# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Anabantoids >  Betta uberis

## Emokidz

Finally after 2 months or so of waiting, moving around and retries, I've gotten lucky with my uberis pair. 







The latest tank setup has produced successful results to my surprise, read on to see why. 

The following are specifications of my setup:

After conditioning them with live and frozen foods for 2 weeks in a tank with a sponge filter, I placed them in a 1 ft Gex into (which was partitioned into 2, using a typical black mounting board cut out). So the pair only had about half a 1 ft Gex tank with the following specifications:

pH: 5
Temperature: 26-29 degrees
No filter
No Ketapang
Some loose Windelov ferns
Floated a black 35mm film cannister

The absence of a filter makes it possible for the male to build his bubblenest. I'm guessing that the small tank space is enough for the pair to move freely, yet bump into each other often enough. The pair was conditioned on Tubifex, BBS, Daphnia and frozen foods (BBS, Daphnia, BW and Mysis shrimp). Within a week, the bubblenest was built and the female showed signs of eagerness to spawn, fanning and wagging her tail. White eggs were observed in the bubblenest with the male guarding the canister over the past 2 days, finally hatching this morning. 

Some pictures of the male and his hanging fry. Enjoy!




















Thanks for reading! Will update soon.

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## lucasjiang

Congrats!  :Smile:  Good to hear about the successful spawning of this not-so-common species  :Smile:

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## Mudskipper

Congrats, Bernard! Time to start looking into that farm space, bro. LOL! I'm glad to know your fishes are all doing great!!!

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## griffinkid

Congratulations! Wow looking good!

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## Emokidz

> Congrats!  Good to hear about the successful spawning of this not-so-common species


Thanks! Yea, we don't see these guys around often, the pair was from Indonesia, Hermanu's stock.

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## Emokidz

> Congrats, Bernard! Time to start looking into that farm space, bro. LOL! I'm glad to know your fishes are all doing great!!!


 Haha, farm space would be great. Or just another shelf - but my mom will kill me!

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## Emokidz

> Congratulations! Wow looking good!


Thanks! Hope they stay healthy and happy!

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## Mudskipper

> Haha, farm space would be great. Or just another shelf - but my mom will kill me!


Buy her a nice Christmas present, and make sure your new shelf is delivered at the same time. Sure to work, bro. Sure to work.

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## kenny

how are the fry now ? :Jump for joy:

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## Emokidz

The fry are doing well. Yolk sacs are gone and should be free swimming (and leave the nest) by tomorrow or the day after. I'm leaving them in with the parents to see what happens since most reports state that it whould be fine. Dropped a drop of liquifry 1 in to generate more infusoria for the fry.

On a side note, my one of my channoides just released today! Separated the fry from the father. The other male is still brooding, I'm guessing that he's set to release either tomorrow or the day after.

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## kenny

Yay ~~  :COOL!:  Baby season !

so what would their first foods be, after infusoria ?

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## Emokidz

After infusoria, I'll feed daphnia for about 1-2 weeks till they get big enough to take hikari first bites. This has worked for me previously when rearing persephone fry. Once they are large enough, I move them on to hikari micropellets and then to a combination of micropellets/Atison's Betta Pro/frozen foods and live foods as treats. 

THe hard part is always getting them big enough to be stable and able to eat daphnia. As for taking flakes, I think it depends on luck. Some fish take it readily while others never seem to care about dry foods (eg. my channoides never take flakes) but all my persephone F1 take flakes readily, which is really convenient on my busy days. But I do try to balance their diets by feeding them a wide range of foods.

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## Emokidz

As anticipated, the fry have become free-swimming. Will update with pictures once they get big enough for me to capture decenty on Camera. Haha.

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## kenny

Woot! That's another step towards success ~~

That's some great info there  :Smile: 

Any reason why you feed them daphnia, instead of say, brine shrimp? I find their supply rather scarce and only 1 or 2 shops will have them. Or do you culture them? And they don't come from the cleanest waters, do they?  :Razz:

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## Emokidz

Haha! Thats a good observation! You're right when you say that they don't come from absolutely clean water. I buy daphnia from y618 or aqua star. Prior to feeding, i strain the daphnia i need using one of those fine nets from polyart and rinse then under tap water before feeding. The benefit of using daphnia over bbs is that they stay alive for a much longer period in the tank. Bbs dies off quickly in fresh water and may foul the water. This is useful as i dit do water changes for the first 2 weeks until the fry are stronger and more robust.

