Attempting to Artificially Hatch Betta macrostoma

Marble Musings Part One:

The Transposon Hypothesis

Do Some Writing!

Working with Live

Foods: Microworms
FLARE! 1
 IBC Board Members & Committee Chairs
Executive Board
President Gerald Griffin president@ibcbettas.org
Vice President Peter Bärwald vp@ibcbettas.org
Secretary Jamie Stine secretary@ibcbettas.org
Treasurer Stacy Fenhaus treasurer@ibcbettas.org
Judging Board Sarawut Korsoongsak jbchair@ibcbettas.org
Member-at-Large Liz Hahn ebmember1@ibcbettas.org
Member-at-Large Luis Navarro ebmember2@ibcbettas.org
Member-at-Large Mike Cuaresma ebmember3@ibcbettas.org
Area 1 Member-at-Large Phil Dorr area1member@ibcbettas.org
Area 2 Member-at-Large Sabrina Dichne area2member@ibcbettas.org
Area 3 Member-at-large Wang Zuo Wei area3member@ibcbettas.org
Area 6 Member-at-Large Francis Dy Chua area6member@ibcbettas.org
Area 7 Member-at-Large Jarrod Nielsen area7member@ibcbettas.org
All Executive Board Members ebmembers@ibcbettas.org
Judging Board
Judging Board Chairs Sarawut Korsoongsak, David Spector Vice-Chair jbchair@ibcbettas.org
Certification Kevin Sim, Lee Yen Leong for overall Certification certification@ibcbettas.org
Sarawut Korsoongsak, Dominikus Ferdinand, Willy Choong Pei
Standards standards@ibcbettas.org
Tong
Training Kevin Sim, Hermanus Haryanto training@ibcbettas.org
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Registrar registrar@ibcbettas.org
up
Area 1 JB Representative Sam Tse representatives@ibcbettas.org
Area 2 JB Representative Yvan Perre, backup Sabrina Dichne representatives@ibcbettas.org
Area 3 JB Representative Hiroki Ishizu representatives@ibcbettas.org
Area 6 JB Representative Hermanus Haryanto representatives@ibcbettas.org
Area 7 JB Representative Michael Chang representatives@ibcbettas.org
Executive Board JB executiveboardrep@ibcbettas.
Sabrine Dichne
Representative org
All Judging Board Members judgingboard@ibcbettas.org
Committee Chairs
Archives Sally Van Camp archives@ibcbettas.org
Awards Gerald Griffin president@ibcbettas.org
Betta Pals - Area 1 Karen Mac Auley bettapals@ibcbettas.org
Betta Pals - Area 2 Peter Bärwald pb@nicebetta.de
Betta Pals - Area 7 Jarrod Nielsen bettapalsarea7@ibcbettas.org
Chapters Sally Van Camp chapters@ibcbettas.org
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Finance Stacy Fenhaus finance@ibcbettas.org
FLARE! Editor Jarrod Nielsen flareeditor@ibcbettas.org
Marketing Peter Bärwald marketing@ibcbettas.org
Membership Stacy Fenhaus membership@ibcbettas.org
Nomenclature Gene A. Lucas nomenclature@ibcbettas.org
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Research and Grants Leo Buss research@ibcbettas.org
Sales Kayla Griffin sales@ibcbettas.org
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FLARE! 2
 On the cover
Opaque White Pair
photographed by Karen MacAuley
Cover Design: Gerald Griffin
About Karen MacAuley:
This picture was taken with a Pana-
sonic Lumix DMC-Tz4 camera on
macro and force flash. Karen is a
former IBC Vice-President and has a
reputation for top notch Bettas. This
pair won first place in a California
show and is the product of a hard
work by Karen.

Columns Show Info IBC

4 Editor’s Message 22 Show Info 2 Board Members and
Committee Chairs
5 President’s Message 22 IBC Financial Report
Gerald Griffin 24 EB Minutes
35 IBC Code of Ethics
Articles
6 Attempting to Artificially We need You!
Hatch Betta macrostoma
Missina Burcaw
We need people who
can write articles, take
9 Marble Musings Part One: pictures and who can
The Transposon Hypothesis help edit. We need
Dr. Leo Buss people who can cre-
ate columns, cartoons
12 Do Some Writing or any other content
Greg Steeves you might want to see
in future FLARE!s. This
is your organization.
15 Working with Live Foods:
Microworms If you can dedicate a
Denny Rogers few hours a week or a
few hours a month and
want to contribute to
18 FLARE! Flashback!
FLARE! then contact
The Old Windbag Cannot
Put Out the Fire of Youth me at FlareEditor@IBCBettas.org to join the FLARE! Commit-
John Williams tee. If FLARE! is not your thing we have other committees that
could use your help as well. If you are willing to help with
other committees then contact Volunteers@IBCBettas.org
FLARE! 3

Hello IBC Members!
By this point you have probably noticed that the first of the missing
FLARE!s was published. This is the Second of the missing FLARE!s and
will be followed shortly by the third. FLARE! 41-4 might follow about a
week after. At that point we will be at the point of last year’s California
Convention. In order to be caught up the FLARE! Team will have to
produce two more issues. The following two issues might be a little late
but will catch us up to end of 2018. I appreciate your patience in the
matter and hope you enjoy the FLARE!s as they come out.
Gerald Griffin
Interim FLARE! Editor
FLARE! Editorial Team
Peter Bärwald, Stacy Fenhaus, Kayla Griffin, Luis Navarro, Jarrod Nielsen,
Claire Pavia, Larissa Williams, Valaree Baker.
IBC Membership Dues
$20 Individual
$22 Family
$14 Junior (16 yrs. & Under)
$50 Corresponding (fish hobby organizations and commercial
entities)
$500 Lifetime Membership (for individuals and families only)
FLARE! 4
Volume 51 Issue 2
FLARE! Is the official quarterly publication of
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president’s message following FLARE!s will move a lot quicker as I
learn what has to be done and become more
efficient at using the software and of actually
performing the Editing. Our current team
is actually quite dedicated and they are also
becoming more efficient. So, with any luck,
you should be reading your missing FLARE!s
relatively soon.

On to other Betta News. As of now you may

have heard that the 2019 Convention will be
Gerald Griffin in Dallas and Kayla and I will be the chairs.
IBC President
Also joining us will be Lone Star Bettas and
the North Texas Betta Society. Our theme is
We now have the first FLARE! behind us and going to be Retro. The package price of $150
have 5 more to go before we are caught up. and will cover all but the Thursday night
One of the discussions was that we could meal. In our discussions we have decided
have double issues. I was personally against the price of the Convention Packages were
that as I feel that our members do deserve to getting out of hand and we believe we can
have a quarterly FLARE! and not a semi-annu- make more by offering more at a lower price.
ally FLARE!. The biggest obstacles to creating I guess we will see how this plays out but it is
FLARE! is content and time. Both of which worth a shot.
are in short supply. As many of you know I
work full time as a Chemistry Teacher, but I Also on the horizon, we are seeing activity
also have many other things I do outside of building in Area 4, with it’s first official IBC
the IBC. Each thing that we do takes time show. We hope we will see a lot more out of
away from the hobbies we enjoy so much. Area 4 in the near future. We are also begin-
This is true for all of the officers in the IBC and ning to see some activity again in Area 5.
the members of the FLARE! Committee. That is all the news for now. Now to get back
to work on the next FLARE!
The first FLARE! I completed took many,
many hours to complete. That FLARE! went Until Next Time!
through over a dozen edits and in the end
content was pulled because of editing. The Same Betta Time! Same Betta Channel!

