melbournebetta

PS this barracks is the SHIZ - The eheim shut up and the tank is a stable table.

I have water changed about 50% maybe twice since I set it up - and probably done one quick vac on the floor otherwise.

The biggest problem is the bloody algae that grows on the black plastic irrigation, but that's more about light maintenance.

Very happy.... I have carded the kids with A4 black plastic dividers, and use 3 of the 7 bays as spawn tanks at all times... just about.

Naughty guppies sometimes end up in the back sump to grow out, they quite like it in there, I also have a java fern nursery in there too.

Verdict: It's a win for the people.

HEY!

While an artistic temperament may be to blame for my mania...

dont DENY that I'm the most fantastic amazing spectacular nonsensical frivolous contributor to any such forum that you ever did read.

I can string sentences, hell, I can macrame sentences into bad 70's versions of lomographic design sensibilities if you like, ou préférez-vous que je l'ai fait en français?

GOODNIGHT KIND SIRS.

You still aren't voting.

i was just about to retort: "Dont' call my IQ into question" ...but then realized i have yogurt in my hair

t'has cometh into my consciousness that the major majority of the afore mentioned community (dot net) may or mayhap, may-not pick up what I am indeed, putting down in most instances.

That said, and all things being equal: I would employ those that would (and those that would not) if they would please consider how incredibly boring their plain use of the english form of communications, in fact, is.

If one would consider pluralizing that which needn't be pluralized, and stand outside in 120 K gale force winds and recite the alphabet, one might begin to fathom the futility of trying to do things 'correctly' and may indeed begin to stumble upon that which isnt and is in the forefront of my mind: which... is far more interesting than an correctly strung sentence.

I do believe I've broken all of the rules, just now.

shut up, you aren't voting for photos.

Rod,

I have to echo your idea, for a long while it's been my thought that the imports are robust little dudes - while they're over in Thailand or O/S however when they come here their immune systems are introduced to a thousand new things, and they just don't have the resilience that Aussie bred fish do.

Needless to say the Aussie bred fish also don't have the enormous trauma of freighting to send a big frilly invitation to diseases, and lower the immunity.

Im a breeder, so it suits me to say this, but:

Bris, chin up - spend more, that's how it works - it's never fun (I found the body of a crispy jumper s'morning too)

Maybe we should all start investing in saratoga ....they have a longer life expectancy yeh?

x

JUST BECAUSE I HAVE AMAYSHING ENGLISH SKILLS THAT LEAVE MOST PEOPLE CHOKING IN MY ELOQUENT DUST, dosen't mean you can't post on this thread without nominiatinioningoing* (*new) some photos - so DONT FORGET MAN.

THE prizes are UN BELIEVABLE quantities of praise, affection and other such invisible meaningful things that OCCASIONALLY use capital letters completely inappropriately

Vote me.

#1

I'm still upset Razzi laughed at me when I said I wanted a tank full of fresh water seahorses.

THEY DO EXIST

....Nice purchase Dave - they're kooky as hell - where'd you get them?

-Ness

oh yes - on the IBC website (not ours!) I saw that a while back

(: ...therefore virtually impossible in Australia as we don't have IBC shows - ho well.

Yeah I wasn't suggesting that someone run IBC judging courses (as mentioned, life/business/etc)

But if Haryanto was interested, the Vic gang have a few offers he could probably resist with a Vic leg of his journey (i.e. paid talk and accommodation at an ASV meet)

Bottom line is that we don't have the ibc showz to get the accreditation up, so a fast-tracking system for accreditation (such as someone experienced) would be the only solution.

I would suggest (?)

It's a cool conversation tho, means there are enough dudes interested in Aus that we can at least have a conversation about it

Well said Fly,

....and oops, Sorry Todd! (eep)

On the judging school bit - I'd be 2402% behind that happening, as the way the judging system and accreditation works now, it's too expensive for "volunteers" to maintain or even achieve judging quals - let's face it, judges don't get paid nothin' neither.

While we all acknowledge someone as the guru of betta, she's also running a small business and having a life (one in the same?) so it's understandable that she can't do it all on her own, I'm sure she's enjoying the support network of Betta Australis.

Is she not accredited to run an IBC sanctioned 'judging school?' I mentioned this when she was in Melbs but more about the schooling and less about the IBC side of it.

I think the way it works now you have to get out to IBC shows regularly to maintain your accreditations... summinlikethat

Anyhoo - I can offer the IBC judge pony rides in the victorian hillside, and tea, I make good tea.

Any takers?

Amen to more!

someone Lea & her partner Toby (?) are currently the only IBC accredited (are their accreditations still valid?) anyway - they're our only qualified Judge/s in Australia.

