Bettas for Beginners
Presented by: Gerald Griffin
Talk Description: This is an interesting look at Betta splendens how the typical aquarist might want to keep this species. This is a general talk on Bettas and has been very well received and enjoyed by my audiences.
Speaker Bio: I first started keeping fish at the age of nine and by ten bred my first fish species Colisa lalia, followed shortly by Colisa chuna (sota), Colisa fasciata and labiosa. At the age of twelve I read All About Bettas by Walt Maurus and fell in love with wild Bettas, the only problem was that in the 1970s I could not find any living in Oklahoma. By the time I went to college I found articles on wild Bettas in the school library and joined the International Betta Congress and started corresponding with various fish keepers and found some wild Betta stocks and started collecting them and writing articles.
In college I started taking Ichthyology classes and am a trained Ichthyologist and during the course of my study managed the Ichthyology laboratory at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. During that time, I picked up a lot of information on disease and pathogens as well as the Native Fishes of North America.
Around the year 2000 I once again got hit with the Betta bug and started keeping domestics again and as soon as I did the wild Betta bug hit me again and I went crazy again collecting them. I have run over 80 tanks dedicated to a number of different fish. As I became more involved in my local fish club the Oklahoma City Aquarium Association I started keeping a variety of species and have since spawned various Barbs, African Cichlids, Killifish, Native American fish, American Cichlids, Livebearers, and a number of miscellaneous fishes including some saltwater fishes (clownfish and seahorses) however wild Bettas and Anabantoids will always be my first love and the primary fish I keep.
I am currently the Judging Board Chair of the International Betta Congress and the editor of FLARE! magazine. I am also involved in my Local Aquarium Association serving as BAP chair and the President of the Oklahoma Aquarium Association. In previous years have been their HAP and Presentations Chair. I am also the Treasurer for the American Labyrinth Fishes Association as well as the President of the Oklahoma Betta Breeders Association. I am also a board member and Secretary of FOTAS (Federation of Texas Aquarium Societies, a multistate regional organization that covers Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana) as well as the editor of the FOTAS Fish Tales Magazine.
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