulated brine
shrimp eggs. In both cases it is easy to
tell if the fry are eating the food because
their stomachs are fat and either red or
orange in colour. Once I am happy that
the fry are eating these foods, this
becomes their staple diet until they are
around 1.5-2 cm. I’ve found that the
easiest way to crush dried foods to feed
to fry is to buy a plastic pepper mill, fill
it with the dried food and twist the mill
over the fry tank to dispense the crushed
food. Once the fry are eating this staple
diet of dried foods I also occasionally
add small frozen live foods such as
cyclops or brine shrimp.

Apple snails
At this stage the fry should have fully
developed their air-breathing apparatus
(the labyrinth organ) and should be
swimming well, so I do two things to the
tank to help with keeping it clean.
Firstly, I add one or two small apple
snails to eat any the uneaten food; and
secondly I turn on the small sponge filter
(running very gently, with just a small
stream of bubbles) to filter the water.

Transferring the fry to the


growout tank
Once the fry reach 1-1.5 cm in size, I
transfer the whole batch to a 60cm x
30cm x 40cm tank containing nothing but
clean water and a filter, to grow them to
adulthood.

More varied food


After this point anything goes really in
terms of food. The only thing I am very
careful about is not giving the fry any
foods that are too large for them to eat,
as bettas can and do choke to death on
food. Once they are over 2cm my bettas
get dried pellets and flake; frozen
bloodworm, Mysis shrimp and beef-
heart; live mosquito larvae and daphnia;
and my own home-made frozen betta
food. I sometimes wonder if all this
variety is for the bettas or for me! I
would get so bored of feeding them the
same food day in day out, but from what
I have read, some of the best breeders
swear by doing precisely that, especially
those breeding giant bettas. Food for
thought!

More cleaning!
Having covered all the angles relating to
food, the only thing stopping my bettas
growing big and strong is the cleanliness
of their water. For me this is more a
factor of the time I have available in
between doing my day job and having a
some semblance of a social life. To be
completely honest, I go through cycles of
being really good with my water changes
and of being completely hopeless.
What this has shown me is this: If you
want to grow bettas quickly then you
need to be able to commit to doing large
water changes on a very regular basis. If
you don’t then you will have to wait
longer for your fish to grow (especially
with some of the more fragile
domesticated betta strains).
That pretty much wraps it up. It’s just an
ongoing cycle of feeding and cleaning
until its time to start jarring my future
show fish and breeders. The remainder
are either given away or sold.
Other Methods for Breeding
Bettas
Now that you know my method for
breeding bettas, I hope that you will be
able to take some useful ideas from it
and apply them to your own method.
Next I want to tell you about another
equally (or maybe even more) successful
method for breeding bettas.
The method I am about to share is
deceptively simple and requires only
space, and a room of the correct air
temperature. This is the method is used
by many of the Asian betta farms and
relies heavily on having a lot of bettas to
start with, as the success of this method
is largely a numbers game. The more
bettas you have, the higher your chances
of success with this method, and the
greater the rewards.
I learned about this method from
watching online videos posted by Asian
betta farms. The system works as
follows: Rows of large plastic bowls
are laid out on the floor. Each bowl is
filled with water, and a male betta is
placed in each bowl. Often a nesting site
is added to the bowl in the form of an
Indian almond leaf or a clump of aquatic
plants such as Java moss. The males are
left in the bowls for the rest of the day
and the next day a female betta is added
to any of the bowls in which the male
has built a bubble nest. The pairs are
then left to spawn. As there are so many
bettas involved, there is little concern as
to whether or not the females end up a
little shredded.
A batch of adult fish ready to be sorted into breeding
bowls or isolated individually into bottles © The
Majcha
The bowls containing pairs of bettas are
checked every day for eggs in the
bubblenest. When eggs are present, the
female is removed and the male is left to
tend the eggs and newly hatched fry.
Once the fry are swimming horizontally,
the male is removed and the fry are
transferred to a large concrete pond that
has been prepared previously by filling
it with water, treating the water with
lime to kill pathogens, and then seeding
with fertiliser to encourage algae
growth. After being left for several days,
these ponds also build up large
populations of aquatic organisms that the
fry will eventually feed on, such as
mosquito larvae.
The young fry from all the bowls are
added to the same pond, where they feed
on algae and microorganisms and then
progress on to eating the larger aquatic
organisms.
Because the weather in these Asian
countries is suitably warm and humid,
and the fry have an endless supply of
nutritious food, they grow very quickly.
Once they are big enough, the farm staff
start feeding the growing bettas on
commercial fish foods to boost their
growth until they are close to being big
enough to sell. At this point, all the fish
are netted out and jarred into hundreds
and hundreds of empty glass bottles used
for spirits. These bottles are arranged in
long rows sitting on the concrete. Each
bottle has a horizontal cut made on one
side, at the shoulder. This cut is too
narrow for the fish to fit through and
allows water changes to be carried out
really quickly by simply spraying water
from a hose into the neck of the bottle.
This washes the old water and any
detritus out of the hole at the shoulder,
replacing it with the new fresh water.
Each time the farmer wants to change the
water in all the bottles, he simply walks
along each row with the hose, spraying
each bottle in turn. It’s a genius system.
Concrete ponds used for growing out fry on a Thai
betta farm © The Majcha
After jarring, the fish are examined and
any low quality fish are either culled or
sold in bulk to pet stores. The rest are
raised individually, with daily feeding
and water changes, before being sorted
in terms of their quality and then sold.
This method results in a very high yield
of bettas, as fry from multiple spawns of
the same age are combined and raised
together. The high volume also improves
the chance of producing a higher
percentage of fish with good form (i.e.
fish that will ultimately be more
valuable either to the breeder or a
prospective customer). The downside is
that, as a direct result of combining
several spawns, it is becomes
impossible to know the genetic
background of each betta for sale, as it is
impossible to know which parent fish
produced which fry. This is especially
true when there is a lot of genetic
variation in the pairs used for spawning
in the first place.
In terms of other methods for breeding
bettas, everything else I have found is
either a variation of the method I myself
use or a variation of the method that I
have outlined above.
Close up of glass bottles used to house bettas in
their hundreds © The Majcha

Common variations involving the nesting


site (other than using bubble wrap)
include using an Indian almond leaf,
using half a polystyrene cup, using
floating aquatic plants, or simply leaving
a piece of polystyrene floating on the
water surface. Different breeders vouch
for each of these methods as being the
best. In truth, they all work as well as
each other, but bear in mind that if you
obtain a male that has been bred before,
it would be worth finding out which type
of nesting site the breeder used
previously, as using the same type will
improve your chances of getting the male
to spawn again.
Interestingly, I read in Walt Maurus’
book about an experiment to see if bettas
preferred to use a spawning site of a
particular colour. The experiment he
quotes in the book found that male bettas
preferred to spawn under a yellow
spawn site, and suggested that this was
because the light passing through such
spawning sites mimicked that of a
floating plant found in the bettas’ natural
habitat. So in theory bettas instinctively
prefer a yellow spawning site.
When I was eighteen years old I carried
out my own experiment to test this
theory, as part of a school biology
project. I bought nine male veiltails and
one female and set up a bare test
aquarium. Into the centre of this
aquarium I placed a large glass jar full
of water that contained the female betta.
I also added four Petri dish lids which
were coloured red, blue, green and
yellow by having a circle of coloured
acetate taped to the top. The four lids
floated on the water surface. The
experiment ran as follows. I introduced
each male into the experimental tank and
watch to see which Petri dish lid he
would choose to build his bubblenest
under once he had started courting the
female in the jar. Each male was given a
few minutes to explore the tank and then
I recorded which of the lids he chose as
his bubblenest site. The results were
very clear. Over repeated tests all nine
males chose to build under the yellow
lid significantly more times than any
other colour of lid. This is worth bearing
in mind if you are running out of ideas to
convince your male to build a nest!
Another common variation in method is
in terms of the refuge provided for the
female betta. Some breeders swear by
filling the tank with plants in which the
female can hide. Other breeders have
tremendous success simply by placing an
upside down terracotta plant pot in the
centre of the spawning tank. They
maintain that it is enough to allow the
female to be out of the male’s line of
sight, rather than allowing her to hide
completely. Other breeders use small
plastic tubes as hiding places for the
female. Again, you can be as creative as
you like, as long as it works.
Breeders also vary in the following:
Whether or not they put the male in the
spawn tank first or the female first; how
high they have the water level for
spawning; whether or not they light the
spawning tank (some breeders cover the
tanks and block out all light, others
illuminate the tank day and night); and
whether they use a solid jar to present
the female to the male, or a container
with holes in it. It seems that for every
variation there is a breeder who has
made it work time and time again.
Because betta breeding is so subjective,
I would always recommend that you
experiment in order to find out what
works best for you.

The best bettas in the


world?
At the time of writing, the best bettas in
the world are produced in Asia. This is
largely due to the scale of the breeding
facilities over there and not because
there are any major difference in the
skill of Asian versus other breeders.
Sure, breeding requires skill in selecting
which two fish to spawn, but after that it
is a numbers game: The more fish you
can produce, the more fish you have to
choose from to make the next generation.
Thus an Asian betta farmer has a huge
advantage over someone whose entire
betta breeding facility consists of a few
glass aquaria. This said, the rest of the
world is catching up, as more and more
people fall for bettas and learn what it
takes to breed a world-class fish.
The Asian method may seem simple, but the results
speak for themselves! © The Majcha
Troubleshooting betta
breeding
I would be the first to admit that these
days I am a bit blasé about the actual
spawning event. After I have released
the female from her spawning tube, I
usually leave the pair to their own
devices all day, whilst I am at work.
Some people (the control freaks
amongst you?) might be horrified to hear
this because, as I have already pointed
out, spawning can be a very dangerous
time for bettas.
What you need to remember is that I
have already assessed the pair’s
behaviour towards one another prior to
releasing the female from her spawning
chimney, so I have a good idea whether
or not they are compatible (i.e. whether
or not they are likely to try and kill one
another while I’m out!). Please
understand that I would never leave two
fish together all day if I knew that one of
them was clearly not interested in
spawning. This would be a guaranteed
disaster.
As a result of having kept and bred all
kinds of tropical fish for many years, I
am thankfully pretty good at reading fish
behaviour, so it is not unusual for me to
come home from work to find that the
pair has spawned successfully, with the
female betta hiding safely in the plastic
plants and the male guarding a nest full
of eggs. If the fish haven’t spawned on
the first day and it looks like the female
is good at getting away from the male
(and still barred up ready to spawn),
then I simply leave the pair together for
longer, as they will often spawn the next
day, or the one after that.
After three days I re-assess whether or
not the pair is compatible. If the two fish
still show signs of wanting to spawn, I
often leave them together for up to a
week before giving up on the spawning
attempt. The reason for this is that often
the smallest change in the weather (an
environmental factor beyond my control)
can be the trigger for the fish to finally
spawn. This patient approach has paid
off for me and resulted in successful
spawns on many occasions.
It all sounds so simple: Release the
female; go to work; come home; count
the eggs! And sometimes it really is that
simple, but who am I trying to kid? The
road to successful betta breeding is often
far from smooth and there are many (so,
so many) things that can go wrong. These
problems are sent to test us as breeders
and we have to be pretty inventive if we
are to overcome them and achieve
spawning success. Luckily, people have
been breeding bettas for a long, long
time, so the chances are that if something
goes wrong, there is someone out there
who knows a simple solution.
In the next few paragraphs I am going to
share some of the more common
problems that all breeders face when
trying to successfully spawn bettas
(hopefully in the order that they usually
occur), along with a variety of
solutions that you can try in order to
overcome them.
Before we get stuck into the nitty gritty
of troubleshooting the spawning process
I just want to say one thing:
The most important thing about
spawning bettas is to KNOW YOUR
FISH! Learn the behaviour of the
individual fish you are trying to spawn
and you will learn how to provide for
those fish in order to help them
succeed.
Clear enough? Okay, so here it is, my list
of the top ten things that can go wrong
when spawning bettas…

ONE: The male shows no


interest in the female
If the female is visible to the male
(inside a spawning tube or equivalent
transparent container) and the male is
not displaying to her within ten minutes
of being added to the spawning tank then
there is definite cause for concern. Most
male bettas go crazy for female bettas
whenever they see one!
Often males will take a little while to get
going immediately after they have been
added to a spawning tank, as there is
always an element of shock resulting
from being netted (or scooped) out of
their normal housing and deposited into
the spawning tank. In addition, the
spawning tank will usually contain
fresher water and may also be of a
slightly different temperature. Plus
there’s the fact that the spawning tank
environment will be strange to the male
compared to what he’s used to.
Basically, you should always give a
male a few minutes to get his bearings
and explore the spawning tank before
you start to worry that he won’t be up to
the job.
The general consensus is that males that
don’t respond to females are usually
either too old, out of condition, or just
plain unusual in that they have a low
libido. Of course, some males are a
combination of all three factors!
It all comes back to my point about
knowing your fish. If you have properly
conditioned the male and observed his
behaviour, then you will know long
before he ever reaches the spawning
tank whether or not he is in the right
condition for spawning. You should
certainly have already ruled out the
possibility of illness, which leaves us
with age and libido as possible culprits.
I’m not sure I buy into the idea that
males are too old to spawn (unless they
are old to the extent that they can’t swim
and display properly, or something
obvious like that). Yes, most people
breed bettas when they are between 3
and 7 months old, but males much older
than this will happily breed assuming
they are in good condition. Again, if you
have observed your male you will be
able to see how energetic he is and
hazard a guess as to whether or not he
has the vigour to survive spawning. An
easy test is to hold a mirror up to your
male. If he starts attacking his reflection
vigorously, then the chances are he has
the energy to spawn, regardless of his
age!
Low libido is an interesting one. Yes,
okay, in some cases this could be down
to the fish’s age, but also it appears that
particular betta lines and particular
colours of betta vary in terms of their
‘sex drive’. Red bettas are famously
aggressive and hence often present a
different problem of being too
aggressive during spawning. Other
varieties are far less driven. There are
plenty of accounts online from breeders
who were amazed at how gentle their
bettas are when spawning, with both
partners emerging without a single torn
fin.
The best advice when dealing with a
male that has low libido, is to isolate
him for a few days (or weeks, if
necessary), by which I mean no visual
contact of any kind with any other betta,
and then try the spawn again. You’d be
amazed at the difference this can make!
Another possibility here is that the
female is more dominant than the male
and he is simply not strong enough to
dominate her. The whole purpose of
betta courtship is for both partners to test
each other’s fitness to see if they are a
good breeding match. If one party is
significantly weaker, in particular if the
male is weaker, then the pair will not
spawn. In this situation your best course
of action is to find a less dominant
female (often a smaller female will
work) or a more aggressive male.
Finally, some male bettas just seem to
have a preference for females of a
particular colour or pattern. When this
occurs, it often presents itself as a
preference for a female of the SAME
colour pattern as the male; or the same
colour pattern as the sibling females that
male grew up with. Alternatively, some
males will prefer to mate with females
that look like the first female they ever
spawned with (although clearly this is
only a problem if the fish has been bred
already).