FLARE! 5
 Attempting to Artificially
Hatch Betta macrostoma
Article and Photos
By Missina Burcaw
W
hen I was a kid and just starting out in the
wonderful world of betta breeding, I saved
up my money and purchased a book from
the pet store called “Simaese Fighting Fish” by Gene
Lucas. Inside that book I found out that Betta splen-
dens were not the only bettas to be kept in captivity
and fell deeply in love with one species in particular:
Betta macrostoma. Sadly it would be many years before
I was able to own a pair of these magnificent looking
fish, because back then they were going for over $1000
a pair on aquabid! So I raised other species of wild
Bettas: pugnax, bellica, simplex, falx, rubra, unimacu-
lata, and more. Then at the beginning of this year a
few friends of mine decided that I should become a
macrostoma owner and to make a long story short, I
drove 10 minutes down the road and then returned
home with a cooler that contained two females and
one male macrostoma. Over the next few months I
watched as the male ate spawn after spawn. In despera-
tion I decided to strip him and artificially hatch the
eggs. What follows is my attempt to do just that.
Breeding setup:
I set up a 20 gallon long tank with a sponge filter. The
sides, back and bottom were spray painted and the
tank had drift wood, almond leaves, and clay pots for
hides. The pair was fed a mixture of Ken’s beef heart
FLARE! 6
flake food, frozen blood worms, brine shrimp, and my-
sis shrimp, and sometimes given betta pellets. The tank
lights were on a timer and on for about 8.5 hours a day.
The water in this tank is almost all RO/DI water. The
tank is not temperature controlled and is in my garage,
but the tank tends to stay around 77 to 80°F, the pH of
the tank is around 6.5 but changes with water changes
as the RO water is about 7.5 when I add it to the tank.
The GH of the tank is 0 and the KH is 30.
Stripping the Male:
My pair spawns basically every two to three weeks.
Once the pair had spawned, I used a small glass dish
filled with clean RO/DI water, toothpick,wet wash
cloth, and a large net. I scooped the male out of the
tank and wrapped his body in the wet cloth. He strug-
gled to get away but I held him firm, only dropping
him once or twice before I got over my fear of squeez-
ing him too much. Then I used the tooth pick and
gently opened his mouth, stuck his head into the bowl
of water and the eggs came tumbling out. That done, I
returned the male to his tank and his mate, where he
glowered at me for the rest of the day.
Artificially hatching the eggs:
My first attempt to artificially hatch the eggs was a
failure and all eggs and fry died
within the first week. I used a 7 days of age- the eggs have developed and will soon hatch.
Cobalt rocket 65 tumbler and
placed the eggs inside of it and
then the entire thing into the
adult’s tank. I think this was my
major issue and why the entire
first batch died.

My second attempt started

out much better. I set up a
five gallon tank with a sponge
8 days old- the eggs have hatched
filter, RO/DI water, and al-
mond leaves and placed the
egg tumbler inside of this
tank. I treated the tank every
night with ¼ dose of Seachem
paragaurd. By the end of the
first five days, I had only lost
about 15 eggs. By the end of 21
days, I had at least 20 fry left.
I did water changes every few
days and replaced the water
with aged RO/DI water. When
8 days old- the eggs have hatched
the fry were 21 days old I be-
gan to introduce newly hatched
brine shrimp and microworms.
I let them out of the egg tum-
bler at 25 days. While I have
fry that are alive and feeding, I
am not sure what will become
of them. Out of the 20 or so
fry, only one swims normally.
The rest are belly sliders. I have
tried to look up information on
the internet regarding this, but
have not found much. I have
found a few references to “de-
fective” fry from egg tumbling
but nothing that is concrete. I 11 days old- pigment is starting to show
will continue to grow these fry
out to see what will become of
them. It appears that the fry
that are artificially hatched do
not develop their swim blad-
ders properly. A member of the
Tampa Bay Aquarium Society
gave me a link to a paper on a
similar problem that fish farms
had with raising Dicentrarchus
FLARE! 7

15 days old: colors are darker and the fry can
push off and sort of swim now but they do not
really have any intent to their movement.
17 days old
35 days old- growing normal swimming macrostoma fry
FLARE! 8
labrax and Sparus auratus (http://
archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/1989/acte-
1432.pdf). The problems that they
had with the food fishes is very
similar to the issue I am seeing with
these artificially hatched macros-
toma fry. The fry have lordosis
(inward curvature of the spine)
and cannot regulate their ability
to swim in the water column. The
breeders in the article discovered
that during the larval development
of the fry, they needed to ingest
air in order to inflate their swim
bladders and be able to develop
normally. I’m not positive how to
simulate their device to use in an
egg tumbler, but it’s worth looking
into one day.
Male brooded fry:
Although these attempts have not
ended the way I hoped, I do have
some hopeful news. Two weeks
after removing the eggs from the
male, my pair spawned again, I
decided to try another approach to
getting him to hold. A few breed-
ers said they covered their tanks
completely and this helped the
male hold. The sides, back and bot-
tom of the 20 gallon long tank are
painted, so I taped newspaper over
the front. I checked on the male
every three to five days and found
him holding each time. I withheld
all food and did no water changes
for 21 days. On May 8, exactly 21
days since they spawned, I checked
on him and found he was no longer
holding. A quick search of the tank
releveled many fry, all swimming
normally. The water chemistry is as
follows: nitrates: 80, nitrites: 0, am-
monia: 0, GH:0, KH: 30, pH: 6.5,
and temperature fluctuated from 77
to 80°F depending on if it was night
or day. I do not use heaters and the
fish are kept in a garage.
 Marble Musings Part One:
The Transposon Hypothesis
Photo Courtesy of
MooBeau The-Majcha
T
he marble trait was first described as the disap-
pearance of pigment in black bettas, creating
fish with white heads with or without irregular
patches lacking pigment on either the body or fins, or
both. From black marbles, it was a journey of one-step
to create marbles in iridescent colors of blue or green,
as it is the presence of underlying black pigment that
intensifies the iridescent colors. Modern fish can show
patches in yellows and reds, suggesting that the mar
Fig 1-1
Article by
Dr. Leo Buss
bling effect can be generated in any pigment (Fig. 1)
One frequently hears talk of ‘the marble gene’. Why,
one wonders, would anyone speak of ‘the marble
gene’ when marbling hardly behaves with the pre-
dictable, quasi-algebraic regularity that signals single
gene inheritance? If it is a really a gene, then shouldn’t
it generate predictable ratios? Well, there is one ex-
planation for the biological foundation of marbling
that would justify belief in the existence of ‘a marble
gene’. In fact, some who have wondered what causes
the marbling effect may have already encountered this
plausible sounding explanation.
The claim is that a particular kind of gene, known as
a transposable element (or transposon or ‘jumping
gene’), is responsible for marbling. Recall that genes
are positions on chromosomes (and chromosomes are
just individual DNA molecules). Now the position of
most genes on a chromosome are fixed, they do not
change as the generations roll by. Transposable ele-
ments are different. These are genes which can move
from one location to another (Fig 2). When transpos-
able elements move they can, and most often do, insert
into existing genes. Now recall that genes encode in-
structions for building molecules. You can well imag-
FLARE! 9
ine what happens when a nice neat recipe is suddenly
interrupted by a quite different code. The message is
very likely to be garbled and the gene disabled.
Fig 1-2
Hence the explanation for marbling: a black marble is
claimed to be a dark-bodied fish in which a transpos-
able element has inserted itself in some gene essential
for the production of melanin, the black pigment. Each
blotch of tissue where black pigment has been lost
is putatively a clone of cells where a transposon has
disrupted pigment production. Note that the insertion
need not be in the melano (or ‘black lace’) gene itself,
it need only be any gene that essential to the deploy-
ment of the pigment melanin. This includes melano, of
course, but also any gene that is a part of the melanin
biosynthetic pathway, any gene essential to packaging
pigment into melanosomes (sub-cellular structures
housing the black pigment), or even any gene essential
to constructing a melanosome in the first place.
This explanation has a lot going for it. First, it gives a
nice simple explanation for the phenotype: marbling is
just the external manifestation of a transposon insert-
ing and mucking up the production of the pigment
produced. Better yet, the transposon hypothesis can,
in principle, account for the inheritance of the marble
trait. Marbling does not appear in Mendelian ratios.
Yet, every breeder knows marbling is heritable. We
know this unambiguously because the trait responds
to selection. Select for marble and you get more mar-
bles. The converse is notoriously more difficult. One
often hears the assertion that once introduced, marble
can never be removed from a line.
The transposon argument can account for all of this
lore. Lines without marbling lack an active transpos-
able element. Lines with marbling have an active trans-
FLARE! 10
posable element and since transposable elements are
inevitably in multiple copies (transposons are not rare
- roughly 45% of our DNA originated as transposable
elements), it always gets inherited. Fish that don’t show
marble may nonetheless have an active transposable
element, the jumping gene just didn’t happen to jump
into a pigmentation gene in that animal. So marbling is
hard to eliminate from a line once introduced. Mar-
bling doesn’t appear in Mendelian ratios because the
transposon doesn’t always insert in a pigment pro-
ducing cell. Just what one wants from science: a nice,
simple explanation that accounts from lots of messy
facts.
So far, though, this is hardly science; it is nothing
more than speculation. It is not, however, fantasy. We
know it to be a viable explanation because transpos-
able elements have already been shown in a different,
far better understood system to account for varie-
gated pigmentation. Barbara McClintock was a clas-
sical geneticist working with corn. Early in her career
she mapped the chromosomes of corn - in effect, she
established the street address for lots of corn genes.
Knowing these addresses, she showed that a particular
gene could change its address and, that when it did, it
disrupted the action of the genes it came to lie adjacent
to. In fact, she identified two different genes that could
do this trick. She established these facts by studying
corn kernels using genetic lines that had a gene that
controlled whether the kernel was colored and an-
other gene that controlled whether a colored kernel
was brown or purple. When a transposon inserted
in the first gene you got a colored kernel and in the
second gene a brown kernel. An individual kernel has
many cells and can develop sectors that are uncolored
or colored, brown or purple, depending on whether
transposition has occurred in neither gene, one gene,
or both. She explained why Indian corn looks as it
does (Fig. 3). Her work was published in 1950 and was
met with disbelief. The prior generation celebrated as
one of its central achievements that genes lay in fixed
order along chromosomes, like ‘beads on a string’. Her
evidence, however, was unassailable and eventually,
her mobile genetic elements were identified, sequenced
and biologists came to understand them to be not only
ubiquitous, but major drivers of genome organization.
The genomes of all animals and plants are riddled with
them. McClintock was ultimately awarded the 1983
Nobel Prize.
So the transposon hypothesis explains the appearance
of the trait, accounts for some features of its inheri-
tance, and has already been shown to account for
variegation in a different real biological system. Are we
done?
that never marbles, you’d expect to find no trans posi-
tions in the relevant genes. If every marble fish has
them and every solid fish lacks them, you’d have a
strong, albeit still circumstantial, case.
A bulletproof case would require that you engineer a
marble from a solid fish. Take a solid line that lacks an
active transposable element. Then generate many cop-
ies of a melanin synthesis gene containing the transpo-
son. Inject an egg from a solid line with those cloned
transposon-containing genes. If the resulting embryo
marbles, then you have made the case that transposi-
tion can cause marbling.

