Marine Betta

[rhdoug]

In January 2013 I purchased a baby betta from Live Aquaria. It was captive bred from Sustainable Aquatics, I saw a video at the time which showed hundreds if not thousands of them in tanks at their facility. It has done well and has grown considerably since it arrived. It gets along well with all its tankmates with the exception of my recently deceased starry blenny (also from Live Aquaria as a baby, barely 3/4 inch long upon arrival in 2012). They hated each other for some reason.

The betta has adopted my Scopas Tang as a buddy and has recently began eating a good amount of algae from the mesh "pouch" that I use to feed the tang with. He(?) even picks at it like the tang, but mostly waits for chunks to float away. The other evening I saw him eat an extremely large piece that the tang managed to pull out of the bag, it was very nearly as large as the fish itself. He still eats the frozen mix that I feed the tank with, but I didn't realize that bettas would also eat herbivore foods.

IME, this is a great fish for the peaceful reef tank. It has no interest in corals and is a unusual addition in both appearance and behavior.

 

[SecretiveFish]

I didn't realize that either! Mine are only interested in meaty foods, but yours has acquired a taste for the algae you feed.

Marine bettas are tied with Indigo Hamlets for my favorite reef safe fish. I have a fine spotted marine betta in my 65g and a normal marine betta in my 150g. They are beautiful!

I find it strange that your starry blenny and marine betta did not like one another... I have starry blenny in my 65g along with the marine betta and neither acknowledge the existence of the other.

 

[rhdoug]

I don't know why they didn't like each other. This starry was a little on the aggressive side, but mostly for food. He had a one track mind, to eat everything is sight. The starry and the tang were buddies, he would gently "lip" the tang's body like he was eating algae from a surface. The tang completely ignored it, they always swam and ate together. Maybe the betta was jealous...

And I agree with you, the betta is one of my favorite fish.

 

[ThRoewer]

Both of my pairs go after flake food and make no distinction between the green algae flakes or the red-brown "meat" flakes.
I've seen them also going after pods like mandarins.
But their all time favorite food are shrimp.

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[TerrapinStation]

I also had a baby sustainable aquatics marine betta from liveaquaria. Grew 3-4" at least before it unfortunately passed in a tank move due to my own incompetence. My all time favorite fish and the one loss that really shook me.

 

[rhdoug]

Both of my pairs go after flake food and make no distinction between the green algae flakes or the red-brown "meat" flakes.
I've seen them also going after pods like mandarins.
But their all time favorite food are shrimp.

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I'm glad I don't have any shrimp in the tank, I don't need to be feeding the betta with something that expensive. I got tired of them always stealing food from my LPS and NPS corals anyway. Have either of your pairs laid eggs?

 

[rhdoug]

I also had a baby sustainable aquatics marine betta from liveaquaria. Grew 3-4" at least before it unfortunately passed in a tank move due to my own incompetence. My all time favorite fish and the one loss that really shook me.

Sorry you lost your betta. I haven't seen them offered for sale for a long time, and they are no longer listed on the SA website. I wonder why they stopped breeding them. Maybe the market for them is too small to be worthwhile. I do see them listed on the ORA site, but they were not included on the availabity list that my LFS got a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Moort82]

My betta would probably eat nori if I fed it. I feed it every other day or so with large food items (it happily sucks down 2" plus shimp as thick as your finger), the days I don't directly feed it it goes for the flake and pellets I put in for the other fish. Its such a greedy thing but did eat two cleaner shrimps that were in there far before it was (fine for a year or so and then took them both in a couple of days).
Probably my favourite fish I've ever kept.

 

[ThRoewer]

I got one of the last SA Marine Bettas in 2015. I paired it with a larger wild one in a 40 gallon tank and they both have grown a lot. Both are still females.
My second pair is wild, also both still rather small and females. I think it will take at least another year before I get a spawning pair out of those.

When I was breeding them I made pairs with mature specimen by sexing them. Those pairs usually started spawning within a month or two. One pair spawned two weeks after I put them together.

 

[TerrapinStation]

Well...I'm blaming this thread for another purchase. Hahah...it inspired me to order a large marine betta from Reef Wise in Lisle, IL. Any recommendations on pairing? Just look for a small one?

 

[OrionN]

I got 3 MB all wild caught I got from small size. First I got for more than 10 years. The second 8 years and the last one about 1 years. All in my 320 DT. They really dont have anything to do with each other. My tank is big enough with enough rock that I cannot tell if the MB are spawning or not. Do they behave different? What is courtship like?

 

[rhdoug]

And how do you tell male from female?

 

[ThRoewer]

... Do they behave different? What is courtship like?

Fin spreading and a bit chasing. These guys seem to like it rough. After spawning the females usually look like they were in a fight: shredded fins and a few missing scales are not unusual. Another indicator that they had spawned is if the male stays hidden and at the most shows up during feedings.


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[ThRoewer]

And how do you tell male from female?

Males usually have more rounded heads and are fatter in the neck area. They also have longer ventral fins.
But generally the best way to sex them is by the genital papilla. Males have a thinner and rather sharply pointed papilla like a freshly sharpened pencil tip while the ones of females look thicker and rounded like well worn pencil tips.

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[rhdoug]

That sounds like it needs to be done manually, and by someone who know what they are doing. Have you raised the fry? I raised a few batches of gold stripe maroon clowns about 12 years ago.

 

[ThRoewer]

Yes, I raised a few in 1992. The issue was the dependency on freshly hatched brine shrimp and the lousy quality of them back then. Today I would try it with Tigger Pods and other copepods.

The general issue with Marine Bettas is that they don't grow very fast. It takes at least 6 months to get them to a sellable size and then they are still tiny.

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[rhdoug]

Yes, food was an issue with the clown fry for me as well. My rotifer farm had a hard time keeping up with the fish. Sometimes I am tempted to try it again but then I remember how much work it was and say "nope".

 

[ThRoewer]

With clownfish you don't need rotifers. I raised thousands just with brine shrimp and frozen Cyclops. The trick is to keep the broodstock in lower salinity (1.018). That way the larva get large enough to eat brine shrimp from day one.

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[rhdoug]

Wow that is interesting, I never heard that before. It cetainly would have made my life easier. Unfortunately my pair were part of my display tank that lived in a sebae anemone which now hosts a breeding pair of ocellaris. So no low salinity option for me, but I have no plans to raise any more fish anyway. My single betta is also in my only display tank and is likely destined to be single, unless "he" outgrows his tank. I hope he stays on the small side, he is now approx 4" long.

 

[breck]

My marine betta is one of my favorites in my 300. Mine is usually in the same spot during the day, then more active at night. Have you guys found the same? Definitely a very hardy/ disease resistant fish. I think I've had mine for 4 years now.