TWO: The male doesn’t


build a bubblenest!
Assuming that all the other variables are
in place (i.e. the water is clean and
aged; the female is visible to the male
inside a spawning tube or equivalent;
there is something for the male to build
his nest under; and there is a lid on the
tank keeping humidity in) then the male
should build a bubblenest.
If everything is correct and he doesn’t
build a nest, then you should first
consider changing the nest site. If you
are using bubble wrap, try placing a
dried almond leaf over the top of it to
see if he will use it then. If that doesn’t
work, try the leaf on its own. Next try
half a polystyrene cup (cut vertically)
floating on its side and see if he likes the
look of that. Another option would be
floating plants of some description.
The reason I am suggesting that you
change the nest site is that sometimes
when we buy males from a shop or
breeder, those males have already (often
unbeknownst to us) been spawned
before. As a result, such males may have
a preference to use the same type of
nesting site they used previously. For
this reason it is worth trying a few
options to see if you can find the right
one.
Another reason to try a few different
variations is that some males just have
an innate preference for a particular type
of nest site. Remember, all bettas are
different. People have individual
preferences, and believe it or not, so do
fish!
If switching the nest site doesn’t work,
then the other possibility is that you have
a male who needs to interact with the
female physically (or chemically) in
order to move onto the nest building
stage. In this case, you should allow the
female out of her spawning chimney (or
jar) and monitor the pair very closely
while they interact. The male will
almost certainly start to display to the
female and then, after a short while,
begin to attack her and chase her into
hiding. At this point, you should return
the female to the safety of her spawning
container and watch to see if the male
then starts building a nest. If he still
doesn’t build a nest, repeat the process
of releasing the female a few times and
see if that has any effect.
If the male still doesn’t build a nest then
your problem is likely to be the weather!
I know, it sounds crazy, but weather
conditions and spawning bettas go hand
in hand. As a rule, bettas tend to spawn
in sync with two types of weather event,
the first being the arrival of heavy rain,
and the second being the full moon. Any
betta breeder will tell you: If it’s
forecast to rain, or its going to be a full
moon, then that’s the perfect time to
spawn your bettas. No-one fully
understands why this is the case
(although in the case of rain this instinct
probably evolved so that spawning takes
place at a time when breeding sites and
food become more plentiful), but take it
from me, it just is.
So, if your male is still not making a nest
after changing the nesting site and letting
him interact with the female, your best
bet is to wait until rain is forecast and
try again!
There is one more sneaky trick that
breeders have used successfully to
encourage a reluctant male to make a
nest; and that is to steal a nest from
another male and put it into the spawning
tank. Often a reluctant nester will adopt
this nest as his own and start adding to
it. I guess some fish are just plain lazy!

THREE: The female shows


no interest in the male
So, the male has built a bubblenest and
the female is showing vertical bars to
indicate her readiness to spawn (unless
of course she is a cellophane and the
bars don’t show up, in which case you
will just have to try!). The time is right
to release the female. But what happens
if you release her and she goes into
hiding, never to return?
When you first release the female, the
male will instantly rush to her side,
flaring his fins and buffeting her with the
side of his body to try and impress her.
He will then escalate from display into
aggression and chase her into hiding.
You need to watch closely from the
minute you let the female out, because
she should respond to the male’s initial
advance by flaring her fins (and even
gill covers) too, barring up really
clearly and generally looking fantastic. If
she doesn’t do any of these things,
dashes into hiding and loses her vertical
bars, the chances are that the female is
not ready to spawn; especially if she
remains there and never ventures out
again to investigate the male or his nest.
Please note that this is not the same as if
the female does display to the male as
described above and then only goes into
hiding AFTER he has chased her away.
This is a normal part of spawning, as the
male needs to chase the female away so
he can work more on his bubblenest,
after a while he will seek her out and
display to her again and after several
rounds of this, she will start to come out
and investigate the nest and make the
decision to spawn.
Essentially what you are looking for
when you release the female from her
spawning tube is that she seems very
interested in the male, even aggressive
towards him. She is testing his strength,
which is why he must then dominate her
and chase her into hiding. If he cannot
dominate her then she will not spawn
with him and may well attack him.
The usual solution for an uninterested
female is simply to recondition her.
Isolate her and feed her plenty of live
foods (or frozen live foods) for a week
or two, keeping the water changed
regularly. By the end of this she should
be nice and fat and raring to go!
Another reason for a female’s disinterest
is of course that the female could be
sick, in which case you will need to treat
her for that first, before trying to spawn
her again. As I said in the section above
for males, if this is the case, then you
should have known about this long
before you even entertained the idea of
using her for spawning.
Some females just prefer males of a
particular colour, or fin type, especially
if they have successfully spawned with
that type of male before. In this situation
there is nothing wrong with the female,
she just doesn’t like your male! One
great tip for fixing this problem is to add
another female to the tank in a spawning
tube, whilst leaving the first female out
with the male. The presence of a rival
female will often encourage a reluctant
female to spawn with the male even if he
wouldn’t normally be her first choice.
This is probably due to a combination of
visual and chemical stimuli resulting
from the second female. The presence of
the second female will also help spread
the aggression of a very aggressive
male, making life a bit easier for the
original female, which again may
encourage her to spawn.
Females may also be reluctant to spawn
with a particular male because they
don’t approve of his bubblenest. For
female bettas, sometimes size does
matter! Female bettas often inform a
male that his nest isn’t good enough by
simply swimming up to it and bursting
all the bubbles, as if to say ‘Nice try
buddy! Now do it again, but better!’
Sadly not all male bettas are diligent
enough to build large bubblenests. There
are two simple fixes for this issue: Use a
large (or larger) piece of bubblewrap as
the nesting site, to dupe the female into
thinking the nest is huge; or add bubbles
to the existing nest from another male
who has blown a bubblenest. Both
methods have been proven to work to
impress an otherwise fussy female to the
extent that she will spawn.
The final reason a female might not want
to spawn is simply because the male is
too aggressive. As I have said before,
certain colours and lines of betta can be
more aggressive than others, so if you
are trying to pair a male from an
aggressive line to a female from a less
aggressive line, she may not be able to
cope with the level of aggression and as
result switch from spawning behaviour
to survival behaviour, at which point all
thoughts of spawning with the male are
replaced by the need to stay out of his
way for safety.
This problem can sometimes be
overcome by switching the spawning
tank set-up around so that the female has
free run of the spawning tank and the
male is introduced in the spawning tube,
to limit his space and establish the tank
as the female’s territory. You can also
add more décor to the tank to provide
the female with lots and lots of hiding
places that only she can access, which
will give her an additional level of
security and may give her the confidence
to approach the nest.
FOUR: The male tries to
kill the female
Male aggression towards female
spawning partners is very normal, as this
is pivotal in convincing both partners
that they are well matched to produce the
next generation of bettas – a strength test,
if you will. There is however a situation
where a male’s aggression is simply
dangerous for the female and the female
MUST be removed to safety.
This situation almost always arises
when the female is unwilling to mate,
either because she is out of condition, or
because she is not attracted to the male,
or because the pair continually fail to
successfully wrap beneath the
bubblenest. It can also occur when the
pair have actually spawned successfully
(without your knowledge) and the male
is trying to defend the nest of eggs from
the female, who he now perceives as a
threat. In the wild none of these
scenarios is a problem, as the female
simply swims off into the sunset never to
be seen again. In captivity, the female is
trapped in a small container with an
aggressive male who in some cases
could quite happily kill her.
In the case of a female being unwilling
to mate, the rapid increase in male
aggression happens relatively early on in
the spawning attempt after you release
the female, so it’s worth keeping an eye
on pairs for the first 30 minutes or so to
make sure this isn’t happening. This is
another example of why it is really
important to watch the behaviour of your
fish when you first put them together to
gauge how well they are getting along.
Dangerous aggression and normal
courtship aggression can be hard to
differentiate for beginners, but basically
the behaviour of the female will tell you
if there is a problem, as her behaviour
will change from excitement and interest
in the male to a fear and survival
response.
Breeders often use the term ‘feisty’ when
describing a good female. What they
mean is that the female can hold her own
against the male. She knows when to
retreat to safety to let him cool off and
when to come out ‘guns blazing’ and
wow him with her aggression and beauty
– just enough to encourage him to build a
good nest and keep trying to impress her
until spawning takes place.
Please remember that male
hyperaggression towards the female can
occur because the pair has already
spawned and the male has taken on his
role as defender of the nest and eggs. If
you have been away from the spawning
tank for several hours and come back to
find the male attacking the female in a
hyperaggressive way, then don’t forget
to check the nest for eggs. It’s more than
likely that the pair have spawned and
that the male is therefore trying to keep
the female away from the nest.
It is also worth remembering, as I
mentioned above, that males have varied
tastes when it comes to females. If the
male is not attracted to the female he
may simply view her as another betta to
evict from his territory, which is also
likely to result in the female being
attacked.
So, when picking pairs to spawn you
really need to think about whether or not
the fish are in good condition to spawn
and whether or not they are well
matched in terms of size (to even the
odds if things turn nasty). Then you need
to watch their behaviour BEFORE you
release the female from the
spawning chimney to look for the tell-
tale signs she is willing to breed. Only if
she appears ready do you let her out.
To complicate things even more, some
males will aggressively attack the
female as soon as she is released from
the spawning tube, even if she is
showing all the signs of being willing to
spawn, without any courtship dancing
whatsoever. There are a few possible
reasons for this instant aggression: The
male may be young and over-
enthusiastic; the male may be from a
particularly aggressive line of bettas, or
be of a particularly aggressive colour
(e.g. red); or both fish may be from an
aggressive line, where aggression is
simply par for the course. Either way, as
I said before, the behaviour of the
female will tell you if something is
wrong.
The simplest fix for the problem of the
male trying to kill the female? TAKE
THE FEMALE OUT. Once she is safe
then you have several options. You could
recondition her and try her again with
the same male; recondition her and try
her with a different male; or acquire a
new female to breed to that male. Your
decision will depend on the fish
available and how much you want to
breed those two fish.
Another option would be to put the
female back in the spawning tube
(keeping her in the spawning tank) and
feed her up in there over a few days to
recondition her. During this time the
male will expend a lot of energy trying
to get to the female, which will tire him
out and also get him used to the stimulus
of the female being present. Sometimes
by leaving the pair like this for a few
days, a successful spawning can be
achieved when you finally let the female
out, as the pair are more accustomed to
one another and the male has expended
some of his pent up energy. This has
worked for me in the past, but depends
largely on the character of the two fish
involved, so I won’t make any promises!

FOUR: The female tries to


kill the male!
This is the exact opposite of the problem
discussed above and it is surprisingly
common. Female bettas can often give
every bit as good as they get and it is
certainly not unheard of for a female to
kill a male betta. Again, females differ
from one another in their aggression
levels depending on colour and the line
they come from (plus a huge degree of
natural variation in behaviour).
From a breeder’s perspective,
aggressive females are generally a good
thing, as you don’t have to worry about
them getting killed by the male during
spawning, although of course there are
extreme cases where females simply
cannot be spawned because they are so
aggressive.
As with males, a certain level of female
aggression is a normal part of spawning
in order to demonstrate the female’s
fitness to the male and convince him that
it would be a good idea to mate with her.
She needs to test his strength, so by
showing him some aggression
(sometimes this can appear rather
violent with fins being split and scales
removed) she can test whether or not he
is able to dominate her, thus proving his
worth as a mate.
Where a male is out of condition, too
weak, or unattractive to the female, then
she may well become hyperaggressive
and try to kill him. It is very obvious
when a female is not happy with a male
betta, as the behaviour of both fish will
change so that they appear to be fighting
instead of courting. They will square off
and constantly try to bite one another,
with neither side backing down, until the
weaker side finally gives up.
I have seen this several times in my
fishroom, where feisty females have
attacked larger males that, to my eyes,
appeared to be wonderfully well suited
as spawning partners. Thankfully I have
mostly been on hand to take one of the
fish out of the tank for the male’s
protection, however there was one
bizarre incident where I came home to
find that a pair of HMPK had bred
successfully, with many eggs in the nest,
but the female had killed the male post-
spawning and was busy protecting the
nest and tending to the eggs. She
continued to care for the fry for several
days afterwards. To this day I have no
idea why she killed him, as he was
obviously strong enough to persuade her
to spawn. Perhaps he had attacked her
after spawning in the usual way and she
decided that the best defence would be
an aggressive offence!
I should point out that there is a further
scenario that novice betta keepers need
to be aware of, which is the possibility
that when you see a female attacking a
male, what you might actually be seeing
is a wrongly-sexed short-finned male
attacking a long-finned male betta.
Hopefully if you’ve got this far into the
book I have taught you well enough not
to make this mistake, but it does happen,
especially because sometimes young
male shortfin bettas can keep their egg
spots for a long time, making them
appear female (if in doubt, check the
ventral fins - these are usually long and
white tipped in males). Clearly, you will
struggle to get any fry from a spawn
between two male bettas! Luckily such
cases of mistaken identity are not that
common among beginners who have
done their homework. As long as you’ve
studied the section on how to sex bettas
properly, used your own eyes to select
your fish, and not - I repeat NOT - just
relied on the labels that the vendor has
provided, then you should rarely, if ever,
run into this problem.

