Assessor randalli
- Thread starter ThRoewer
- Start date
ThRoewer
New member
I never had Marine Bettas eat fish or even show interest in eating fish. In my experience all they eat are pods and shrimp (and all kinds of dry food).
My Marine Bettas usually don't hide at all. My Assessors on the other hand are the Masters of hiding and I hardly ever see them in tanks with larger or more aggressive fish they feel threatened by. So maybe your Assessors are just hiding. What other fish do you have with them?
All 4 Marine Bettas I have are still females or juveniles, so no spawning yet.
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ThRoewer
New member
A local store here can get them now from the Philippines.
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ThRoewer
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laverda
Well-known member
Marine Bettas Are groupies and as such are ambush predators. They will eat small fish and invertebrates. That said I have never seen mine eat any fish and it does not bother my cleaner shrimp. Although I was concerned when I added them. Most predators will not eat things like cleaner shrimp and cleaner gobies as they are benifical to them. I hardly ever see it eat more than a tiny morsel of food. When I first got it 14 years ago I thought it was going to starve it eat so little. I have no idea if mine is a male or female. I am pretty sure it is full grown as it was larger and several years old when I got it 14 years ago. I would like to find a mate for it, especially if they will hide less in pairs.
ThRoewer
New member
Marine Bettas (Calloplesiops altivelis) are not groupers, not even closely related to them. Their closest relatives within the Plesiopidae are the Plesiops, Paraplesiops, Assessor and Trachinops species. Other close related fish families are the Grammas and Jawfish.
And while the members of the genus Plesiops are indeed ambush predators, Calloplesiops are not but rather hunt slowly and "surround" their prey with their tailfin (feed live shrimp to see them hunt).
In the past I actively tried to feed my breeding Marine Betta pairs live and frozen fish (gobies I had as by-catch when catching grass shrimp) and they would not even try to take them, even if I was holding them right in front of their mouths (several of my past Marine Bettas were actually eating out of my hand). On the other hand, shrimp offered the same way would be eagerly taken. So I seriously doubt that they would eat any fish. Their primary food source are actually small crustacean (all kinds of pods) they pursue in a very similar fashion as mandarins.
BTW, my anemonefish back then, especially the clarkii, would eat everything they could swallow and they would eat those gobies with gusto.
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ThRoewer
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CoralsAddiction
Active member
I'm guessing he's referring to Aquatic Collection in Hayward, CA
I was there today and saw two of them. One was hiding and the other had pretty torn up fins. It's a good, clean and well run store. But I don't think I would buy those two in particular from them.
ThRoewer
New member
I'm just back from there. You must have seen the blue assessors of which they have several.
The only Assessor randalli they still have left is looking good.
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Bret61081
Active member
I have a ORA Randalls I've had for about 2 years with 2 ORA yellows. Still dark blue. I had 2 but lost one in a tank move last year. When I reached out to ORA they said they will have a limited number of captive breed ones later this year. One of my local stores has a nice wild Randalls but I cant justify the 100$ when the captive breed one was only 60$! Ill wait for the ORA later this fall! They all get along and share the same section of the tank! The yellows are a lot more passive where the Randalls in always out. Hopefully, when it gets a bit bigger the yellows will come out of the Randalls
Bret61081
Active member
Aquarium King in Fort Lauderdale has a Nice Randalls as well...I know he ships
ThRoewer
New member
$100 is a bit steep assuming that they didn't come from Japan. I only paid $65 for my wild ones which I think is the appropriate price given the fact that they now come in from the Philippines.
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laverda
Well-known member
Glad you figured out what I intended to say. I didn't catch my mistake or auto corrects. That is interesting to know. Every online vender I have seen and everything else I have ever read says pretty much what I said. I just checked several sites thinking I may have been wrong about where I got that idea. No they all say similar things including the eat small fish. I learn something new ever day.
I don't know of any where that sells live shrimp for food in so Ca. You can not even find brine shrimp these days. I have never seen mine go after pods or even look at the rock work for them. All I really ever see it eat is flake food. I will have to watch it specifically next time I feed frozen mysis and when my feeder feeds pellets. I have never seen it move quickly for that matter.
ThRoewer
New member
Online vendors have so many things wrong that you should never use them as a reference without further verification.
Latest genetic reserch (Betancur-R et al., 2017) on the relationships within the Percomorpha has the Plesiopidae quite far from the Serranidae (Groupers, Anthias,...):
For live shrimp, try bait shops. Here in the SF Bay Area, they sell grass shrimp and the like. I would think you find bait shops that carry shrimp also in SoCal. Otherwise, Blue Zoo sometimes has live feeder shrimp.
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laverda
Well-known member
Assessor randalli
I know that is true. When I worked for an online retailer I corrected a lot of errors they had in their fish and invert listings. Sometimes I wondered where the heck they got the information. I never new better on the Marine Bettas and never questioned what I had heard or read. I know a bad idea! You can't question everything. I don't know that I would trust Wikipedia, as I have seen a lot of wrong info there as well. But their behavior matches your description better than others I have seen. Thanks for enlightening me.
I will look for shrimp at some bait shops. Should I try freshwater or saltwater bait shops?
I took some photos of my Marine Betta today. I am guessing it is a male. I plan to look for a mate for it in about 2 months, when my Qt will be free.
Online vendors have so many things wrong that you should never use them as a reference without further verification.
Latest genetic reserch (Betancur-R et al., 2017) on the relationships within the Percomorpha has the Plesiopidae quite far from the Serranidae (Groupers, Anthias,...):
For live shrimp, try bait shops. Here in the SF Bay Area, they sell grass shrimp and the like. I would think you find bait shops that carry shrimp also in SoCal. Otherwise, Blue Zoo sometimes has live feeder shrimp.
I know that is true. When I worked for an online retailer I corrected a lot of errors they had in their fish and invert listings. Sometimes I wondered where the heck they got the information. I never new better on the Marine Bettas and never questioned what I had heard or read. I know a bad idea! You can't question everything. I don't know that I would trust Wikipedia, as I have seen a lot of wrong info there as well. But their behavior matches your description better than others I have seen. Thanks for enlightening me.
I will look for shrimp at some bait shops. Should I try freshwater or saltwater bait shops?
I took some photos of my Marine Betta today. I am guessing it is a male. I plan to look for a mate for it in about 2 months, when my Qt will be free.
ThRoewer
New member
I know that is true. When I worked for an online retailer I corrected a lot of errors they had in their fish and invert listings. Sometimes I wondered where the heck they got the information. I never new better on the Marine Bettas and never questioned what I had heard or read. I know a bad idea! You can't question everything. I don't know that I would trust Wikipedia, as I have seen a lot of wrong info there as well. But their behavior matches your description better than others I have seen. Thanks for enlightening me.
I will look for shrimp at some bait shops. Should I try freshwater or saltwater bait shops?
I took some photos of my Marine Betta today. I am guessing it is a male. I plan to look for a mate for it in about 2 months, when my Qt will be free.
That's a female.
Males' heads are more round looking in the profile and their ventral fins are much longer, usually reaching all the way to the end of the anal fin base or even beyond.
I'm generally cautious with information from Wikipedia, but in this case it is basically just a reposting of a peer reviewed research paper.
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