Combtails

[Fruitbat]

Just thought I'd share a couple of pictures of some more 'unusual' anabantids that I have in my collection. These fish aren't particularly rare but they're not often kept by aquarists. Both of these species (Belontia signata and Belontia hasselti) can be pretty aggressive between themselves and other fish and I find this to be especially true of male Belontia signata.

Currently mine are housed together along with a small Climbing Perch (Anabas testudineus), a trio of Blue Gouramis (Trichogaster trichopterus), some Tiger Barbs (Capoeta tetrazona) and an assortment of loaches. An uneasy truce has been established now that the 'pecking order' has been sorted out.

The Ceylon Combtail - Belontia signata

The Java Combtail - Belontia hasselti

I'd love to hear from anybody else who is keeping these fish.

-Joe

 

[sylvia]

Very nice fish Those pictures make me wish I'd kept mine - I used to have a pair of signata. I had them with yoyo loaches and a pair of banded climbing perch in a 40 gallon. eventualy I re-homed them and the loaches, with some friends who had been looking for this species, in favour of the perch which I wanted to breed. Oh well. The hasselti are pretty fish aren't they? What are they like temperament-wise? Are they like b. signata? I haven't realy kept b. hasselti.

 

[Fruitbat]

My B. signata are some of the most aggressive fish I've ever owned. Before their arrival the big male Blue Gourami was lord of all he surveyed. As soon as the Ceylon Combtails went into the tank there was an immediate turf war which the male B. signata won quite handily. He gave the Anabas quite a hard time as well when it was introduced and I was a bit worried about adding the B. hasselti to the mix. I knew they were relatively tough customers from seeing them shred each other's fins at the LFS but I wasn't quite positive they could stand up to the onslaught of their aggressive cousin.

Turns out that I needn't have worried much. After a few experimental passes at the B. hasselti were rebuffed, the male B. signata apparently decided that he wasn't quite tough enough to take on three new intruders and they seem to have reached an understanding. I haven't seen any aggression between the two species since the first day. Interestingly enough....there seems to be a truce between all of the fish in the tank as the aggression level is quite low and generally involves only a few threat displays if one of the other fish gets too close.

-Joe