FIVE: The pair can’t wrap


successfully
It is perhaps a little strange that this
should be flagged up as an issue, but in
my experience it is a problem that
occurs sometimes and is therefore worth
addressing.
Occasionally a pair will appear to do
everything right in terms of courtship
right up to the actual spawning event,
only for everything to go wrong when the
male tries to wrap the female. Where a
pair is unable to wrap, the outcome is
usually that the male will become
aggressive with the female, or vice
versa, which means that there is a risk
that you may lose one of your fish.
Obviously we want to avoid this
happening, so we need to understand
how this problem occurs and what we
can do to prevent it.
A number of explanations exist as to why
pairs of bettas fail to wrap. The simplest
is that the male is physically too small to
wrap the female (or the female is too
big, it makes no odds). The key
measurement when selecting a pair of
bettas to breed is the length of the male’s
body from mouth to caudal peduncle, as
this directly relates to his wrapping
ability. The longer the male’s body, the
easier he will find it to wrap females.
This is why doubletail male bettas are
often no good for spawning, because
although they may look stunning, they
often have shortened bodies, meaning
that they simply can’t wrap females
properly.
So, how can we help the male? Simple.
We choose a female that is either the
same size, or smaller than the male, to
make it easier for him to wrap.
I will caveat the above statement by
saying that there are males out there who
are masters of the art of wrapping and
can get eggs out of even the largest
female, so my advice is designed simply
to make your life easier. I am definitely
not saying that if you have a relatively
large female and a relatively small male
that they won’t be able to wrap, just that
if the female is smaller, the chances of a
successful wrap are higher.
My friend Michael Kirkham (a betta
breeder in the UK) has a wonderful
saying that really does apply to bettas,
even if it is rather anatomically
incorrect: ‘Where there’s a willy, there’s
a way!’. Roughly translated this means
that if a male betta really wants to wrap
a female, then he will find a way to
make it work, even if it takes hours and
hours and hours!
Another reason why wraps are
unsuccessful is because, incredibly,
some bettas prefer to wrap to one side in
preference to the other! What this means
is that you can have a situation where the
female wants to be approached from her
left side, but the male only wants to try
to wrap her from the right side. This can
be very frustrating to watch, as the two
fish try to wrestle each other into their
preferred position. Sometimes one fish
(usually the female) will succumb and
just go with the flow and the spawn will
be successful, but other times they just
don’t get it. Other than trying different
fish, my advice would be to examine
both fish from above to check the
alignment of their spines. Where bettas
are born with (or develop) kinks in their
spine, especially near the tail end, these
can lead them to prefer to turn in one
direction over the other. I had a marble
male halfmoon plakat who had
incredible fins and colour, but
unfortunately had a kink in his spine just
before the tail. I tried to breed him a
couple of times, but both times the
females wanted to wrap one way and he
could only wrap in the other direction.
Sadly, he spent his whole life waiting
for Miss Right to swim along, a female
that wanted to wrap his way, and she
never showed up. I never did get any fry
from him!

SIX: The female eats the


eggs
In most cases, once the pair have their
spawning embrace sorted out and eggs
begin to fall, the male will have caught
most of the eggs before the female even
wakes up from her stupor. When the
female wakes up, she will usually either
stay by the nest or help the male in
collecting eggs and spitting them into the
nest.
Unfortunately, some female bettas wake
up and starts eating eggs like there’s no
tomorrow. So it’s down to the male to be
quick and get as many eggs into the nest
before she can eat them all (usually she
ignores them once they are in the nest).
Clearly this type of female behaviour
can have a dramatic impact on the yield
from your spawn, as fewer eggs in the
nest means fewer fry in your growout
tank. The only real solution is to make
sure your female is really well
conditioned, so that she can produce
hundreds of eggs, and also that she is
well fed just before spawning, so that
she has less of an appetite. These two
approaches combined should enable you
to still get plenty of fry out of the spawn.

SEVEN: The male eats the


eggs during spawning
When males eat the eggs instead of
returning them to the nest it is a sign of
one of three things: Either he was not
sufficiently well conditioned prior to
spawning and needs the energy; or he
has not had enough spawning experience
to work out what to do with the eggs
once they are fertilised; or he is simply
an egg-eater and will do this every time.
In terms of the former, it is my
experience that if a male eats all the eggs
from a spawn and you try and spawn him
again after a day or two (to allow him to
digest those eggs) he will probably
spawn perfectly the second time. It
seems
to me that egg eating is often the male’s
way of saying ‘Hey, I need the energy
from these eggs right now far more than I
need to be spending more energy looking
after a nest full of eggs’. If you prefer the
scientific perspective (which I do), then
under this scenario the value of the
energy in the eggs in terms of their short-
term benefit to the male’s ability to
survive and spawn again in the future
outweighs the long-term benefit to the
male of having the eggs hatch into fry,
because his lack of condition means that
he won’t be able to protect the eggs and
fry well and those fry probably won’t
survive in any case. Hopefully this is
clear. There is no point the male
completing the spawning process if he
won’t be in sufficiently good condition
to protect and tend to the fry, as they will
all die. Hence, rather than lose the
whole spawn, it is in his interest to eat
the eggs and get the short term nutritional
benefit, which will help him have the
energy to spawn again soon and do a
better job. As far as I am aware this
hasn’t been tested in a scientific way, but
it certainly seems to apply in my
fishroom.
Of course, there are some males who for
whatever reason just don’t get it and
always eat the eggs; and other males
who will happily eat half the eggs until
they are full and then continue to collect
the remainder and care for them as
normal. The latter situation fits nicely
with my above theory, because this
would be similar to the male
guaranteeing that he will have enough
energy to protect the nest by stocking up
on food first. This only tends to occur
when the female is very fat with eggs
and a lot of eggs are produced i.e.
enough eggs for the male to be full and
still have eggs left over.
Sadly, some males repeatedly eat all of
the eggs for no reason. If a male
repeatedly eats all the eggs during
spawning (i.e. no eggs make it into the
nest), then you have two options. The
first is to stop trying to spawn that male
(not a great solution, but sometimes the
only one). The second is to watch
carefully during the spawning process
and try to quickly remove the male after
a particularly large batch of eggs has
dropped. This will probably only give
you 15 or so fertile eggs, but by
removing the male there is a chance that
the female will wake from her stupor,
collect the eggs and look after them. This
is something that only some females will
do, but it’s worth a shot if you really
need to save eggs from the pair.

EIGHT: The male eats the


eggs after spawning is
complete
You should be aware that it is normal for
males to eat some of the eggs in the nest
after spawning had finished and the
female has been removed from the
spawning tank. This is usually because
those eggs are infertile or fungused and
hence need to be removed to avoid
affecting the ‘good’ fertile eggs.
It is not normal, however, for the male to
eat all the eggs after spawning. I had one
black-copper DTHM who did this for
five spawns in a row! Needless to say
he wasn’t my favourite betta!
In the situation where the male eats all
the eggs after spawning is complete,
there are a couple of possible solutions.
The first is to remove both parents from
the spawning tank and raise the fry
artificially: To do this, remove the male
from the spawning tank before he has
eaten all the eggs, drop the water level
to 1cm and simply wait for the eggs to
hatch. If you want to, you can also add
an anti-fungal medication to the water to
prevent the eggs getting fungused (follow
the manufacturer’s instructions for
dosage).
Without the male to care for them, the fry
will definitely fall out of the bubblenest,
but by keeping the water level very low,
there is a good chance that they will
‘hop’ back up into the nest and stick to
the bubbles, where they will continue to
develop normally. In fact, providing that
your spawning tank has a clean, bare,
base then it won’t be a disaster even if
the fry end up lying on the substrate
whilst they absorb their yolk sacs.
Using this method, you will almost
certainly lose a proportion of the spawn,
as you can’t replicate the care and
attention of a good male betta, but the
chances are that you will be able to save
some of (even most of) the fry by raising
them artificially without the male in this
way.
The second option is to remove the male
after spawning is complete and leave the
female in the tank. More often than not,
the female will take over all the parental
duties. Admittedly some females are
better than others at this, and some
females don’t do it at all, but there are
many accounts of people succeeding
with this approach, myself included.

NINE: The male abandons


his bubblenest and fry
Sometimes a male will suddenly give up
defending his bubblenest and caring for
the eggs or fry.
This occurs most often at the stage when
the fry start wriggling their tails (before
fully absorbing their yolk sacs) and
begin to fall out of the nest. It is the
male’s job to catch them in mid-water,
or hunt around for them on the floor of
the tank, to put them back in the
bubblenest. This is non-stop, energy
demanding work and the male doesn’t
really get any respite until the fry start to
swim horizontally. You can almost feel
their frustration when you watch them
frantically catching their falling
offspring! Needless to say some males
just run out of steam.
The simple remedy for nest abandonment
is to remove the male and continue
to care for the fry artificially as
described in the above section on egg-
eating.
The same solution applies if a male
abandons the nest before the eggs have
hatched. This generally only happens if
the spawn is really huge, so that the male
had too much work to do, constantly
cleaning eggs and blowing bubbles to
keep the nest intact.
Some breeders actively intervene during
spawning and remove the female after a
certain number of eggs have been
released in order to prevent too many
eggs being produced. This helps to
avoid the risk that the male will be too
taxed by the size of the spawn and
abandon his duties.

TEN: The pair get on fine


for days and seem interested
in one another, but won’t
spawn!
I have thrown this one into the mix
because I wanted to remind you about
the importance of the weather in
influencing bettas to breed. Sometimes
two bettas will get on fine in the
spawning tank and cohabit for days on
end without breeding.
My advice in this situation is to wait for
rain!
If after several days neither fish is
getting harmed by the other, a good
downpour of rain is often all that’s
needed to trigger them to spawn,
especially when this rain is followed by
a very sunny morning. I have had several
pairs of my own fish live together in a
spawning tank for well over a week in
relative harmony (the female spending a
lot of time in hiding, the male spending a
lot of time by his nest, and me making
sure both fish get their fair share of
food) before they eventually spawned
after a heavy rainstorm.
The point I want to make is that
sometimes the problem is not the
conditions inside the spawning tank.
With bettas it also helps to think outside
the box…literally.

