# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Anabantoids >  Betta sp. Palangkaraya

## Emokidz

Probably one of the betta species I never thought I'd get a chance to see in person - Betta sp. Palangkaraya, was introduced into the wild betta hobby just recently during 2009, under the Coccina complex (My favourite complex!). Personally, I'd place it on my list of some of the beautiful and fascinating of its complex, alongside uberis, burdigala and the subtly beautiful persephone. And after reading Stefan's post about this little gem on Petfrd.com almost 2 years ago, I started my long hunt.

After over a year of asking around, reading up and checking online sources, the opportunity finally came. Just a while back, I did two separate orders of this species. The two pairs from my first order have since grown up and done really well. One pair starting to breed.

Conditions I'm keeping them at:

Temp: 26 - 29 degrees
pH: 4.0-5.5
Diet: Frozen blood worms, Frozen BBS, Live Daphnia, Live BBS, Live Tubifex
Tank setup: No substrate, java ferns, Ketapang leaves, 1 Black film cannister


Now, time for some pictures... Enjoy! 

Male - The male's irids never fail to amaze me when I shine my torch into the tea-stained ketapang water. Greenish on side view and deep blue when shone from above, the irids are really amazing for such a tiny fish (3-3.5 cm currently).





Wish my digicamera could have focused better for that shot though... Would have been great... But oh well, plent more opportunities for future posts!

Now for the Female.. Probably always my favourite in each pair. The female is slightly plumper and has subtle colours, echoing that of the male's. If well-conditioned and observed carefully, the subtle iridiscence is a form of beauty in itself - not overly flashy, but mesmerising on its own.



Patterning on the female's caudal, and dorsal fins are similar to that of the male..


The pair taking some frozen bloodworms.. A staple in their diet.




After weeks of conditioning, the female was fat with eggs and displayed vertical-barring. A great sign of a possible and upcoming spawn.





True enough, a bubble nest was built at the frontof my tank. Didn't seem like much, so I just left them alone. No spawning occurred at this nest. Possibly because it was a very open area.


After waiting a bit longer, the male eventually set up his nest in the film cannister I floated at the back of the tank. Before I knew it, spawning had taken place and the male was taking care of his brood. A successful spawn!  :Smile: 

A proud father hanging his fry...




Right now, the fry are free swimming and taking live daphnia and the infusoria in the tank. Will monitor and continue to feed them. Hopefully, with success. Also, I just checked and the pair spawned a second time as there are eggs in the bubble nest again. So will see what happens and keep you guys updated.


On a side note, what was sold as 'rutilans' at Y618 previously has grown up and has confirmed my suspicion that they arent Betta rutilans, but Betta brownorum! Great fishes. Love the large lateral spots.  :Smile: 
Here are some pictures of mine. I think I may have a pair within the 6 fishes I got.







Awesome fish. I think brownorums are cute in their own right. Simple, but unique and beautiful too.

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## Fendi

Congrats Bernard..
Great looking female pics.. 
Now that's a sp palangkaraya made in Singapore...

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## astro

nice bro. Congrats on the spawn

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## griffinkid

Wow, this is indeed a very rare betta breed. Looking good there! *envious*

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## Emokidz

> Congrats Bernard..
> Great looking female pics.. 
> Now that's a sp palangkaraya made in Singapore...


Thanks Fendi! Had to take many shots to get a decent one. The tank is really dark and they come out only very Occassionally. But yup I like the picture as it captures the fine details on the female which many people think would look drab if not well captured. Just managed to get an even better shot and pictures of fry too. Stay tuned for the post!

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## Emokidz

> nice bro. Congrats on the spawn


Haha thanks!

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## Emokidz

> Wow, this is indeed a very rare betta breed. Looking good there! *envious*


Thanks griffinkid! Yes, sp. palangkaraya does come by often at all. Have Reid to acquire this species numerous times before without any success. Guess the hunt has finally paid off now that I've found them. Stay tuned for updates!

