I have three wild-caught Betta livida. Two males and a female (was supposed to be two pairs but my female died in quarantine). One male is more dominant than the other and this is the male I have paired up with the female. He is pictured below. I did try my second male with the female but she attacked him so badly I had to remove him for his own safety. Perhaps if I can get some fry from my breeding pair, I will use him as a cross on an F1 female. Unlike my pair of Betta rutilans and Betta coccina who came in at the same time, my Betta livida have been most reluctant to spawn. The only interactions between the pair are either complete disinterest or outright hostility. I've been trying to figure out the trigger to get them to spawn. Thus far, I've tried everything in my arsenal to persuade them to spawn, but they are defiant in their refusal to give me even a single fry. It's fortunate that they are such beautiful fish and such a rare gem from this complex that they are welcome to stay and remain unproductive. Currently, I'm housing my second male in a 1.5L plastic container inside the breeding tank to see if his presence stirs up some territorial aggression in my breeding male and encourages him to build a nest. Unfortunately, my second male appears to be highly submissive and doesn't really engage with his 'rival' in a particularly aggressive manner. In fact the entire time I've owned him, I've never seen him fully coloured up. In fact you can see in the photo below how he compares to my breeding male. Betta livida remains the only described species from this complex I haven't bred. I was hoping that these fish would prove as easy to spawn as the other species I have, but of course being the last, they are undoubtedly going to be all but impossible.
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AuthorLocated in Melbourne, Australia, I currently keep and breed a number of species from the coccina complex. Archives
November 2017
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