Keeping Betta Mandor

[JE47]

I have just received a pair of Betta Mandor a rarer species of the betta family and in receiving them I have decided to create a journal where I can document everything I notice or experience in keeping them. This also stems from being unable to find much of anything in the way of personal experience bout caring for this beautiful fish in captivity. Hopefully this is helpful to anyone wanting to keep wild bettas or just wanting to know more about this species.

Their current parameters are a ph of 6.5, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrate, and 10 Nitrite, temp 85 F. After acclimating the pair both began exploring their new home with both sticking close to each other understandably. While exploring the tank both attempted to eat random things the male made several attempts to eat a snail and the female tried to eat a leaf of dwarf sag. I did a first feeding of frozen bloodworms by taking a single worm in a set of planting tweezers and wiggling it around in the water the fish then quickly came and after a first sample ate quite a few worms. For appearance both male and female after two hours of acclimating had a coloring of a very light milk chocolate no visible gold or red bars on their cheek area. The male does have a blue iridescence color on the edges of all his fins with both fish having a iridescent blue rim on their eyes. At two and half hours after acclimating faint gold bars have started to appear. Eight hours of acclimating the gold bars on both male and female cheeks has become pronounced with a faint black color appearing on the edges of the male's fins just under the blue band. Last thing for this post I have seen the bettas "yawn" opening their big mouths they look very cute when they do it. Will post an update soon with pics!

[JE47]

Day Two

Second day of having these betta in my possession and I think I might need to buy a breeder box or some more hiding places. Let me explain I have been watching the fish today and the male seems to be consistently chasing the female she doesn't seem to have taken any damage but will keep a close eye on his aggression. The theory I have is that the male might be holding eggs not that I have seen them spawning but today the male has constantly been expanding and contracting his cheek pouches so... Eggs? Other than that they are still doing well. I will snag some pics and videos later tonight.

[Schuyler]

I've never heard of this species! That's really cool! 

Do you have a second tank you can move the female to so he can get a break? I've heard of females starving males because they don't give them enough time to get conditioned after a brood hatches. Separating her out may also make it easier to raise the fry. 

I'm really interested in how this goes. See if you can get some pictures

Edited June 6 by Schuyler

[JE47]

Thanks for the advice @Schuyler I do have another tank I could move her to. I actually don't think there's eggs yet I just need to create more hiding spots for the both of them. They are definitely giving me an excuse to buy some new toys...

[JE47]

Had some time today to get a few pics of the male he has just started to develop these deep ruby red bars on his cheeks they show up okay in the pics. His fins have also  developed more of black rim and the blue he does have has started to become more iridescent. The female I will try to upload some pictures tomorrow has had her gold bars on her cheeks become more shimmery and has developed dark brown vertical lines across her body. The male has also started to put together that when I come close to the tank he is most likely going to get food 😂 

Sorry for the bad photo quality will try to get better one tomorrow.

Edited June 11 by JE47

[Schuyler]

How shy are they? 

Do they come out to beg for food?

[JE47]

The female tends to hide much more than the male but both can be difficult to spot because their brown bodies blend in so well with the all the brown wood. The male will tend to come out an beg for food when I approach the tank and he is not afraid to take the bloodworms from the tweezers. Again the female is more shy and will not come out as readily to feed.

Edited June 12 by JE47

[JE47]

Here is a video link to a video I took of the male chasing the female

Sorry for the bad video quality the shaky camera, and the loud air pump in the background.

[Schuyler]

On 6/16/2024 at 11:53 AM, JE47 said:

Here is a video link to a video I took of the male chasing the female

Sorry for the bad video quality the shaky camera, and the loud air pump in the background.

Do you think it may be too bright for them? Have you consider adding some floating plants or other stuff for them to hide under?

[JE47]

I do have floating plants in there they are taking a second to fill in. Yes, the light is a little bright for them I have since turned it down to the lowest it can go and added more hiding spots. I had to order more decor for them to hide under and in but the package took its sweet time in getting to me. Thanks for the advice! 😀

[JE47]

Well in the end both male and female needed separation from each other thankfully I had another tank available for such a case. Most available articles state you can keep male and female together however I have not found this to be true. Even after adding several handfuls of java moss I have been growing out and four new caves creating many hiding spots which the female did use I realized keeping them together would not be an option. The front part of my tank has an open swimming area which the male would constantly swim in and when the female tried to use the same space he would chase her until she vanished into a hiding spot. Until all the female did was hide not even at feeding time he would chase her away from the food. I felt that I need to help her and step in. After separating them the female has started to make regular appearances to the front of the tank and seems much more relaxed not to mention able to eat with out being chased. I don't know if the male appreciates it or not but it wasn't for his sake the the separation had to happen. I will put them back together for breeding purposes but not in a permanent housing setting. I will say that though the male chased the female constantly he did not nip her fins or cause her any physical harm. I would give this warning to other people wanting to keep this species that while you can put male and female together keep an eye on them and have an extra tank handy that you can separate them into. Now for the fun part some photos I was able to snap yesterday.

