what colour is a pure siamese fighting fish

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

i will be gettng a fighting fish soon but i want a pure 1 if posible ive heard tales that red specimens are the pure kind but im not sure

[wetmanNY]

The glamorous long-fin forms of Betta splendens are pure invention. Such fish don't exist in nature. They are selections, however,not hybrids, so they are all pure Betta splendens. These fish are the result of selecting an arbitrary "best" out of each generation of domestic bred fish.

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

[B]The glamorous long-fin forms of Betta splendens are pure invention.

what do u meen by pure invention i might be misreading the post but they come from thailand still there must be a more dominatet strand of colour in the fighter fish

[wetmanNY]

The fish you see in the jars at the lfs don't look like the pure wild species, called Betta splendens. They have been created entirely-- purely-- through generations of selective breeding. They are not hybrids, crossed between species-- so in that sense they are "pure."

Is this close to what you were thinking of when you posted "pure?"

[VoodooChild]

I'm sure that all of the colors you see may have a glint or more in some bettas, but from what I've seen in magazines (I've never and probably never will see a wild betta) are kind've a reddish-brownish and grayish brown. With much shorter fins of course. You can't protect your territory and lady with baggage like that.

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

yeah i ment like if u went fishing(in the wild)and u courght a fighter fish what colour would it be a non released 1 at that but vodoo u mainly got what i was looking for.

[thom336]

the wild form of the siamese fighting fish is a reddy-brown. and, wetman, the siamese fighting fish do have their long finnage in the males in the wild...it is there to show off to the females. of course, some of this finnage has been exaggerated during domestication, esspecially in the females, but not excessively so in the male. unlike the guppy, fighters do have their very full finnage in the wild.

[VoodooChild]

I have never seen a betta with more than 3/4 of his fin lenght in the wild than what you'd see in captive breds. They're long sure, but they're not what you see at stores by any means.

[carpguy]

Betta splendens isn't a naturally occurring fish. If you caught one in the wild, you'd be catching something that has been bred into that shape over the last several centuries. Betta imbellis is believed to be the original fish and I think they're talking about folding the imbellis back into a single species called splendens. They're the same fish. They look like this:

http://bettaking.freeservers.com/imbellis.gif

The super long finnage would be a serious detriment in the wild. They're bred that way as a decorative element for ornamental fish. The actual fighters bred in Southeast Asia are bred with somewhat shorter fins that better facilitate fighting.

[Anaxus]

Carpguy, I think that fish looks better then the betta splendens you get in the stores.

[thom336]

there are many species of betta around, some of which do look very similar. it can be hard to distinguish between them, but they must not be confused as all the same species. what the picture is of, as far as i can tell, is a female betta splendens.

the siamese fighting fish was, and still is, used in fighting sports in its native countries. the cocks (males) were bred to kill each other...and the finnage just made a more elaborate display....but it wasnt bred in - it was already there. neither was the aggresive nature bred in - as we all probably all well know.

anabantoids is a huge group of fish, only a few of which are in the aquarium hobby - these include the fighter, gouramis, and afew others. the main thing that distinguishes this group of fish is their lambriyth (i think thats how its spelt) organ - which allows them to breath atmospheric air where oxygen content is low in the water.

[thom336]

if you would like more information on anabantoids, and are interested in the topic, then please visit the anabantoid association of great britains website:

www.aagb.org

[Seamonkey84]

ok, i know for a fact, that there are wild betta splendens, they look our female bettas. The long finnage was due to selective breeding, as are the colors. The wild bettas do have the colors in them, just selective breeding made them more elaborate. The picture above is what most wild bettas look like.

[thom336]

yep, thats the wild colouration - but it is undoubtably a female. the males do have the long finnage in the wild, well, not AS long, but longer than the females all the same. has anyone seen the fighters fight? their gills flair open, fins spread out, and in they go to fight to the death...wouldnt recommend it thou. is it illegal?

[wetmanNY]

Thanks, carpguy, a picture is now worth ten thousand words in this age of inflation.

Many of the colors of the selected domesticated fishes can be detected in the spangled colors of the wild ones. I agree with Anaxus: this is the one I'd want to keep.

All the viscera, including the ovaries, if this were a female, are pushed way forward in these fishes, forward of the front edge of the anal fin, which is where the vent is. All these wild ones are thick through the caudal peduncle.

[carpguy]

Personally, I think the wild bettas are very cool fish and I'd rather look for them than go with the fancy strains. There isn't anything inherently wrong with the fancy, just a personal preference. I do think the fancy strains suffer a lot of abuse because of some marketing myths that have developed around them, but that has nothing to do with the fish.

According to my betta book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764116533/qid=1047852679/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-6852933-2611818), there are almost a hundred identified species in the genus betta. These species are organized into groups and there is a betta splendens group consisting of splendens, imbellis (which may be the same thing), smaragdina, and rubra. Studies have been done with splendens and imbellis that suggest they are extremely closely related and may be varieties of the same species. They have been collected and bred for centuries and possibly millenia throughout SE Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand at least). Since the selective breeding (and release of selectively bred lines back into the wild) greatly predates modern biology its a little tricky to pinpoint what this group looked like naturally, although the picture of the male (not female) imbellis is closer to natural than the fancytails.

The book mentions that a fight between two Pla Kat Tung (wild caught) might be over in 15 minutes while a pair of Pla Kat Mor (bred for fighting) might slug it out for up to 6 hours. "The wild Pla Kat Tung [biting fish from the fields] has short fins with the anal fin markedly extended and pointed in the male compared with the female"… "All Pla Kat Mor [biting fish in pots, specifically bred for fighting] are short finned with rounded tails, large bodies, a large head…".

It also mentions that the veiltail (Pla Kat Cheen, biting fish in Chinese robes) is probably the original fin mutation ("The extension ranges up to four times normal length") and cornflower blue was probably the first color strain, both predating exportation to the west but not found naturally.

The book also mentions that color was an easy trait to manipulate and identify whereas fighting ability wasn't visible. When a breeder had an especially good fish they could "label" the fish's descendants, using color strains to keep track of their stock.