Aquabid Auctions

[nashnut]

I'm beginning to wonder just how many of the bettas on AquaBid have had hormones used on them to bulk them up as well as color them up. I like marbles and read recently that hormones are used to get some of the more difficult and uniquely patterned marbles to breed.

I bought a pair a while back. When they arrived the male looked a lot different from the original picture. They were nice and bulked up. Good looking fish. However, over the following weeks they not only showed no interest in breeding but they slowly started losing weight. Although they have the color that they had when they arrived, they have lost about 1/4 of their weight.

 

[Styx]

Good question. It's also so hard to tell, and it's not like the breeder is going to admit to it. I have a stunning female marble I bred myself, but she was the only one out of that spawn that color. I wonder if she would breed more marbles. >_>

 

[Synirr]

Call me a skeptic, but I doubt many people use hormones on their fish, especially when it comes to hobby breeders. I'd only expect that sort of thing out of commercial breeders who mass produce fish and get paid more for males, for example. It's possible their loss in weight is due to being on a different diet with you... have you asked what the breeder was feeding them? A diet of primarily fatty foods such as white worm is bound to bulk up any fish.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Since you've asked, I'll let a small cat out of the bag. Word has it that they "alter" (quote,unquote) the females to be sterile, but I've not been told how. I would assume the same for the males. They get them to be so large at such a young age and no matter how much meaty foods I feed mine just don't grow that quickly. With that said, I could be wrong about the males. But I got the information about the females straight out of the horses mouth. This could also be the reason that so many people have trouble spawning fish from overseas (pairs).

 

[supersixone]

heh.

the pair i spawned were from thailand and they spawned extremely easily. they were in the tank with the girl in the hurricane lamp for less than 24 hours before the female appeared ready to mate. i released her, and they spawned the following day. they didn't beat each other up at all and both are currently in good health.

 

[wuvmybetta]

heh.

the pair i spawned were from thailand and they spawned extremely easily. they were in the tank with the girl in the hurricane lamp for less than 24 hours. after i released her, it took approximately 28 hours for them to spawn. they didn't beat each other up at all and both are currently in good health.

True. I have seen successful spawns of Asian fish. I'm not implying that everyone does this.

 

[supersixone]

i get most of my fish from watt saenpaeng and his family. their fish are always healthy and gorgeous, and they're wonderful to deal with. i trust them enough to simply tell them what i'm looking for and let them pick the fish for me, if what i want isn't listed on aquabid. i got these that way:

 

[nashnut]

I'm thinking more in the line of unusually colored ones. There are so many lines of reds, blues, etc out there that I don't think it would pay to alter anything. I put a pair in for a week and they became best buddies. Swam everywhere together side by side. No flaring. Just so strange.

Another thought. Whatever happened to the thread that was started concerning the overseas sellers? It gave a few names of the best ones.

 

[supersixone]

what do you consider "unusual coloring"? this is the father of my spawn:

 

[nashnut]

What a beauty!!! Keep me posted on the spawn... I really would like to see the little ones. Put me in line for a pair of offspring!!!

Not him but add some more black and red to him I would then say yes.

 

[John_Nicholson]

I have no first hand info on the hormoning of bettas but as a discus breeder I can safely say that about 95% of the imported discus are hormoned. So many people have trouble with discus that they give up. Many times if they would have started with non-hormoned fish they would not have had problems. Hormone use has several negative effects. The main propblem is it destroys the liver. If make the fish prone to illness. You can do everything right and the discus will live about 18 months. A normal non-hormoned discus will live somewhere between 7 and 10 years. One type of hormone will mess up the fertility of the male and other types the fertility of the female. It is not normally the better breeders that do this. They have really nice fish and do not need to. It is the breeders with less quality that are trying to take a shortcut. I am sure that it happens with at least some of the bettas. It is very easy to get and to use. It allows you to take a $3.00 fish and make it look like a $30 fish. Don't have a clue if any of this has any bering on your issue or not.

I am lucky that we have an IBC here at least once a year. Gives us a chance to get clean fish. And besides that my middle daughter has come to LOVE the shows.

-john