Betta ocellata

Betta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betta) aka fighting fish aka kung fu fish. All these names was given by local fish shop or the hobbyist who doesn't really know about this species. As there are different type of betta in the market nowadays. But most of them are very colorful and they are man made (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_made). So, most of the people attract by the colors of the man made betta.

Betta ocellata is one of the betta species can be found in wild. This species only found in Sabah and Kalimantan area. It can grown up to 10-12inches. The male is with there are green/blue spotted dots at the mask and upper eye sight. Female is just brown color like in the picture. There is no green or blue spotted dots on the face.

The very first time I came across this beautiful species is from a local magazine. Writen by my primary school mate - Martin. Here is the article http://www.bettasocietymalaysia.com.my/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32&start=0

It was quite pricy to get this species from local fish shop. As it was consider as a very rare wild betta. Since not many hobbyist keeping it. It is quite difficult to get it from any local fish shop. But i was the lucky one. A friend Chris from Sandakan, Sabah told me that he caught this fish last time from the stream behind his house. He can get few for me anytime.

I was like so happy and couldn't sleep well for days. And received around 13 pieces of them from Chris. Thank you Chris. Here are some of the pictures which taken last year.

Male

The female.

All the above 13 pieces was passed to all the betta experts to breed. But seems like most of them failed to keep them alive. Most of the cases are, the betta jumped out from the aquarium! Wondering why those experts don't know wild betta are natural good jumper? They are able to jump out from the aquarium if there is just a 1-2cm gap. They can jump up to 3 feet height from the water surface. Yes. I watched my betta jump out from my aquarium once.

So, i wasn't lucky at all for the first time. As none of them were with me. And most of them were died. A year later, Zoo Negara - Herman asking me where can i get this species from. As they need some to display inside the Aquarium of Tunku Abdul Rahman. The first person appeared in my mind was Chris. I hafta be a 'thick face' guy and ask from him one more time. As the condition is put his name as contributor. Herman agreed and Chris just spent days to send me another 9 pieces. (Was told he sent me 12 pieces. But end up 9 only. As he has sent the fishes to one of the fish shop to pack. So i guess the fish shop owner took 3 of them.)

Anyway, I am happy to receive them again. As I had learnt from mistake, i won't simply give to those expert again. If you want, pay to me. Because I need to pay the postage and etc. And it is not cheap at all. So, most of them has been passed to Zoo Negara, Josh and Ming Yuen. I am keeping a pair for myself. Below is the pair which still being with me.

The female.

The male.

After months, didn't hear any good news from 3 of them. Guess that they keeping the ocellata in bare tank. I am a guy who preferred to provide better environment for my pets. Prefer my ocellata to stay in their actual biotope. So, I've spent rm280 for a 2x2x2 feet tank with cover. Putting in some rocks, mosses, ferns and implement a DC fan on top of the tank. Since there is a 36W PL-L tube running for 8 hours per day. The water temperature will reach to 35C. It is not advisable to keep them in such an environment. Fan will help to lower down the temperature to 26-27C. After that, I covered the whole tank by newspaper. As to give them privacy. After a month, I saw this...

The male is holding the eggs inside the mouth. Yes. Betta ocellata is the mouthbrooder betta. The femela will lay the eggs and the male will pick up the eggs and keeping inside the mouth after he is fertilized the eggs. He will release the small fries after a month +. It is depends on the condition of the water. So, before they are mating. You need to feed the male with high protein food. Like live crickets. Take out the female before the fries has been released. As the female will swallow the small fries. Once the fries are free swimming. You hafta take them out in quarantine tank. And feed them with daphnia, brine shrimp, microworm and tubiflex worm. Because the fries will take liver feeder. Once they reached 1cm, you can start feeding them with fish pellet.

Below is the male holding the eggs.

2 weeks old fries.