Introduction: Not everyone prefers the long-finned Betta splendens, better known as the Siamese fighting fish. In Thailand they prefer the short-finned betta “roundtails” or Pla Kat Thai. Larger bettas from Viet Nam they call Pla Kat Chien. Most of our Aqualand bettas come from Thailand, Viet Nam, and Malaysia. Most of our smaller males and larger females come from local breeders.
Comments: Bettas live about two years on the average. Many of the conditioning tips on this page will increase your bettas’ life spans. We liberally borrowed the secrets of Thai, Laotian, local breeders, and our own experience. Feel free to use any of these techniques you consider of value to you. Container Size: Give your bettas ½ gallon or larger bowls. Smaller containers need more frequent water changes. We keep ours in six-ounce rose bowls and plastic cups because of space restrictions. If you keep fewer than a 100, give them more room. Container Size: Give your bettas ½ gallon or larger bowls. Smaller containers need more frequent water changes. We keep ours in six-ounce rose bowls and plastic cups because of space restrictions. If you keep fewer than a 100, give them more room. Water: Use aged water. Add NovAqua. We like to add one teaspoon of salt per gallon. Marine salt works best. Avoid table salt. It makes your water cloudy. Indian Almond Leaves: Southeast Asian betta breeders rave about the benefits of Indian almond leaves. One square inch per ½ gallon or one leaf per 10-gallon tank works magic. The tannic and humic acids color the water, drop the pH, and harden the bettas’ scales. The overall effect enhances their ability to ward off diseases. We’ve seen the results and were impressed. Torn fins and injuries heal faster. Definitely use the leaves. Plants: Various strains of Java lance fern thrive in betta containers. Plants provide cover and “eat” some of your betta’s wastes. Java fern and bolbitis need very little light. Substrate: Decorate your bowls any way you desire. Bare containers clean more easily. Foods: Most breeders provide a variety of pelleted, live, and frozen foods. Never overfeed. Pouring (Krok Pla): Avoid netting bettas. We find that netting encourages the growth of an impossible-to-cure fungus all over their bodies. Use a gravy scoop, handmade plastic net, or plastic bowl. Familiarize your betta with the scoop by dipping water from his tank then pouring it back in. Daily, scoop him from one container to another. After a few days, he won’t run from the scoop when you try to move him. Angry Stick: Some Thai breeders use an “angry stick” to exercise their bettas. A two-foot dowel with a black tip will work. Or use the non-writing end of a ball point pen. Slowly push the angry stick across the front of your betta’s bowl. Most bettas learn to enjoy attacking the black tip. Carding: Put sheets of cardboard between your bowls. Bettas get bored when kept next to the same neighbors all the time. Remove the cards several times a day to make your males “flare.” You can do the same with a mirror. They flare to warn off other males. You can do the same by moving their bowls around, but it takes more work. Chasing (Parn Pla): Scoop your male into a larger container containing a half-dozen smaller females plus some vegetation for them to run behind. (Most females will not fight back or injure him.) Allow him to chase them about ½ hour per day. Teasing (Yawk Pla): After a week of chasing, put him in a container with a ripe female this time. He’ll swim around her showing off. Allow him about five minutes of this fooling around before removing him. This also helps condition the female for breeding. She’ll fill up with more eggs and start showing her “I’m ready bars.” Keep these sessions under five minutes. Meanwhile, his urge to fight increases. Running Laps (Pun Pla): Daily, scoop your betta into a large round container – like a plastic bucket or ice cream container. Swirl the water with a stick or by hand. Some betta keepers use a power head to swirl the water. Swirl it slowly or you may tire him. Let him swim laps about five minutes. Last Word: Your male is now in perfect condition for fighting or breeding.
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Rationale? One irate chocolate gourami fan accused me of downgrading chocolate gouramis. Why write an info sheet on fishes I do not recommend? I still believe most people should not buy these little cuties (or discus either). Our Iowa water is inimical to their successful husbandry. Translated: They die like flies for most people. Or at least they die like most people wish flies would die.