Keeping records
There are two final tips I want to share
with you to finish off this section on
breeding bettas, both of which will
improve your ability to produce high
quality bettas in a consistent manner. The
first of these relate to keeping breeding
records.
The most important thing you need to
remember in order to have any hope of
keeping track of your betta breeding
progress is this: Always, always,
always keep records of every spawn you
carry out. You need to make a note of
which parent fish were involved, which
genes they carried that are likely to turn
up in the next generation, the date the
pair were introduced, the date the pair
spawned, and the date the eggs hatched.
That’s the bare minimum. I would also
suggest that you keep a separate ‘stud
book’ with the genetic information for
each of your breeders, so you only have
to write down the code (or name) of that
breeder in your spawning records,
instead of listing all of the genes it
carries, every time.
I have a very simple system for naming
my breeders. They are all given a code
consisting of two letters (to signify the
line the fish comes from) followed by a
hyphen, followed by a letter to indicate
the sex of the fish (M or F), followed by
a number to indicate the filial
generation, followed by a full stop
(period) and a number specific to that
fish. For example, a fish with the code
BB-M1.5 is a fish from my ‘Bluebird’
line (BB) that is male (M) and comes
from the first generation (1). This fish is
the fifth male I have jarred from the
spawn (5). Thus the next male I choose
to jar from the same spawn would have
the code BB-M1.6 and the one after that
would be BB-M1.7. The first sister
jarred would have the code BB-F1.1.
Note that I only use the codes for fish I
have jarred and am actually going to use
for breeding.
I find it helpful to name each spawn as
well, which I generally do by having
two letters to signify that I bred the fish
(my online forum name is Bluejax, so I
use the letters BJ) followed by the date
of the spawn e.g. BJ26012015. This is
common practice on online betta forums.
If you are new to breeding then you
might also want to consider making a
note of how you conditioned the pair for
spawning, what foods you fed the fry,
and when you fed each type of food, in
order to raise them to adulthood. Once
you have established a reliable method
you won’t need to do this anymore.
This record keeping might sound rather
laborious, but trust me it is really
important, doesn’t take long, makes all
the difference between being an average
betta breeder and being someone who
reliably produces fantastic fish. After
all, without having a basic knowledge of
what steps you took to produce a
great betta, how will you ever repeat
those steps in the future? Would you
rather rely on luck every time, or have a
proven formula that you can follow
again and again and again to achieve
success? For me it’s a no brainer - I’d
want that formula, every time.
Betta barracks
This next tip is designed to save you
time and effort and really only applies to
those of you who either live in a nice
warm country, or have the luxury of a
space-heated fishroom. The basic
premise of a betta barracks is that each
fish is housed in its own container, with
several rows of containers sitting on
multiple shelves, one above the other.
The key difference between a betta
barracks and a bunch of containers on
shelves is that the water in each
container in a betta barracks is
continually being filtered: Water is
pumped into the top of each container
via a tube and dirty water leaves the
container via a second tube, which is
usually located in the side of the
container, level with the desired height
of water in the container. The dirty water
from all the individual containers feeds
into a gutter, or pipe, from where it is
transported down into a large filter tank
that sits on the floor, below the shelves
of containers. The dirty water passes
through the filter media in the tank and is
then pumped back up to the top of the
barracks by a water pump, where it
feeds back into the tubes that enter each
individual betta container and the cycle
starts again. Thus each container is
constantly being filtered as part of a
larger continuous system. Because the
water is being filtered you don’t have to
carry out regular water changes, which
is a huge time saving. Some breeders
also install a UV steriliser as part of
their barracks, which kills off of
bacteria and prevents the spread of
illness in the system. I you plan to
maintain a lot of bettas individually,
either for breeding or show purposes,
then I strongly recommend that you build
a betta barracks, as it will make your
life much easier. There are many designs
for betta barracks available on the
internet, so a quick search will give you
all the information you could ever need.
I used to have a barracks system, but in
the end my fishroom proved too small
and too poorly ventilated to
accommodate one long term. The open
gutters of the barracks led to excessive
humidity, which in turn led to a build up
of mould and condensation. Not a great
result! In the end I am left keeping my
bettas in plastic jars and spending all my
time doing water changes. Hard work,
but ultimately worth it. Who knows? One
day I might find the time to build a new
betta barracks that retains all its
moisture. I can but dream!
Genetics
I’d be willing to bet serious money that
some of you who bought this book will
have jumped straight to this section, in
the hope of finding all the answers to
your burning questions about betta
genetics. Well, I hate to disappoint you,
but there a good chance you’re not quite
going to find what you’re looking for!
You see, the fact of the matter is that the
genes involved in producing the vast
array of beautiful bettas available in the
21st century are a long, long way from
being fully understood.
I like to think that there was a time, early
on in the development of modern bettas,
when we knew roughly how many
genetic mutations there were and what
they all did; a time when we could
accurately predict the outcome of a
spawn between two fish. Unfortunately
that time is long gone. Nowadays, thanks
to constant interbreeding of different
lines of bettas, all carrying different
mutations, we really have no idea what
genes any given betta is carrying. In
addition to this, we don’t know how
many genes are actually involved in
producing many of the traits in bettas.
For example, there may be more than
one gene involved in producing bettas
with the marble phenotype. The first
marble bettas were melanos that lost
their colour, becoming black and white
patched fish. Modern marble bettas can
be any combination of colours. So are
we looking at a mutation in just one gene
that has resulted in the marbling of all
colours, or has a different gene mutated
to produce this effect? Perhaps the
modern marble effect is the result of the
actions of two closely linked genes that
are inherited simultaneously. You get my
point.
The good news is that there are some
traits that we do have a good knowledge
of, or at least understand well enough to
serve our purposes as breeders.
My aim in this chapter is to give you an
outline of the genes that we know about,
as well as some of my own thoughts as
to what might be happening at a genetic
level in certain cases. Hopefully by
studying this chapter you will improve
your understanding of genetics and learn
how to begin predicting the outcome of
spawns (insofar as this is possible). I
want to inspire you to think about how
certain traits might be inherited and test
those theories with your own bettas!
Before we get stuck into it all, I want to
give you a quick overview of what genes
are, how they control the growth and
development of organisms and how they
are passed on from parents to offspring
i.e. how genetic inheritance works. The
field of genetics is incredibly complex,
but thankfully the small part of it that we
as betta breeders need to understand is a
little less so.

DNA, genes and genetic


mutation
Probably the best place to start any
discussion of genetics is with the
molecule DNA, or to give it its proper
name, deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA
encodes the genetic instructions used in
the development and functioning of all
known living organisms. So yes, it’s
kind of a big deal.

DNA
DNA is a ‘polymeric macromolecule’.
This sounds fancy, but in really it isn’t.
A ‘molecule’ is a chemical compound
comprising two or more atoms held
together by chemical bonds. Thus a
water molecule (H2O) is comprised of
two hydrogen atoms bonded to one atom
of oxygen. The term ‘macromolecule’
describe large molecules (makros is the
Ancient Greek word for big) that are
comprised of many smaller molecules. A
‘polymeric’ macromolecule is a
macromolecule in which the smaller
molecules are bonded together in
sequence to form a chain-like structure
(in Ancient Greek poly means many and
meros means parts).
In the case of DNA, the smaller
molecular units that make up the chain
are called ‘nucleotides’. Each
nucleotide has three components: a 5-
carbon sugar (deoxyribose), a phosphate
group, and one of four different
nitrogenous bases (guanine, adenine,
thymine, and cytosine), recorded using
the letters G, A, T, and C. The sequence
in which these four bases occur in a
strand of DNA is incredibly important,
but for now let’s return to the structure of
DNA.
The nucleotides in DNA are arranged in
two long parallel strands that form a
spiral structure called a ‘double helix’.
The appearance of a double helix is
similar to that of an upright ladder that
has been twisted along its vertical axis.
Imagine you and a friend grabbing
opposite ends of a ladder and then
twisting your ends in different
directions. If this were possible you’d
end up with a double helix.
To complete the ladder analogy: Pairs of
nitrogenous bases form the ladder’s
rungs, and the sugar and phosphate
molecules form the two sides of the
ladder. The base pairs forming the rungs
are called ‘complementary pairs’
because the same two nitrogenous bases
always bond to one another. Guanine
always bonds to cytosine (via three
hydrogen bonds); and adenine always
bonds to thymine (via two hydrogen
bonds).

Genome
All of an organism’s DNA, the entire
DNA sequence, is called its ‘genome’.
Pretty much every cell in an organism’s
body has to contain a copy of the genome
within its nucleus, which is the name
given to the dark mass in the centre of a
cell. As a result of this, before cells can
divide, the DNA they contain has to be
duplicated. This is achieved via a
process called ‘DNA replication’. DNA
replication ensures that when a cell
divides to form two daughter cells (a
process called ‘mitosis’), both cells
each contain a full copy of the genome
within their nuclei.

Genes
Located in the DNA sequence of the
genome are specific segments of DNA
that serve as a recipe for making protein
molecules. These segments of DNA are
called ‘genes’. Now, remember when I
said that the sequence of bases in DNA
was incredibly important? The reason
for this is that the DNA sequence of each
gene (i.e. the sequence of nitrogenous
bases making up that gene) contains
discrete groups of three bases in a row
that we call ‘triplets’. So, for example:
A gene with the sequence ATACGCTAA
would contain three triplets: The first
would be ATA; the second CGC; and the
third TAA.
This is where things get interesting. Each
triplet of bases contained within a gene
actually codes for a particular amino
acid to be synthesised. Amino acids are
the building blocks used to make
proteins. Therefore, because proteins
are made up of several amino acid
molecules, the number and sequence of
amino acids coded for by the gene
determines which protein will be
produced.
LET’S RECAP: Genes are segments
of DNA that contain particular base
triplets in a sequence. These triplets
code for a particular sequence of
amino acids to be synthesised and
combined, resulting in the creation of
a particular protein.

Protein synthesis
As we have established, DNA is stored
in the nucleus of a cell. Proteins,
however, are synthesised (made) outside
the nucleus in the ‘cytoplasm’ of the cell.
In order to get the instructions for
making a protein from inside the nucleus
out into the cytoplasm, a given gene has
to be transcribed into a ‘messenger
ribonucleic acid’ (mRNA) molecule, as
mRNA can leave the nucleus. This is
achieved via a process called
‘transcription’. Transcription involves
making an mRNA copy of the sequence
of bases that make up the gene. Once
transcribed, the mRNA is processed so
that any non-coding (junk) parts of it are
removed and it is then transported out of
the nucleus. Outside the nucleus, amino
acids are synthesised in the number and
order dictated by the number and order
of base triplets found on the mRNA (a
process called
‘translation’). These amino acid
molecules are then joined together in a
long chain to make a protein molecule.
Simple, right?
So why all the fuss about proteins? Well,
proteins are tremendously important
molecules in that they do most of the
work in cells and are required for the
structure, function, and regulation of the
body’s tissues and organs in all animals.
Put simply: Proteins are responsible for
how an organism grows and its
appearance.
LET’S RECAP: DNA is a molecule
that stores genetic information in the
form of a sequence of bases (guanine,
cytosine, adenine and thymine). Most
of an organism’s DNA is junk, but
some segments called genes code for
the production of specific proteins by
having a specific sequence of base
triplets. During protein synthesis,
genes are copied as mRNA, which
leaves the nucleus of the cell and is
used as a template to combine amino
acids in the correct sequence to make
particular proteins. These proteins
control how an organism grows and
(importantly for us, as betta breeders)
its appearance.
Genetic mutation
Because genes code for proteins, it
follows that mutations in genes (i.e.
changes in the DNA sequence of genes)
can affect the structure of the proteins
produced (or even prevent the
production of those proteins altogether),
which in turns can have knock-on effects
on how an organism develops. So, in the
case of bettas, a genetic mutation might
change the structure of a protein that is
important in the production of a
particular colour pigment, with the result
that the pigment is either not produced,
or changes colour in some way.
So, what brings about these changes in
the DNA sequence of genes?
Genetic mutations generally come about
as a result of one of the following:
Unrepaired damage to DNA genomes
(typically caused by radiation or
chemical mutagens); errors in DNA
replication; or the insertion or deletion
of segments of DNA by mobile genetic
elements (like the DNA transposons
responsible for the appearance of
marble bettas).
Note that mutations don’t always
affect genes, as they can occur
anywhere within the genome, much of
which is, quite simply, junk that
doesn’t code for anything (i.e. non-
coding sections of DNA).
Where mutations do occur in genes, they
can: a) have no effect; b) alter the
product of the gene; c) prevent the gene
from functioning properly; or d) prevent
the gene from functioning altogether.
Clearly, where mutations do have an
effect, this may result in different
outcomes in terms of an organism’s
appearance (i.e. changes to its
‘phenotype’).
LET’S RECAP: Genetic mutations
result in changes in the DNA sequence
of genes, which in turn have an effect
on the sequence of transcribed mRNA
and thus on the amino acid sequence
of the resulting protein. Changes in
the amino acid sequence can have a
profound effect on the very specific
three-dimensional structure of
proteins, affecting the efficiency with
which they carry out their various
functions.
Let’s explore this in more detail. Where
proteins interact with other molecules,
any change in the shape of one of these
proteins can dramatically affect the
outcome of this interaction. A classic
example of how protein structure is
important is the group of proteins called
‘enzymes’. Enzymes are biological
catalysts, meaning that they speed up the
rate at which metabolic processes and
reactions occur in living organisms,
without taking part in the reaction
themselves. Chemical reactions have an
‘activation energy’, which is the
minimum quantity of energy which the
reacting chemicals must possess in order
to undergo a specific reaction. One way
to reach this activation energy is to
increase the temperature of the
chemicals involved. This is all well and
good in a chemistry lab, but living
organisms tend to have an optimal body
temperature that they try to maintain, so
big increases in temperature are to be
avoided. Enzymes allow the necessary
activation energy required for specific
reactions to take place to be achieved
without the need for an increase in
temperature. Part of this process
involves the enzyme binding temporarily
with one or more ‘substrate’ molecules
in the reaction, at a particular location in
the structure of the enzyme called an
‘active site’.
Each type of enzyme has a different
active site shaped to fit a particular
substrate, or substrates. Thus, if we
change the DNA sequence of the gene
that codes for an enzyme, we ultimately
change the three-dimensional structure of
the enzyme that is synthesised, which
may result in changes in the shape of the
active site. If the substrate (or
substrates) can no longer bond to the
active site, or can only bond partially to
it, as a result of this change, then the
chemical reaction will have no catalyst
and will proceed at a slower rate, or not
at all. Changes in the rate of that one
reaction within a cell will have wide
reaching impacts on a whole suite of
other processes taking place in that cell.
It is this suite of knock-on effects that
results in the changes in phenotype that
we observe, not just the change in the
rate of that one reaction.
What this means is that it is not
necessarily what a single gene does, but
how that gene interacts with other genes
(or more properly, how the product of
that gene interacts with the product of
other genes) during the development of
an organism that results in the
differences we see between organisms
of the same and different species.
Genes, proteins, other chemicals inside
the cell, intercellular interactions and the
external environment all affect the traits
expressed by a particular individual.
Because these traits are built during
development, it is the interactions
between all these factors during
development that determine the final
phenotype of an individual.
If you’re still following this (and I really
hope that you are!) then you will now
have some understanding of how genetic
mutations occur and the effect that they
can have on the function of genes. You
will also have grasped the fact that there
isn’t really such thing as ‘a gene for trait
X’, because it is the interactions
between gene products (proteins) that
result in changes in phenotype.
Genetics can help you produce better bettas, like this
red dragon halfmoon © Kitti Watcharaworatham

Genetic inheritance
The next step in our discussion of
genetics is to look at how genes (and
genetic mutations) are passed on from
parents to their offspring. By
understanding how genes are inherited,
we can start to predict the outcome of
spawns between bettas in our breeding
program, based on the genes we know
(or suspect) those fish to be carrying.
To understand genetic inheritance we
must first return to the nucleus of a cell.
Chromosomes
When cells are not in the process of
replicating themselves, the genome
exists in the nucleus as strands of DNA
called ‘chromatin’ (imagine a tangled
ball of pearl necklaces). When a cell is
preparing to divide, the DNA becomes
coiled into very tight rod-shaped
structures called chromosomes. Within
the nucleus, these chromosomes exist in
pairs, also known as ‘homologous
chromosomes’. One chromosome in each
pair is inherited from an individual’s
father, the other from its mother. It is
important to understand that whilst
homologous chromosomes are similar in
that contain the same genes in the same
location (i.e. the same ‘locus’), they are
not identical. This is because at any
given gene locus the two chromosomes
can carry different alleles of that gene.