The suggestion that transposition causes marbling was

Fig 1-3
Hardly. It is one thing to suggest a plausible scenario
Fig 1-3
and quite another to establish that scenario as true.
What would be required to show that marbling is
caused by transposition? Sequencing genes is easy and
relatively cheap these days. The genes involved in the
synthesis of melanin are known, so if you sequenced
the genome of a betta showing marble, you would ex-
pect to find a transposon in one of these genes. Simi-
larly, if one sequenced the genome of a fish from a line
Fig. 1 Multiple examples of mar-
first made (to my knowledge) 30-odd years ago in by
an article by Steve Saunders in Flare!, entitled ‘Indian
Corn and Marble Bettas’. You can find it in the TA
library. The argument he presents has been so often
repeated that it is treated as fact by many. Indeed, its is
proffered as the basis for marbling in a recent book by
Martin Brammah, entitled The Betta Bible. Repetition
does not make it fact; the transposon explanation for
the biological basis of marbling is just a guess. No-one
has done any of the work required to show it to be
true.
I seriously doubt that marbling is caused by transpos-
able elements. In subsequent articles in this series, I’ll
try to explain why I doubt it and what alternative I
favor.

Don’t Miss Marble Musings Part 2:

bling. From posting on Facebook
(Pong Patta).

Fig. 2 Transposible elements are

genes that change locations within
Why not a Jumping Gene
(or between) chromosomes. Chro-
mosomes are individual strands
of DNA, genes are regions off the
chromosome.

Fig. 3 Barbara McClintock won

the Nobel Prize for showing that
not all genes are are found in fixed
positions on chromosomes, some
genes can jump from one location
to another. She convinced an ini-
tially skeptical audience by show-

in the Next Issue of FLARE!

