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

## nicktc

Hi 

Does anyone here keep his betta? How aggressive are they?

This is a picture of my surviving male. He is really aggressive towards the female which was probably stressed to death.  :Crying: 



Would be great if I could find someone has a female to sell to me.

Regards
Nicholas

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## leeruisheng

Awesome betta you have. Feel sorry for you. I thought I read somewhere that the male will only show aggression towards another male.

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## nicktc

> Awesome betta you have. Feel sorry for you. I thought I read somewhere that the male will only show aggression towards another male.


Either that, the one got killed was a male too.

It is actually look quite similar  :Confused:

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## johannes

nice... buy one more female from where you got them la...

foerschi group members are known for their aggresiveness...

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## nicktc

They happen to have a pair only. 

I had requested them to bring a female in for me. So will have to wait.  :Opps: 
No confirmation of availability.

Don't mind having more females  :Smile:

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## |squee|

Wow. I've never kept this before, but look at those colours!

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## genes

Nice!!! How big the tank are they house in? Any special requirements needed to keep and breed them?

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## leeruisheng

Just got myself a pair. I noticed that the vertical bars will change to red when the male is flaring at the female.

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## nicktc

did you put them together? I seperate mine for the time being.  :Confused: 

Just got them today?  :Laughing:

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## leeruisheng

Yeah put them together in a 2ft tank. At the moment there's much flaring going on. Though they're aggressive in nature, the rubras left the yamato shrimps alone.

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## nicktc

do keep a close watch. i lost one female to stress.

here's another shot of the male.

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## |squee|

I just found this from the net:



> Lately it has been discovered that Betta rubra and Betta imbellis are the same species, and officially the name should be Betta rubra which is the oldest name. However, since the name has been used for such a long period, according to the "rules" it will keep the same name to prevent confusion.


Is this true? Here's the source.

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## jedimech

> do keep a close watch. i lost one female to stress.
> 
> here's another shot of the male.


Nice colours, bro!!  :Well done:

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## leeruisheng

I think my pair is going to spawn.

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## nicktc

Looks like they are  :Cool:

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## turaco

Lee, how's the mating pair? Mouth brooding now?

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## leeruisheng

I was about to post. Yeah today is it's first day of mouthbrooding. I think it's quite a challenging species. I meant mouthbrooders at least to me. I had no luck with mac. The male swallowed the eggs on the 3rd day of mouthbrooding. Hoping to have more luck with rubra.

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## cwtan12

> I just found this from the net:
> 
> Is this true? Here's the source.


One is a mouthbrooder and another is a bubble nester. How to be the same?




> I was about to post. Yeah today is it's first day of mouthbrooding. I think it's quite a challenging species. I meant mouthbrooders at least to me. I had no luck with mac. The male swallowed the eggs on the 3rd day of mouthbrooding. Hoping to have more luck with rubra.


Quite many people has successfully bred b. rubra. Macs tend to swallow eggs if they are in small tanks or with higher temperature environment unless your male is one of the rare ones that won't swallow eggs so often. Try 150litres or above volume of water with chiller.

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## leeruisheng

Hi cwtan12, 

Thanks for the advice on mac.

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## turaco

Wilson,

How many days had your rubra been mouth brooding? I had hard time with rubra. The first pair, female got killed by the male. 2nd pair, male died. Plan to pair up the remaining & the female jumped out of tank because the netting wasn't secured :Crying: . To ease my heart pain, I aquired all the available livida at C328. Currently keeping some tussaye as well. Hope to hear some good news from you.

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## leeruisheng

Aiyo, can feel the pain for you, turaco. 
Initially when I placed them in the tank, the male was chasing the female fiercely. But in the next few days saw them mating. But to wonder, this is the 2nd time mouthbrooding. The 1st brood on the 24th Dec was swallowed by the male after 2 or 3 days of mouthbrooding. But shortly after, I saw the male mouthbrooding again. It's been 10 days or so holding the eggs. Still no sign of releasing the fries. I was wondering if the male have been mouthbrooding for more than 10 days, is it a sure sign that I will expect to see fries? I'm speculating that there's a possibility that though he's mouthbrooding, the eggs might not be fertilized. Not sure if anyone has experienced. But any idea how long will a rubra mouthbrood? Thanks.

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## leeruisheng

Some spawning snap shots. 

1. The pair will twist and curl. This will last less than a minute. (I think it's here where the male will fertilize the eggs.)
2. Female releases about 3 - 5 eggs. 
3. Male proceeds to pick up the eggs.

This process is repeated a few times.

Male will mouthbrood for around 11 days before releasing the fries in batches.