Homozygous or
heterozygous?
When homologous chromosomes have
the same allele of a gene at a particular
locus, the individual is said to be
‘homozygous’ for that allele. Where
alleles at a particular locus differ
between chromosomes in a pair, the
individual is said to be ‘heterozygous’
for that allele. Thus an individual can be
homozygous for some alleles and
heterozygous for others, and this
depends entirely on the genes they have
inherited from their parents.
The number of homologous chromosome
pairs in a cell differs between different
species. For example, human cells
contain 23 pairs of homologous
chromosomes (i.e. 46 individual
chromosomes) and betta cells have 21
pairs (i.e. 42 chromosomes).
Cells that contain the full complement of
homologous pairs are called ‘diploid’
cells and cells that contain only one half
of each of the homologous pairs are
called ‘haploid’ cells.

DNA replication
Before cell division takes place, the
rod-shaped chromosomes in the nucleus
copy themselves via a process called
DNA replication. The two identical
copies of each chromosome are called
‘chromatids’ and once formed they are
joined together by a ‘centromere’, which
functions to hold the sister chromatids
together until they separate as part of
cell division. Because the two
chromatids are attached together at the
same point along their length, the new
chromosome takes on a shape similar to
an ‘X’.
IMPORTANT: This new X-shaped
structure is still referred to as a
chromosome (singular) despite being
comprised of two identical chromatids
stuck together.
Mitosis
During normal cell division (i.e.
‘mitosis’), the two identical chromatids
making up each X-shaped chromosome
are pulled apart to opposing sides of the
cell, which then splits down the middle,
resulting in two identical, diploid,
daughter cells. This is all well and good,
but mitosis only allows a cell to create
an identical copy of itself, which by
definition does not allow for any genetic
variation between the two cells. In order
to achieve genetic variation you need to
produce non-identical diploid cells that
contain different versions of genes
inherited from different individuals.
So, how does this happen? How are
particular genes inherited by offspring
from their parents? And what causes the
variation we see between those
offspring?
It all comes down to sex.

Meiosis and sexual


reproduction
In organisms that reproduce sexually, the
two sexes (male and female) each
produce sex cells (also called
‘gametes’). There are two types of sex
cells: spermatozoa and ova, or more
commonly, sperm and eggs. If an animal
produces sperm then it is male; if it
produces eggs it is female. Hopefully
there is nothing too surprising to you
there!
Sex cells are produced via a process
called ‘meiosis’. Meiosis has two
phases. The first phase involves a
diploid ‘germ cell’ dividing in two to
form to two haploid daughter cells. In
the second phase of meiosis, these two
haploid cells each divide to form two
more haploid cells. The result is four
haploid cells.
As we already know, the fact that sex
cells are haploid means that they only
contain one chromosome from each pair
of homologous chromosomes found in
the cells of individuals of that species.
Thus, in bettas, every sperm produced
by a male betta contains 21
chromosomes and every egg produced
by a female betta contains 21
chromosomes. The beauty of this is that
when an egg cell combines with a sperm
cell at fertilization, the nucleus of the
fertilised egg cell contains the full
complement of chromosomes, with half
of the chromosomes coming from the
mother and the other half from the father.
This explains how genes are inherited by
a betta fry from both its parents. But
what determines which genes (or alleles
of those genes) are inherited?
Well, this depends on two things: Firstly
it depends on the genes (or alleles) that
both parents were carrying on their
chromosomes; and secondly it depends
on the outcome of a process call
‘chromosomal crossover’, which occurs
during meiosis, prior to initial division
of the germ cell into two haploid cells.

Chromosomal crossover
Chromosomal crossover is defined as
the exchange of genetic material between
two homologous chromosomes (i.e. the
two chromosomes making up a pair of
similar chromosomes) in order to
produce ‘recombinant chromosomes’.
The term ‘recombinant chromosome’ is
just a fancy way of describing a
chromosome in which a section of DNA
has broken off and been replaced with
the same section of DNA from another
chromosome (the other chromosome in
the homologous pair).
Let me try to explain how this works in
simple terms: Imagine that two
homologous chromosomes are
represented by two identical X’s made
from wire; one blue and one red. Next
imagine overlapping one arm of the blue
X with one arm of the red X. This would
be the equivalent of sections of the
chromatids making up each chromosome
crossing over with one another. Now,
imagine cutting straight through the point
where the two arms overlap. This would
leave you with two X’s - both with one
arm shorter than the rest - and two
pieces of wire - one red and one blue.
The next step is to glue the short red
piece of wire to the short arm on the
blue X and vice versa with the short
piece of blue wire. Hopefully now you
have two X’s where one is mostly red
with a bit of blue wire at the end of one
arm and the other is mostly blue with a
bit of red wire at the end of one arm.
These new X’s are equivalent to
recombinant chromosomes, where the
exchange in DNA between chromosomes
is represented by the exchanged in the
two small sections of coloured wire. In
fact, several such DNA swaps take place
between matching regions on
homologous chromosomes during
crossover. Importantly, which regions
swap is entirely random.
Once chromosomal crossover has taken
place, the cell divides and the
(now recombinant) homologous
chromosomes are pulled apart into the
two daughter cells. In bettas, each of
these daughter cells would contain 21
chromosomes. Now each of these
chromosomes still comprises two
chromatids joined by a centromere, but
the really important point is that these
chromatids are no longer identical,
thanks to chromosomal crossover. This
is really important, because when the
two daughter cells divide again, what
happens is that the chromatids in each
chromosome are pulled apart, with one
half going to each cell. To use our wire
analogy: Remember we had the mostly
blue X with the short red section on one
arm, and the mostly red X with the blue
section on one arm? Well now imagine
that each of those X’s is inside a circle
that you have drawn around them in
pencil. These circles represent the
nuclei of the two daughter cells
produced after the first division in
meiosis. Now imagine cutting each X in
half vertically (which would be
equivalent to breaking apart the
chromatids of each chromosome) and
pulling the halves apart slightly so they
are separate. Next, rub out the two
circles and draw a circle around each
chromatid. You should now have four
circles, which represent the four nuclei
of the sex cells. These nuclei will
respectively contain a red wire; a blue
wire; a blue wire with a short red
section; and a red wire with a short blue
section. All four are different. Thus, the
end result of meiosis is that each of the
chromosomes in each of the four sex
cells carry a completely different
combination of alleles.
Just think how many times meiosis must
take place to produce the thousands of
sperm released by male bettas during the
act of mating and you will start to
understand the huge degree of genetic
variation between all those sperm.
Remember also that only one sperm can
fertilise each egg, so it really is the luck
of the draw as to what genes a betta fry
ends up inheriting from its parents.
To summarise the key points from this
section: The production of genetically
dissimilar sperm and egg cells via
meiosis is how we explain the huge
variation between individuals of a
species. This variation is clearly
observed at the level of ‘phenotype’,
which is why different bettas look
different to one another, and these
phenotypic differences stem entirely
from differences at the level of
‘genotype’ (i.e. the exact DNA sequence
of an individual) because different bettas
have inherited different alleles from
their parents. Okay, now that we’ve
covered how genes are inherited by
offspring from their parents and where
genetic variation comes from, you are
ready to learn how breeders can, to
some extent, predict the outcome of their
betta spawns. Given the complexity of
the previous discussion, you will no
doubt be relieved to discover that the
secret to predicting spawn outcomes is
in fact relatively simple. It’s time to
learn about Punnett squares.
The Punnett Square
Perhaps the easiest way to calculate the
mathematical probability of inheriting a
specific trait was invented by an early
20th century English geneticist named
Reginald Punnett. The Punnett square is
a simple graphical way of discovering
all of the potential combinations of
genotypes that can occur in offspring,
given the genotypes of their parents. It
also tells us the odds of each of the
genotype occurring in the offspring.

Mendelian inheritance
Punnett squares work because they apply
the first and second principles of
Mendelian inheritance, named after
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), the
Austrian monk who first discovered the
basic principles of heredity through
experiments in his garden, involving pea
plants.
In simple terms, Mendel’s first and
second principles are as follows:
1. The Principle of Segregation: For
any particular trait (e.g. fin length), the
pair of alleles carried by each parent
separate and only one allele from each
parent passes on to an offspring. Which
allele from a parent’s pair of alleles is
inherited is a matter of chance. As we
saw earlier, this segregation of alleles
occurs during the process of sex cell
formation (i.e. meiosis).
2. The Principle of Independent
Assortment: Genes located on different
chromosomes will be inherited
independently of each other. As a result,
if an offspring inherits a particular pair
of alleles for one trait this does not
increase or decrease the likelihood that
it will also inherit a particular pair of
alleles for another trait. So to give an
example for bettas, inheriting the alleles
for steel blue iridescence does not
increase or decrease the likelihood of
that fish also inheriting the alleles for
doubletail (or any other trait you care to
think of).
Alongside these two principles, Mendel
also discovered that the units of
inheritance (genes) often differed in their
dominance relative to one another, with
dominant alleles of a gene being
expressed over recessive alleles in
individuals that carried a copy of each.
Since Mendel’s original experiments,
geneticists have discovered that there
are extensions to Mendelian principles,
including the fact that some alleles are
incompletely dominant, that some genes
are sex-linked, and that some pairs of
genes do not assort independently
because they are physically linked on a
chromosome. Some of these extensions
to Mendel’s principles do apply in
bettas, but for the most part we have
some understanding of the situation.
Constructing a Punnett
Square
The basic Punnett square is incredibly
straightforward to construct. You only
need to know two things: The genotype
of each parent (i.e. which alleles they
carry for the trait you are interested in)
and the relative dominance of those
alleles to one another (i.e. if each allele
is dominant, codominant, partially
dominant, or recessive). Once you know
that, the rest is plain sailing!
So, let’s look at an example. Let’s say
we are interested in the doubletail trait
in bettas and we have two fish: A male
doubletail and a female singletail.
The first step in constructing a Punnett
square is two write down the genotype
of both fish.
The male is doubletail, so must have two
copies of the gene (Td). Therefore, his
genotype is:
TdTd
Note that I have used an upper case ‘T’
for this allele symbol because it is
partially dominant, and dominant alleles
are written with capital letters.
Assuming that the female isn’t a carrier
for doubletail, her genotype will be:
t +t +
Here, the ‘+’ indicates that the allele is
the wild version of the gene (i.e.
singletail). I have used a lower case ‘t’
because the doubletail allele is partially
dominant to the wild type allele.
The next step is to draw our Punnett
square. To draw a Punnett square for
investigating just one trait, you need to
draw a grid with at least four squares.
Leaving the top left cell blank, the
alleles that can be inherited from the
male are written along the top of the grid
and the alleles that can be inherited from
the female are written down the left hand
column. Then the remainder of the table
is filled in by writing down the two
alleles that are in line with each cell of
the table, one allele from the male on the
top row and one allele from the female
in the left column. In our example, the
male can only pass on the doubletail
allele and the female can only pass on
the singletail allele, so the Punnett
square will look like the example
below:

