Hunt for Betta Persephone

29 Nov 2008
Hunt for Betta Persephone

The search is finally over. The most elusive betta that I have been searching for the last 3 years. There are 2 strains that are about 100km apart. They are both critically endangered from internet journals. I can confirm that this is a true statement base on my field trips to both the locations.

The Air Hitam strain is the most critically endangered of the two species and there maybe very little or not much left of them. Internet sources have brought in the collectors from the aquarium trade and hobbyist to this location

The Pagoh/Muar strain is next on the list with habitat cleared for oil palm and the red soil.

Happy that now I have the fish in hand. This is the most difficult fish to scoop and my equipment failure have failed to catch this fish in my net. With a borrowed net I manage to scoop 2 male adult fish. The biotope is full of leaf litter and the ground is hard soil even with the water puddles. There are bellica, rasboras, and channa living together with persephones. In the 3.5 hours that we were there, only manage 10 specimen mostly males. Very encouraging.

Persephone in hand

Biotope

See the leaf litter?

The periphery of the biotope is at most 20m away

Sad picture of man's greed.