A Visit to a Pair of California Betta Breeders ... "Majestic Bettas."

By Gene A. Lucas g.a.lucas@worldnet.att.com

Originally Published:

FAMA Magazine

February 2004

Vol. 27 - No. 2 - Pg. 88

Did you realize you could visit Southeast Asian Betta breeders without leaving the United States? Well, you can. I found that out in the summer of 2003 when I accompanied good friend Dave Ford (a former International Betta Congress year-end champion) to a home in Irvine, California, and we did it.

Dave had communicated with two brothers out there via AquaBid. Their Internet address is:

Majesticbettas.com

and they have what looks like a budding, successful Betta breeding business. We were in California for another purpose but figured it would be worth the hour or so drive from Del Mar to Irvine if what they had was anything like what they were showing on AquaBid. It turned out that we were anything but disappointed.

We arrived at the beautiful home of a Vietnamese family on a bright, sunny day, which put us in a good frame of mind to start with; actually, no problem for either of us if we are off to look at Bettas. After introductions all around, we got down to the business of seeing their fishroom and Bettas. I'll start this by telling a little about the brothers, then describe their fish operation.

The brothers are Calvin and Loc Pham who, like many of their countrymen, moved to the United States in the aftermath of the ill-fated war in Vietnam. But, also like many of their countrymen, they were resilient, adapted well to their new country, got themselves well educated and held down excellent, presumably, well paying jobs. Calvin went to the University of California at Irvine and now works in network engineering at Northrop/Grumman. Loc is a network analyst with Cal State Fullerton in the South Orange Community College district. Clearly, they didn't get into the Betta business for lack of other opportunities.

Loc is single and Calvin is married and has a young family. Their main fishroom is one being developed in Calvin's home. Where it goes from here depends on how things work out with the Bettas. They both have an intense interest at this time. One of them told me that he had Bettas when he was only six years old and they have had many years of experience with them. Most of it was with typical fish shop Bettas and, in response to one of my questions, they said they were aware of fish fights in small towns in their home country.

Their recent increased interest developed after they observed Bettas that were being offered for sale on the Internet. While online, they also learned of the International Betta Congress (IBC) and now hold memberships in both the IBC and the Los Angeles Bettas Society (LABS). They have been involved seriously for about two and a half years and have been selling Bettas, mostly through the Internet auctions, for about half of that time.

Their favorite Betta seems to be the Half Moons, no matter which color. They like the super-sized fins. While "All Colors" cover a lot of ground, and they had Bettas of many different color types, they seemed to be concentrating most on yellows and oranges when we were there. We saw many excellent fish of those colors in both single and double-tail versions and I anticipate seeing some really nice ones as they progress. They have not been showing thus far but are thinking about giving it a try as they get more and better fish. From what we could see they shouldn't be too far off.

Whenever I find anyone producing beautiful Bettas, I like to find out how they are doing it. (Perhaps, in hopes that I could do it myself someday!) They were happy to answer all my questions and it turned out that they don't do anything noticeably different than I do, they just do it a lot better. I have provided several pictures so I'll blend my descriptions of what they do with comments about what you see.

Photo #1: Loc and Calvin Pham, Vietnamese brothers in Irvine, California, who are the personification of:

Majesticbettas.com

The brothers took their long-time, casual hobby and, stimulated by the sight of some fantastic modern Bettas on the Internet, are lifting that interest to another level.

Photo #2: Some male Bettas in plastic boxes on a shelf in the Pham's fishroom. These boxes are the increasingly popular "Beanie-Baby" boxes converted to homes for Bettas. They are clear plastic and flat-sided which allows a much better view of the fish and also has the advantage of being vastly superior for taking pictures of them. They are lightweight, relatively inexpensive, take up less room on shelves and they aren't as likely to explode into a mass of shards if you drop them on a concrete floor. They are said to have a 56 oz. capacity which makes them approximately equal to a half-gallon jar. I might add that they are becoming increasingly popular for Betta shows.

Photo #3: Another view of the fish boxes with a better look at another row of shelves in the background. They fit nearly perfectly on the flat-sided surface of a two by four and they can be spaced just wide enough apart to slip a card between them. Collectively, they weigh considerably less than a comparable number of glass jars even though the water weighs the same. Strong strings are strung tightly from end support to end support to prevent people from inadvertently knocking them off. The boxes may allow slightly more evaporation since they are entirely open at the top and some who use them have said they are not as easy to clean. I'd say they have more positives than negatives and would recommend them to new Betta keepers.

Photo #4: A better overall view of the shelving, which is being newly constructed. The vertical space between shelves seems excessive but is a design in development. It could allow the installation of light fixtures over the boxes or, more likely, some kind of drip system (for water changing) underneath. Obviously, the expense for building materials could be kept down if nothing more than two by fours serves the purpose.

Photo #5: Calvin in front of a bank of spawning and rearing tanks. They had only five and ten gallon tanks in the new fishroom but I think they had larger rearing tanks elsewhere. They said they set up their spawns in five gallon tanks in what sounded like a routine manner. They prepare the tank two days ahead with salt (at the rate of 1 tsp/gallon) and dechlorinating chemical. A heater is included to raise the temperature to 80¡F.