Hopefully this all changes with the enthusiasm demonstrated by other states.

(:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ith_L-cwmBY

Agree.

Hey d00ds,

I'm feeling the opposite of Paul and think I'll be offering about 0.2 cents, my hands are cold and I think I have brain damage from last night, this will be the slowest post in the history of ever.

Oh well, I'm at work, it's 19 degrees outside and 12 in my shop/warehouse (bah) what else am I going to do but weigh-in

...wait... this isn't a status update, it's a thread.. right... what's the point? oh - fish.

First off international versus Local... or just fish versus fish?

The Vic Betta Group (IBC Chapter) have no distinction in the classes between locally or internationally bred, to be honest, anything locally bred is either F1 or F2 of an import anyway, and while it's not as easy as "one we prepared earlier and purchased" there's rarely much difference in quality, the clever breeders pick the good fish from their own spawns and show them....(Limited to 3 of the same colour)

Often they've been best in show or place getters....

That was my proudest moment!

There is no difference in quality, well no, that's a lie - but if you're breeding fish that are correct for the show standard, the quality is equal.... the only difference we see, is in how the fish got to the show.

Rewards and points

As we are part of the Aquarium Society of Victoria that happens to have a really cute "point" system: once you collate thousands of points, you get a toaster or something.

This acts an internal incentive within the club to keep participants showing their fish during the various table shows (lots of different species) at their ASV meets, but it also means that at our Betta meets - the VB kids can award points for:

* 1 x point for showing ANY fish that didn't get placed

* 3 x Points for first place

* 2 x points for second

* 1 x points for third

* 5 x points for best in show

* 1 x point per fish in the show that you bred

or something like that - razzi, correct me if i'm wrong.

So as a breeder, even if I've sold that fish to Jess, I still get the point.

It's an honesty system when you're benching in, but let's face it - who are we cheating?

Most of our members know who's breeding what... but if we get bigger in numbers, we won't be able to tell. It's a trust thing when you're benching in. but I think we don't really fret too much about that...

It's a point, you're really no closer to getting that toaster man.

So that's all well and good - but unless you're an ASofV member, the points don't mean anything... you get a certificate to put on ya fridge but. That's pretty amazeballs.

We have no monetary award for place getters.

We wouldn't consider isolating the Aussie bred fish and having a separate show class, while we've got a thriving club and 120+ people following us on facebook and the rest, we still only get 20-50 fish on average in our shows.

I/We might have a slightly different perspective on the imported fish you might want to show at one of our meets - YOU had to have the good judgement to choose the thing, and if you're half decent at keeping and breeding - YOU have to get the bloody thing to a.) live long enough to show at the VB day, then b.) wrap c.) raise the spawn in this crap weather.

So good luck with that. *shrug* Anyone that can keep one of these mongrels alive should get a medal as far as I'm concerned

(Can you tell I had a mass suicide in my sorority and am jaded about keeping these fish?)

Inter-state, Inter-club, Inter-course.

Bus and I had a chat a while back about how to start the cross-over with the clubs, It's a great idea!

However we're never going to get past the risk that shipping interstate is spooky - and while I trust that anyone I send them to is going to look after my fish well, they're still fragile... so you sort of have to let go of that as the shipper and just trust.

I just think it'd be ace to be able to post over a handful of fish when I know the Bris kids are going to have a meet - or even sell them to forum / BA members and ship them up in time so they can be shown. That's cool.

Maybe I shoot through a few extras as donation and they go into a raffle or get sold on the trading table or what'evs. It's kind of like spreading around my blood lines too. So once we get some frigging wraps, we can look at sharing the proverbial love.

IBC IBC IBC

Let me be brutal, and loving, and kind and all of that, but honest....

I'm lazy, and I have a gigantic ego at times - I also have crappy stock at the moment, so I'm not going to buy a good fish and send it off interstate to have it show in something that isn't IBC accredited.

is that horrible? it probably is, but im poor.

While I totally get that we are building something really awesome, and you B.A. bro's are killing yourself to get this done (and we are really excited that you are) I just haven't got the financial clout to buy and send anything up, I can't risk it.. I got no sexy fish to make sexy spawns with.

However...

You dangle an IBC acronym in front of me and I'll get all wiggily about buying fifteen fish (I'll get a loan, hell, I don't have to eat for a week) ....and I'll send them up to show, hell, I'll even get a Thai buyer to scout the best in the lands, and bag 'em and send 'em over.

(That's how they do it baby, and that's how you win.)

I still get to breed with those fish when they get back to me eventually, and if I get a spawn - its' a prize winning spawn. YO.

