Individual Betta lines, Part One.
The Wild Types and the Kings.
Let’s begin this chapter of exploring individual betta lines with these two categories: The Wilds, and the Kings.
Wild Type Betta Lines:
Rooster the Betta Rubra male
Wild bettas come in dozens of individual species and even the ever-popular alien hybrids. Since I have no personal experience with wildtype bettas aside from Rubra, this list will only include broad-spectrum problems that relate to all types. Individual species can have individual issues and preferences, but this article will focus on things that wild types all share.
All wild bettas share a ridiculously extreme love for jumping out of their tanks. Wild-type tank jumps are so unbelievably common that there are Facebook groups dedicated to posting fish jerky pictures. Due to this, all wild type bettas need lids or huge amounts of tank clearance to prevent them from jumping. Some of the larger species can easily clear a 12” vertical leap, so please be careful when selecting a tank for them.
Wildtype bettas also share a requirement for specialized tank care. This can vary by species so research into individual types is a necessity. But using Rubra as an example, they need heavy tannins and a lower pH compared to domestic bettas or they will become stressed, sick, and dull. If you plan on breeding your wild types the environment needs to be perfect or breeding behavior will not occur.
Wildtype bettas share a weakness to external and internal parasites, particularly Velvet and other protozoans. Wild-caught bettas will need thorough deworming and even captive-bred bettas can get these parasites from out of the blue sky. They are crazy prone to it. Any amount of stress can heighten the likeliness of them catching these external parasites and relapses are common.
Now let’s talk stress. Wildtype stress is the single-biggest issue with keeping wild type bettas. This can cause them to go off of food for months at a time, never color up, be reclusive, submissive, and flighty, and can lead to illness, and death. It can even factor in to tank jumps.
All of these issues with wildtype bettas share a single thing in common. Can you spot it?
These are all of them environmental problems at the root. Keeping wildtypes healthy requires work starting at the tank level and building upwards from there long before you ever get the fish themself. Wildtype problems tie back to the tank at the cause. If the tank is healthy and set up for the correct species, the fish are often healthy too. Keeping healthy wild bettas starts and ends at the aquarium itself.
Henreitta, Female Betta Rubra
Special case: Alien bettas
These fun hybrids are artificial crosses between wilds and domestic lines in the pursuit of a neat-looking pet. While these bettas can be easier to care for than traditional wilds while retaining the scaling and color of wild types, as hybrids they come with a slew of health issues. I’ve noticed that these bettas have weak swim bladders that result in high instances of sinking SBD. They can also have spinal deformities, the most common one causing a downturned back end.
Wildtype pros:
Neat-looking bettas
Can breed for conservation of captive-bred lines in the pet trade and help protect wild populations
Massive variety
Individual species can be large or small to suit your dream tank
Keeping wilds correctly can be a rewarding challenge for experienced fishkeepers
Wildtype cons:
Parasites all the time
Easily stressed
Can be fragile
Food strikes, especially with wild-caught bettas
Tank jumpers
Require specialized care starting at the aquarium
Mike, male betta Rubra
King Bettas
Steel, older King Betta
Characterized by their massive size, King bettas are huge compared to normal domestic bettas. The issues that I’ve noticed from this tend to come from the addition of other types alongside the King baseline, such as Dragonscale scaling or fancy marble problems. A simple King betta seems to be extremely hardy with little in the way of fin issues. A swimming tank of a betta. This size can make them attractive pets but can cause some tension with tankmates normally outside the range of betta aggression, such as larger cleaner fish, larger snails, and all shrimp in general. A bigger betta just means a bigger mouth for them to cram tankmates down. Be wary of adding any tankmates to King betta aquariums.
Another issues I’ve noticed is the abundance of underfed, skinny King bettas shown online. These are big, meaty fish. They should be fed to reflect that size difference and cannot sustain themselves on a lower quality diet that is intended for smaller domestic bettas. They eat 3-4 times as much food as domestic bettas and do best with live or frozen supplements. This is not a lean-bodied betta type and they are naturally a bit barrel-shaped in the body. I see so many of these underfed or even emaciated because people feed them as they would a regular domestic betta but that is not the right kind of care for this fish.
Despite their size, King bettas can be fairly acrobatic and speedy. Tank decorations should be structured as for them to not injure themselves and a lid is a solid recommendation as they can and will jump. King bettas also need larger tanks than their smaller domestic counterparts. I would not keep one in a tank below a 10 gallon and the largest ones do best in 20 longs and higher.
King betta pros:
Attractive size
A literal swimming tank of a betta fish
King betta cons:
A shorter lifespan than most other domestic bettas (1-2 years)
Can become crossed with problematic lines to create genetic nightmares
Require specialized feeding and larger tanks
Will eat most betta-safe tankmates
