An emerald in the ruff

[Synirr]

I was running out of almost every single kind of fish food I use, so today I made a trip to the LFS... instead of the normal veils and a few crowntails, they had two BEAUTIFUL black and white marble plakats (one ST & one DT) and one teeny tiny Betta smaragdina!! It's a good thing I only brought enough cash with me to buy the food I needed, because I guarantee you I would have walked out with at least two of those beauties.
Now I realise that I shouldn't buy the plakats because I'll probably see something I'll like even better at the upcoming betta show, but mark my words, that smaragdina is MINE tomorrow!!

 

[Elise]

Ooh, how cool. If I was you, I would have bought both the marbles....oh I'd love to breed marbles, especially blk/wht. THat's a lucky find. I thought I was lucky because I found some HM purpleish red ones at my LFS, but they wanted $13...which I so didn't have.

 

[Kiarra]

Smaragdina! I'm SO unbelievably jealous.

 

[Mariah]

Whats a Smaragdina?

 

[Kiarra]

Another species of Betta. The ones we commonly refer to as "Bettas" are actually the species Betta splendens. There are many other varieties under that genus.

 

[Synirr]

It's a shame she didn't have a female to go with him, but maybe she can order one in... she said her supplier almost never has them. Expect pictures tomorrow unless someone snags him before I get there (which I doubt, since practically no one in this small town would recognise what's special about the little guy)

 

[yeeviabetta]

You suppose to get it and maybe some here would like to have the pair. How much are they? Go get them all tomorrow.

 

[Synirr]

I think he was $7... something like that. They only have the one, and I'm going to pick him up RIGHT NOW

 

[Synirr]

Got him!
I'm not that knowledgeable about wild species yet, so maybe one of you can tell me if he really is Betta smaragdina? My LFS owner just refered to him as an "emerald betta," which is the common name for smaragdina, but there's always a possibility she got it wrong... but for $8, he can be a shimmery plakat for all I care!
He's a spunky little guy, obviously very young (small,) and has already eaten some bloodworms and micro-pellets after only being in his tank for 15 minutes. Seems very healthy

 

[slamster17]

wonderful looking plakat, but i do not believe that it is smaragdina. partially because he looks copper unless it is your flash and i know that smarag's arent all that coppery. the other biggest giveaway that he isnt smaragdina or at least not pure smarga is that he doesnt have green gill plates. he could very well be a splendens imbellis or splendens smaragdina hybrid tho. very pretty fish.

here are some pics of true smaragdina:

 

[Synirr]

wonderful looking plakat, but i do not believe that it is smaragdina. partially because he looks copper unless it is your flash and i know that smarag's arent all that coppery. the other biggest giveaway that he isnt smaragdina or at least not pure smarga is that he doesnt have green gill plates. he could very well be a splendens imbellis or splendens smaragdina hybrid tho. very pretty fish.

here are some pics of true smaragdina:

Yeah, I didn't think he looked much like the pics of smaragdina I've seen, colour wise, but I figured it might just be because he's so young
The copper colour makes it impossible to see the gill plates, but his body/head shape doesn't look exactly "right" to me, which is why I think he's at least hybrid with some wild species... who knows.

 

[slamster17]

yea, he deffinately has a splendens nose, the only person that knows for sure what he is is the person that bred him, im sure if BKK finds this he may be able to help you identify any wild in him better.

 

[wuvmybetta]

wow, he's really,really nice but he looks imbellis to me

 

[cation]

Looks like imbellis to me, too. Beautiful, beautiful fish!

 

[Synirr]

Oh well... whatever he is, he was worth $8

He's very active and interesting to watch