The Betta Handbook

Chapter One

Introduction

Labyrinth Fishes

Bettas are classified as bony fishes (class Teleostei), order Anabantoidei, and family Osphromenidae. The Osphromenidae also include the blue, pearl, dwarf, honey, giant, and licorice gouramies, all native to Asia. The kissing gourami is in the Asian Helostomatidae family. Other anabantoids are native to South Africa. This book is about the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) and its approximately 65 closest relatives in the genus Betta .

Anabantoids are labyrinth fishes. The labyrinth organ, located above the gill chamber, allows the fish to extract oxygen from the air, an evolutionary adaptation to survival in oxygen-poor waters. The labyrinth starts out small in baby anabantoids, and is called the epibranchial bone. As the fish grows, this bone folds and infolds repeatedly upon itself. By adulthood, it has myriad convolutions that increase total surface area, and is now called the suprabranchial bone. It then becomes encased in epithelial tissue enriched with capillaries (vascularized), much like your lungs (or a fish’s gills). The combination of the fully formed suprabranchial bone with its capillary-rich epithelium is the labyrinth. The complex anatomy of the labyrinth is an important feature used to classify families of fishes within the Order Anabantoidei. The most convoluted and complex labyrinths are in primitive members of the group (Anabas, Ctenopoma) and the least complex (virtually absent) is in Parophromenus; the labyrinth is merely a simple tube in Betta.

Fishes have long been classified by their hard parts to reveal relationships and ancestry. Today’s classification of anabantoids is based on DNA analyses. The larger share of DNA (the stuff of genes) is found in the nucleus of the cell. A second source of DNA, inherited only from the mother, is found inside cellular mitochondria. Mitochrondrial DNA (mtDNA) is easier to extract and work with, and is widely used by biologists as a quick and reasonable sample of the total DNA.

The labyrinth helps anabantoids breathe air where the water, polluted from plant decay, animal waste, or too hot to hold oxygen, excludes competitors and predators. Anabantoids survive where other fishes cannot on a gulp of surface air (210,000 parts per million of oxygen). That’s important where the oxygen concentration in the water is 2 parts per million. Other fishes need 5–8 parts per million of oxygen in the water, so a gulp of air goes a long way. (Some other fishes with this ability have an organ similar to a labyrinth, and still others such as catfishes have a capillary-rich intestine that can act as a lung.) It isn’t only getting oxygen that’s important, but also eliminating (exhaling) carbon dioxide.

Labyrinth fishes can be shipped with just enough water to keep them wet, plus oxygen-rich (21 percent) air in the sealed container. That air space provides sufficient oxygen for days and, equally important, a space into which carbon dioxide can escape from the water.

They are easy to keep. Bettas need little space, eat anything but never much, ought to have an occasional water change, and thrillingly thrive under conditions in which other fishes, such as guppies, angelfish, and neon tetras, could not survive.

The Siamese fighting fish is one of the first fish you see in a pet store and one of the first you purchase. But do you know where it comes from, how it lives, and how to get it to reproduce? And do you know how to raise the babies? That’s what this book is about and, more than that, we’ll also talk about all the other members of this intriguing genus.

Siamese Fighting Fish

Siamese fighting fish are native to Thailand on mainland Asia and nearby countries and islands. They are equally popular as aquarium fishes as they are for fighting (on which people place bets), which isn’t so different from the popularity of horse racing and boxing in the United States. The scientific name of the fighting fish (Betta splendens) means splendid battler (Monvises et al., 2009), and revenues from breeding these fish amount to more than 25 million Thai baht (three quarters of a million dollars) per year.

Sports and gambling enthusiasts introduced them to surrounding countries, where breeders and fish farms produce them by the thousands, saving the most desirable (for show or fighting), and discarding unwanted fish. Non-native invasive populations occur in Florida and Brazil, but you can’t blame the fish. People breed them for fun or profit and throw the excess into streams and lakes that have never seen an anabantoid. In many places these released fish are gobbled up by native predators, but in some parts of the world they have survived and thrived.

Southeast Asian breeders care most about fighting ability. How does it work? To know the fish, imagine that you are in the fighting fish market in downtown Bangkok, where vendors hawk racks of jars containing beautiful or menacing large-bodied bettas. Nearby, a group of men crowd around a small table holding a small glass tank. People bring strong fish to these fights, and money to back up their champions.

To prepare a fight, two robust males are placed in one small jar, and the gamblers place money on the table in favor of one fish or the other. In China to the north, the cold-tolerant paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis) is used the same way, although fighting paradise fishes is not as popular in China as is fighting bettas in Thailand. Fighting strains have been imported into the United States for more than 20 years in response to demand from immigrants from Vietnam and Thailand, while fighting strains of paradise fish have not yet been imported despite the much larger Chinese community.