From the Punnett square above it is easy


to see that this cross will result in
offspring that all have the same
genotype: Tdt+. This means that 100% of
the offspring will be carriers for the
doubletail trait. The doubletail gene is
partially dominant, so these fish will
exhibit wider dorsals and better caudal
spread than normal singletail bettas. As
they are the first filial generation
produced from the two parent fish, we
call this the ‘F1’ generation
So, what happens if we decide to grow
these F1 bettas up and carry out a sibling
cross between a brother and sister from
this spawn? Let’s take a look.
We know that both fish have the
genotype Tdt+. The Punnett square will
therefore look like this:
The result is that there are three different
possible genotypes resulting from this
spawn: TdTd, Tdt+ and t+t+.
Each of the four cells relating to the
offspring genotypes represents 25% of
the spawn, which is to say that the
Punnett square not only lets you work out
the possible offspring genotypes you are
likely to get from a spawn, but also the
approximate percentage of fry in that
spawn that will have each genotype.
This is incredibly useful, as it allows the
breeder to determine how many fry of a
particular type he or she is likely to get
in each spawn.
So, in the example above, 25% of the fry
will be TdTd (doubletail bettas), 25%
will be t+t+ (normal singletail bettas),
and 50% will be Tdt+ (doubletail
carriers with one tail, just like their
parents). This is because two of the
boxes contained the genotype Tdt+.
Because this generation has been
produced from the F1 generation. It is
referred to as the F2 generation.
Let’s do one more example. This time
let’s imagine we want to breed a female
from the F1 generation back to her
doubletail father.
The female is Tdt+, her father is TdTd.
The Punnett square will therefore look
like this:
As you can see, there are just two
genotypes in the offspring: TdTd and
Tdt+. Because each genotype occupies
two boxes in the grid, the prediction is
that approximately 50% of the fry will
have the TdTd genotype (doubletails) and
50% will have the Tdt+ genotype
(doubletail carriers with one tail).
Hopefully with this example you can see
that if you wanted to create a line of
doubletail bettas, but only had one
doubletail male betta, then you would be
able to produce more doubletails in just
two rounds of breeding, by spawning
your male to a singletail female and then
either breeding one of the female
offspring from the F1 generation back to
its father (giving you 50% doubletails in
the spawn) or to its brother (giving you
25% doubletails in the spawn).
From most breeders’ perspective, the
first option of spawning a female from
the F1 back to her father would be
preferable, as it would result in a higher
yield of doubletail bettas.
Before the Punnett square was invented
it would have been much harder for a
breeder to know which spawn to try
first, or indeed to know whether either
spawn would result in any doubletails.
Put simply, the Punnett square takes a
lot of the guesswork out of breeding
animals for particular traits.
Don’t get me wrong, there are
limitations to this wonderfully simple
technique, the biggest being the number
of traits you can look at, at any one time.
This is mostly because, if you look at
several traits at once, the allele
combinations can be very hard to
interpret and the Punnet squares
themselves can get very cumbersome.
Looking at two traits is less of an issue,
so let’s take a look at an example, just so
you understand how you would go about
looking at multiple traits using this
technique.
Let’s stick to the doubletail trait, but this
time we’ll also consider the iridescent
colours. For our pair we will choose a
male turquoise doubletail betta and a
female steel blue doubletail-carrier
female.
As we already know, the male’s
genotype is going to be TdTd in terms of
the doubletail trait. Because he is
turquoise and turquoise is a codominant
allele, he will have a genotype for this
trait too, which is BltBlt. So overall his
genotype can be written TdTd BltBlt.
The female is a carrier for doubletail.
So her genotype is Tdt+. Steel blue is
codominant to turquoise, so her genotype
for iridescence is BlsBls. Thus her full
genotype can be written as Tdt+ BlsBls.
Similar rules apply as for looking at a
single trait, except this time, instead of
writing each allele out separately, you
instead put down the various possible
combinations of alleles for both traits.
So for the male, there is only one
possible combination that the offspring
could inherit, which is TdBlt. For the
female there are two possible
combinations of alleles, which are TdBls
(doubletail with steel blue) and t+Bls
(singletail with steel blue). The table
will therefore look like this:
The outcome of the spawn would
therefore be 50% Td Td BltBls and 50%
Tdt+ BltBls. Bettas that are heterozygous
for turquoise and steel blue (BltBls) have
royal blue colouration. Thus,
approximately half the spawn will be
royal blue doubletails and half will be
royal blue singletails (carriers for the
doubletail gene).
Okay, so let’s take things one step
further, just to make sure you really
understand the power of the Punnett
square.
We’re going to repeat the previous
cross, except this time, we are going to
assume that both the male and the female
also carry the crowntail gene.
Crowntail is similar to doubletail in that
it is a recessive gene that also has an
effect in carriers. Thus, homozygous
recessive individuals (i.e. those carrying
two copies of the crowntail gene) have a
large degree of web reduction, and
exhibit the classic crowntail finnage
where the fin rays extend well beyond
the edge of the webbing. Individuals that
are heterozygous for crowntail (i.e.
those that have one copy of the crowntail
gene and one copy for normal webbing)
exhibit some slight reduction in
webbing, but nothing like the amount
seen in homozygous recessive fish. Such
fish are often called ‘combtails’.
The allele symbol for crowntail is Ct.
Normal webbing is written as ct+. As
we have decided that both of the fish we
are going to breed are carriers for the
crowntail gene (i.e. they show slight
web reduction in the unpaired fins), their
genotype will be Ctct+.
If we combine this with the genotypes
we have already established for the male
and female then we get the following
two genotypes:
The male is TdTd BltBlt Ctct+ (i.e. a
doubletail turquoise betta that carries the
gene for crowntail)
The female is Tdt+ BlsBls Ctct+ (i.e. a
singletail steel blue betta that carries the
genes for doubletail and crowntail)
So, now that we are looking at three
different traits - number of tails, colour
and webbing reduction - let’s see what
our Punnett square will look like.
As before, the first step is to identify all
of the possible allele combinations that
could be inherited from the parent fish.
For the male, there are two: Td Blt Ct
and Td Blt ct+
For the female there are four: Td Bls Ct,
Td Bls ct+, t+ Bls Ct and t+ Bls ct+
This means that the table will have two
columns for the male and four rows for
the female, and it will look like this:
This cross will result in offspring of six
different genotypes:
TdTd BltBls ct+ct+ (12.5%) = Doubletail
royal blue with no web reduction
TdTd BltBls Ctct+ (25%) = Doubletail
royal blue with some reduction
TdTd BltBls CtCt (12.5%) = Doubletail
crowntail royal blue
Tdt+ BltBls ct+ct+(12.5%) = Singletail
royal blue with no web reduction
Tdt+ BltBls Ctct+ (25%) = Singletail
royal blue with some reduction
Tdt+ BltBls CtCt (12.5%) = Singletail
crowntail royal blue
Hopefully you can see now that looking
at any more than three traits in a Punnett
square could get very complicated
indeed!
That’s pretty much all there is to Punnett
squares, but there is one final point I
want to make very clear: You will never
see the exact percentage of fry of each
genotype as predicted by the Punnett
square, as there are many factors that can
affect this. For example, the male may
eat a whole bunch off fertilised eggs at
random, or a proportion of the fertilised
eggs may get diseased and never hatch,
or some of the fry may get a disease after
they hatch and never make it to
adulthood. You get my point. Just
because the Punnett square is good at
predicting the likely outcome of a spawn
doesn’t meant that all the fertilised eggs
from that spawn will make it.

Known genes and their


effect in bettas
Now that we’ve covered Punnett squares
I’m sure you will be desperate to start
planning your next spawns and
predicting their outcomes, based on what
you know (or can guess) about the
genotype of your bettas. I
wholeheartedly support you in this,
which is why I have decided to include
several gene tables in this section of the
book. These tables list all of the genes
we think we know about in bettas, their
effects on phenotype and their
dominance relative to other alleles of the
same gene.
On the subject of dominance, you will
see that I have used the terms recessive,
partially dominant, codominant and
dominant. If an allele is partially
dominant (also called incomplete
dominance) the heterozygous genotype
has an intermediate phenotype. A cross
of two such intermediate phenotypes
will always result in the reappearance of
both parent phenotypes and the
intermediate phenotype. A classic
example of this in bettas is the doubletail
gene, where carriers show an
intermediate phenotype of having much
larger dorsals and wider caudal spread.
Breeding two carriers together results in
doubletail bettas, normal singeltails and
singletails that carry the doubletail gene
and have the intermediate phenotype of
wider dorsals and wider caudal spread.
With codominance, neither allele at the
single locus is recessive. Instead the
heterozygous individual expresses both
phenotypes equally. To my mind, the two
iridescent alleles (turquoise and steel
blue) are codominant, because if
turquoise were dominant to steel blue
there would be no such thing as a royal
blue betta, as all heterozygous fish
would show the turquoise phenotype.
This is clearly not the case as
heterozygous turquoise/steel blue fish
are always royal blue – suggesting that
the two alleles are being expressed
simultaneously, in a codominant fashion.
I say codominant as opposed to one or
other allele being partially dominant
because the royal blue colour seems to
be very fixed in terms of its appearance.
If the colour varied in hue between
individuals (as does the turquoise
phenotype) then it would make sense for
steel blue to be recessive and turquoise
partially dominant, but given how
constant royal blue is I find this hard to
believe.
It is for this reason that in The Betta
Bible I have decided to break from the
tradition of using the symbols ‘Bl’ and
‘bl’ to signify turquoise and steel blue
respectively and instead use ‘Blt ’ and
‘Bls’, both starting with capital letters to
signify their codominance.
The following tables information will
hopefully put you in a good position to
guess at the likely genotype of your
bettas and use that information to work
out what you are most likely to get from
each cross before you even have to think
about setting up a spawning tank.
There are four tables in total. For
simplicity, the first three tables adopt the
layers concept and look at the upper
three skin layers (iridescent, red and
black), listing all the known genes that,
to my mind, affect the appearance of
these layers. The cellophane layer is not
included as this layer is essentially
colourless. I am aware that in the
chapter on colouration I highlighted
some problems with the idea that the
skin is simply divided into discrete
layers of colour, but when thinking about
betta genetics this approach does
simplify matters.
The fourth table considers the genes that
affect betta morphology (i.e. the size and
shape of the body and fins), presenting
all the known genes that affect the
appearance of betta fins.
I sincerely hope that these tables prove
useful to your betta breeding programs.
Can you guess what genes this stunning halfmoon is
carrying? © Emelie Brandström

Blue (iridescent) layer

Blue/green colouration
NOTE: Heterozygous fish (BltBls) are
royal blue in colour.

Distribution of iridescence
on body and fins
NOTE: Doesn’t always spread
iridescence to the head.

Distribution of iridescence
on head
NOTE: Homozygous (MkMk) bettas
have full mask covering entire head.
Heterozygous (Mkmk+) bettas show a
variable degree of masking. Carriers
often have metallic iridescent lips!

Depth of guanine crystals in


the dermis

NOTE: Heterozygous fish show some


indication of opaque factor which
affects the appearance of scales and
colour.

Metallic iridescence
NOTE: Copper bettas are homozygous
for steel blue AND metallic
(BlsBlsMtMt). Heterozygous fish are
metallic.

Thickness and colour of


body scales
NOTE: The extent of dragon scale
coverage is variable. This allele
appears to be linked to the ‘mask’
allele, so dragons tend to be masked
fish.

Expression of pigment in
skin cells
NOTE: Homozygous marble fish tend to
show more extensive marbling, but the
effect is also seen in heterozygous
individuals. Note that this may not be
the same transposon that affects the
other skin layers!
Red layer

Density and distribution of


red pigment
Retention of red colouration

Yellow colouration
NOTE: This is probably only one gene
out of multiple genes that can result in
yellow colouration, as evidenced by the
fact that in some spawns between
yellow bettas, the resulting fry are not
100% yellow.
Orange colouration

NOTE: This is probably only one gene


out of multiple genes that can result in
orange colouration, as evidenced by
the fact that in some spawns between
orange bettas, the resulting fry are not
100% orange.

Red pigmentation on body

Distribution of colour
within the fins
NOTE: The effects of this gene are
highly variable, with the distribution of
colour in the fins changing as the betta
ages.

Expression of pigment in
skin cells
NOTE: Homozygous marble fish tend to
show more extensive marbling, but the
effect is also seen in heterozygous
individuals. Note that this may not be
the same transposon that affects the
other skin layers!
Black layer

Density and spread of


melanin
NOTE: Homozygous recessive females
(bmbm) are STERILE. The melano gene
occupies a different locus to the black
lace genes.

Density and spread of


melanin
NOTE: Homozygous recessive females
are FERTILE. The black lace gene
occupies a different locus to the melano
gene.
Density and spread of
melanin

Presence of black
pigmentation
NOTE: Bettas that are homozygous for
Cambodian (cc) do not exhibit black
colouration.

Expression of pigment in
skin cells
NOTE: Homozygous marble fish tend to
show more extensive marbling, but the
effect is also seen in heterozygous
individuals. This is the ‘original’
marble gene.

You will hopefully have noticed that


some alleles feature in the above tables
more than once. For example,
Cambodian and marble. This is because,
in my opinion, these alleles affect the
production of pigment in more than one
skin layer.
It is worth also repeating the point that
these tables only include the genes that
we know something about as a result of
breeders’ spawning results. There are
without doubt a great many genes that we
do not fully understand that affect betta
colouration, either directly or as a result
of complex interactions with other
genes.

Morphology
Fin webbing

NOTE: Heterozygous fish show slight


webbing reduction.

Fin branching
Fin length (not pectorals)

Pectoral length
Tail number
NOTE: Heterozygous fish have wider
and taller dorsal fins and may also
have increased caudal spread.

Adult size
NOTE: Heterozygous fish are half-
giants.

Clearly, the above table is incomplete as


it omits the suite of genes that are
considered to have been essential in the
creation of the halfmoon caudal fin. The
reason for this is that, sadly, we know
precious little about the inheritance of
these genes. More importantly, we don’t
even know for sure if each of the
required changes in morphology (straight
rays, additional branching, additional
webbing between branches etc.) is
brought about by the actions of a single
gene or the interaction between several
different genes. Indeed, we may never
know. All of this just underlines the
importance of starting your breeding
projects with individuals that already
have good form, as this decreases the
risk of fish with bad form in the next
generation.

Inbreeding & Outcrossing


This is really the last thing I want to talk
about in relation to breeding bettas.
These two processes are pretty much the
sharpest tools in a breeder’s toolkit, as
they allow us to improve our betta lines
by fixing particular traits into our bettas,
so that they come as close as possible to
our idea of perfection (or indeed, as
close as possible to the perfect form
required to win show prizes).
Let’s start with the basics.

