# What if...



## chocolatecrunch (May 21, 2010)

What if someone started releasing between 1,000-3,000 domestic bettas (like halfmoons, veiltale, double tail...etc) into the rice patties every month for 16 months? What would happen to all the wild bettas and would a new population start or would they all die off before they had a chance to breed?

I'm just wondering because I know people realesed carp into some rivers in the USA and now they are pretty much taking over. And I was thinking "what would happen if someone happened to release *human bred* bettas into their natural habitat?"

Thanks!


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## noahhill (Jul 31, 2010)

My best guess is they would breed and mix if the domestic/farm grown Betta was strong enough to survive in the wild . No I don't think it would make a new breed of Betta because the Betta we buy here in the USA came from wild stick if traced back farther enough through there family tree so to speak . Most wild Betta don't show the large fins and bright colors as the domestic breed from I know .


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## chocolatecrunch (May 21, 2010)

So what you are saying is that if a wild betta and one of the human made bettas would produce fish with the natural or "wild" gene? Hmm...So what happens when "domestic" bettas breed and don't make much contact with the wild bettas? I think that eventually the long finned, human made bettas would run out because they would breed with wild bettas and have natural looking offspring wich those bettas will carry on when they spawn with domestic fish.

I hurt my brain


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## noahhill (Jul 31, 2010)

Yeah , I be leave that the domestic traits ( long flowing fins and bright colors ) would be bred out and the wild traits would be more present in the offspring . From what resuch I have done ,the fish breeders and fish farms breed fish to get the mutated genes showing larger fins and brighter colors .

Here is a link to pics of Wild betta Splendens ( I would post the pic if I could figure out how lol) 
http://www.calypso.org.uk/Photolibr...ecies/images\Wild Betta splendens 990 168.jpg


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## chocolatecrunch (May 21, 2010)

noahhill said:


> Yeah , I be leave that the domestic traits ( long flowing fins and bright colors ) would be bred out and the wild traits would be more present in the offspring . From what resuch I have done ,the fish breeders and fish farms breed fish to get the mutated genes showing larger fins and brighter colors .
> 
> Here is a link to pics of Wild betta Splendens ( I would post the pic if I could figure out how lol)
> http://www.calypso.org.uk/Photolibr...ecies/images\Wild Betta splendens 990 168.jpg


That's what I though...Darn! Wouldn't it be cool if we could have coloful, gorgeouse, long finned bettas swimming through the rice patties? *Sigh*. THAT would be a place I would want to viset  I've seen pics of the wild betta splendens before though but I don't get why people call them "ugly"! They are actually really cute


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## noahhill (Jul 31, 2010)

I like the wild strain Betta or a Hybrid like the captive Betta Splendens + wild caught Betta Splendens . they have bright color and there fins are longer the the wild but shorter then the captive .


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

It has already happened. In places like Thailand where they fight "Siamese fighting fish", the losers are often just dumped into the nearest body of water. Its hard to find a true "wild type" betta is some places. But at soon as they are in the wild, the selective pressure reverses. the brightest colored fish are the first eaten by birds.


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## chocolatecrunch (May 21, 2010)

emc7 said:


> It has already happened. In places like Thailand where they fight "Siamese fighting fish", the losers are often just dumped into the nearest body of water. Its hard to find a true "wild type" betta is some places. But at soon as they are in the wild, the selective pressure reverses. the brightest colored fish are the first eaten by birds.


Now I can't stop thinking of an eagle eating my betta!!!


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

dont worry and eagle wouldnt touch it you have to worry about the smaller birds but it would be interesting to see a place that was that colorful haha


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