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## kenny

Oh icic... I bet it will be a big pain to siphon out the dead bbs from the tanks .... -_-
I'm curious where the daphnia really come from. I only read in forum saying they come from dirty places, but where? From sg ??

Touchwood, but have u had any disease problem that you think MIGHT be related to feeding daphnia?

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## Emokidz

Never. I've had no problems with daphnia or tubifex. Just wash them thoroughly. You may get diseases if you use the water that comes with the daphnia though.

Daphnia are cultured in farms if I'm not wrong. In nature they are naturally occurring in all water bodies.

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## Emokidz

In my opinion, so long as you diligently do partial water changes, don't over feed and over stock tanks, fish should not get diseases from daphnia. Most diseases people experience such as ich, velvet or fungal infection arise from deteriorating water quality. Especially in fungal infections whereby the fish are already injured or have open sores. Tubifex is a different story as they may come with parasites.

I do add some ketapang and salt from time to time, but aerate the water when doing so. I'd caution against adding too much salt though as some fish may be very sensitive. For example, I lost my 3 peacock gudgeons recently after adding a bit of salt. t.t

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## kenny

Ouch... sorry about the lost of your peacock gudgeons...
Even substances meant to be beneficial can be harmful... 

I'm gonna get some freshwater rotifers, I think they should be small enough for free swimming fry. That's an option before they are big enough to feed on daphnia. When you culture infusoria, do u physically see them or you just know they are there?

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## Emokidz

Eh, you can see them if you look closely. Stuff like seed shrimps, small daphnia looking stuff and other white dots that move around. Haha!
I don't culture it separately, I just add a drop of liquifry 1 into the tank every day and let them multiply naturally. And if you feel that there's enough, cut down on dosing liquifry - this will avoid some planaria outbreak or something. Haha.

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## Emokidz

Just an update: 

Fry are all doing well and have left the nest. The parents don't seem to bother them either, so I'll just leave them with the parents so as not to move or stress anything out. 

Here are some pictures of the parents. Enjoy!


Really like this one. The couple flaring.


Dad...



Mom...


And of course, junior!


And here's the tank set up.

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## kenny

Nice pics Bernard  :Smile: 

they still maintain that colour and flare to each other after the eggs are laid?

Wrt the infusoria, I was thinkin whether the were in the tank already and the addition of liquifry supplemented their growth, or liquifry contains them in the dormant state? 
Has the parents been in the tank for a long time or was the breeding tank specially set up for spawning?

Paisei if I asked too much hahah... 
Realised that these are somethings I didn't think of in the past

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## Emokidz

Yup they are coloured up like this even with the fry. My guess is that they may spawn again. Liquifry supplements the diet for industrial which was already in the tank. Not sure how they got there too haha. Ive had the pair for a few months and have been conditioning them and all. They only spawned recently in this new set up. My guess is because the tank space was smaller.

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## kenny

wow hope they really spawn again !  :Smile: 

won't have any problems with the current batch of fry in the same tank ?

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## Emokidz

Nope! Surprisingly not. Just like the persephones which grew up alongside their parents. It's not uncommon to have a tank of fry at various stages in growth living in harmony. The parents will stop spawning once fry are old enough to show colour though. The fry must then be removed.

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## kenny

Saw your thread on the persephones and seems like they are similar ya. Can hold a batches of fry in the same tank before they stop spawning.

Was that 2 spawnings in a 1 ft tank?

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## Emokidz

Yup the 2 spawnings were in the same tank and the parents never bothered the fry. Do note that Fish may differ among individuals though. And what works for me may not necessarily work for everyone. For example, my channoides ate their young the first time round, so I separated the male from his brood after releasing for subsequent broods. Others have never had the problem of predation though. And some others can never get their males to brood beyond 3 days if the males insist on swallowing. Hence, you really have to be patient and observe your fish. The first spawn may not be successful, and could be so for various reasons - new pair doesnt wrap well and eggs are infertile, female eats the eggs, male eats the eggs, bubble nest disturbed etc. but I guess that's what makes the hobby fun.

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## Emokidz

A little update, they uberis fry are doing well growing alongside their parents (who seem to pay no attention to them). The parents just spawned again this morning and the nest is full of eggs again. Will continue to monitor it and update. But given the parent's previous spawn, there shouldn't be an issue of egg-eating/infertile eggs.