Inbreeding
In general, when talking about domestic
breeding of animals, inbreeding is the
term used where two very closely
related animals are bred to one another
(i.e. brother to sister; or offspring to
parent). The term ‘linebreeding’ is used
for instances of inbreeding where less
closely related animals are bred to one
another (e.g. breeding half-siblings that
share one parent; or breeding uncle to
niece, or aunt to nephew). There is no
hard and fast rule as to when to use
either term, as linebreeding is
technically also inbreeding, but
providing you use the two terms in the
context described above (i.e. inbreeding
for very closely related individuals;
linebreeding for more distantly related
individuals) you should be fine.
So, how is inbreeding a useful tool for
the betta breeder?
Well, to cut a long story short,
inbreeding increases the chances that the
offspring produced from a cross
between two individuals will be
homozygous for any given gene (i.e. will
have identical copies of that gene on
both chromosomes) and that the gene in
question will be inherited from the same
ancestor. In particular, inbreeding
increases the likelihood that traits coded
for by recessive genes will be
expressed, because the offspring are
more likely to inherit one copy of the
recessive allele from each parent.
Remember that each individual has two
copies of any given gene (or, more
correctly, two alleles at each locus on
paired chromosomes), one inherited
from its father and one from its mother.
So the point is that if the father and
mother are related, there is a higher
chance that the two alleles in the
offspring are going to be identical,
inherited by the two related parents from
their common ancestor (i.e. one of the
grandparents; or great grandparents).
Inbreeding can therefore be a very good
thing, as it improves our chances as
breeders of reproducing recessive traits
in the next generation.
Unfortunately, there is a flip side:
Inbreeding will also increase the
chances of two alleles being identical
that result in a negative (or even deadly)
effect in the offspring. Thus, in the case
of genetic disorders that only express
themselves in homozygous recessive
individuals, inbreeding can act to make
these disorders crop up more frequently
over several generations of inbreeding.
Not great for the breeder – or the
animals concerned!
Of course, if there are no such recessive
genetic disorders in your population,
then inbreeding won’t have a negative
effect. But it only takes one random
genetic mutation in the wrong place to
change all that. As a result, breeders
often ‘outcross’ their lines.

Outcrossing
Outcrossing is the opposite of
inbreeding in that it involves breeding
two unrelated individuals. Now, of
course, there is no such thing as two
unrelated animals, as all individuals of
any given species are related to all other
individuals of all other species in some
way - that’s the beauty of evolution.
However, what we generally mean by
unrelated is that the two individuals
being bred don’t share any common
ancestor within at least the last five
generations (usually more).
Outcrossing introduces new genes into a
line, increasing genetic diversity and
thereby reducing the probability of all
individuals being subject to disease and
reducing the incidence of genetic
abnormalities (particularly those
expressed in homozygous recessive
individuals).
In the 1920s, a man called Sewell
Wright developed the ‘inbreeding
coefficient’ as a means of expressing the
probability that both copies of any given
gene are derived from the same ancestor.
The inbreeding coefficient is expressed
as a percentage, with a total outcross
(e.g. a wild betta to a red dragon
HMPK) having an inbreeding coefficient
of 0%. Pairings between related
individuals have higher coefficients the
more closely related the two individuals
are, and the coefficient is affected by the
degree to which the previous generation
or generations were related. Assuming
that the previous generations were
unrelated, breeding brother to sister
gives a coefficient of 50%; breeding
mother to son (or vice versa) gives a
coefficient of 25%; and breeding cousin
to cousin gives a coefficient of 6.25%.
Note that in the total outcross example,
the two fish would still have common
ancestors many generations back (after
all, they are the same species) so would
still be homozygous for some genes
shared by all bettas. What this means is
that even when the inbreeding coefficient
is 0%, matings between unrelated pairs
can still throw up genetic disorders.
An inbreeding coefficient of 100% can
only be achieved if full siblings are bred
to one another over lots of generations.
Such close inbreeding cannot usually be
maintained indefinitely due to the
increased risk of genetic disorders. In
order to avoid this scenario, breeders
usually select pairs that will work to
keep the inbreeding coefficient as low as
possible whilst still allowing them to
produce offspring with the desired traits.
A simple way that this is achieved with
bettas is to select an unrelated pair that
shares the same phenotype. Thus if you
owned several closely related male and
female copper halfmoon bettas and you
wanted to make another generation of
copper halfmoons, then you might
choose to buy an unrelated copper
halfmoon to breed with one of your fish.
As this would be an outcross, the
inbreeding coefficient would be low and
the next generation might well benefit
from the increase in genetic diversity
resulting from this outcross.
However, if all of the available
unrelated copper halfmoons had terrible
form and your particular group of copper
halfmoons has good form, you might
instead decide to continue linebreeding
those copper halfmoons to guarantee
good form in the next generation.
As I have already explained, the risk of
recessive genetic disorders cropping up
in a line increases the more you inbreed
your bettas, but the flip side of this is
that inbreeding gives you more control
over the colour and finnage of each
successive generation. Thus, there is a
fine balance between fixing the traits you
want via inbreeding (or linebreeding)
and making sure your lines don’t get too
inbred by outcrossing.
Interestingly, because inbreeding can
destroy a line, many breeders will make
sure that they regularly outcross fish
from a particular line as a means of
‘banking’ those good genes in other
lines. That way if recessive disorders do
crop up in the original line, they can
always go back to their ‘bank’ and start
again.
A final point worth making is that some
betta lines are, by necessity, more inbred
than others. This particularly applies to
those strains that rely on recessive
alleles for their colouration, such as
opaque white, or strains that have been
developed from a small number of
individuals showing a particular colour
pattern. This is worth bearing in mind
when working with these strains.
Disease
It is a sad fact that all of us who keep
bettas are eventually faced with the
prospect of having to treat them for
disease. Even those of us who keep
meticulously clean tanks and treat their
bettas to regular water changes can’t
escape the fact that as bettas age their
immune systems get weaker and
eventually they succumb to one disease
or another. However, it is far more
common that bettas contract a disease as
a result of poor husbandry on the part of
their keeper.
Prevention is better than
cure
All books that deal with the captive care
of animals will tell you the same thing:
Prevention is better than cure. I couldn’t
agree more.
As I have mentioned before, keeping
bettas healthy is largely down to keeping
their water clean, thereby avoiding the
build-up of toxins and harmful bacteria.
You will recall that the speed at which
water quality deteriorates is directly
related to the size of the tank that your
betta is housed in, and whether or not
that tank has a filter. The bottom line is
this: If you keep your betta tanks clean
and change the water regularly, then your
fish will most likely live a long happy
life. If you let your standards slip, then
you are opening the door to disease.
Unfortunately, the course of life is not
always smooth and inevitably there are
occasions when we are forced to
compromise our husbandry regimes. A
classic example is if you go on holiday
for a week or two and leave your fish in
the hands of someone less experienced
with bettas. When this happens, the fish
often get overfed, which leads to more
waste, which leads to more rapid fouling
of the water, which…you guessed it…
leads to illness.
Note however that bettas, like all
animals, vary in terms of their
susceptibility to disease. Some fish are
very resilient, others are disease
magnets! This variation exists not only
between individual bettas but also
between different strains of bettas. Just
ask any breeder if they observe
differences in health between siblings
from the same spawn that have been kept
in the same water. They will almost
certainly answer that they have. Some
bettas just seem to be weak, presumably
because they have weaker genotypes that
are more sensitive to environmental
changes.
On the subject of weaker genotypes, I
want to clear something up. Often people
complain that fish they’ve imported from
overseas (or even had posted to them
from the same country) are weak and
susceptible to disease, because they
rapidly decline in health for no obvious
reason once they are in the buyer’s care.
Commonly the buyers that make this
complaint already have several bettas in
their care that are all perfectly healthy,
so the only explanation for the death of
their new fish is that it was from poor
quality stock, right? Not necessarily.
In my opinion this issue has very little to
do with how ‘weak’ those fish are and a
lot to do with the difference in chemistry
between the water used by the seller and
that used by the buyer. Often fish that we
have kept for a long time have grown up
in our local water and may also be
accustomed to a somewhat less stringent
husbandry regime. Most exporters of
bettas have staff (or family members)
who clean out their betta containers on a
daily basis. What this means is that when
a newly imported fish is introduced into
its new home it has to deal with two
things: Firstly, the water will have
different chemical properties to the
water the fish has been posted in; and
secondly the water may not be as clean
as what the fish is used to.
The trick to solving this problem of
newly imported bettas succumbing to
chemical shock is to keep the betta in the
water it was posted in overnight and
then add small amounts of your local
water to the betta’s container over the
course of a few hours. This is very easy
if you have a heated fishroom, as you
simply pour the betta and its water into a
small container, leave the container
overnight to heat up and then start adding
a little of your own water bit by bit until
the container is full.
If you have a tank with a heater then you
can do the same thing by floating the bag
containing the betta and the water it was
posted in inside the tank (with the bag
open and the edges rolled down so the
bag floats). You then add water bit by bit
to the bag until it is full and then let your
betta out into its new home. The reason
for doing this is to allow the betta to
very slowly acclimatise to your water
conditions, which avoids it being
shocked by the sudden change in water
chemistry that would occur if you just
dumped the fish into its new tank. Once
acclimatised, your new betta should be
every bit as happy as all your other fish.

Identifying illness
I know that I have said this over and
over again during the course of this
book, but it’s so fundamental to
successfully keeping bettas that I’m
going to say it again: You need to know
your fish. Knowing the behaviour of
each betta is
very useful when it comes to breeding
bettas, but it is absolutely essential for
recognising when your betta is unwell. If
you know how your betta behaves when
he or she is content, it will be blindingly
obvious when something is wrong. Here
is a list of behavioural things to look out
for that usually mean your betta is sick:

Lethargy
Loss of appetite
Lying on the bottom of the tank
Difficulty swimming
Laboured breathing
Permanent horizontal stress stripes
Flicking against tank décor

Of course, these are just behavioural


symptoms. There are a large number of
physical symptoms of disease that you
should also look out for. Let’s take a
look at the most common diseases in
bettas, their symptoms, how to treat them
and how to prevent them happening in
the first place. For ease of reference, I
have grouped similar ailments together.

WATER CONDITIONS
Poisoning
A poor water changing regime can
quickly result in high levels of ammonia,
nitrate or nitrite in your betta’s container,
which can poison your betta.
Symptoms: Watch for fish spending a
significant amount of time at the water
surface (more than usual), gasping for
air. This may be accompanied by
clamped fins.
Treatment: Buy an aquarium water test
kit and check the levels of ammonia,
nitrate and nitrite. If the test confirms
toxic levels, perform a large water
change with fresh water that has either
been aged (to allow chlorine to
evaporate) or treated with chlorine
remover. If this problem occurs
frequently your water supply may have a
high nitrate concentration already, so it’s
worth testing the water fresh from the
tap. If this is the problem then consider
using rain water or bottled water to keep
your bettas.
Prevention: Regular water changes.
FUNGAL INFECTIONS
Fungus
Symptoms: White cotton-wool-like like
patches on the body or head. Contagious.
Treatment: 100% water change
followed by treatment with an over-the-
counter fish medication designed to treat
fungus (there are many brands). Follow
the manufacturer’s instructions for
dosage.
Prevention: Consider adding 100%
aquarium salt or sea salt solution to your
betta’s water at a rate of 1 teaspoon per
10 litres of water.
Fin rot
Symptoms: Fins look like they are being
eaten away at the edges and take on a
ragged appearance. Contagious.
Treatment: 100% water change
followed by treatment with an over-the-
counter fish medication designed to treat
fungus (there are many brands). Follow
the manufacturer’s instructions for
dosage. Regular large water changes
should be carried out every other day
until the fins start to regrow. Adding
almond leaf to the water after each water
change can help as the leaves release
chemicals with antibiotic properties.
Fin rot is easily treated if diagnosed
early enough, with the fins growing back
to their former size (although often the
damaged areas that grow back are
cellophane).
Prevention: Keep on top of your water
changes! The most common cause of fin
rot in bettas is dirty water.

PARASITIC INFECTIONS
White spot (Ichthyophthirius
multifiliis) a.k.a. Ich
Ich is a freshwater protozoon parasite
that spends part of its life cycle living on
the skin of fish and feeding on the tissue.
It is present in most aquariums, but
healthy fish are typically immune to
infection. The parasite can only take
hold when changes in the aquatic
environment such as poor water
conditions, or extreme fluctuations in
temperature, weaken the fish’s immune
system, making it susceptible to
infection.
Symptoms: Tiny white spots all over the
body and head. Fish affected with white
spot often exhibit reduced activity, loss
of appetite and clamped fins. They may
also flick against décor in the tank in an
attempt to dislodge the parasites. Highly
contagious.
Treatment: The white spot parasite is
temperature-sensitive. Treatment
therefore involves raising the water
temperature (up to a maximum of 30˚C)
followed by treatment with an over-the-
counter fish medication designed to treat
white spot (there are many brands).
Prevention: Quarantine all new fish
before allowing them to come into
contact you’re your existing bettas.
Consider adding 100% aquarium salt or
sea salt solution to your betta’s water at
a rate of 1 teaspoon per 10 litres of
water.