The Melbournites are really excited that the next logical step would be an IBC sanctioned show in Australia - and when it's on, we'll be there in force! (along with my ego)

Buy me a winner (back to that)

This harks back to the previous conversation about this topic, and I've been involved in Horse racing, Dog shows, breeding, training and all the rest of both these species.

It's the same thing.

And you know what? I can breed a horse, raise it, train it just the way I want - and have it break it's leg in a fence the day before it's big race and be $300,000 poorer, or I can drop $100,000 on one that's ready to race tomorrow.

*shrug* If it wins, I'll have a horse-spawn.

You know, even if the horse wins the melbourne cup, I'm the owner and I get all the big money (or the certificate to stick on my fridge) ...whatever - people are still going to want to know WHERE that fish-horse came from, who bred it and why it was so good at what it did. The breeder still gets the right kind of acclaim by people wanting to buy their stuff down the track... cos it wins, cos it's good.

Okay... can I have a cup of tea now?

I'd also like some chocolate.

You'se guys all know me, I'll speak my mind, and I hope it's not too abrupt or unkind, just playing honest - we're all in this wiggidy-wak fishy nerd community, and it's come along in leaps n bounds n stuff in the last few years, us VB lot have strained a few muscles trying to get it up, and the BA efforts are obvious - so it's cool we have two strong clubs - but we need so much more.

Sydney, pull your finger out!

WA - get busy

Tasmania - Where is nanna jo? I'd smuggle some halfmoons down my knickers if I knew there was someone out there that would breed them.

Hungry.

x

Yeah, while a lot of the aquabid sales SAY the fish are 3 months old, I find that hard to believe.

Along with what MT has suggested, the dragon scales I noticed, take 3-5 months to really thicken up and look good.

So I'd suggest it's got to do with the colouring development, the finnage is all there, but that really thicker mature body and sligtly fuller finnage is age. (:

HI

Welcome to the forum, I'm probably not the best-equipped person to tell you more about fishless cycling - but I'm maybe the best equipped to say HULLO.

The end

-Ness

Cool - will do it early this week.

Let me know if you want a hand with certs etc

x

Three words:

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate.

Like I said to someone - if you're good at giving instructions, you can get just about anything done!

(and nobody is going to shy away from jobs, I'll have my hand up if I can get there on friday)

Accommodation is the big sting, do you guys have any idea if there's anything cheap around Caboolture? I'd even go a hostel!

x

Oh, I was going to say; do you have a care sheet that people that might be interested in getting into betta could look at?

I'm re-developing a generic one for some LFS, if you'd like I can send you the template?

x

Oh my god guys, you've done an incredible job - Jarrod those surrounds for the placed fish are really clever, I really like that idea - packaging brain = brilliant!

If I am able to get up there I'll have to make my own VIP tag! TEE HEE

Will you be selling many of the fish that come in? How will all of that work?

I have to admit, it's a bit of an incentive to get up there, if there's a whole bunch of new bloodlines in the country!

It's been a great discussion - I have to commend this forum's overall temperament again - I appreciate that we can all share an idea or opinion and have it discussed with some diplomacy - some of those other betta forums out there (international) are full of egos, and every thread seems to spin off into firey name-calling (boring) .....and really great to get a summary of the show scene from Graeme, thanks for that, I didn't know much of it!

I guess we're all busting a gut to get the scene up and share with people how fantastic these fish are - I guess that's the joy and responsibility when you are so passionate about something, Betta Australis get a standing ovation from me, while I'm at work, alone, in the shop, clapping....

Ehhem...

Time to check my roster and look into flights methinketh... dus anyone need a mural done in QLD ...?

(;

Hi Julie from Brisbane!

Haven't you fallen into exactly the right forum for your new obsession sorry, I mean "Hobby"

Welcome to the forum - there's a buzzing Brisbane scene and some good local breeders around - so you won't be short of choice.

All the best, have a good search around and ask as many questions as you can think of!

-Ness

MT - yeah thats a pretty healthy attitude - god knows all mu show winners (AND LOOSERS) get a dip in the spawn tank - it's nice to say in a spawn log that a fish won best in show or sommin'

Yeah Vic betta operate under the AS of V show rules - and every fish exhibited gets a point, every fish bred by that exhibitor gets another point, and even if I show another breeder's fish - THAT breeder gets a point!

All the points add up to goods you can claim like toasters, plasma screen TVs etc.

I'm saving up all my points so I can get a Jacuzzi

x

Hey Chi,

Certainly no hard feelings felt - this is the joy of Ausaqua, we all agree we're entitled to ask delicate questions and we all have opinions! ......I'm just pointing out how normal shows run internationally.

