Betta Ruttilans Is A Bubblenest Builder

The two B.rutttilans that I got from Norbert Neugebauer at the Spring Conference in Alzey were unfortunately 2 males. I therefore passed one to Juergen Schmidt as we had no female for this species and no way of obtaining any easily.

It was soon obvious that B.ruttilans is rather a ruffian who shows no respect for a fully-grown Betta coccina or B.tussyae with overall lengths of 6 cms!

Interestingly, when B.ruttilans is aggressive, he shows no stripes as occurs with B.coccina or B.tussyae or even B. cf. brownorum 'Kubu', but remains an overall dark red.

In a community aquarium with B.coccina and B.cf. brownorum 'Kubu', but with no female of his own, he built a bubblenest. It was under a leaf and had a diameter of about 2.5 cm, with about 3-4 layers of bubbles. One of the female B. cf. brownorum 'Kubu' showed the typical stripes of the bubblenest building fighting fish when she was courted by the B.ruttilans male, but she fled after a time of this unwelcome attention. The courtship seems much more turbulent than with the other small slim fighting-fish. The nearest comparison would be with B.persephone. Maybe that is why so many cross-breedings go wrong.

Because of these few but significant experiences, I put the fighting fish which is known as Betta ruttilans (but there are mixed opinions about its status!) rather nearer to B.persephone and B.brownorum which are more or less similar in their breeding pattern. So far my male has achieved a total length of 4.5 cm.

REPRODUCED WITH THANKS FROM 'DER MAKROPODE'