Velvet (Oodinium pilularis or


Oodinium limneticum)
Oodinium starts life as a ‘dinospore’
that swims through the water in search of
a suitable host fish. Once it has found a
suitable host, the dinospore attaches
itself to the host’s skin and forms a hard
shell around itself, which protects it
while it feeds on the fish’s skin cells. It
is the protective shells of hundreds of
individual Oodinium parasites that give
infected fish the appearance of being
covered in fine gold dust. After a few
days of feeding on the host’s skin, the
cyst sinks to the substrate, where is
releases a new generation of dinospores,
thereby repeating the cycle.
Oodinium dinospores have to find a host
within 48 hours, otherwise they die.
Obviously in a crowded fish tank (or a
betta spawning tank full of fry) this isn’t
such a problem for them. This is why
velvet is infamous for wiping out
batches of betta fry before the breeder
even has a chance to notice. The
parasites are almost impossible to see
on the tiny white fry, so usually the only
clue you have is that the hundreds of fry
you thought you had have decreased in
number dramatically. When I start to
lose fry my first assumption is always
that there is an outbreak of velvet.
Symptoms: The betta appears to be
covered in a coating of fine gold dust,
which shows up clearly under torchlight.
As with white spot, fish parasitised by
velvet often exhibit reduced activity,
loss of appetite, clamped fins and
flicking against objects in the tank.
Highly contagious.
Treatment: Turn the tank lights off,
increase the water temperature up to
30˚C to encourage the cysts to release
dinospores and then treat with an over-
the-counter fish medication designed to
treat velvet (there are many brands).
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions
for dosage.
Prevention: Quarantine all new fish
before allowing them to come into
contact you’re your existing bettas.
Consider adding 100% aquarium salt or
sea salt solution to your betta’s water at
a rate of 1 teaspoon per 10 litres of
water.

Slime disease
Slime disease is the name given to
various parasitic infections of the skin
that cause freshwater aquarium fish to
produce abnormally high quantities of
mucus, hence the term ‘slime’. Slime
disease weakens a fish’s immune system
making the fish vulnerable to potentially
lethal secondary infections. In aquarium
fish this disease can be caused by
several different protozoan parasites
including Ichthyobodo necator,
Ichthyobodo pyriformis, Chilodonella
spp., and Trichodina spp.
The lifecycle of the parasites that cause
slime disease is roughly similar to that
of Oodinium discussed above. Rapid
treatment is essential to avoid the risk of
lethal secondary infections taking hold.
Symptoms: Abnormally high quantities
of white mucus on the body.
Treatment: Treatment with over-the-
counter medications for slime disease
according to the manufacturer’s
instructions.
Prevention: Keep on top of water
changes!

Internal parasites
Internal parasites take much of the
energy out of a betta’s food before it has
time to digest it. As a result the betta
obtains fewer nutrients from each meal,
causing it to lose weight and become
less active. Betta keepers need to be
especially vigilant of their betta’s
behaviour in order to notice this change
early enough to treat the condition
effectively.
Symptoms: Weight loss despite normal
eating, coupled with lethargy (but not
always). Contagious.
Treatment: 100% water change. Add
100% aquarium salt (or sea salt)
solution at a rate of 1 teaspoon per 10
litres of water. Repeat water changes
every other day. If there is no
improvement over a few days and you
have access to antibiotics, then treat
with antibiotics. Otherwise, there are
over-the-counter treatments for internal
parasites that you can also try. Follow
the manufacturer’s instructions.
Prevention: Quarantine all new fish
before allowing them to come into
contact you’re your existing bettas.
Consider adding 100% aquarium salt or
sea salt solution to your betta’s water at
a rate of 1 teaspoon per 10 litres of
water.

BACTERIAL INFECTIONS
Columnaris (Flexibacter
columnaris)
Columnaris is a common bacterial
infection in aquarium fish, largely due to
the fact that the bacteria that cause it are
present in the majority aquariums.
However, fish are only susceptible to
infection when their immune systems
have been compromised by factors such
as stress, poor water conditions, poor
handling or sudden fluctuations in
temperature.
Columnaris infection is often mistaken
for a fungal infection because of the
appearance of the mould-like lesions
that it causes. The disease can be
internal, but is usually external,
occurring in two forms: chronic and
acute. Lesions in chronic cases spread
slowly and take several days to bring
about the death of a fish. In acute cases
the lesions spread quickly and can wipe
out entire populations of fish within
hours. The rate of infection increases
with increasing water temperature.
Symptoms: Most columnaris infections
are external and first appear as white or
greyish-white spots on the head and
around the fins or gills. The first lesions
appear as pale patches on the skin that
lack the normal shiny appearance of the
rest of the fish. Lesions on the back
commonly extend down the sides of the
fish, giving the appearance of a saddle.
Mouth lesions can look like cotton wool,
and will eventually eat the mouth away.
The fins will erode and have a frayed
appearance as the infection progresses.
Less commonly, the infection is internal
and displays no external symptoms.
Treatment: 100% water change. Add
100% salt solution at a rate of 1
teaspoon per 10 litres of water. Treat
with either a copper sulphate medication
or antibiotics (if you have access to
them) according to the manufacturer’s
instructions
Prevention: Quarantine all new fish
before allowing them to come into
contact with your existing bettas. Keep
on top of water changes!

Popeye
Popeye is a gram-positive bacterial
infection that causes the fish’s eye(s) to
swell and protrude from the socket. It is
most commonly caused by dirty water as
a result of poor husbandry (i.e. not
enough regular water changes).
Symptoms: One or both of the fish’s
eyes is swollen and bulging out if its
socket. The fish may otherwise behave
completely normally.
Treatment: 100% water change and add
100% aquarium salt or sea salt solution
at a rate of 1 teaspoon per 10 litres of
water. Change the water every other day
until you see a reduction in swelling.
Popeye is not normally fatal if diagnosed
early enough. Severe cases should be
treated with antibiotics at the
manufacturer’s recommended dose
(mostly to rule out the possibility of a
more sinister infection).
Prevention: Keep on top of water
changes!
Dropsy
Not strictly a disease, but a symptom of
severe bacterial infection that often
leads to kidney failure and death.
Symptoms: Bloated stomach and raised
scales, giving the fish the appearance of
a pine cone. Almost always fatal, can be
contagious if triggered by poor water
conditions.
Treatment: There is no reliable cure for
dropsy.
Prevention: Keep on top of water
changes!

OTHER
Swim bladder disorder
(a.k.a. SBD)
Loss of correct swim bladder function is
usually caused by overfeeding (in betta
fry this is most commonly linked to
overfeeding of baby brineshrimp). Swim
bladder disorder can also occur in
female bettas as a result of damage
sustained during courtship.
Symptoms: Bettas with swim bladder
disorder have difficulty maintaining their
position in the water column because
their swim bladder has either increased
or decreased in size. When the swim
bladder has decreased in size, the betta
finds it hard to swim upwards and as a
result will tend to rest on the bottom of
the tank. If the swim bladder has
increased in size, the betta will tend to
float at the surface, unable to swim
down to the substrate. Rarely fatal, not
contagious.
Treatment: Bettas with swim bladder
disorder often recover on their own over
time. This is especially true of young fry.
In my experience it is much rarer for an
adult fish with swim bladder disorder to
recover.
You can increase the likelihood of
recovery by feeding the affected fish less
(or imposing a 24 hour fast) and making
sure that when you do feed you are
offering a variety of different foods. In
the case of so-called ‘belly sliders’ that
spend all their time resting on the floor
of the tank, lowering the water level can
be helpful as it helps them reach the
surface to breathe atmospheric air more
easily.
Prevention: Feed fry and adults a
varied diet.

My approach to the
treatment of diseases in
bettas
Although the above list of diseases is
quite long, in my experience bettas only
really suffer from four of the above
conditions on a regular basis: white
spot; velvet (especially young fry); fin
rot; and dropsy. As we have seen, the
first two parasitic infections are readily
treated with over-the-counter
medications and an increase in water
temperature. Fin rot is also easy to treat
with regular water changes and
antifungal medication. Sadly, dropsy is
incurable, so once your fish has dropsy
it’s time to think about euthanasia. Yes,
you could wait for the fish to die
‘naturally’, but this can take weeks and
it’s a really sad thing to watch. I speak
from experience.
In my opinion, it is pretty rare for bettas
obtained from reputable sources,
carefully acclimatised and kept in good
conditions to suffer from any of the other
diseases mentioned in the table. Of
course there are exceptions and on
occasion fish are imported or bought
from shops that carry such diseases.
I did have one horrendous experience
several years ago when fish I had bought
from a local breeder carried with them
columnaris, which ate away the body
tissue, leaving huge holes in the sides of
the fish and rapidly killing them off. So
bad was this infection that it killed my
entire betta collection over the course of
a few weeks. Needless to say, I had a
long break from keeping bettas after that
experience. It was awful, but it taught me
a very valuable lesson: If the first rule of
keeping bettas healthy is that prevention
is better than cure, the second rule has to
be that you must quarantine all new
bettas in isolation before you let them
anywhere near your existing bettas.
I have seen so many of my fellow betta
keepers heartbroken because they forgot
to observe this rule. Take it from me,
there is nothing worse than watching all
of your beautiful fish deteriorate before
your eyes.
Many of the worst diseases require
treatment with antibiotics. As these are
no longer available over the counter in
the UK, I tend to take the approach that if
a fish has something this nasty and isn’t
responding to any of the medication I
have tried, then it’s probably time to
euthanise it. I don’t imagine many
veterinarians have the time or expertise
to treat sick bettas, nor would I want to
pay the price of the consultation when
that money could be put to better use
purchasing new, healthy stock.
The final piece of advice I want to give
you is about this incredible, magical,
substance that can fix almost any sick
betta in the early stages of disease. It’s
like a wonder-drug, except much, much
cheaper, more readily available and
probably more effective. So, what is this
incredible substance?
Salt.
Plain old salt.
To clarify, I’m talking about aquarium or
sea salt, not the nasty processed stuff you
buy in the supermarket labelled as ‘table
salt’.
The effect that 100% salt solution can
have on a sick betta is truly amazing.
It may sound crazy, but 100% salt
solution is probably the most useful
medication I use and it is certainly the
one I use most often. Whenever I notice
one of my bettas looking a bit miserable
for whatever reason, I always start by
adding salt solution to its container.
To make a 100% salt solution, take a jar
and add a few heaped tablespoons of sea
salt into it. Then fill the jar with water,
put the lid on and shake it as hard as you
can for a few minutes, until no more of
the salt dissolves into the water and the
undissolved crystals are left sitting on
the bottom of the jar. Store it somewhere
safe.
The next time you notice one of your
bettas is sick, do a 100% water change
(if it is in a tank with other fish, isolate it
in a separate container with fresh, aged
water - you can float this container in the
main tank to keep the water at the right
temperature). Now add 100% salt
solution to the fresh water at a rate of 1
teaspoon per 10 litres of water.
Providing that you have acted early
enough (and the disease isn’t one of the
really nasty ones) your betta should start
to show an improvement within 12
hours. You can then capitulate on this
improvement by doing more water
changes until your betta is back to
normal. Simple!
No-one is quite sure how salt has such a
healing effect, but I have a theory is that
the sodium in the salt acts on boosting
the fish’s nervous system, which
improves its ability to fight off illness.
The salt may also negatively affect
whatever pathogen is attacking the fish,
weakening it and again allowing the
fish’s immune system to fight back.
Whatever the true explanation, all I can
say
is that salt has saved a whole bunch fish
in my fishroom and pretty much every
betta breeder I know uses salt as part of
their betta medicine cabinet.
Salt solution works even more
effectively when you increase the water
temperature. Again, this increase in
temperature probably has the effect of
increasing the fish’s metabolism
(enzymes can work better at higher
temperatures), thereby helping the fish
fight off the disease.
So there is it. The final bit of advice I
have to give you about bettas. May this
and all of the other advice I have given
you in these pages help you to make the
most of this amazing, challenging, and
gratifying hobby that so many others just
like you have come to love so much.
Parting words
I can’t take any credit for most of the
information in this book. My role as its
author has been to combine the
collective knowledge of some of the
world’s most influential betta keepers in
the hope that it will help you to be a
better keeper and breeder of bettas.
Without the hard work of these pioneers
of the betta world in improving our
understanding of betta genetics and in
promoting the importance of good form,
we simply wouldn’t have the incredible
variety of bettas that are available today,
nor would we understand how best to
maintain them.
With that in mind I would like to thank
the following people for making
available so much of the information
without which this book would not have
been possible: Walt Maurus, for writing
A Complete Guide to Bettas and giving
me the betta bug in the first place; Dr
Gene Lucas, for all of his wonderful
research into bettas and their genetics;
Victoria Parnell-Stark, for letting me
rehash her wonderful account of how the
halfmoon came to be; Precha
Jintasaerewonge, for his vast knowledge
of fighter plakats (see
www.plakatthai.com); Dr Robert J.
Goldstein, for writing The Betta
Handbook and opening my eyes to the
chemistry of pigmentation; and, of
course, my friend Joep van Esch, for his
incredible contribution to the modern
betta hobby via the Betta Territory, the
Bettas4All Forum and the Bettas4All
Standard.
Any book about bettas is worthless
without photographs, so I would also
like to thank all of the professional
breeders and fellow hobbyists who have
been so incredibly generous in allowing
me to use their beautiful photos to
illustrate this book. I am overwhelmed
by your generosity and can only hope
that this book does your photos justice.
There are three more people I need to
thank: The first is my darling wife
Amber, for indulging my betta obsession,
allowing me the time to write this book
and never doubting that I would finish it;
the second is Jym, my wonderful
creative brother, who by a strange twist
of fate was the catalyst for this whole
project; and the third is you, for taking
the time to read this book.
Thanks. I really appreciate it.
If you enjoyed this book, then please
leave
a review on Amazon so that others can
find it and benefit from it too.

If you want to keep up with my ongoing


betta
exploits, then please join my mailing list
at:
www.thebettabible.com

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