ing that her hypothesis of ’jumping
genes’ explained the variegation
patterns found in Indian corn.
FLARE! 11
 Do Some Writing!
Article by Greg Steeves
A
sk any editor of any aquarium hobby-based
publication, be it on a club level or a profes-
sional printed magazine, and they will all tell
you the same thing: We need content! Trying to get
an aquarist to pump out a little something for their
association’s periodical can be like pulling teeth. Here
is a summary of the type of people that an editor has to
deal with when asking people to write for their journal.
1 - I’m not much of a writer but I will do what I can.
FLARE! 12
They come through and the editorial team might have
to do a little revising but are happy to do it.
2 - Certainly, be happy to write for you. I’m a little
busy right now but will get you something in a couple
weeks.
Forget about it. These people very rarely ever come
through.
3 - No, I don’t write.
Well, this is at least honest but does little to extend the
effort of putting out a publication.
I have been fortunate enough to write a few well re-
ceived bits over the years and I can tell you from first
hand experience, you don’t have to be William Shake-
speare to make a literary contribution to our hobby.
The toughest part of writing is beginning! We live in a
busy time but there is NO ONE that can’t find a half of
an hour here or there to try and pen an article. Instead
of watching that episode of Friends that you’ve seen a
dozen times, turn off the TV, put on some music, and
open a text editor. Now, some people need total con-
centration when trying to write and other enjoy relax-
ing music in the background to clear their thoughts
and get into the right mindset. Try a couple different
things; you would be surprised how your thoughts can
flow when you have created a little “happy place”.
So you have set aside a little time to try this out. Now
you have to come up with a subject. I hate hearing
“I have nothing really interesting to say…”. Gimme a
break! We are fish geeks, we love hearing from other
fish geeks. Some of the common and most interesting
subjects can be your experiences with maintaining and
perhaps even spawning a fish. These are always popu-
lar articles and live in infamy. Years after you have for-
gotten you even wrote about this subject, someone will
be looking for information on the topic you chose and
will get something from your material. In the mod-
ern days of information distribution, this will occur.
Another popular subject is collecting or seeing fish in
the wild. People love being able to go on an adventure
through your eyes. A trip to a public aquarium, zoo,
or retail establishment are all great subjects. Coupled
with some photography, these articles are a great read.
Other topics such as product reviews, show and con-
vention pieces and pretty much anything hobby related
make for good fodder.
There are at least two methods to use when writing an
article. Firstly, you can flow it out of your mind as if
you were having a conversation with another person.
Pros of this include relatable and personal experiences
which can be an attractive element that some readers
enjoy. The cons are that structure suffers and instead
of a concise, well planned out article with thoughts
strung coherently together, it’s more like talking with
your drunken uncle Eddy about who is the best base-
ball player of all-time. You’ll eventually understand
what he’s trying to say but you might have to wade
through a lot of off topic conversation (and some
spittle) to get there.
The other method is to have an outline that covers
everything from your opening to close with an infor-
mation flow that makes sense portraying the informa-
tion you want to present in an orderly manner. Now
the good part of this process is that from an informa-
tive standpoint, you will hit all topics and provide the
reader with a well thought out flow of material. The
negative aspect is that this can sometimes be almost
robotic or form letter-like.
My preference as a writer and a reader is to have a mix-
ture of the two aforementioned methods. I feel a basic
structure is very helpful to ensure you don’t miss any
of the points you want to touch on when portraying a
subject. People like to read your personality in a piece
you put together. If you are on a roll and the words are
flowing, don’t stop writing just because you strayed off
the area you were discussing. If it doesn’t fit, you can
go back and edit it or have it revised later. The impor-
tant thing is to have a nice flow to your subject. If you
are penning a scientific paper, these suggestions might
not be what you want to follow, however, for other
hobbyists to enjoy your writing, let your personality
and emotions into your article.
When writing, write about what you know. If your
topic is on a fish species you keep, write about your
experiences. It’s great to research a subject but really,
people want to hear about what YOU know. If you
have put together something appealing, it will encour-
age the reader to do further research for themselves at
the same sources that your research had come from. If
you use any materials that are not your own, be sure
to include that reference at the end of your piece. An
example of this would be, “the angelfish is from South
America” which would be okay to use as it is common
knowledge. If you were to say “this angelfish comes
from the Rio Dingo, three kilometers upstream from
the town of Tikiwiki”, and you did not go to Tikiwiki
and catch this fish yourself, you have to provide where
you got this information from. You can keep a list of
these and include them together in a “References” sec-
tion at the end of your article. Not only is it the proper
thing to do, this also allows for a reader, inspired by
your article, to dig further into the subject for them-
selves using the same sources you did. There are easy
formats used to reference material. They can be
FLARE! 13
found listed here: https://libguides.murdoch.edu.au/c.
php?g=246256&p=1640961
So, you’ve written the article. You read it over and
change a little, corrected some obvious mistakes, and
feel pretty good about yourself. It came out fairly de-
cent. Now what? It is always helpful to have maps or
photographs to accompany and enhance your efforts.
If you can draw your own pictures or maps, or take
your own photographs, perfect! This is the best-case
scenario. You cannot scan a photo from a book or
take a photograph from the internet unless these are
common and free use and stated so. Even at that, it
would be best to provide the link stating the free use
policy of the material. Alternately, you can reach out
to the source of the items you might want to ask for
permission to use them in your article. Most people
will not have a problem with this but still need to be
recognized as the source. If you do not have permis-
sion, it is not okay to use things that aren’t yours to
begin with. The same rules that apply to your lawn
mower, apply to your photographs. You wouldn’t
want someone doing that to your stuff so don’t do it to
theirs. ALWAYS ASK FOR PERMISSION!!!
This Could be Your Picture in the next FLARE!
Photo Courtesy of
MooBeau The-Majcha
Send your submissions to FlareEditor@IBCBettas.org
FLARE! 14
So, you’ve read and reread your article. You’ve gath-
ered up some pictures to accompany it. Now what? I
would suggest asking a friend or family member to
give it a read. They might have some suggestions and
tell you what they think. After this it is off to your club
editor. This person will generally format your article
as it will appear in publication and scour it for edits.
They may or may not ask for your approval on any
alterations and edits. After they have gone through it
and have it ready to roll. They may send you the proof
for your final review. After this, you will sit back and
wait until the publication date to anxiously open it up
and see your efforts in print. While you are waiting, I
hope you have already begun your next article.
One of the best ways to leave a legacy in the aquarium
hobby is to write. When your work is printed, it is
immortal. I have read aquarium books and magazines
from the 1930’s that are still relevant today. Try your
hand at writing - it is a wonderful way to contribute to
the hobby!
 Working with Live Foods:
Microworms
I
’ve been raising various live foods suitable for
feeding to fish fry continuously for over 25 years.
During that time I’ve gone through a learning
curve for each of these various foods. I’ve tried many
variations for raising each species, and over time I have
discovered methods that have consistently work best
for me. I’m going to focus on two foods, microworms
and vinegar worms, which are probably the easiest for
beginners to start raising for fry food.
Microworms are a type of nematode worm that are
very nutrition for baby fish. There are several species
or types (banana worms, Walter worms, etc.) that are
very similar, and most cultures are a mix of several dif-
ferent species. For our purposes, we will treat them all
the same.
It does seems like every hobbyist has their own favored
method of culturing their microworms. Originally I
experimented with several different growth medias
with very mixed results. My cultures would typically
last about a month, but often crashed from contamina-
tion by mold and bacteria. Many of the medias also
failed to solidify sufficiently which caused problems
trying to harvest the worms. When cultures failed,
odor could also become a problem. Significant others
don’t appreciate a smelly culture in close proximity.
I finally settled on using instant potato for my media.
More specifically, I’ve been using potato buds with
great success. Preparing to start a culture is simplicity
Article and Pictures
by Denny Rogers
itself. I use equal parts potato buds and water. Once
mixed, the culture will set up in a matter of 20-30 sec-
onds. I’ve been using (and reusing) deli food contain-
ers to hold my cultures, but just about any container
with a lid will be acceptable.
The ratio of the potato buds and water is not absolutely
critical, but should be somewhat equal. Add the water
to the potato buds, and swirl the container to get a
uniform mix.
After the culture has solidified, I add a liberal sprin-
kling of dried active yeast on top of the media. Origi-
nally, I was using the small packets that are often used
in bread making. I was not happy with the inconsistent
results, and often the yeast would not start growing.
Eventually I discovered that you could buy a small
jar of yeast that would remain viable for more than a
single attempt to start a new culture. Now I use a yeast
brick that I’ve been getting at Sam’s club. It’s usually
packed in 2 separate packages. I use one, and freeze the
other. Between the two packages, it seems to remain
viable for several years.
Once I’ve got the culture set up with the media and
yeast, I take a small sample from an existing culture,
and inoculate the new culture. We had Mike Hellweg,
author of “Culturing Live Foods” speak at our club sev-
eral years ago. One of the comments he made was that
the microworms that crawl up the sides of the growing
container are predominately males. Ever since, I’ve
FLARE! 15
 been getting my sample from the top of the media in
the existing culture rather than from the sides of the
container. It’s best to pick up as little of the media as
possible to reduce your chances of contaminating the
new culture. A healthy growth of yeast will minimize
this risk.

Once a culture is set up and inoculated, you do need

Microworm culture at about two weeks
to make sure that oxygen can get into the container.
Using the plastic containers, once I put the lid on, I
poke holes in the lid with a straight pin. This allows
for the entry of oxygen into the container, but mini-
mizes contamination by fruit flies. It doesn’t eliminate
the possibility completely, but it helps. Fruit fly larvae
are a nuisance if they manage to get in your culture,
because the larvae do eventually hatch into fruit flies.
They don’t cause problems other than hatching and fly-
ing around your house or fish room. I’m assuming the
females are attracted to the yeast smell, and are able to
lay their eggs through the air holes in the lid.

My cultures are started every week or two to keep an

actively growing culture available as well as a backup
in case any of my cultures do crash. Originally my
cultures had to be replaced every month, but for some
reason my cultures now are still active after six or more
weeks.