Not a Good Start. With a 40% death rate before opening their bag, this is not a propitious beginning to our research into chocolate gouramis. I’ll get some more so we have a larger and hopefully healthier population. Statisticians think we should sample with a minimum of 30, but who the heck practices statistics these days or even believes statistics -- especially on the internet? We’ll stick with anecdotal evidence. Timid Little Rascals. When dropped in their 55-gallon tank, most of the six survivors found a hiding place. They were mixed with a dozen neons, six rams, and six two-inch discus. These other fish have similar water and temperature needs/preferences. All are well adapted and enthusiastic eaters of whatever they get fed. They recognize the food container when we approach their tank and start wagging their tails. Hopefully, the chocolate gouramis will fit in and do likewise. New Guys in Town. New guys always hide. Five chocolate gouramis disappeared into the shrubbery for the nonce. Fairly typical for most small fishes. We’ll give them some time to adjust Water Conditions. We did not put them in one of the “black water tanks” so often recommended for chocolate gouramis. Yes, they color up better in brown water, but so what? If you can’t see the little twerps, what’s the point in having them? Besides, unless you plan to breed them, you need not duplicate the Niger River invisibility standards. Yes, I know they don’t come from the Niger River. That’s just an idiomatic expression. Since the neons, rams, and discus are happy as oysters or scallops or whatever in this water, we figured the chocolate gouramis would adapt also. Temperature. We can’t violate all the rules all the time and expect good results, so we keep this tank at 85o. Chocolate gouramis survive fairly well at 75o in some wholesaler’s tanks. But over the long haul, they need more BTUs in their water. You just can’t treat them like a blue gourami and expect to keep them. Disease. We added six more Chocolate gouramis. These were 50% larger but still under one inch. They cost three times as much and came covered with ich. We just dropped them into the 85 degree water and put in a taste of ich cure. Ich usually just goes away at 85o. Anyway, this is just one more strike against these little runts. Strike Out. Perhaps chocolates should be called croaking gouramis. They all died in less than a week. Still Batting Zero. We added two more groups of ten each from this healthy batch. They survived less than two weeks. Last Word. We still cannot recommend chocolate gouramis to most aquarists. Since we cannot keep them alive, we will not sell chocolates. Origin. With a name like “Indian almond leaves,” we suspect these leaves originally came from India. We get ours thru a California company that gets them from Thailand. They undoubtedly now grow them commercially in Thailand.
Before the Origin. Before we finally found a source for these leaves, we kept getting requests for these “magic leaves” or yellow powder that would turn ordinary roundtails into bulletproof fighters. Several of our Asian customers used Black Water Tonic (former name) as the closest solution they could find. We tried to find these magical leaves for years. Most of the information we heard we just chalked up to Southeast Asian Urban Legends. Couple Years Ago ... We heard the word “tea” in many of the requests, so when MelaFix came on the market, we thought this might be the answer. It’s made from an extract of the teaberry tree and helps wounded fishes heal. We tried it. Good product, but not the reputed magical leaf. Indian Almond Leaves. Now that we have the leaves, our Southeast Asian betta customers still rave about the benefits of these magic leaves. (They rave even more when we run out.) We tried them ourselves and were impressed. In fact, we tested them on 60 of our bettas. We liked the results also. Recipes. Use one square-inch of leaf per half-gallon of water for individual fish. Use one leaf per 10-gallon rearing tank for the fry. Use one-leaf per half-filled 10-gallon breeding tank. Results. First you see your water turn yellow, then brown. The changed water seems to harden their scales. It helps them heal wounds and ward off illnesses. Be careful, because it also makes the male more aggressive at breeding time. On the other hand, it also helps the female recover from any wounds she receives during the breeding process. The Science. Tannic and humic acids leach into the water to work this magic. It drops the pH in the water and hardens the betta’s scales. This works very similar to Black Water Tonic -- only better. There’s lots more ingredients in there that add to the mix. Most of the scientific explanation went over our head. We now believe in the magic. |
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