[rdebonis]

Is anyone in the club interested in keeping, breeding and acquiring Wild Bettas, whether as part of, or seperate from a Species Maintenance Program? I would be interested in corresponding or meeting with anyone who is interested in Wild Bettas with an eye to acquiring, keeping and breeding them and eventually publishing our experiences in Aquatica. Much has been written about Betta Splendens and it's close relative B. Imbellis, but little is know about the rest of the Bettta family, the Wild Bettas. They are a large and fascinating family of fish ranging from Bubblenest builders to Mouth Brooders and some like the beautiful B. brownorum have been known to spawn both ways. The ability of Wild Bettas to survive in hostile environments is legend. They are found in some of the most hostile areas in the world from oxygen depleted black water swamps to remote backwater drainage areas where few fish can survive. They are found from Myanmar (Burma) in Indochina, where machine gun toting militants add to the normally enviromentally hostile areas they live in, to the remote island of Borneo, where in it's vast and unexplored interior many undiscovered forms of Wild Bettas as well as other species of fish have yet to be found. If you are interested in forming a small group of Wild Betta enthusiasts within BAS, please let me know.