Fighting

Fighting fish do not fight in nature, or at least not very hard. As in many other species, the males of Siamese fighting fish are somewhat territorial, and defend their territories from competitor males, usually with threat displays. To induce a fighting fish to fight, breeders do two things. First, they selectively breed champions. What makes a champion? Large size, big head, and powerful jaws help but it also has a lot to do with willingness to keep going despite adversity and pain. Champion fighting fish are all of this—powerful in body and jaw, and relentless in aggressiveness.

As with professional fighters, native ability must be supplemented with training. Capture a wild male or even grow a domestically bred male, and it isn’t aggressive enough to be a champion. It must be trained. Fighting fish are trained by removing the biggest and fastest growing young males from a group and placing each fish in a small jar shielded (with paper or cardboard) so none can see the others. After a month, each male’s world (and territory) consists of that small prison that may be no more than 1 quart (1 L) or 1 gallon (4 L) in volume area. When the two cellmate males with this experience are taken from their jars and placed together, they defend and protect their territory, first by threat displays (flared fins and gill covers) and then by biting if the competitor does not flee. Because both are confined and neither can flee, the fight is inevitable.

This training of killers by confining them and selecting for fish with courage, aggressiveness, big jaws, and robust bodies results in fishes born and bred for fighting. They are not pretty, but they are tough. This sport and all it takes is foreign to Americans, but the Thai people probably think our prisons are inhumane.

Several species of fighting fish and their hybrids are now used in Thai fights. The recent large immigration of Asians to the United States has also created a demand for fighting plakat, and those are now being imported to this country by tropical fish distributors. The rise of eBay supported by PayPal and other web-based tools has greatly enhanced the retail direct purchase and importation of fighting strains, and we now have access to the same quality fighting fish stocks as enjoyed by the Thai people overseas. Because a fish is used to fight only one time, demand is high and growing.

After one fight, the fish is retired, and its cohorts (brothers from the same batch) may be used for further bouts, also just one time for each. Losers (and their cohorts) are not used for further breeding. It is the cohorts of winning fish that are bred to produce a new generation of fighters.

Names

The Thai name for Siamese fighting fish is Plakat Thai. Wild fish are called Plakat Thung, referring to plakat from swamps. Domestic fighting fish are called Plakat Lukmoh, with Lukmoh referring to the clay pots used for breeding. As you might expect, fish bred for fighting will fight for hours, whereas fish bred for show might quit after 10 minutes. Plakat Cheen fish are those bred for coloration, whether they have a satin sheen to the body or fancy dress (fins or coloration). Cheen refers to the Chinese culture, whose fancy silk robes come to mind when viewing these red, green, blue, or white beauties. Today giant plakat are bred for fighting abilities but have also been crossed with highly colorful and fancy finnage strains to produce gorgeous giant bettas. These are not based on new species or new discoveries in the wild, but strictly on selective breeding. Expect to see giant fancy bettas in pet stores in the near future. If you can’t wait, go to Aquabid.com and you’ll find them available from Thailand, with all you need to know about shipping to your home.

History in the Aquarium Hobby

The fighting fish was imported into France from Siam (today’s Thailand) in 1874. Some 19 years later, in 1893, the French aquarist Jeunet described how it spawned under a nest of bubbles. Offspring were distributed throughout Europe. During this period the fish was erroneously called Betta pugnax, because that was the only valid species of Betta in the scientific literature at the time, and this fish was certainly a Betta. In America, the ichthyologist C. Tate Regan saw preserved fighting fish, recognized that they were different from preserved Betta pugnax, and described them as a new species, which he named Betta splendens, which means splendid battler.

In 1910, live specimens were exported from Siam to the United States, and were an instant hit with aquarists. In 1927, the first white-bodied fish imported to the United States was named Betta cambodia in reference to its assumed origin, but it was soon recognized as a color variant of Betta splendens.

Fighting became popular in the United States and Europe only recently, with the great migration of southeast Asians to the west, but fighting always was and remains popular in Thailand, with more species and even hybrids entering the sport. Today’s fighting species include Betta splendens, B. smaragdina, B. imbellis, B. prima, B. mahachiensis, B. bellis, B. siamorientalis, and B. pi.

