Collection: Albimarginata Complex
The Albimarginata Complex
The albimarginata complex is a small group of Betta species from Kalimantan Timur (East Kalimantan) in Indonesian Borneo. Only two species are formally described, B. albimarginata and B. channoides, though several undescribed locality forms circulate in the trade. Both stay under about 4 cm and live in shallow, acidic, tannin stained forest streams over leaf litter and root tangles, typically at pH 4.0 to 6.5 and very low hardness. Unlike the splendens complex, these are paternal mouthbrooders. Eggs are caught on the male's anal fin, picked up by the female and passed to him, and he carries them for roughly 10 to 21 days depending on temperature before releasing free swimming fry. Broods are small, with ten fry counted as a good result. Displaying males are red to chocolate with a white distal band and a dark submarginal band on the unpaired fins, females plain brown. Both species can be kept in groups. Both are listed as Endangered by the IUCN because of their small ranges and ongoing loss of forest stream habitat, not because of the aquarium trade, and both are bred in captivity in reasonable numbers.
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Betta albimarginata. Restricted to the Sebuku River drainage. The unpaired fins carry a broad white distal band with a broad dark submarginal band behind it, and on the caudal that dark band runs across the full height of the fin. About 25 to 30 mm SL. Described by Kottelat and Ng in 1994.
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Betta channoides (snakehead betta). Found in the Mahakam River basin, with Melak and the nearby village of Pampang the best known collection sites. The dorsal is almost entirely red with only a thin white distal band, and on the caudal the dark submarginal band stops abruptly rather than continuing into the uppermost portion of the fin. Larger at 35 to 40 mm SL, with the blunt head that gives it its common name. Described by Kottelat and Ng in 1994.
