I Have Rubras

[Synirr]

Unfortunately they are both male.
The first one came when my boss ordered a pair of channoides and instead we got a male channoides and a male rubra... just pure dumb luck there. Well, the bossman ordered me a pair of rubra so I could have a female, but a coworker put them in a 2.5g without a lid until I could come pick them up. It was only half full, but 4" of space between the water line and the top of the tank definitely isn't enough to safeguard against wilds jumping out, so of course by the time I got there about an hour later there was only one left... and it was the male. We assume the female was eaten by the coworker's dog, who accompanies him to work, because she was nowhere to be seen.
I've discovered that males of this species can apparently be housed together as long as there are no females present, though. They displayed for about 5 minutes when they met, then took up residence on opposite sides of the tank and that was that. They haven't had a confrontation since.

The second boy is a nicer fish than the first, so I guess at least there's that. Newest boy on the left. Nice dorsal, eh? The first guy was a little beat up when he first came to the store, so that's why his fins are kinda bleh. He looks great now, these pics are old.

And I got to see the yawning display. "Get outta my tank!"

"Truce?"

"I call left side of the tank."

 

[wendywc]

Wow, very nice.

 

[Amerce]

You are such a lucky girl

You must post pics on the IBC forum cause they don't have one against the species info.

http/www.ibc-smp.org/species/rubra.html

Have you a more recent pics when they weren't so stressed ?

 

[Synirr]

That's as fired up as you're going to see them until I get some females, since they don't take an interest in one-another anymore. I have a source for ladies, I am just waiting for his fry to mature enough to ship. Normally they are just brownish-red with black spots, the dramatic barring you see in these pics is what they are supposed to look like when they are displaying. The cruddy pics aren't really the fault of the fish, they were in the back of the tank and my camera couldn't take it and washed them out a lot, they are stunning in person. They have a wonderful gold trim around their fins.

If the IBC needs pics, Manuran on UltimateBettas has some fantastic shots of his. I'd post a link if I could, but if you Google UltimateBettas, go to the Wilds section (a subforum under Tail Type Discussion and Questions), and look on the second page you will see Manuran's thread about his rubras. There are a lot of gorgeous pics there.

 

[Synirr]

Woohoo! Young females are coming within the next two months

 

[*Bethie*]

That's great! Beautiful fish by the way.

*Bethie*