A friend of mine is very much into Bettas (CT, DT, Plakats), I am only
interested in the wild forms, merely a true! splendens wild. I have a
wild-form strain but doubt it is "pure".
Steffen
> Von: anutej_at_loxinfo.co.th
> Antworten an: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> Datum: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 02:17:49 +0700
> An: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> Betreff: Re: NANFA-- Bluenose shiner news [off topic]
>
> So far in Thailand Mahachai betta is found or said to be found along
> the coast between right side of Maeklong river mouth and left side of
> Chao Phraya river mouth. Wildtype splendens is found elsewhere from
> Chiangrai up north down to Ranong in the south and to Trat to the
> east. Imbellis is found in some part of Ranong down to Malaysia
> border. Smaragdina seems to be native to the Korat Plateau
> [Northeast]. Of course there are feral populations of splendens in
> many places out of wildtype splendens' native range. And it is highly
> unlikely or very rare to find any human settlement more than 30 km
> from betta habitat... People is everywhere in the lowlands.
>
> Betta fighting is still popular in rural Thailand. There are many
> "arenas" for it [outsiders are not welcome] and people can go to great
> length to find a spot that is supposed to have wild betta with good
> fighting ability. My friend told me about someone in Ubon close to
> Mekong river went all the way down to Chonburi area to get wildtype
> betta, and Mahachai people told me some of them go down to Nakorn
> srithammarat down south to catch good wild fighter. BTW there are
> separate arenas for fighting-form betta and wildtype betta.
>
> Though Mahachai betta's range seems small other bettas such as Betta
> simplex also has small range.
>
> Tony
> anutej_at_loxinfo.co.th
>
> p.s. Have you spawn Northern studfish before?
>
>
>
> Steffen Hellner wrote:
>>
>> Interesting information.
>>
>> How far is the next splendens resp. imbellis off the Mahachai?
>>
>>> From my oppinion, every Betta from at least 30 km around any settlement is
>> suspect to be intergraded by domestic fish/fighters.
>>
>> Steffen
>>
>>> Von: anutej_at_loxinfo.co.th
>>> Antworten an: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>>> Datum: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 18:11:39 +0700
>>> An: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>>> Betreff: Re: NANFA-- Bluenose shiner news [off topic]
>>>
>>> It is interesting that so far there is no splendens found by me
>>> and friends in Betta sp. mahachai habitat. Some populations of
>>> wildtype splendens and wild imbellis can tolerate salt since they can
>>> be found in brackish water habitat too, so something must be going on
>>> for Mahachai betta to be the only betta species/variety in its
>>> habitat.
>>>
>>> Other interesting point is that local betta arena breeder gurus
>>> in Mahachai area seem to differentiate Mahachai betta and wildtype
>>> splendens well. They call Mahachai betta "Pla par" [that means
>>> "forest fish"] or "luk par" since they are generally found in Jak
>>> forest [Jak is a type of palm-like plant that like barckish water] or
>>> "Pla kiew" [= green fish], and call wildtype splendens "Pla rong",
>>> "Pla tung" or "Luk rong" [[generally mean "ditch or field fish" since
>>> they are found in canals, ditches, and fields generally further north]
>>> or "Pla daeng" [= red fish]. They seems not to differentiate between
>>> the wild imbellis from the south from wildtype splendens from the
>>> north [they do say that fish from specific location is better at
>>> fighting than others, but not restrict to species] since they refers
>>> to both as "Pla daeng". They seem to use this knowledge to cross
>>> Mahachai [Pla kiew] with wild splendens [Pla daeng] or fighting form
>>> splendens to create faked Mahachai to fool careless arena opponents
>>> [using stronger hybrid against real wild Pla kiew ^_^].
>>> Tony
>>> anutej_at_loxinfo.co.th
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