The Betta Bible: The Art and Science of Keeping Bettas

368 Pages·010.891 MB·English

by  Martin Brammah

Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Taxonomy
Anatomy
Geography
History
Care
Breeds
Colouration
Breeding
Genetics
Disease
Parting words
The Betta Bible
The art and science of keeping bettas
Marble HMPK bred by the author
by Dr Martin Brammah
About the author
Dr Martin Brammah received both his MA in Natural Sciences and his
PhD in Zoology from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is co-
author of the paper Genetic divergence between and within two
subspecies of Laudakia stellio on islands in the Greek Cyclades,
based on his PhD research, which was published in The Herpetological
Journal in 2010. Dr Brammah is an Associate Member of the Society
of Biology and a full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and
Environmental Management (CIEEM). He currently works as an
ecological consultant and lives in Cambridgeshire with his beautiful
wife, two dogs and a room full of bettas.
© 2015 by Martin Brammah
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means including information storage and
retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The
only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a
review.
www.thebettabible.com
Foreword
You might be thinking, who is this guy writing the foreword to The
Betta Bible? For the people who do not know me, let me introduce
myself. My name is Joep van Esch and I am from the Netherlands.
Besides being a biologist and researcher (PhD), I have been breeding
show bettas since 2003 and some of you might be familiar with my
personal website www.bettaterritory.nl. In addition I am co-founder of
the international Bettas4all forum (www.bettas4all.nl) and the
Bettas4all Standard as well as manager of the Holland Betta Show
(www.hollandbettashow.nl). I am extremely honoured to be invited to
write the foreword to this book written by my friend Dr Martin
Brammah.
Martin and I first met in person at the Holland Betta Show 2013, where
he won several prizes for his marble halfmoon plakats (although no
first prize that time!). I remember one evening after the show I was
showing him some photos and videos of the very first halfmoon bettas
that were stored on my laptop. It was then that he announced that he
was in the process of writing a book about bettas. Who knew that I
would now be sitting here writing the foreword to that book?
I got to know Martin in 2007 when he became a member of the
Bettas4all forum under the username 'Bluejax'. He asked a lot of
questions, many of which I was thankfully able to answer! Over the
years we have had numerous interesting conversations about bettas.
In 2014, Martin became a Bettas4all Advisor (moderator) at the forum
and I am proud to have him on board as part the training program to
become a certified Bettas4all Judge.
Dr Martin Brammah is a dedicated and knowledgeable betta hobbyist
who has made a great effort to bundle the knowledge he gathered
during his study and during his years as a hobbyist (by reading books
and articles, participating in discussions, exhibiting at shows and of
course learning from the experiences he made in his own fishroom) into
The Betta Bible.
I really enjoyed reading this book and it is nice to see a relatively
‘young’ hobbyist sharing his knowledge and views. The Betta Bible
provides a broad overview of all aspects of our beautiful hobby by
discussing such important subjects as anatomy, history, breeding, care,
genetics and disease, making it a must-read for both the novice and
more experienced betta hobbyist alike.
In the chapter on breeding, Martin says:
“Anyone can buy themselves a huge betta collection, the same way
that a collector buys works of art. And there’s nothing wrong with
being a collector. In fact, all of us are collectors to start with. But just
think how much more meaningful that collection would be if you had
painted every piece.
Here’s what I think: If you have the chance to be an artist, then be an
artist… and paint beautiful bettas!”
I couldn’t agree more.
Go breed those beauties!
Dr Joep H. M. van Esch
Introduction
It’s a funny thing, falling in love. It just happens. You meet someone, a
connection is made and suddenly you wake up one day and can’t
imagine life without them. They’re a part of you. And even if it doesn’t
last, the memory of that love will always remain.
I fell in love with bettas when I was eleven years old. My parents had
bought me a large glass aquarium for my birthday and amongst the first
fish to inhabit it was a male veiltail betta. He was a rich royal blue,
with long flowing fins and a pugnacious attitude and I was very proud
indeed to be his owner. Sadly, he didn’t last long under my novice care.
The scant information contained in my many tropical fish books hadn’t
equipped me to properly care for him.
I was completely devastated, as only a child can be, to lose such a
beautiful fish and vowed that I would read everything about bettas that
I could get my hands on, so that the next time I brought one home I
would have more success.
Shortly afterwards I purchased a copy of Walt Maurus’s A Complete
Guide to Bettas and it change my life. Here was a book that not only
answered all of my questions about bettas, but was also written in such
a way that you couldn’t help but affected by the author’s enthusiasm
for his subject.
Twenty-two years later, after a dalliance with Central American
cichlids, I find myself keeping bettas once again. I returned to betta
keeping in 2007, just at the point when one or two people in the UK
had started to import show quality bettas from Asia. Having seen
photos of modern show bettas online I was captivated by their colour
and finnage. I had to get my hands on some! Through the importers I
started to build a collection of high quality bettas, turning most of my
fishroom over to their care. I then embarked on what has turned out to
be one of the most enjoyable journeys of my life: The quest to
understand and put into practice the art and science of keeping and
breeding bettas. I turned to the world wide web for help.
It is no easy task to learn everything you need to know about the
modern betta hobby by using the internet alone. Most of the
information is spread far and wide across a plethora of websites that
vary in both the quality and accuracy of the information they provide.
Of course, if you know where to look, there are some brilliant websites
out there that provide excellent information, but for most people
starting out in the hobby finding the information they need can be a
daunting prospect. In the end many either give up or find themselves in
an endless cycle of posting questions on social media pages in order to
get answers (some better than others).
It is for this reason that when I first sat down at my computer three
years ago, to begin the process of writing The Betta Bible, I had just
one aim: To put as much information as possible about keeping and
breeding bettas in one place, so that others could save themselves from
the countless hours of scouring the internet that I had to go through in
order to teach myself how to do so.
Not for me a basic beginner’s guide to bettas, or a coffee table book
full of photos and no useful content. I wanted to write a proper
reference book that anyone could pick up, knowing absolutely nothing
about bettas, and use to educate themselves about every aspect of this
wonderful hobby.
This is the book you now hold in your hands. In it I have tried to cover
every aspect of betta keeping, from taxonomy, anatomy, geography and
history right through to how to keep and breed bettas, descriptions of
the various types of betta, their colour patterns, and no less than a
whole chapter on genetics. I have also included a section on common
diseases found in bettas and how to treat them. Put simply, if there’s an
aspect of betta keeping that isn’t covered in this book, then it’s
probably not worth knowing; and if it is worth knowing, then please tell
me and it will appear in the next edition. After all, this is only the
beginning.
Bicolour halfmoon plakat male © Eugenio Fornasiero
Marble halfmoon plakat (short-finned) male © Kitti Watcharaworatham
Marble halfmoon male © Kitti Watcharaworatham