BettaHistory

With the influence of different cultural atmospheres of human beings, the development of Betta has two completely different stages. . As early as the 18th century, residents of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sumatra and other countries found traces of fighting fish in ponds, swamps and other waters scattered with dead leaves. The wild betta fish do not have bright and colorful appearance, but their inherent brave and aggressive personality has attracted great interest from local residents. After hard fishing and hunting, two male betta fish were placed in the same vessel and watched as they stretched their fins, turned out their gill covers, shook their bodies, launched attacks, and waited for an opportunity to bite each other. People's heartstrings, watching betta fighting has not only become a way of leisure and entertainment for local residents, but has gradually evolved from a recreational game to a gambling behavior, and this very interesting activity has also given these *fishing and hunting for a living. Residents have endowed great wealth, and high stakes have become one of the economic sources that local residents are competing for. Gradually with the spread and development of Douyu competition, this activity gradually began to become popular in all social strata, from ordinary people to the ruling class, Douyu became the favorite of all people in Southeast Asian countries, and its development also reached the first A peak; it was not until the middle and late 18th century that this activity spread to the West, and then it was widely favored by European enthusiasts. For Europeans who paid attention to aesthetic taste, they focused more on researching and cultivating the changing fin and shape of betta fish. Bright red body color. From then on, Douyu began to change the fate of fighting duels, changing the way of cultivation that is often oriented towards strong physique and combat effectiveness, and entered a new stage of development. After people's unremitting efforts, the display-type betta came into being. They have changed from the gray and dark tones of the past, bright and eye-catching body color, and various fin shapes, making them a fish species with high ornamental value, and also become ornamental fish lovers. My favorite new warrior.

Origin of Betta

These four different natural types of Chinese Betta also have their main distribution areas, and two types overlap place of distribution.

The round-tailed betta is mainly distributed in the north of the Yangtze River in China, and its traces can be found in Heilongjiang and Xinjiang in the north. imported from the mainland). The red and blue fork-tailed betta are mainly distributed in the south of the Yangtze River in China, and the southernmost reaches the central region of Vietnam on the Indo-China Peninsula. Therefore, the Yangtze River Basin, as the natural boundary between the round-tailed betta and the red and blue fork-tailed betta, is actually the overlapping distribution area of these two bettas. Although some people have found traces of round-tailed betta fish in the Pearl River Basin, there is still suspense whether it is natural distribution or artificial introduction.

The distribution area of Hong Kong black fork-tailed betta fish is centered on the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province, eastward to the western part of Fujian, northward to southern Jiangxi, and westward to Qinzhou and Fang in the south of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In the city and Shangsi area, traces of it have been found. Hong Kong black forktail betta was first collected by Hong Kong ichthyologist Lin Zhao in the early 1980s in Hong Kong. At that time, he believed that Hong Kong black and Yuehei were the same species. Hongkong betta was first officially named after the Latin name of Macropodus Hongkongensis, which was first used by German ichthyologists Freyhof and Herder in their article in 2002 (Freyhof, J & Herder, F 2002). The vast majority of Hong Kong and Heilongjiang live in relatively closed mountain streams and streams. Because of the different and relatively closed habitats, many local phenotypes with obvious differences have been differentiated. The southern part of the distribution area of Hong Kong Heilongjiang is the distribution area of Pucha, but Hongkong Hei mainly breeds in mountain streams, while Pucha mainly lives in paddy fields and streams, and they show complementary natural habitats in the same area. state.

The Vietnamese black fork-tailed betta, as the name suggests, is mainly distributed in Vietnam, from southern Vietnam to northern Vietnam; Debao, Jingxi, Dawei and Dabao in the southwest of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region bordering Vietnam. Xin and other karst plateaus and plateaus have also found darker traces in the past two years. They show the unique characteristics of the more black local type in phenotype, so Chinese fighting fish players also give them a unique regional strain name - "Zhuangjia Heicha" (referred to as "Zhuanghei"). The discovery of the black fork of the Zhuang family confirmed for the first time that Yuehei is also distributed in China. Therefore, the four types of fighting fish of the genus Macropodus are called "Chinese fighting fish", which is worthy of the name.

The distribution area of the black fork of the Zhuang family is also the representative of a fine strain among the red and blue fork-tailed betta fish, the distribution area of the "Zhuang family fork". The coincidence of their distribution in the wild also seems to make There was a genetic intersection between them in ancient times. Therefore, it seems that some characteristics of Zhuangjiacha also can be seen in Zhuangjiaheicha, such as showing different characteristics from Vietnam's blacktail betta in other places in its juvenile, such as fuzzy blue spots on the gill cover, There are shallower head lines and even body lines; similarly, the body of Zhuangjiacha also shows some unique characteristics that are biased towards the phenotype of Zhuangjia black fork, which is obviously different from the red and blue fork-tailed bettas in other regions. It is characterized by a slender body, a wide tail, and a cool body color.

The common physical characteristics of the four Chinese betta fish are: the adult fish is about seven or eight centimeters to ten centimeters in length, roughly oval in shape , laterally flat, the caudal peduncle is not obvious; there are flap-shaped auxiliary respiratory organs in the upper gill cavity to help them inhale oxygen on the water surface; pelvic fins, the first fin ray is elongated and filamentous, also known as brooches; dorsal fins, anal fins, caudal fins Obvious; males are brighter and females are darker.

The specific distinction is mainly in the caudal fin, body stripes and operculum. First of all, from the point of view of the caudal fin, the round-tailed betta can be distinguished from the other three categories.

The round-tailed betta (hereinafter referred to as "round-tailed" unless there are special needs), as the name suggests, its tail is round, the opercular blue spots are more obvious, and the dorsal and anal fins are longer.

The tail fins of the other three betta fish are all forked, and the upper and lower lobes are elongated, so they are called "fork-tailed betta fish". Compared with the other two black fork-tailed betta fish, the most obvious feature is that it has bright red and blue stripes on the side of the body, and the length of the body and caudal fin is slightly shorter on average than the other two black Fork-tailed Betta, the tail spread is also slightly narrower than that of the two black fork-tailed Bettas, and the blue spots on the gill cover are conspicuous.

Hong Kong black fork tail fish is also called Hong Kong betta, Latin abbreviation HK (hereafter referred to as Hong Kong black if there is no special need), Vietnam black fork tail betta is also called red fin betta, Latin abbreviation SPE (hereinafter referred to as "Yue Hei" if there is no special need), both in natural state, the body color is dark brown or dark blue, light black, etc., the body is slender, the fork-shaped caudal fin is very long, And the tail is also very wide. Compared with the two, the main feature is that the former has a conspicuous blue spot on both sides of the head, and brown spots are scattered on the top of the head and the front back, while the latter has no conspicuous blue spot, no body lines and brown spots. The comb-shaped scales are clean and smooth.

Bettaspecies

1. Red and blue fork tail betta (Chinese betta , Paradise fish, Tang Jinpi, silk thread drag, side skin flash) Macropodus opercularis (L.), 1758 - widely distributed in South China (including Hong Kong), Taiwan, Vietnam, generally known as Pucha.

2. Betta (Chinese betta) Macropodus ocellatus Cantor, 1842 - distributed in North China (Shanghai and the provinces north of the Yangtze River).

3. Macropodus spechti Schreitmuller, Vietnam black fork-tailed betta (Vietnamese black), 1936 - distributed on the border of Vietnam and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

4. Hong Kong black fork tail fish (HK) Macropodus hongkongensis Freyhof & Herder, 2002 - distributed in Hong Kong, Fujian, Guangdong Province, eastern Guangxi. (Image credit: cfp)