Aquarist Atlas
Wild Bettas · waters

The waters behind the fish

Wild bettas are creatures of specific water: a flooded rice paddy on the Chao Phraya plain, a tannin-black peat swamp in Selangor or Sumatra, a cool clear hill stream in Borneo, a seasonal Javan brook. Knowing which system a species comes from — its flow regime and, above all, its water chemistry, from neutral paddies to swamps below pH 4 — is the foundation of keeping it well. Here are the freshwater systems that shaped 78 of the 78 species in this atlas.

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Chao Phraya & central Thailand

3 species

Mainland Indochina · central Thailand

The flooded plains of the Chao Phraya, Mae Klong and Bangkok lowlands — rice paddies, irrigation ditches and still margins where the wild Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) and its central-plains relatives live. It includes the brackish coastal peat swamps of Samut Sakhon, home of the Mahachai betta (B. mahachaiensis).

The Mekong basin

5 species

Mainland Indochina · Mekong

The lower and middle Mekong and its tributaries across northeastern Thailand (Isan), Laos, Cambodia and southern Vietnam. A vast seasonal floodplain of paddies, swamps and oxbows where the emerald betta (B. smaragdina) and the eastern fighting bettas of the splendens group are found.

Peninsular Thailand & the northern Malay Peninsula

10 species

Sundaland · the isthmus and northern peninsula

The narrow isthmus and the northern Malay Peninsula — the Tapi and southern Thai drainages and the Thai–Malay border swamps. Where the peaceful betta (B. imbellis) and several pugnax-group and waseri-group mouthbrooders of clear and blackwater streams occur.

Malay Peninsula peat swamps

14 species

Sundaland · Peninsular Malaysia & Singapore

The acid blackwater peat-swamp forests of Peninsular Malaysia and historically Singapore — the North Selangor and Johor swamps. The classic home of the jewel-red coccina-group dwarfs (B. coccina, B. tussyae, B. livida, B. persephone) and the big-headed waseri-group mouthbrooders. Drainage and clearance have made several of these the most threatened bettas of all.

Sumatra

16 species

Sundaland · Sumatra (Indonesia)

The lowland blackwater and peat swamps of Sumatra — the Musi, Batang Hari and the eastern coastal swamps. A centre of coccina-group diversity (B. rutilans, B. uberis, B. burdigala) alongside the elongate bellica group and the adaptable B. edithae.

Borneo

29 species

Sundaland · Borneo (Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei)

The great island of Borneo — the Kapuas, Mahakam, Barito and Rajang basins and the swamp forests of Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan. The richest betta fauna anywhere: the Brunei beauty (B. macrostoma), the mouthbrooding unimaculata, akarensis and foerschi groups, and the tiny white-edged albimarginata and channoides of cool hill streams.

Java & the Sunda islands

1 species

Sundaland · Java

The streams and rice lands of Java and the lesser Sunda islands — the range of the spotfin mouthbrooders B. picta and B. taeniata. Smaller and more seasonal than the great Bornean swamps, these clear forest brooks hold the southernmost wild bettas.

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