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## turaco

Pretty! Where's the fry pics? What do you feed them with? May I suggest using the finnest tubifex worm :Smile:

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## leeruisheng

It seems that the fries can take bbs straight away.

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## leeruisheng

1 month old fry

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## turaco

Pretty! Are the parents ready for round 2?

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## leeruisheng

They breed rather easily. Immediately after releasing the fries, I see him mouthbrooding in the next couple of days. But however, I prevented them from reproducing because the male looks pretty weak and skinny. He needs some conditioning before they reproduce more. Now is their 4th spawn already.

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## turaco

Good to condition the male as he don't eat during mouth brooding. Only young bettas breed. Based on the channoides I had before, they will continue to mouth brood for 4-5 rounds almost immediately before they stop completely. That should be the time to declare old. Make the best out of them & after that retirement in planted tank :Grin: .

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## ZaZ

Lovely series. So it seems that the male picked up the eggs by himself. That's very interesting. In other species the female will take the eggs from the male's anal fin and spit them out for the male to catch (except in mac).
Now I wonder if this behaviour unique to rubra only or can also be seen in other foerschi group? Anyone got experience with any of foerschi clade members?

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## turaco

1998.jpg

Here's my promising pair!

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## leeruisheng

Good for you. Hope to hear and see more photos from you.

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## leeruisheng

Hello,

Will the juvenile fries say about 3 months old be able to differentiate new born fries from food? I'm quite certain the adult pair will.

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## johannes

> Lovely series. So it seems that the male picked up the eggs by himself. That's very interesting. In other species the female will take the eggs from the male's anal fin and spit them out for the male to catch (except in mac).
> Now I wonder if this behaviour unique to rubra only or can also be seen in other foerschi group? Anyone got experience with any of foerschi clade members?


i read from somewhere (probably old article) that the other species in foerschi *group* do the same thing, the male picked up the eggs himself, they are supposed to be the transition from bubble nester to mouth brooder as seen from the mating sequence (that's how bubblenester mate, male will pick up the falling eggs when the female is in trance and deposit them on the bubble nest); whereby in other mouthbrooder, the male will lay down and cup the eggs with his anal fins yet in rubra, the female's anal fin cupped the eggs instead... :Smile:

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## leeruisheng

So to say _B.rubra_ used to be bubble nester? Interesting. 

On the other hand, _B.rutilans_ I thought used to be mouthbrooders but now they're bubble nesters.

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## johannes

> So to say _B.rubra_ used to be bubble nester? Interesting. 
> 
> On the other hand, _B.rutilans_ I thought used to be mouthbrooders but now they're bubble nesters.


this one i dont know.. they are just the transition species la... in the evolutionary pathway i believe...

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## leeruisheng

> That should be the time to declare old.


_Betta rubra_ do bear a similiar characteristic as _Apistogramma elizabethae_. Both are red. No la.
Both changes the shape of their caudal as they aged. _Betta rubra_ from round to spade. While _Apistogramma elizabethae_ from like forked shaped to spade. So it's possible to roughly determine their age by looking at their caudal.

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## leeruisheng

Discovered something today. 

My female is also mouthbrooding. But I'm not sure if she will succeed. In this latest spawn the female reproduced lots of eggs. The male I believed has hold to his limits. The surplus eggs were left on the substrate and I thought maybe the eggs will be left to be devour by yamatos or maybe even the female. But then this morning saw her mouthbrooding.

Mouthbrooding female





> Hello,
> 
> Will the juvenile fries say about 3 months old be able to differentiate new born fries from food? I'm quite certain the adult pair will.


I now can answer this question that I've posted and the answer is no.

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## genes

I have split the discussion regarding Betta species for beginners to this thread.

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=41485

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## 900801

I have one question.Can a smaller male breed with a female which is say 2cm bigger then him.

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## johannes

a bit hard... but possible... :Grin:

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## 900801

ha ha ok thanks

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## leeruisheng

Some photos to share. All females. As beautiful as the males.

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## illumnae

wow lovely! pity they're so expensive...

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## leeruisheng

The parents are already long gone. These are their offsprings.

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## leeruisheng

Juvenile

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## girlanimated

wow.

really cute  :Razz:

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## TanCH

Hi, Can i know the ideal breeding condition for betta rubra? My male rubra have been swallowing his eggs for 6 times.. The brooding never last for more than 1 week.. =(

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## spirit

i think rubra is relative easy... mine spawned non-stop with declorinated tap water and room temperature... especially it is ready to take pellets, it make it easier than channoides...

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## TanCH

Hi spirit, care to share your setup?

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## Gggold

Nice fishes. Gd luck with all your spawning...

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## Edward G.

Where did you buy them?

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