Betta smaragdina

Flaring at the evil camera :)

Ladies enjoying their 5 gallon refuge

Betta smaragdina have a graceful, sinuous beauty that is unrivaled by other bettas in the Splendens complex. They can be one of the largest in the Splendens complex - my foundation male was easily 3 inches in the body alone, and one of his daughters is close to approaching that size. They have a snake-like way of moving that is really gorgeous, especially during spawning. I tried to get spawning photographs, but it was before my DSLR camera and I only have sad shadows to try and capture their movement.

They are by far one of the easiest bettas to spawn. Both times I have bred this male to two different virgin females, they spawned within a day of introduction and were extremely gentle with one another. The bubblenests were large and full of eggs, and the father cared dutifully for them.

My last spawn, I experimented with keeping the male alongside the fry for an extended period of time. After 4 weeks of co-habitation, the fry seemed to grow larger and faster than when I removed the male after free-swimming. The male seemed to be protective of the fry even at later stages, and was resistant to being netted out.

I am hoping for more males in my second spawn, since my first spawn turned out to be all girls! Message me if you are interested in an unpaired female smaragdina, or to trade for males. Thank you.

Baby smaragdinas

I really liked spawning in this planted 5 gallon tank. I feel like the fry felt very secure and grew well co-habiting with their sire for 4 weeks. However...the problem is getting them out to transfer to a bigger grow out! Haven't tackled that yet!

Smaragdina males from Project 30 to match my females

Love these guys! Beautiful coloration! They flare just like their more aggressive splenden cousins in jars :)

Project 30 was nice enough to give me some males at a discounted price in order to sell my females.

What a face!

There bodies are actually emerald green, but the fluorescent lights make them look more blue. I'm going to have to play with lighting to make them shine differently. So much reflective color in these guys.

Update March 2014: Upon my return from Germany, I've decided to ramp up my show betta breeding and drop this project. The males are almost as aggressive as splendens and require lots of jarring. One day I hope to return to smaragdina, particularly the copper variety - I bought a book in Germany by van Horst Linke that has absolutely STUNNING smaragdina photographs. Almost made me want to drop everything for these guys!