One other advantage to growing microworms for food

is the ability to gut load the worms with additional
Microworm Ingredients nutrients. I frequently add garlic powder and paprika
to my media. Usually this is only half a teaspoon per
culture, but I do think it helps. There are also other ad-
ditives you can add if you feel the need to enrich your
culture media.

Harvesting the worms is mostly just a question of how

squeamish you are. You can use your finger around the
side of the container, or you can use a spatula or other
similar kitchen gadgets to scrape the worms out of the
container.

While this is my method of choice, I do have to say

that many other hobbyists have different methods, and
are very successful. This method has worked best for
me over the 25 years I’ve been raising microworms, but
don’t be reluctant to experiment.

Start with potato buds

FLARE! 16
 Putting air holes in the container

Add an equal quantity of water

Sprinkle a generous portion of yeast on the media. Enriching the media with paprika or garlic

Inoculating from an existing culture Microworm culture under a microscope

FLARE! 17
FLARE! FLASHBACK:
The Old Windbag Cannot
put Out the Fire of Youth
(A Letter to an Eager Young Bettaphile)
By John Williams
As said on the phone: deltatail bettas are not that easy to
come by. If you are trying to buy males with such tails from
breeders you will probably pay a premium price. You must
realize that no one is likely to part with any betta that is of
show quality - especially if that breeder is showing his fish.
When you purchase fish from a breeder you are trying to
get the genetic make-up that the breeder’s fish possess. This
means that his fish should have the possibility of producing
fry very much like his award winning adults.
But you are taking a chance that the fish you get will either
not spawn or their fry will not be up to what you had
expected. But this is the same chance every breeder takes
when he chooses a pair to spawn. No one knows (not even
Dr. Gene Lucas) just how the pools of each parent will come
together. There are thousands of possible combinations that
can come together and result in a fry.
Did you know that you can spawn the same pair of bet-
tas over and over and each spawn will give you a different
combination of genes that are present in each fry. Some fry
may look pretty much like their brothers or sisters from an
earlier spawn but in reality the fact that they look alike may
be the only thing that is the same. You see every fish has so
many hundreds of genes that have made that fish what it is.
Some of the genes you can see the results of by what the fish
look like, but there are lots more genes that make up the fish
FLARE! 18
Originally Printed in FLARE Volume 23 Issue 3
that you cannot see. The fish carry these numerous traits
and they are passed on to his offspring.
Just as an example: Let’s take only one aspect of a make-
believe male betta. This male may have a caudal that is not
a delta shape, but what you cannot see is he may be carry-
ing the gene for delta and he may also be carrying genes for
short tail, doubletail, brushtail, combtail, and quite a few
more. But you see he has the possibility of passing on to his
offspring the deltatail now it may not be that but one or two
fry show up with the deltatail (the delta that you can see
that is) so you might think “shoot what a lousy spawn”.
Those two fry that have a delta may be females could you
tell if the female had a deltatail? Probably not until she was
pretty fair size. But wait a minute, the fact is that there are
probably many of the fry carrying the gene for delta, and
their fry may indeed be the ones that actually grow a delta
tail.
You cannot tell by looking at a fish what it is capable of
reproducing. So you see the best we can do is put a male &
female together and hope we get the genes to fall together
the way we’d like. To get deltatail fry then you have to start
with at least one parent that is carrying the trail. So you
need to get what we call “good stock”. I guess that’s why
you’re getting fish from everyone you can in IBC right?
But having good stock is NOT producing show quality
bettas. It doesn’t just happen. Every breeder you see listed
as an IBC show winner has spent quite a few years learning
how to produce those top quality fish. As a start will have to
learn how to successfully raise the largest spawns possible.
The larger the spawn the more chances you have of finding
that one or two really top notch fish that might be in there
someplace.
You learn that fry grow at different rates. And that you will
have to divide large spawns into numerous tanks. Crowded
fish grow slow. You will learn that some of those slower
growing fry will tum into your best show fish. So what I’m
telling you is that you’ve got a few years ahead of you before
you know how to produce a decent number of excellent fish.
But it’s fun and you’ll find out within the first two years if
you’re really enjoying yourself, and starting to see some re-
sults with your spawns. Just don’t give up. You have to have
faith those genes will fall together right. Then you will have
to raise the fish right and you’ll have a winner.
But I don’t know what a “winner” may be to you. There are
an awful lot of people out there that raise bettas just because
they are beautiful fish. These people don’t care about enter-
ing shows or having to go through all the hard work it takes
to produce show bettas. Hey there’s nothing wrong with that
either. That’s the way I felt for years. I didn’t care what other
people thought about the bettas I raised. I just enjoyed play-
ing around with genetics. You know what happens when
you spawn a green fish to a blue fish, or maybe to a yellow
fish. I learned quite a bit and had lots of fun, but then one
day I attended a betta show over in York, Pa. BOY! What
an eye opener, I never guessed that bettas could look that
good. I noticed also there were lots of just average looking
fish entered in the show that looked no better than some of
mine. Hmm, wonder how mine would do?
The next year at the York show I had driven over with 5
or 6 of my fish. Only one of my fish placed. It was a small-
ish green/white singletail male marble, and he took a third
place ribbon. I could not believe it How in the world did my
fish beat out some of those big fantastic marble males that
I saw in the bowls next to my fish? I went after the judge; I
cornered her (and I know now she must have been think-
ing. “What did I do to make this guy mad”) I explained
that I just did not understand how my fish could place over
those full-finned beauties. She explained to me that I was
right my fish in reality probably was not as nice, but deport-
ment has a lot to do with how well a fish scores. That’s when
I noticed that those large finned fish were mostly just laying
about the bowl bottom. She further explained that when she
removes the cards from between the bowls and the fish see
each other, they must flare for the judge to be able to score
each of their fins, their body etc... She cannot wait around
all day for this to happen she can only give each fish a
reasonable amount of time. The big finned guys never did
show their stuff where as my fish was going crazy. So decent
finnage and spirit had gotten him 3rd place.
The judge told me that he looked as if he were probably
going to have fins just as big as those other fish if I kept
him healthy and as frisky. But I must admit that I did not
know how to maintain a show quality betta. His fins never
did fill out to what I had seen at the show and he got less
& less frisky. I wondered why, but I didn’t give up trying to
find out why. It took me 3 or 4 more years to produce show
quality fish.
At first I thought I could buy or beg quality fish from the
top breeders, and it would be a snap then I’d have great
fish too. So I did. But my fish still looked like “my fish” just
common place or junky. I had problems with lots of my fry
dying before I could even tell what they might have been.
Velvet, I learned, can wipe out lots of fry when you don’t
know what it is or how to fight it. There were all sorts of
set-backs. Those swim-bladder problems, new-born fry that
never swim horizonal, those that did swim, at about 3 or 4
weeks, cannot seem to get their bladder to develop so they
jump more than swim while their bodies get all deformed.
Then those that made it through the first two problems now
start looking like corks bobbing at the surface some cannot
even follow the food as it sinks in the tank.
I guess I was often depressed; it seemed I was never going
to get good bettas. I never seemed to be able to get my top
choice male & female to spawn with each other. I was al-
ways spawning whatever would spawn. Sometimes I would
be so upset I’d buy a fish store betta to spawn with one of
mine. OOPS! Not a good idea at least it never worked out
well for me. There were other things that didn’t work too
well either like multi-jar filtration.
But now I’m not crying to talk you out of raising show bet-
tas, I’m just saying you’re going to be darn lucky if you have
great fish right off the bat, but don’t give up. Read every-
thing that IBC has to offer in the technical assistance dept.
(but maybe don’t send for everything save some money for
fish food). One other piece of advice don’t overload your-
self with too many fish. Pick one or two colors you like and
stick with these at first. Don’t try to get every color betta out
there. You cannot give quality care to too many fish.
Now let’s talk about what I’ll be sending you. They will not
be even close to looking like my Best of Show B-fly male,
so don’t expect them to. You can be assured that whatever I
send will be related to him however. That B.O.S. male is car-
rying: red/black/red marble, regular marble, doubletail and
probably a lot of junk that we’d just as soon not talk about
(as all bettas do). My major interest has always been
FLARE! 19
centered around the marble betta and of course those color food or you simply gave him too much. But it’s a good bet
classes that may occur within a marble spawn - that is those something is wrong.
that develop into show quality fish. With a marble spawn
you’re likely to get a fish for nearly every IBC color class; The reason for keeping these fish isolated is two-fold. First it
that makes it interesting too. You never know what color or makes sure they get rest and are not flaring their little brains
which fry may grow into “Mr. or Mrs. first place”. All of my out all day and thus do less and less flaring. Secondly, in the
fish carry marble and they all carry doubletail. Let me tell case of my fish, these fish may have come from a rearing
you a bit about marbles. They do not have to look marbled tank containing both sexes; they will be used to living to-
to produce marble fry. Just as with the deltatail trait. gether and will not readily spawn. Therefore they need to be
completely alone. In a tank, fish develop a pecking order, as
You don’t have to be able to see it on the fish for it to be do many animals and fish. The weak are ruled by the more
present. Some of my highest percentage of marble fry in aggressive. Isolation should delete any submission the fish
a spawn have come from fish that were solid colored. On may have developed. He or she is now the boss of that jar
other occasions where both parents were nicely patterned of water. If you have trouble once you have both fish in the
marbles the spawn had very few marble fry and those that spawning tank, try the third party trick. A third fish (usu-
were only had white chins or heads. Some people believe ally of the same sex as the fish that seems not quite willing)
that cellophanes produce the best percentage of marble fry. may be introduced into the tank inside a floating jar or a
(cellophane, as I mean it here refers to those marbles that glass chimney. Let’s say your female has been in the spawn-
usually start to marble earlier than their brothers & sis- ing tank 2 or 3 days and she’s just not submitting at all - just
ters and continue to lose color until they have no color or hides or he beats her to pieces every time she goes up for
pattern at all) I haven’t found that cellophanes do produce a gulp of air. The 3rd fish will distract the male enough so
more marbles, but at least we know that cellophanes carry your female might start to consider spawning rather than
the marble trait (even if they don’t have it completely under running for her life. Plus the first female should feel that
control). Now that brings up the question: when do fry start it’s her territory (she was there 1st) and she’ll try flaring at
to show that they’re going to be marble? Before one month the 2nd female and it may spur her on to spawn before her
of age there’s no need to even look for marbling, but from rival can. This may all sound strange but it works. But I have
one month on you should notice first a slight splotchyness given you quite enough information. If I tell you any more
where the usual overall medium grey exists on normal we may never be able to get you to buy pages from T.A.
month old fry of the dark iridocyte type. Red marbles do library.
not start to show any sort of color break-up until much
later. As soon as the weather warms a little I’ll be sending fish,
just mail me over the money. Good Luck!
You say you really like butterflies and marbles and you just
have to have some of mine. Now I bet you’d be pretty upset
if I sent you one solid blue male & one solid green female,
right? But if you’ve learned anything, from what you’ve read
just now you’d know that by spawning those two fish you
could have fry of b-fly, marble, dark bodied bi-color, solid
green, solid blue and maybe cellophane, and maybe even
some real oddballs. Don’t worry I won’t be sending you
solid fish. I realize that part of the fun in keeping bettas is
having your favorite color. I told you on the phone I may be
sending fish with tom finnage some have been left together
too long in the 20 gal. rearing tanks. I may send fish like
that and I may not, but whatever I send I want you to place
each fish in his or her own one gallon jar (if you have jars
this large I hope you do) and I want you to put a piece of
paper or cardboard between each jar, so that the fish cannot
see each other. I want you to be sure they don’t see each
other for at least two weeks, before you try to spawn them.
But please change their water every week (sooner if you’re
using smaller jars). If their water starts to get cloudy change
it sooner and try to find out why it turned cloudy, if that
was the only jar that did. That fish may not be eating all his

