Fighting Fishes

About

Fighting Fishes (Betta sp. antutabulungan) is one of many undescribed or informally-named species within a genus that now counts close to 70 recognised members. And is still growing. This particular fish hails from the Bulungan Regency of East Kalimantan in northern Indonesian Borneo, a region of dense jungle that has yielded a number of interesting betta discoveries over the years. It belongs to the Betta unimaculata complex, a group of closely related species that share a long, slender build, a large blunt head, and a rounded tail that occasionally sports a few extended rays in the centre. Like all bettas, it carries a labyrinth organ that lets it gulp air directly from the surface, an adaptation that has helped this genus colonise everything from slow forest streams to oxygen-depleted swamp environments. Temperamentally, this species sits somewhere between mellow and feisty. Males will bicker, but serious damage is uncommon when the tank has enough space and broken lines of sight. It is not well-suited to a general community setup and does best either alone or in a species-only arrangement. The reproductive biology is interesting: males are paternal mouthbrooders, holding the eggs and fry in their mouths through early development. Successfully bred in home aquaria, which is always encouraging for a species this obscure.