About Myself

My name is Mark Tan and I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Melbourne University, Australia. My favourite hobby at the moment is breeding Bettas. I still do some deep sea fishing for Golden Snappers, Groupers, Stingrays and coastal fishing for Whiting and Barracudas. I used to play golf but since I have my bettas I am just too occupied.

My Experience with Betta

My first encounter with bettas was through my father.  I remember he used to buy for me some Betta Imbellis.  Of course I was still very young, about 12 yrs of age.  Didn't even know anything about chlorine or overfeeding! Either Dad wasn't much help or  I wasn't paying much attention.  As expected those bettas didn't last more than 2 weeks.   Of course, I did keep some bettas occasionally, but they only lasted  for a few months and then the interest kind of dissipated.  It was not until Feb1999 that I tried my hands on breeding bettas.  The first spawn resulted in 3 surviving fry while the rest died of starvation.  I stopped for a short period of time until October 1999, when I started breeding them again. This time I did some research ( thanks to Internet)  and realized my lack of knowledge.  My second spawn was fed mainly on a diet of BBS and chopped tubifex worm.   The parents of the spawn was a shortfin turquoise male and a multicolor longfin female.  The resulted was about 75 surviving fry with 30%  cambodians.  The interesting part is that ALL of them turn out to be females!   My third spawn was with 2 shortfin bettas, which resulted in a spawn of about 500 fry.  That was a big spawn which have colors ranging  from Solid Turquoise, Solid Royal Blue, and Multicolor.  Since then,  "There is no turning back".

During that time, I join a newly formed club in Yahoo  called Malaysia Betta Club. With the club, I get the chance to meet  many betta enthusiast like myself.  I was introduce to elite fighter bettas and  get the opportunity to visit a few betta farms and arenas and met lots of betta hobbyist in the process.    It was great fun listening to stories of  champion fighters that where undefeated or was soundly defeated in just 1 bite.  Names like Honkamten, Hakmorkwai, Chincoolan, Angchae and Haksaulam was mentioned to me.  They were names of famous fighter colors/bloodlines named by their owner.   It was such fascination when you realize  the amount of knowledge involved in producing a fighter that includes  choosing the parents, breeding process, feeding, training  and betting on the fish,   I believe a book can be written on this topic.  I did try my hands on breeding fighter but sad to say my best spawn are good enough to win RM30 fights.  I realized that food and environment plays an important role in breeding quality fighters.  I wasn't able to duplicate those factors thus result in mediocre fish that are only better then pet shop bettas.  I did try training a few fish for fighting in the arena, my record is 1 win 1 draw and 1 loss.   Presently, I don't train and fight  fish anymore but do visit arenas to meet up with my friends and see those elite fighters in action.

Current Focus

My current  focus is  on breeding beautiful show bettas.  I am interested in marble and butterfly patterns but most importantly my goal is produce fishes with Halfmoon and Crowntail finnage.  I will try combining my experience with fighters to produce healthy fish that maximise their true potential.  I believe that alot of HM Genos didn't become Phenos due to the lack of exercise and rest.   I can honestly say that majority of  fighters I saw in the arena displays 180 degree tail spread and are the most active healthy betta you could ever find.