Talk:Betta

Fish vs Fishes?

Why use fishes, I am not sure that the word fishes is proper... The plural of fish is fish.

Merge?

The "Siamese Fighting Fish" page is really similar to this one. I added a "See Also" at the bottom since to most people they are synonymous.

00:02, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I'm in favor of a merge. I have set up a new page called Betta (Siamese Fighting Fish) and have the identical information in it. We should just get an admin to delete the old pages. After that we cna hash out the new article (as some minor differences do exist) Any objections.Gator1 17:19, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

I hope I'm not moving to quickly, but after no objection I have merged the two articles into Betta (Siamese Fighting Fish) and put redirect links on both of the old pages. Hope that's not going to freak someone out! lol.Gator1 00:26, September 4, 2005 (UTC)

I've done a tidy-up here, turning this page into a stub for the genus Betta and renaming the page for Betta splendens as Siamese Fighting Fish. It's a bit awkward given the frequent use of "betta" to refer to B. splendens, but it seems like the most logical thing to do given that there are over 50 other species in the genus. Does anyone know anything about any of them? 3 or 4 of them do have common names - are they ever kept in aquaria or studied scientifically? seglea 22:57, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

plakats are just only a terminology for short tailed betta. there are many species of betta, the most common ones being halfmoon, halfmoon plakat, crown tail, double tail, and veil tail. these are the betta splendens. of course, there are also the wild betta kind. which are harder to find and more expensive in price.

the above anonymous comment fails to recognise what is meant by a "species" in biology. If these are all Betta splendens, they are all one species; they are just varieties. seglea 22:59, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Images

Does anyone think this page needs more images, specifically of different Betta colours and flaring? (I'm asking because I have images that might be of use) Pharaoh Hound 12:50, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Moving more stuff to the species page

Yet again a whole lot of stuff has grown up on this page which only applies to Betta splendens, so I am moving it to the Siamese fighting fish page and merging it with similar material there. seglea 22:59, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Sorry

My sincerest appologies about putting stuff about Betta splendens on this page. I got confused, however it will never happen again. --Pharaoh Hound 17:58, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

No worries, it's a common confusion. seglea 20:50, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

and yet again

Here's another chunk of material that I have removed, which again belongs on the Siamese Fighting Fish page - except that it is already covered there, rather better:

Unlike many other fish, bettas can live in a fish decent size bowl without a filteration system. Small bowls used in fish shops are not suitable for bettas. This bowl should be cleaned at least once a week. If bubbles appear at the top of the tank, that is a sign that the male betta is healthy. The bubbles are in fact the nest for male betta. When cleaning it, make sure to put pre-filtered (reverse osmosis)water and water conditioner in.

A boy and girl betta usually don't get along in the same tank together. If you are breeding two bettas, get a girl equal or smaller than the boy. You should also read extensively about breeding bettas - it's not easy. You must also learn how to hatch baby brine shimps so the fry will have some food to eat.

It is safe to put several female bettas in the same tank, but NEVER put two male bettas together. These fishes are territorial and will fight to the death. It is also safe to put any gender of betta with another type of smaller, less colorful fish. Female bettas form a pecking order, so having only 2 female bettas in a tank is not a good idea.

At the pet shops, most bettas are of veil Tail or Plakat types. They are the original types of bettas. Plakats are short tail fighters. Veil tails are the long tail show only bettas. These long tails are not suitable fish for fighting. In the Western cultures, people call fancy bettas by many names such as Delta, Super Delta, Half Moon, Comb Tail, Butterfly, ... but these names are really about traits, color or shapes of the fins. In Eastern cultures people generally call them either long tail or short tail. In Eastern countries people have fish fights or even go to fish fight shops to bet. Fish fighting is considered a sport in several countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. Fish fighting is illegal in most Western cultures.

Fancy bettas have special traits. These are only available through specialised shops or Internet mail order venues. They are often inbred, small in size and hard to maintain. They are harder to breed and grow.

seglea 20:50, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

External links

I re-removed the external links: the FishBase link is redundant because it's in References, and the other one (fishfriend.com or something) is not terribly useful--it appears to be about B. splendens, not about the genus, but that is not really clear. At any rate, it's a few paragraphs of unsourced, unscientific information. Tkinias 08:38, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Betta vs. B. splendens; Photos

I've added links to the Species Maintenance Program run by the International Betta Congress, who are a respected authority on the genus. (IUCN links to their Web site from the Red List, for example.) This is part of the work to clarify that Betta is a genus, not just the single species sold at Walmart. There are also conservation issues with some Betta species that are confused if people think "how can bettas be endangered if I can buy them at every store?" I also changed the main photo to B. albimarginata, since ATM that's the only non-B. splendens species we've got photos of. I'd like to get a B. picta photo for this, as that's the type species and should be the one pictured according to WikiProject guidelines. If anyone has access to non-splendens bettas and a camera, help out! Tkinias 13:49, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

ikan bettah is not a Thai word

I'm sad to say that fishbase is most likely wrong on this. The word Ikan bettah does not exist in Thai (Siamese), but it is most likely a word in Malay/Indonesian, which is also spoken in Southern Thailand. So I changed it from the "Thai language" to "a local language in Thailand." --Melanochromis 04:03, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

No of species in this genus

The intro on this page states that there are 28 species of Betta, yet the article lists 70. Are these listed species actual species, or are some of them sub species? Also the Siamese fighting fish page states that there are nearly 50 "types" of Betta. It would help if someone with some detailed knowledge of the taxonomy of this group could clear this up. Nick Thorne ^talk 22:32, 23 September 2008 (UTC)