#betta rubra

omg 🥹 well i can provide some now even tho i am feeling crappy, because talking about critters always makes me happy

this was my old 10gal set-up for my betta rubra! i had a bonded pair who produced several spawns for me in 2021, and they were a delight to keep. now i just have the male of the pair, as the female died very suddenly (this can happen with wild caught fish unfortunately), and several of the F1 adults from their last spawn. my main pair lived in this set-up on their own, and as their fry grew up, i would separate them out into a 20gal high grow-out tank before taking them down to my local fish store to find their forever homes.

that's the wild-caught male on the right--gomez--holding eggs and fry after spawning with his mate, morticia. (': the little one on the left is one of the fry at about a week old, iirc. a really cool thing about betta rubra as a complex is that they do very well when kept in small groups/colonies, and can become extremely timid and withdrawn and depressed if you keep them in isolation. in my experience, paternal mouthbrooding anabantoid species generally have lower levels of aggression, don't predate their own young, and are much more inquisitive and interested in interacting with humans than bubble-nesters. (this is just in general!! betta macrostoma are paternal mouthbrooders who will nevertheless do fish murder to any other fish that they can reach lmfao)

there's gomez on the bottom again (what a handsome fellow) and some of his F1 offspring as adults!

some other cool betta rubra facts:

like all members of the anabantoid suborder, betta rubra have a labyrinth organ that they use to breathe oxygen directly from the surface of the water. they can in fact 'drown' if not given access to air! this is because they evolved in low pH waters (i keep mine in water with a pH of 6-6.5, but when spawning i lower the pH down to 5.5-6), and low pH water also has extremely low concentrations of oxygen. this is also true of your typical domestic betta splendens fish you might choose to rescue from its little cup prison cell at petsmart, though they tolerate a far wider pH range than betta rubra do.

betta rubra are extremely dedicated parents, particularly the fathers. when holding eggs and fry, it takes the fry upwards of 20+ days to become free swimming, at which point the male spits them out to fend for themselves. but during this time period, the male parent does not eat anything! because he can't! because he's mouth is full with babie. :c that said, newer fathers sometimes, um, forget that their mouths are full, and often swallow their fry a few times before they get the hang of things. gomez was always a very good father tho and never swallowed any of his babies. what a good dad.

they can live up to 7 years in captivity, and are very hardy fish imo.

captive bred populations of wild betta species are super important for the long term conservation of the species given all of the deforestation and pollution that is wreaking havoc on their natural habitat in sumatra.

I pulled out the survivors and popped them in the community tank, and found- to my horror- yet another generation of Betta Rubra fry.

Fortunately in two days the local fishkeeping club is trialing an in-person meeting and I'm just going to show up and basically beg people to take my Bettas away.

The Ember Tetras are getting along great though, and (hopefully?) you can see them in that second pic.

Maybe? Photos of my tank are terrible. Also, these are Betta Rubra. Don't keep Betta Splendens communally.

And I have exciting news!! Today I finally did water changes for everyone, and found a baby Betta Rubra!! I'm really surprised, they've both been eating so I didn't think they had babies :0

It's so cute!!