Betta splendens has become one of the world’s most popular aquarium fishes. Long-finned, fancy-finned, and spectacularly colored males are some of the most hardy, beautiful, and inexpensive aquarium fishes available. Males are usually kept individually in small bowls or jars because their delicate finnage is easily torn in a community tank, because they often hide from aggressive fish in big tanks, and because they sometimes are aggressive toward smaller fishes. But mostly they’re isolated so that they can be induced to flare when challenged for their territory.

You’ll see them in all their glory when they spoil for a fight. Beginners and even professional breeders usually display the males in individual containers of 1 gallon (4 L) or smaller size. If you place a mirror against the tank, the male will react with a spectacular display of flaring gill plates, threatening undulations and charges ending with bites of the glass, and magnificently stretched fins as the male threatens that image of a competitor in the mirror by appearing larger than he really is. Many animals do the same thing with whatever they have. Cats puff up by erecting their hairs. Toads swallow air. Birds erect their feathers. Humans used to wear feathers, stovepipe hats, and even helmets with spikes, while today they try to look larger by wearing oversized shoes and shorts, and sometimes by swallowing a pharmacopeia of muscle-growing substances (that also enhance production of red blood cells and growth of heart muscle).

Females are smarter, recognizing that increased visibility increases vulnerability to predators. The dull-colored, short-fin female bettas are not as pretty as aquarium fishes, and are less in demand. They are peaceful community tank fishes that get along with other species and each other. Female birds are also often dull-colored. Did you ever wonder why women outnumber men?

Siamese fighting fish are excellent fish for beginner aquarists, requiring no special foods, needing no special temperatures nor quality of water, and eating anything, despite their nature as carnivores that, in the wild, eat mostly insects. They do well at room temperature, but tolerate high temperatures that would drive all the life-sustaining oxygen out of the water and kill other fishes. They are seldom affected by cold that would decimate tetras or angelfish. They are exceptionally temperature tolerant for tropical fish. When it’s hot, they gulp air and oxygen from the surface, and when it’s cold, they simply become lethargic.

Chapter Two

Characteristics of the Genus

The first bettas imported from Asia for the aquarium trade were long-fin Betta splendens . The more common, fighting, short-fin plakat popular in Thailand was unknown here. The long-fin variety (a cull or throwaway if you are a fighting advocate) was highly regarded in a western world that cared only about beauty and not fighting. Long-fin bettas were available in shades of blue, green, and red. The next variety imported was the Cambodia Betta splendens with colored fins (shades of green, blue, and red) on a white body.

Betta names are a mix of common, shorthand, genetic, and spurious names. Common names might be veil tail or double tail and their shorthand (for advertising or popular publications) might be VT or DT. Genetic terms for mutations refer to the gene (or gene cluster) where the plus sign (+) refers to the most common allele (the wild type), a capital letter refers to an allele dominant to the wild-type gene, and a lower case letter refers to an allele recessive to the wild-type, or common, allele. Spurious invented names are hawked by sellers of fish that may not meet show standards, and are invented to generate sales of something new.

Because almost all breeding today consists of crosses between sports (variants) of varying dominance relationships and with interactions among nonalleles affecting the same trait, and because wild-type genes for desirable traits have almost disappeared from breeding stock in the aquarium hobby, the plus sign (+) for wild type (in my opinion) has no value in today’s breeding analyses, and obscures relationships about traits we wish to understand.

Today many varieties of Betta splendens are recognized (show sanctioned) by the International Betta Congress (IBC) and other groups that breed bettas for show. The varieties are based on base color and color distribution, iridescence (guanine deposition in body and fins), finnage, fin ray number, and fin shape. Recognized classes and judging standards are complex, and certification as an IBC judge requires considerable study and an apprenticeship. A novice who doesn’t know the accepted names will be overwhelmed by commercial names (pretending to be unique forms) used by Internet vendors. Beware a name used by only one vendor because it may be hyperbole. When vendors use the same name (e.g., Cambodia, double tail, butterfly), you know what they mean, but a unique name often masks an effort to sell novices the culls, or throwaways, that fail to meet standards of a recognized class or allelic type.

Fin Types

Dr. Gene Lucas summarized fin shapes as round (wild type or +) sometimes also applied to plakat fish (PK), half-moon (HM or shovel shaped), spade tailed or pin tailed (lancet shaped), veil tail (VT) or long fin (flowing and extended), delta or D (triangular with a vertical end) and super delta or SD, and ribbon (elongated flowing). Veil tail or long fin is dominant to wild type (+) and the gene symbol is P from the German prachtig. Sellers advertise veil tail as VT, long fin as LF, and half-moon as HM, but these are shorthand for the phenotype (what they look like) and should not be confused with their genotype. It’s good practice