The betta splendens have been in and out of fashion in Australia for a long time, while I can't give you a concise history of the breed in the country - from what I understand of the Victorian scene, in the 70's there were plenty of splendens, (VT / CT) and only a rare few halfmoons and very few plakats. They had a reputation for being delicate to import and often weren't bothered with by retailers and importers for this reason (in fact just about 90% of the females imported would die in transit, this holds true to today - that they are the most volatile of the splenden varieties to transit) ...just ask Coburg Aquarium.

About 1998 when I got my first veil tails I was searching for the illusive halfmoons, and it wasn't until 2008 that I actually found anything remotely similar (delta) in a pet store, and I have to say it wasn't until 2010 that I noticed any Victorian LFS had a halfmoon or giant variety on the shelves.

Still to this day they are few and far between - There is a reason someone's store is infamous around the fish keeping people, and the betta nerds - she's one of the VERY FEW people dedicated to quality and supplies a reliable quantity of these fish.

Not to mention she's specialized enough to be able to keep them alive after they arrive.... this strikes AWE in the hearts of old professionals at the Aquarium Society of Victoria.

Second consideration about the breeder/exhibitor point.... have a close look around (: who actually breeds, keeps and shows around you? ...nobody?

We have a vibrant showing community, but even then we can only justify 4 meets per year, we get between 10 - 15 people coming... and if we were only able to show what had been bred locally by our members - there would be no show.

Last Vic betta meet there was only ONE fish that was bred in Australia.... amongst 40 entries... that's pretty full on.

While it'd be nice to have a class dedicated to Aussie bred or Breeder/Exhibitor classes - it's just not viable. Clubs are rewarding breeder/exhibitors with incentives, but there's not much more we can do.

We are working our nut crackers off getting people interested in these fish again, getting the scene together, Vic betta have been operating for over 12 months (is it two?) and Betta Australis are working on the northern scene... it's hard!

Boo Hoo

My point is, you look around you - any breed shows (fish / cats / dogs / horses / bla bla) while some breeders show to illustrate the skill they have in the spawn tank, quite often people have stock in the show that they have bought.

I don't think this is cheating, nor any less credible to be honest - you still need to select that show winner.

In Thailand the corporate types see it as promoting the industry as the breeders strive to be chosen, they do what they are good at - and breed the fish.

The corporates do what they are good at - and throw money at stuff - they buy the best ones, and they need to choose good ones to win, right? so it's about knowing the breed standards too.

Anyway... this is totally ranty - point is that we need support in shows, cubs need energy and fish need water.

The end.

xx

.

Chi,

This same topic came up at our last VB meet, and while I wish I was a bit more ~fluid~ in the financial department to purchase something worth showing, ship it to melbourne, out to the show, and then back to me (if it survives!)

I just don't have any showstoppers in my tanks at the moment... so I won't be showing/participating, but I will be trying to get up there for the show if I can (I'm dollar poor but not time poor!! ....hmm maybe there's a correlation?)

However, on the topic of locally bred (breeder=shower) versus purchased fish (shower bought a good fish, didn't breed it) Is actually standard practice in all the big betta shows... infact all fish shows - dog shows, horse shows.. hmm...

Preecha (Thailand) is one of the 'buyers' for many international exhibitors that want to "support" betta breeding, the show scene and the styles of fish that are out in the world - but don't want to get involved with the breeding.

So they just buy them... and show them... and win.

It's a bit of a skewiff way of doing things, but there are few shows that actually actively reward the exhibitor for actually breeding the fish.

Now that I think of it, it's a much easier way of doing things, what I wouldn't give for a barracks full of excellent show fish that I just buy up before a VB meet... (oh wait - I'd still miss out on the VB awarded breeder points.)

I guess at this stage its just good that there is something like a betta show scene developing in Australia - lord knows the respective (active) states have been working our boobies off to get this scene up and running.

What's it been? 2ish years, boys? ...since we started voicing things like "IBC sanctioned shows" and promoting the craft of breeding these fish?

Anyway - I'm eyes on the thread, quiet but interested.

Sad that I'm not involved (we all know I love being a show pony) but perhaps I can come up there and do a little bit of interpretative dance between water changes.

x

that soundtrack!

....personally I see teal or turquoise, not as yet blue.

I also think that sometimes the green is present in turq/teal fish when there's a bit of red underneath that affects the way the colour reflects.

So hard to tell - you aren't going mad.. it's a confusing colour!

Especially when it's bloody green bodied, and blue finned ...is he really black on the edges of the tail ? it's a very sexy gradation of colour.

They're looking great Bus, keep lids on the little tackers! they god some skillz

White fish can jump?

(ooohoOOooo man cleavage)

Anyway - nice work!

My turq butterfly would always jump for his food like this - a good 3 cms out of the water, even when he was toothless and finless and 100 years old he still got out of the water for his dinner.

x Ness