Gladiator betta

Care at a glance

Overview

The gladiator betta is an aggressive wild betta for a quiet, dim tank. It is hard to keep and best left to experienced keepers.

Caring for the gladiator betta

Set up a quiet tank of at least 26 gal (100 L) for a gladiator betta, with dim light and leaf litter. Use wood and plants to break up the sight lines. A tight lid is essential.

Keep the water very soft and acidic, at 72 to 81°F (22 to 27°C) and a pH of 4.0 to 6.0. Feed live and frozen foods such as bloodworm, daphnia and brine shrimp.

The gladiator betta is one of the most aggressive wild bettas. The describers found single adults spaced about a meter apart in the wild. Fish kept together in captivity fought until they had to be separated, or they would have killed each other.

Keep one fish, or a proven pair with plenty of cover, and add no tank mates or only very calm ones. It is a paternal mouthbrooder, so the male carries the eggs in his mouth. Breeding it is hard.

Good to know

Betta gladiator belongs to the Betta unimaculata group in the family Osphronemidae. Tan and Ng described it in 2005 and named it from the Latin for a fighter, because of its temper. Earlier surveys of the Maliau Basin had recorded it as Betta unimaculata before it was recognized as a species of its own. It is closest to B. ocellata of the Sabah lowlands, and the basin's isolation probably drove it to become a separate species. The largest specimen in the description measured 55.5 mm standard length. The 9 cm figure quoted by some aquarium sources is not backed by the type series. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern because the basin is protected, but it is almost never exported.

In the wild

The gladiator betta is known only from the Maliau Basin in the interior of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The basin is a near-circular plateau ringed by high ground and is now a protected conservation area. The type series came from heath forest streams with acidic water of pH 4.2 to 4.8. The only other fishes there were a small barb and a catfish.

Common questions

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