Cross breeding Bettas

[DangerousLover]

Just wondering what people think of cross-bred Bettas.

Such as Betta imbellis & Betta splendens.

In the species link
http/www.ibc-smp.org/

 

[bkk_group]

i think it sucks. it's one of the reasons pure wildtypes will one day be extinct. people don't think about the consequences, unfortunately, it's been going on for years and the damage has already been done. if you want to know why it's wrong, check out www.siamensis.org. there are some breeders who care about preserving the remaining wild's in thailand but it's a losing battle. it seems money is the bottom line for many.

 

[bkk_group]

Siamensis Group was formed by a group of people met at the web board of pantip.com Our love in freshwater fish and aquatic plants bring us together to make our dream come true.

That is a website about Thai fish and their husbandry. We are an independence non profit group that will do anything in our –little- power to save our freshwater fish, aquatic plant and their habitat.

Siamensis group was formed by friends from different back ground, from aquarium fish hobbyist to professional Ichtologist. Who ever we are, we have one thing in common, that is our love to the fish and plants and their habitat.

The name siamensis is a Latinized word use to name many faunas and floras species that can be found in Thailand. It means "Found in Thailand". With the pride and honor of being Thai; we decided to use this name as the name of our group and website.

There seems to be fewer and fewer clean body of freshwater for our fish to live. Illegal deforestation, dam, polluted water from factory post direct impact to our river and pond where the fish and plants called home. Some fish species have been decline at a very fast pace. Some already extinct forever, if we do not do something NOW, our kids will not have chance to see what we are seeing today.

Our ultimate goal is to make sure the continuous existence of our fish and plants. We believe that if people aware of what is in the water around them, they will have the feeling that they would like to protect them. That is why the main part of our website will be dedicated to the report from our survey trips. In the survey report we will note down what species of fish and plants we found. If possible we will re-visit the location to collect more data and to update the current situation of the location.

Some worried that if we reveal the habitat of the fish and plants, it might lead to the destruction by some whom do not understand our intention. For those who collect our native fish and plants in large quantity to sale in the pet trade, if you are reading this, I would like to beg you to change your mind. The small sum of money you are getting from selling "treasure of our nation" does not worth what we have lost. We believe that majority of siamensis.org visitor is on our side. If you read our article and survey report and feel what we feel, our group have reach our purpose of existence.

We also believe in captive breeding. Our group is too small to go out there to protect the habitat (we really hope we will). For some species, they can't wait that long. Their only way of continue existence at all might be in our tanks. We hope that one day when their natural habitat is ready; they can be release back to where they belong. There for, another major part of our website will be articles about husbandry and breeding of fish and plants. Fish keeping will also get many who do not have time to go out in the field like us to enjoy the fish while the fish also enjoy being in captivity with them.

On our logo is Botia sidthimunki, a protected species of Thailand. This very neat fish used to be very abandon in nature. Unfortunately, their habitat have been destroyed and their number had rapidly decline. There has been no confirmed report of this fish being collected in nature for several decades now. The fish we have in our tank today come from the captive breeding. The existence of this species is a sigh of human trying to right the wrong and the quest to keep a species from extinction. We hope that one day this little fish will be able to swim in nature again.

The plant in the logo is Pogostemon helferi -a very neat aquatic plant that can be found in Thailand. It was first brought to the attention of the aquarist world by us.

Founding members:
Chaiwut Krudpan, Nonn Panitvong, Manoch Lertchaiporn, Wuttidate Yeunyong, Anuratana Tejavej, Arthit Prasartkul, Akkapol Wisitchainont

 

[DangerousLover]

I wasn't planning of cross breeding. Rather, I was just wondering what the general thoughts were.

I bred a couple of 'wild' imbellis many years ago

 

[Teelie]

i think it sucks. it's one of the reasons pure wildtypes will one day be extinct. people don't think about the consequences, unfortunately, it's been going on for years and the damage has already been done. if you want to know why it's wrong, check out www.siamensis.org. there are some breeders who care about preserving the remaining wild's in thailand but it's a losing battle. it seems money is the bottom line for many.

That is an illogical arguement. If captive bred Betta are crossbred, unless you go clear out to Thailand and release them , there's no threat of "contamination" though I wouldn't be surprised if this naturally happened already.

 

[bkk_group]

Nonn from siamensis visited my forum a while back when we were having this same discussion and had a few words to say on the subject from a thai perspective:

"Hello,
Hybrid -more technical term than crossbreed- will not only ruin the pure wild blood but will ruin good intention of some people who would like to keep pure breed but happened to acquired a hybrid with out knowing it is a hybrid.

For the situation in there natural habitat, I will conclude like this.

B. smaragdina distribution range is very wide and it is unlikely to cross breed with other Thai's Betta species, so I guess they will be fine even in a long run. DNA analysis also show that they are very distinct from other Thai's species.

B. splendens distribution range is quite large also. In general the species -pure wild form- will survive in there micro habitat, like a pond in a golf course, but many distinct local strain will be lost and has been lost from many area.

B. imbellis, the hybrid fighting form will ruin a lot of pure bred in many habitat but like B. splendens, they will survive in their own micro habitat. In the long run, my concern is inbreeding that will make the population weaker and weaker. You would imagine that in the past flooding occur every year and the fish get to exchange their gene pool amoung population but good irregation system we have will prohibit that, top up with fewer fish in each habitat, it will be disaster recipe.

B. sp. Mahachai, I'm one of the person who 100% sure that this is a pure distinct species of Betta (more on that later), but for those who doesn't, this is a VERY BEAUTIFUL distinct strain of Betta that deserve conservation anyway. Their distribution range is very limited, in man disturb area. If no further conservation action is taken place soon, we will lost this species in nature altogether with in a few years.

And once the population in the wild has gone, we will be left with pure bred Mahachai and X breed mahachai which is very difficult to separate visually. If someone happen to thing a xbreed is a pure breed, breeding and distributing it as pure breed, then it will eventually ruin the whole population."

Nonn@siamensis.org

to respend to you teelie, my problem is the fact that the people outside of thailand who think to x these species will end up selling them as something they are not and perpetuating a false species.
there are so many fun ways to experiment with just splendens as it is that it's a shame that some people can't see the beauty of the pure form.

a thai member commented that the hybrid x is like a lady with makeup on but the pure blood is the classic beauty worth searching for.