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## kenny

They must be really happy in there  :Grin:

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## Emokidz

> A little update, they uberis fry are doing well growing alongside their parents (who seem to pay no attention to them). The parents just spawned again this morning and the nest is full of eggs again. Will continue to monitor it and update. But given the parent's previous spawn, there shouldn't be an issue of egg-eating/infertile eggs.


Guess I was wrong! All the eggs from the second batch fungussed. Haha! Probably due to improper wrapping or my water parameters. Not too sure, but since both my persephone and uberis share the same water sources and had the problem of fungussed eggs, it could be possible that the chemistry wasn't right the second time round. Can't remember exactly the original parameters.  :Sad:

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## johannes

Infusoria usually exists in matured tank. You have the option to not use Liquifry, which i usually did so. The amount of infusoria in the tank would be sufficient for the fry until they take daphnia.

Looking at those pictures really make me miss my wild betta keeping days...  :Sad:

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## Emokidz

Thanks! Yup, there is a certain beauty about wild betta. Their character/ behaviour and looks are fascinating. Come back to the wild side!  :Very Happy:

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## Emokidz

Some updates on the fry. There are about 25 of them or more swimming alongside their parents. The fry have started colouring up (red) and some have started showing some irrids.

Some pictures (not too clear though.. due to ketapang water + shaky hands). Enjoy:

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## Emokidz

Just moved the young ones over to a grow out tank with some 10+ channoides fry. After transferring 30 uberis fry over, there are still about 7 other fry that I can't seem to catch without stirring up the tank. Guess I'll leave them with the parents for a while longer. That brings the total spawn up to 35+ fry!!  :Shocked: 

Hope they will grow out nicely and stay well... More updates and pictures to come!

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## johannes

Nice update bro!
However, after looking at your fries and parents picture again, i may think that they are B. burdigala instead... (may...) 
They look different from the Betta uberis that i used to have many years back. Betta uberis tends to have dark red body with a striking green spot but minus the green irids on the flank and fins. There are some patterning on the unpaired funs but not in the form of irids. Let me dig up some old pics... hahaa

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## Emokidz

Haha. Thanks Johannes. This pair was from Hermanus and I've kept them by themselves all this while. Perhaps there are variations within the phenotypes of Betta uberis. The male does have a blue lateral spot though.[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Bernard/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.png[/IMG]

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## stormhawk

Bernard, the photo not showing.  :Razz: 

Were the fry fed on a mix of Moina and BBS? They're looking awesome.

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## Emokidz

Hi Jianyang, thanks! You're right, they were fed on live bbs, daphnia, tubifex, frozen foods and flakes. Eating well and starting to colour up. Hmm yea the picture isn't showing. It's one of those from the start of this thread with the distinct turqoise lateral spot.

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## stormhawk

Flakes? I could never get my Bettas to take flake, even the fancy ones. They'd take a nibble then spit it out..  :Knockout: 

On a side note, with Liquifry No.1 for egglayers, make sure you "dissolve" it in a cup of water before usage, otherwise it just stays in a lump and fouls up the water faster. The use of a little bit of crushed egg yolk is basically the same effect, which I believe is what makes up the Liquifry mix.

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## Emokidz

Yup. They take Hikari micropellets, first bites and crushed tetrabits. I feed them mostly with live and frozen foods though. The juveniles have coloured up and grown a little bigger. About 1.5cm on average now. Here are some pictures:

The fries have grown up and look mostly like this


The more dominant males are slightly larger, have brighter colours, and started displaying the 2 gold bars on their operculum and white tips on their pelvic fins


A possible female


Part of the family



Will update again once they grow up!

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## Emokidz

5 Months on:

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## stormhawk

Is that a brownorum male and a Parosphromenus I see?

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## Emokidz

It's an uberis male haha. The green hue can't be seen from certain angles. And yes Parosphrmenus (I think filamentosa).

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## Shi Xuan

I think I have an odd taste. I like uberis and burdigala because of their sail fin dorsals.

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## Emokidz

You're not alone! I think the longer dorsals are nice too. They are nicely lined with irids in both species.

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## Mudskipper

Wow, you are just breeding up a storm!! Good for you. Been traveling a lot for work so no time for my fishes. Hope to get a short break soon so I can love them more.

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## Emokidz

Hi Kelvin! Yup, noticed you were busy for some time now. Haha. They are doing well, and starting to mature. Will be finding them new homes soon, willing buyers of course.

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