New Marine Betta

SecretiveFish

SecretiveFish

Member
I received my new marine betta earlier this week, and he has settled in well (first picture). Is this a Calloplesiops argus? He doesn't look like my other marine betta (second picture) which I am pretty sure is a Calloplesiops altivelis.
 

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Not to steal the thread, but how are marine betta's in reef tanks? I have seen several people talk about them but I have no first hand experience with them.
 
+1, great fish for a reef. Some people have issues with them eating shrimp, but I've had mine for about a year and a half and he seems to leave my shrimp alone (Fire and a couple peppermint.)
 
All the peppermint shrimp in the tank with the Marine Bettas disappeared.
In the past the same happened to my fire shrimp when I added a Marine Betta pair.

While some may leave ornamental shrimp alone, especially those that are cleaners, I would not take a risk. Before adding Marine Bettas I would rehome all the shrimp I want to keep to a shrimp safe tank.

BTW, try feeding live ghost shrimp to see the Bettas hunting - they are quite good at catching shrimp.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks ThRoewer! I thought so but wanted to make sure.

I have wanted a fine spotted marine betta for quite awhile and tried to get one off LA DD, but the two tiny ones I was sent were DOA and NDOA. I finally gave up and ordered a regular large marine betta on LA, and this is what I got! :D I couldn't be happier.

Pericyte - I too think that these are great reef fish. My older marine betta has been in our 150g for 4 years, but there is no shrimp. I do not have boisterous tankmates in there either, just a tomini tang, a clownfish, and a foxface.
 
Here a video that shows my two larger Marine Bettas in the 42 CADlight tank.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QjhXcs19LX8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

SecretiveFish said:
Thanks ThRoewer! I thought so but wanted to make sure.

I have wanted a fine spotted marine betta for quite awhile and tried to get one off LA DD, but the two tiny ones I was sent were DOA and NDOA. I finally gave up and ordered a regular large marine betta on LA, and this is what I got! :D I couldn't be happier.

Pericyte - I too think that these are great reef fish. My older marine betta has been in our 150g for 4 years, but there is no shrimp. I do not have boisterous tankmates in there either, just a tomini tang, a clownfish, and a foxface.
Click to expand...

I just got another little Marine Betta from Diver's Den which was DOA.
I strongly suspect frozen to death due to the ice pack. Water temperature was just 19 °C (66 °F) upon arrival.
Did your DOA came in with an ice pack and did the water feel very cold?

The final replacement (for the first little ORA Betta and it's replacement that both came in DOA from DD) I got directly from ORA (from the clearly hotter Florida) came in fine without an ice pack.
 
ThRoewer said:
Here a video that shows my two larger Marine Bettas in the 42 CADlight tank.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QjhXcs19LX8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Click to expand...

Gorgeous! I love your betta pair.

ThRoewer said:
I just got another little Marine Betta from Diver's Den which was DOA.
I strongly suspect frozen to death due to the ice pack. Water temperature was just 19 °C (66 °F) upon arrival.
Did your DOA came in with an ice pack and did the water feel very cold?
Click to expand...

Mine did not come with an ice pack (I am up in WA), but the water was very cold nonetheless. I have no doubt this caused the death of the poor little fish and the replacement. Both my SO and I have called/e-mailed LA multiple times and told them that the fish we receive are way to cold when we get them. They said there is a formula for how many heat packs/ice packs to put in the box, but I tried to emphasize that the water was COLD and for whatever reason the formula was not working.

I will only buy medium/large fish from LA as a result. Larger fish seem to be able to withstand being nearly frozen! I got a small bi-color foxface that was barely alive from LA DD, and although he survived, he still looks like crap several months later. He is the only small fish I have had survive. All other small/tiny either are DOA or die shortly after.
 
SecretiveFish said:
Gorgeous! I love your betta pair.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if they are a pair yet, but they surely get along well. They both have grown a lot within a year. The small one has doubled in size since I got it.
The larger has also grown a lot. At some point it should become the male.

SecretiveFish said:
Mine did not come with an ice pack (I am up in WA), but the water was very cold nonetheless. I have no doubt this caused the death of the poor little fish and the replacement. Both my SO and I have called/e-mailed LA multiple times and told them that the fish we receive are way to cold when we get them. They said there is a formula for how many heat packs/ice packs to put in the box, but I tried to emphasize that the water was COLD and for whatever reason the formula was not working.

I will only buy medium/large fish from LA as a result. Larger fish seem to be able to withstand being nearly frozen! I got a small bi-color foxface that was barely alive from LA DD, and although he survived, he still looks like crap several months later. He is the only small fish I have had survive. All other small/tiny either are DOA or die shortly after.
Click to expand...

It's sad to waste these fish, wild or tank raised, like this. DD really needs to review the use of cold packs. At a minimum they need to isolate them better so they cool much slower and do not cause a lethal temperature drop.

The small fish I had coming in alive from DD where Central American species that also are present in the Sea of Cortez and therefore can handle exposure to lower temperatures better. The eyebrow barnacle blennies came in fine, and the pipefish I got today with the Marine Betta was a bit stunned but recovered.
 
Last edited:
ThRoewer said:
It's sad to waste these fish, wild or tank raised, like this. DD really needs to review the use of cold packs. At a minimum they need to isolate them better so they cool much slower and do not cause a lethal temperature drop.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. We have even gotten to the LA manager level to complain, yet nothing has changed. It is getting hard to stomach the losses that are avoidable.

ORA knows how to pack their corals! We have ordered a couple of ORA corals from LA, and those have arrived in excellent condition near ideal temperature. I have no doubt ORA packs their fish well too. LA needs to take a page out of ORA's book.


Anyway, I am ecstatic about my new fine spotted marine betta. So glad LA send me the 'wrong' one!
 
They had two of those earlier this year on DD and I could kick myself not to get them. But they listed them one by one, so when the first one came up I was hesitant to get a single individual and by the time they listed the second the first was gone.

BTW, in my e-mail communications with them they said they would review and adjust the cooling pack usage, especially with small boxes.
I would think that they have a strong incentive to avoid losses as it really hurts their bottom line.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
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