# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Anabantoids >  Betta albimarginata: Any tips and advice?

## illumnae

I just obtained a small pair from C328 yesterday and they're in my 16 litre nano planted tank. Filtration is via an Eden 501 (with Sera super peat in the filter) that has the rainbar pointing at the side of the wall to reduce the flow. Tankmates are a Zebra oto, a Zebra snail, 6-8 boraras uropmathoides (spelling error i know) and some sakura shrimp that will hopefully breed and provide a replenishable food source.

I understand that a planted tank with a slightly faster flow is not ideal for wild bettas, but my intention here is not for a biotope set up or a breeding set up (if they breed i'd be overjoyed, but i won't lose sleep over the lack of it) but as a display tank.

Anyone have any advice and/or tips in looking after these guys? I've tried feeding them frozen bloodworms and NLS pellet food, but it's been ignored so far.

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## wks

Since these fish are wild, try feeding bbs, they will definitely respond. Yixiang, give them sometime to settle down in their new home. Its ok to starve the fish for a few days.

Better siphon all the uneaten food, water quality turns bad quickly in such small tank.

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## illumnae

i just placed a call to c328, uncle said he feeds them "red worms" (in chinese) and live brine shrimp. wonder if his red worms are tubifex or frozen bloodworms. i'll head down to c328 or biotope tonight to get some brine shrimp if i end work before 10pm tonight i guess

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## Cacatuoides

I don't think this pair is wild as I've asked before that their wild bettas are farm breds....

C328 feeds them tubifex worms, my pair rsponds of frozen bs, bbs and now tetra pro flakes  :Wink:

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## trident

yixiang,
I see you are now actively into wild bettas, 
hope you can breed them too, you seem to have luck in breeding. :Smile:

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## illumnae

the male was happily chomping away at my hikari algae wafers, while the zebra otos ignored the wafers (it was meant for the otos)  :Shocked:

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## leeruisheng

Be careful might deprive your otos of food.

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## illumnae

otos still have nice and round bellies thank goodness =) i think they eat when the tank is dark.

on a side note, how do you sex these bettas? from what i can see now, the male has the orangey red colouration, black tail/anal fin with white seam and a broader skull. the female has a slimmer skull and no white seam, but sometimes she takes on the orangey red colouration with black tail/anal fin.

edit: the female also has the white tipped ventral, but no other white on fin/tail

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## leeruisheng

You've got the sexing right. An even more distinguishable trait is that the female will exhibit stripes in her breeding dress. Some albi/channoides keepers even said that she will be nicer than the male when exhibiting those lateral stripes.

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## illumnae

so i don't have a sneaker right?  :Smile: 

hmm i don't know about breeding dress, but at certain times she's a light muddy brown with dark brown/black horizontal stripes. that's when she's not exhibiting the dark orangey-red/male-like colouration. is that about right?

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## leeruisheng

I believed so. Female I think should not have white seam on the caudal fin. Horizontal? Shouldn't it be vertical stripes? http://www.rva.jp/labyrinth/betta_albimarginata_2.html

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## Cacatuoides

My channoides female when in normal condition shows a horizontal stripe...
I must agree that the female looks amazing when in her breeding dress, its simply captivating!!  :Wink:

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## illumnae

haha oh ok, so it's just normal condition and not breeding condition with the horizontal stripes, and the darker colouration is stress colouration

you can see faint horizontal stripes on this (at times she's like this, at times the stripes are more pronounced):
http://www.ibc-smp.org/images/albima...ta_female1.jpg

when darker she looks a little like this:
http://www.ibc-smp.org/images/albima...ata_female.jpg

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## illumnae

just noticed a fleshy bit hanging on the lower lip of the female...anyone know what it might be? i dosed melafix in case it's a wound, but what else could it be and how could i cure it?

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## leeruisheng

Could be cause by abrasion.

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## Quixotic

> otos still have nice and round bellies thank goodness =) i think they eat when the tank is dark.


_Otocinclus_ are supposedly diurnal, rather than nocturnal.

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## illumnae

wilson: ok thanks =) hope she recovers from it soon.

quixotic: hmm they must be eating when i'm not looking then =)

wow today i saw the male trying to court the female and thus displaying his colours...i like! haha =) pity the female's not in the mood yet...she's still not happy in the tank i think. while the male is happily swimming around and exploring she spends alot of time hiding at the back. hope she gets better soon!

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## eeeeemo

recently i saw a bag.. with one male channoides and a female albi in it!!!

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## Cacatuoides

one of each species? you're able to tell which sex of which species when they're in the bag?

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## illumnae

haha i didn't take the pair that was in the bag. i really liked the male in the bag, but the female didn't look too promising, so i asked the uncle to fish out the male, and i got a female from the tank near the counter where they usually keep the bags of CRS. this female was swimming there alone (think the male died) and so there was less chance of her being a sneaker. mix and match haha!

but to be frank i can't tell a channoides female from an albimarginata female

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## illumnae

almost 1 week since i got my albimarginatas and i must say i am glad i decided to get this pair. the male has coloured up very nicely and i was pleasantly surprised to see him chilling in front of the tank in full display when i got home from work today.

the female's worrying me though, as the stringy thing on her mouth has appeared again. she's still hiding quite abit too...gonna start on melafix again as i stopped after 1 dose...hopefully it's not a fluke or some other external parasite.

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## illumnae

last picture i took of the guy before letting him go.

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