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## Shi Xuan

Wow, Bernard, nice to see them spawning for you. I've been busy lately and seldom have time for the fishes but I'm still keeping the pair and they are still the same, just slightly larger. 

I think it's time you start working on the brownorum as well. They are nice fish, really. :Smile:

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## Emokidz

Thanks SX, will probably try breeding the browns soon. They are really neat fish too. Right now the palangkaraya fry are doing good and taking daphnia and vinegar eels.

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## oddstamp

Congrats on your success of breeding the sp Palangkaraya and the very nice pics taken. Seems like a good time to spawn the coccinas complex members.. The green irids on the male of this strain seems to very outstanding espacially when compared with the other coccinas complex members or uberis from other locations. 

Yup sometimes brownorums are sold as other coccinas complex members in the local shops... to me differentiating the female rutilans from the female brownorums is abit tricky... from observations what seems helpful so far is that if a whitish coloring can be seen (or what looks like a white "masking" ) higher chance it's probably a browonrum female.

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## Emokidz

Thanks! Yes I've noticed something like that too. Brownorums seem to have a light greenish brown masking. Some brownorum females have the lateral spot which makes it much easier to distinguish between rutilans. I'd like attempt breeding them as brownorums aren't that easy to come by and they are really beautiful in their own right. Then again, the uberis and Persephone are fully grown and their line should be continued too before they get old. Trying to find other breeders who have them for a swap so I don't have to inbreed.

Yes I think the weather has taken a favorable turn. The pair has since spawned 2 more times and the 3rd batch of fry are hanging in the nest. Yolk sacs almost fully gone. Should be about 2-3 more days depending on the weather/temperature. All big spawns of about 10 - 20. Feeding their siblings vinegar eels and daphnia twice daily in small amounts. Might have to separate the parents soon to stop overproduction. Will probably give less protein rich foods for a week or so before that.

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## Emokidz

Some updates. The previous batch of fry are now about 0.75cm in length and feeding on daphnia, flake and tubifex. Parents have grown slightly bigger and are spawning regularly. I just leave the fry with their parents and though a few go missing (I'm quite sure they either die or get eaten), there still is a fair amount of free swimming fry (~15 per batch) which is fine since I'm not planning on having too many. Here are some pictures...

Here's the male...





Irids look green from the sides, but turn deep blue when light is shone from above.





Female...



Eggs!





Fry!



More eggs!




More fry!!!!



Busy father...



And thats why I'm not too concerned about leaving thme with the parents. Hope you guys enjoyed!  :Smile:

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## Shi Xuan

Seems like you managed to get them spawn like rabbits...so how large are the adults now? I'm still waiting for news to see if I could get any breeding pairs of sp. Palangkaraya and burdigala "Kubu". 

On the side note, how's your uberis doing? I might want to exchange some fishes with you soon. My oldest fry are about 2 cm already and I could see them sparing with one another.

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## Emokidz

Oh. I havent gotten down to spawning the uberis yet. Haha. You might have to wait a bit longer. Yea the adults are about 3 cm now. Doing really well and spawning.

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## stormhawk

Bernard, those Palangkaraya are looking splendid. Good catch on the brownorum, even though I missed the original post.  :Embarassed: 

You stopped keeping the channoides already?

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## Fendi

Hi Bernard.. Nice update.. Looks fantastic..I'm having paros filamentosus comes this Feb,intrested?

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## hmlc74

nice pic , have any pic for the growing fry

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## Emokidz

> Bernard, those Palangkaraya are looking splendid. Good catch on the brownorum, even though I missed the original post. 
> 
> You stopped keeping the channoides already?


Hi Jianyang, yup, no longer keeping channoides or other mouth brooders to focus on the coccina complex alone. Haha.

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## Emokidz

> Hi Bernard.. Nice update.. Looks fantastic..I'm having paros filamentosus comes this Feb,intrested?