FLARE! 20
 Help Wanted: FLARE!
Editor Needed!
We are in need of a new full-time FLARE! Editor. If you have the following skills and would like to help the IBC,
please consider becoming our new editor.

Our new Flare! Editor would require the following skillset:

Approximately 20-40 hours per issue to spare. This is an average estimate and can often require more time
(depending on the issue content and committee participation). This time is, however spread out over many
weeks and is not required to be done in one sitting. Organizing the files throughout the two months of an
issue are included. Actual assemblage time depends on how many changes there are from the last issue and
what new submissions for articles, pictures, and shows have come in.

Organizational Skills. A great deal of the work in FLARE! is keeping track of incoming submissions.
Analytical skill. We get numerous different files from many talented people. In addition to keeping track of
everything, they all have to fit into the FLARE! framework.

A knowledge of the English Language. While our membership in the IBC is from all over the world, the bulk
of our files and information are still currently in English. (We do accept and encourage submissions in other
languages for articles and show information!)

Word Processing Skills. Flare! must be put together as a coherent whole, which involves knowing the software
you’re using and how to work with it.

What is involved in putting together a FLARE!?

Soliciting articles and photos (99% of the time, they won’t just appear in the lead up to publication).
Proof-reading the articles and submissions (they’re not always print-ready, some copy-editing will be required).
Getting the required information from the various IBC members (A list of all required elements for the FLARE!
will be provided – you just have to make sure it all gets in, which often requires emails and follow-ups).
Putting everything gathered together in print-ready format (I’ve also put together a file for this as there are
multiple items that have to be considered in a publication).

Posting a web-quality color version pdf of the FLARE on the Official IBC Website (with the assistance of the
WebTeam).

FLARE! comes out quarterly and we have to get the information to the printer usually about two weeks before
publication. This is particularly important for any Judging Board changes to show seasons and for the elections
before convention.

For Software, technically, any FLARE! Editor can use what they like to get the job done. Traditionally, we gener-
ally stay inside the larger commercially available programs so that others can quickly take over if needed, no
training required.

Adobe InDesign. The main portion of the newsletter is currently compiled in inDesign. It’s a common program
that editors have been able to use fairly easily. Current version preferred, however previous versions can also
be used without too many problems.

Microsoft Excel. We don’t use Excel directly in FLARE!, however a great many of our files come in with Excel
(show results, membership and judges lists, etc) and we need to be able to open and work with them. Open
Office and Google Sheets will probably work as well.