Edited June 22 by JE47
Writing to fast causes word typos

[JE47]

I did forget to mention that my male loves to play in bubble stream comes up from my sponge filters. My female won't go near the bubble stream but he likes to dive into the stream get carried up and then come back down. It's quite amusing to watch 😂

[Schuyler]

Are you going to try conditioning her and introducing her bring them back together? Or were you not really looking to try and breed them?

[JE47]

Yes, the goal would be to breed them but I will attempt that in about a month. I am taking a two week trip soon and as much as I love my family I don't want them to have the task of feeding and ensuring the fry survival if I am succesful.

[JE47]

There is nothing super exciting to report for the fish right now except that I continue to feed them frozen bloodworms, live daphnia, and soon live bbs. I bought the co-op's brine shrimp hatchery but needed an airpump which should hopefully arrive by Thursday. Then I probably hatch some and get a feeding video or something.

[EricksonAquatics]

Wow, they really colored up! That male looks stunning😍

[JE47]

Thank you the male is truly stunning! I love having both of them they are very cute especially when they yawn 😄

[Schuyler]

You could put it a small bucket of aquarium water to collect mosquito larvae for them. Some killi breeders swear by them for conditioning females. Plus you get to have revenge for all those itchy bites

[JE47]

That's a great idea thanks 😄

[JE47]

Well I decided that I couldn't wait much longer and put the male and female together for an attempt at breeding. I know I said I wouldn't do this but well I guess I don't really have an excuse for not waiting. I hope I am successful in this first attempt but I am not sure I will be I have heard they can be difficult to breed but then there are like four accounts of people breeding them and some are at least a decade old so I think that this claim could be disputed. Anyways the female prior to being placed in the tank was conditioned for a week with live baby brine shrimp, live daphnia, and frozen bloodworms. I first put the female in a breeder box in the male's tank and let them  interact for about 15-20 minutes before releasing her into the tank. I should mention that with in seconds of the female being put in the breeding box the male began to deepen his coloring and after a minute or two they both had developed beautiful breeding colors. The bars on their cheeks also developed deeper coloring and a metallic like quality. I have a video and pictures the quality of both is not great so I apologize in advance.

A few photos of the female alone

Also I am going to give my bettas some names because I am getting tired of just calling them male and female. I am a fan of the Wizard of Oz and all the books L. Frank Baum wrote about Oz so I am going to call the male Oz and the female I will called Ozma after the princess of Oz. That's all for now I will hopefully have some news about the project tomorrow.

[JE47]

Well I am sad to say this has been a failure I went in to check on them both and I found Ozma wedged in a corner thought she was dead. Thankfully she wasn't but Oz had shredded her tail fin so I immediately pulled her out of the tank she is not currently sitting in a breeder box in the main tank I have that is dedicated just to her I will monitor her fins making sure the heal properly. Unsure exactly what happened here I think Ozma is and was unwilling to mate with Oz and well he didn't take no as an answer.

[JE47]

It's been a minute since I have posted anything here so I will do a quick update. Ozma is doing well her fins healed up within a few days no infections or anything for which I am super grateful. I still want to breed these bettas but I think I will order a different female to for the second attempt. For whatever reason these two are unwilling to pair unfortunate but it happens and I don't want to keep putting them together if they are unwilling to pair up. I am leaving today for a vacation so I won't be able to do much in the breeding department until I get home in a few weeks. Other than that they are both alive and healthy the favorite foods are live daphnia, live bbs, and they have begun to accept frozen bbs. Ozma was quicker at discovering that the pink cloud meant food. 😂

[JE47]

Okay its been a minute but I am going to give a little update. Both Oz and Ozma are doing great! They are still separated and I am not going to attempt to breed them together anymore. I have decided to buy another female Betta Mandor which just arrived today. I hope that with her I will be able to attempt a successful breeding pair. If the male is as ruthless to her as Ozma I will assume the male is the issue and hopefully be able to purchase a new male. However I am going to take this process one step at a time starting with acclimating the new female to the tank without the male and going from there.

[JE47]

Quick Update:

The new female is doing well she is acclimating well to her knew tank. It took her about three days to regain some coloring she has yet to regain the deep chocolate color that is a betta mandor's natural color. Ozma has tolerated the new addition well allowing the female to follow her around without any signs of aggression. I want the female to gain more coloring before I try breeding her.

[JE47]

Well it seems my new female is adjusting well she has already taken to being a little bit of a bully towards Ozma. I suppose this means she and Oz can bond over the mutual interest in bullying Ozma who has done nothing to annoy either except exist apparently. This means that Oz might be getting a new tank mate soon who shares his aggressive nature. As for Ozma I have found that I am far more attached to her than the other two so if anybody has to be rehomed at any point she will not be leaving my care. Anyways nothing more to report.