Haha thanks! Yup, they are really pretty fish. Thanks for the offer, but I'm currently saving space for the bettas haha. Will concentrate on them for now.

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## Emokidz

> nice pic , have any pic for the growing fry


Thanks! Yup, will update in a bit. The first batch of fry are about 1cm in length now. But the water is stained brown and they hide in the java moss and under the ketapang leaves.

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## Shi Xuan

Hi Bernard, 

Pardon me for asking. When were the fry free-swimming? I noticed that some species are slow-growers, so I'd figure palangkaraya might well just fit the bill. 

Also, the Paros that you got from Y618, according to Peter Fincke, they should be Parosphromenus cf. Bintan. He mentioned that an adult rubrimontis male must exhibit plain red in caudal and dorsal, mainly some red in the back portion of the anal too. "The bintan variants from Jambi/Sumatra could be found in the trade in great numbers these years because they are easy to catch. P.rubrimontis has become rather rare; even experts have difficulties finding any since the traditional habitats were destroyed. They still exist, but I have not heard about them in the commercial trade since. They have become too rare for catchers to make things rewarding."

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## Emokidz

The fry were free swimming about 4-5 days after spawning. I fed them on vinegar eels and dapnia. Yea they do grow slowly at first. But once they are big enough to take more daphnia or small tubifex worms, they do grow a lot faster.

Hmmm yea, they do look like P. sp.bintan or some other hobbyists have said sp. nagyi. Personally, I'll just call it an aquarium strain until we have sufficient evidence of their true origin. Very cute fishes still though. Haha.

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## Shi Xuan

Vinegar eel is a convenient food for the fry but they grow slow on it. I feed 1-2 cm fry with Grindals and insect larvae but it can be hassle culturing the former. Keep the sp. Palangkaraya well. Last heard that the collectors are not able to catch any in the wild, so maybe in the future, I can buy some from you. 

The Paros are decent little fish. Got what I think, is an adult pair. The male is a little bit obvious with its fin colors but the other one is colorless, so it might probably be a female. Still, they are not really that shy as what I've thought. Keeping them in a 12 litres tank. The bottom of the tank is covered with dried Ketapang leaves to add tannin to the water, a Charcoal tube placed behind as a hideout and the only plant I used, is Java fern. I'm feeding them twice a day on BBS. Tried grindals but they won't touch them at all.

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## Emokidz

Good to know that the paros are doing well. Will be a long time before I consider putting any of the palangkaraya on sale, if they grow up well and if I ever do want to sell them. Right now, they are doing quite well in the tanks, and I'm probably going to leave it that way to avoid any unecessary casualties.

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## Emokidz

It's been a while and the palangkaraya fry are growing well, eating well, and are both active and healthy.

Currently keeping a grow out tank for the small fry i fish out from the parent's tank after they spawn. I leave some fry with the parents too though as the water in their tank is very stable.
Pretty happy about how the fry are doing and surviving. Keeping up water changes regularly and checking on them to make sure they grow fine.


Here are some pictures of the fry in their grow out tub, nothing fancy. Just moss, a leaf and some snails...

Yes! There are actually fry in there... Look closely!



A close up on a few of them...



During meal time, they get either crushed tetrabits, live daphnia or vinegar eels (which I keep cultures of).



Munching happily on crushed tetrabits...




On a side note, updates on the older batch of fry... They have grown really well and have reached nice sizes (almost about the parents' size when I got them!)




A probable male, judging by the distinct patterning on its caudal fin. Also pelvic fins are colouring up and on a whole, the blue tinge is starting to show.





Thanks for reading!

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## Shi Xuan

Hi Bernard,

Nice to know that your fishes are doing well.  :Smile:  

Just a curious question, are these the oldest fry from the first spawn?

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## Emokidz

Yea they are. First and second spawns. Fishes out from parents tank when they were about guppy fry size. So only the stronger ones made it. Makes more sense since I don't want too many fish at the end too.

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## Fendi

Wow amazing .. Bern... As usual nice pics.
Cheers

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