Adobe Acrobat Professional. This is a requirement so that we can send publication-quality pdfs to the printer.
Also required for creating the ballots each year. There are other software programs that can do publication-
quality pdfs, however make sure they really are publication quality and that you also have the ability to manip-
ulate within the pdf. (Covers are pdf’d separately from content, and they need to be combined at the end.)
Adobe Illustrator and/or Photoshop or other professional quality picture software. We need to be able to ma-
nipulate and work with the photos that members send in. Also, the cover is usually of such high quality that it
is done separately from the rest of the newsletter (file is too large otherwise).
FLARE! 21
 4:12 PM International Betta Congress
03/03/18 Profit & Loss
Accrual Basis July through December 2017

Jul - Dec 17
Income
Interest Income 2.06
Program Income
IBC Sales 415.10
Membership Dues 7,093.19
Sanction Fees
Area 1 SF 125.00
Area 2 SF 75.00
Area 3 SF 50.00
Area 6 SF 123.60
Area 7 SF 25.00

Total Sanction Fees 398.60

Program Income - Other 130.00

Total Program Income 8,036.89

Stripe Returns -20.00

Total Income 8,018.95

Expense
Awards
Area 6 250.00
Special Year End Awards
Awards Shipping 445.63

Total Special Year End Awards 445.63

Awards - Other 188.40

Total Awards 884.03

Business Expenses
Registration Fees 15.00

Total Business Expenses 15.00

Contract Services
Accounting Fees 700.00
Service Fees 95.94

Total Contract Services 795.94

Flare!
Flare! Printing 684.68

Total Flare! 684.68

IBC Sales
IBC Sales Shipping 72.21

Total IBC Sales 72.21

Membership
Membership Printing 297.35
Membership Shipping 400.70
Membership Supplies 475.09

Total Membership 1,173.14

Other Types of Expenses

Insurance - Liability, D and O 981.00

Total Other Types of Expenses 981.00

PayPal Fees 203.80

Page 1

FLARE! 22
4:12 PM International Betta Congress
03/03/18 Profit & Loss
Accrual Basis July through December 2017

Jul - Dec 17
Program Expenses
Judge Certificates 38.38
Sanction Fee Disbursal 687.80

Total Program Expenses 726.18

Stripe Payment Processing Fees 87.70

Travel and Meetings
Conference, Convention, Meeting 800.00

Total Travel and Meetings 800.00

Website
Plug-Ins 99.75
Registration, Hosting 134.65

Total Website 234.40

Total Expense 6,658.08

Net Income 1,360.87

Page 2

FLARE! 23
 Executive Board Meeting Minutes,
August 12th, 2017 11:14 PM
The meeting was held in the Slack Chatroom #ExecutiveBoard

The meeting was called to order at approximately 11:14 PM CST by Gerald

Griffin.

EB Members Present Online: Gerald Griffin, Stacy Fenhaus, Liz Hahn,

Peter Baerwald, Luis Navarro, Jamie A Stine, Mike Curasema, Wind Wang,
Jarrod Nielsen

Votes Conducted:
• Close IBC store and liquidate contents: 7 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions
• Vote to adjourn: 8 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions

Discussion:
• Brief discussion on why closing the store is necessary
• FLARE!
• Post convention FLARE! Needs content, convention issue is okay
• Gerald: Tech and Clubs
• Gianne: Cartoons & Summer Research
• Gerald got OK for Massinas photos for use
• We need to talk to Jarrod and see what he needs for the next few
issues
• Constitutional changes for world convention
• Jamie to head task force to get changes done; EB to make changes
and implement. Should be done by December of 2017
• How can we have more shows?
• More chapters having more meetings to get more people interested in
doing the actual work.
• Involvement for chapter presidents in IBC
• IBC provides meeting content if needed

New Business:
• None really, see discussion above.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 12:38 AM CST via vote

following Liz Hahn’s motion to adjourn, seconded by Jamie A. Stine

FLARE! 24
 Executive Board Meeting Minutes,
September 10th 2017 11:09 PM
The meeting was held in the Slack Chatroom #ExecutiveBoard.

The meeting was called to order at approximately 11:09 PM CST By Gerald

Griffin.

EB Members Present Online: Gerald Griffin, Stacy Fenhaus, Jamie A.

Stine, Wind Wang, Luis Navarro, Liz Hahn, Jarrod Nielsen, Sarawut
Korsoongsak (late), Sabrina Dichne (late), Mike Cuaresma (late), Peter
Baerwald (Late)

Votes Conducted:
• Approve Agenda for Current Meeting: 7 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions
• Approve Minutes from August Meeting: 7 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions
• How should the IBC Store items get from Gerald & Kayla to Jackie?
1. Gerald Packs and Sends (1), 2. Hire a company (6), 3. Abstain
(1)
• Create a separate document for Part B of the handbook, making the
IBC History sections separate from the handbook itself: 7 yes, 0 no,
0 abstentions
• Make paper new membership documents print on demand rather
than automatically sent to all new members: 6 yes, 1 no, 0
abstentions
• Adjourn meeting: 6 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions.

Discussion/Old Business:
• Area Reports:
o Area 1: Not Present
o Area 2: Nothing major to report at this time, some internal
conflict but nothing too awful at this time.
 Discussion surrounding fees to the Congress for the
Area 2 convention
 Discussion regarding the need to change the
language in the Constitution regarding sanction
FLARE! 25
fees for Convention Shows. (Jamie to follow up)
 Executive Board Meeting Minutes,
September 10th 2017 11:09 PM Continued
o Area 3: No report, but requested advice for the upcoming
convention as well as format, etc.
 Translating IBC documents, rules, standards into Chinese to
further understanding across the Area.
 Hui has goal of getting Standards translated by Area 6
Convention in November
 Waiting on editable document from Larissa atm.
o Area 6 & JB:
 JB: planning to update photos, design, and standards in the
manual to be up to date, as well as the judging seminar
slides, etc. Still awaiting some files, but the process is
already beginning.
 Translating to Chinese, which is already started, but looking
for help with translating to Japanese
 Area 6: increase in club/chapter requests but no real
increase in membership
 Area 6 Convention will be in November in Thailand
with guests expected from all over Asia
o Area 7: Victoria Betta will have an international show in October
and BBB will have one in March
• Handbook Section B:
o Files are mostly updated with the help of Stacy and David Spector,
Christine Tanner needs to be contacted re: 2013 – 2014 year end
award winners.
• FLARE Progress Report:
o Issues are on track to come out ASAP as Jarrod’s family situation
has evened out. (apprx. 3 weeks)
 Also planning articles about Feral Bettas observed in the
Northern Territories.
• Consitution/World Convention:
o Emails to go out this week, working document ready for upload to
Google docs or other working file program when the group begins
to be established.
• SMP:

FLARE! 26
 Executive Board Meeting Minutes,
September 10th 2017 11:09 PM Continued
o New SMP directors are working on the back end of the website and
things are moving along, but no previews are available yet.
• IBC Store Liquidation:
o Do we have Gerald pack and ship the boxes or do we hire a moving
company to do it?
o Inventory of expired items before packing and shipping
 Send all items to Jackie for inventory and liquidation?
o Poll approved to hire a company to pack and ship the store to
Jackie for inventory and dispersal.

Discussion/New Business:
• Handbook Section I Part B
o Should we remove the historical section and make it a separate
document?
 The history is important but it doesn’t necessarily have to be
in the handbook, it could be separate.
• Paper Level Membership Documents
o For new members: print the handbooks, etc. on demand instead of
automatically sending them, or make everything available on the
web, with FLARE being the only thing mailed
• Important Dates Document – Tasks
o Needs to be updated and kept updated
• Declining Membership
o Suggestions: post point standings publically
 JB needs to keep track of who is compiling standings and get
them to do their jobs
o IBC is a badge of honor, so we need to uphold high standards
 Keep people aware by posting about them and keeping them
in the forefront
o Need to commit to constant contact with the public to encourage
membership
• New proposal: before someone can run for the “Big 4” positions on EB,
they need to serve a year as a Member at Large or Area Rep so they can
see how the EB functions, etc.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 1:59 AM CST by majority vote.
FLARE! 27
 Executive Board Meeting Minutes,
October 14th 2017, 11:02 PM

The meeting was held in the Slack Chatroom #ExecutiveBoard.

The meeting was called to order at approximately 11:02 PM CST By Stacy

Fenhaus

No quorum was present for this meeting.

EB Members Present Online: Gerald Griffin, Stacy Fenhaus, Jamie A

Stine, Wind Wang, Sabrina Dichne, Luis Navarro, Mike Curasema (late),
Sarawut Korsoongsak (late)

EB Members Not Present: Peter Baerwald (e), Liz Hahn (e), Francis Chua
(e)

Votes Conducted:
• Approve Agenda for Current Meeting: 5 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions
• Approve Minutes for September: 5 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions
• Adjourn Meeting: 4 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions
o
Discussion/Old Business:
• Area 2 issue: show holders charging more for mail in entries vs.
hand carrying in entries
• Treasurer’s Report: taxes submitted to CPA, Gene Lucas CD upped
to $10k, transferred $2.7k from general fund and changed to 1yr.
CD
• Area 3 Report: standards need to be translated for all members;
current members are holding training courses at each show
• Handbook: printing less expensive since the history section has
been removed
o Printing also less expensive if we use the Office Depot
Employee Discount per Jamie
• Luis: created google calendar but it didn’t work quite right, so now
has merged to standard google document

FLARE! 28
 Executive Board Meeting Minutes,
October 14th 2017, 11:02 PM Continued
o Will share with EB
• Declining Membership: Mike has volunteered to help Stacy email
members to remind them to renew, etc.
• IBC Store: mostly packed and ready to go, will finish during Fall
Break for Gerald
• FLARE content:
o Discussion to be moved to forum

Discussion/New Business:
• No new business this meeting

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 12:33 AM CST by majority

vote.

FLARE! 29
 Executive Board Meeting Minutes,
November 12th, 2017 10:03 PM
The meeting was held in the Slack Chatroom #ExecutiveBoard.

The meeting was called to order at approximately 10:03 PM CST By Jamie A.

Stine

EB Members Present Online: Stacy Fenhaus, Jamie A. Stine, Liz Hahn,

Sabrina Dichne, Mike Curasema, Wind Wang, Gerald Griffin (L), Hermanus
Haryanto (L)

EB Members Not Present: Luis Navarro (e), Peter Beirwald (e), Phil Dorr
(ue), Jarrod Neilsen,

Votes Conducted:
• Approve Agenda: 5 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions
• Approve Minutes: 5 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions
• Adjourn: 7 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions

Discussion/Old Business:
• Area 1: no report, not present
• Area 2: IBC Member in Croatia has asked IBC to sponsor expenses
for the guest speaker for their convention.
o Funding is specifically provided by accrued sanction fees from
international and district shows.
• Area 3: Nothing to report; preparing for CIPS Betta show on the
weekend of November 17-19.
• Area 6: Hugely busy preparing for their Convention, everyone is up
to their knees in stuff, but it will be a full weekend.
• Area 7: no report, not present
• Treasurer’s Report: P&L for October posted, taxes submitted to the
accountant
• JB: no report, not present
• Flare: Last flare sent in APRIL
o Becoming a huge issue; causing people to not renew
memberships
o Jarrod is MIA ATM

FLARE! 30
 Executive Board Meeting Minutes,
November 12th, 2017 10:03 PM Continued
o Issue in this case is not content; we have content for the
double issues plus one
o Other people can format pages/articles and send to Jarrod for
assembly
 Need to be exported to PDF from whatever file format
they are in so they can be put into InDesign
o InDesign: not enough access, not enough people know how to
use it
 Move to Word/Publisher formats to make putting Flare
together easier for people who are not versed in ID.
o Combined issues are not good; advertisers don’t get their
money’s worth as well as paid members also not getting what
they paid for
• Store: Currently being inventoried
o Single member has offered to buy entire contents to resell
 Not using IBC name or Reputation, private buy
• Declining Membership: ideas?
o Suggest a free 6 month trial membership for new
members/show participants
o Renewals: pay for 2 years, get a 3rd free
o We need:
 Marketing
 Materials
 Wow factor
 Members need a reason to join and a reason to
stay

Discussion/New Business:
• NH donation: discussed and provisionally approved, but no quorum
for official approval

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 12:30 AM CST by majority

vote.

FLARE! 31
 AUSTRIAN AQUANET
A Q UA R I S T I K TA G E
4. und 5. Mai 2019
Hotel Kaiserrast, Donaukraftwerkstraße 1, 2000 Stockerau

Internationales Kampffischchampionat
Nationales Garnelenchampionat
Samstag 9.00 bis 17.00 – So. 9.00 bis 15.00
Eintritt frei
Programm: Vorträge, Kinderworkshop ... uvm.
Mehr Info unter www.aquaristiktage.at

Weitere Informationen finden Sie unter

www.aquaristiktage.at • www.facebook.com/austrianaquanet
FLARE! 32
Reminder that each IBC Chapter is allowed
one full size page to advertise their shows.

For best use of the page make the flyers portrait

Remember to send those Flyers to

FlareEditor@IBCBettas.org
FLARE! 33
FLARE! 34
 IBC Code of Ethics
The IBC welcomes everyone who is interested in bettas, whether new at owning and/or raising betta or an old pro that
has raised thousands. The IBC feels there is room for all betta enthusiasts, young or old, new or experienced, individuals,
families, team or commercial breeder.

The IBC is a club of individuals, families, teams, and commercial breeders who support the keeping, breeding, and or the
showing of betta bred by members, the research into the genetics of the betta, and support of the preservation of the wild
species through the Species Maintenance Program.

All Judges, Officials and Members are representatives of the IBC, and of the betta hobby. As such, all members of the IBC
shall agree to act honorably in their pursuit of the betta hobby. In betta related ventures, members shall strive to promote
the hobby; they shall embody the virtues of sportsmanship and esteem.

All members shall conduct themselves to reflect credit on the betta hobby in the general and the IBC in particular. This
includes respect for the IBC, affiliated chapters, and for fellow betta breeders and enthusiasts.

Conduct shall be directed toward educating the public, improving one’s own knowledge and demonstrating integrity. Ac-
tions should complement the IBC’s goal of promoting betta breeding and showing.

Members should take care to be good representatives at show sites, national/international conventions, on internet forums
and lists, and other social media that is in any way related to the betta hobby.

Should a member behave in a manner contrary to the above, bringing discredit to the IBC or affiliated IBC Chapter, or
causing strife to other members, a complaint may be lodged with the Executive Board using the IBC Complaint Process.

It is the policy of the IBC that members who sell, trade or give bettas to others must represent the description of the betta
in a proper manner so as to assure that the buyers, consumers or recipients are not misled. An intentional misrepresenta-
tion would be a violation of the IBC policy and Code of Ethics.

Moreover, it is the policy of the IBC that when bettas are entered in a show, the fish should be raised and bred by the
entrant or exhibitor unless clearly stated otherwise. Failure to comply with this policy would be contrary to the IBC Show
Standards.

The IBC does not participate in the fighting of fish for any reason and does not condone the fighting of bettas by others;
nor does it support any individual or organization that does.

The International Betta Congress expects all members to conduct transactions with all parties in a responsible, fair and
ethical manner in all business dealings concerning the purchase and sale of betta stock and supplies. While we hope that all
disputes be amicably resolved among the parties, the Congress, however, is not an enforcement agency for the transaction
of betta stock and/or supplies– nor can the IBC mediate disputes involving members or any individuals over said transac-
tions.

In the interest of fairness, the IBC does not endorse individual business enterprises and does not allow the promotion of
those enterprises in posts on the IBC weblist, whether they are personal testimonials or commercial advertisements.

The IBC believes that if all members abide by these simple guidelines we will have a happy, fun and stimulating club.

FLARE! 35
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO
SEE IN
THE NEXT ISSUE OF FLARE!?

EMAIL
FLAREEDITOR@IBCBETTAS.ORG

INTERNATIONAL BETTA CONGRESS

10408 E. Cloudcroft Dr.
Hereford, AS 85615
USA

FLARE! 36