PUHI — Liz Hahn of Kauai Bettas returned from California with exciting news — she is ranked the No. 2 betta breeder by the International Betta Congress.
Entering the IBC Area 1 show, the final event for this year, Hahn was sitting in solid second place with 1,040 points over the third place ranking of Don Connelly who posted 795 points. The top spot belongs to Mike Cuaresma who topped the points at 2,125. This is an improvement over previous years when Hahn finished No. 3 following the IBC year-end shows.
After the Golden State Bettas-hosted show aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif., Hahn’s performance on the final day clinched her No. 2 spot for the year.
“I don’t have the No. 2 plaque,” Hahn said. “But I have all the ribbons earned at the Golden State Bettas show. I had to attend that show because it was on the Queen Mary, and I love Long Beach.”
Hahn finished the Golden State Bettas Show with a special award — traditional plakat female — as well as four first-place finishes, six second-place finishes and eight third-place finishes to clinch the No. 2 spot in the IBC standings.
The show featured 267 entries with 271 fish being submitted for judging.
“This is exciting,” Hahn said. “I only recently started working with plakats because those are the traditional fighting fish and I didn’t want people getting them to fight. These bettas are pets and meant to be enjoyed.”
A patterned marble single tail female and a shortfin crowntail male were Hahn’s strongest contenders, each fish sweeping their respective categories with first, second and third finishes in the judging.
The female took the top three awards out of seven fish being judged, and the male took three of the four places among the fish submitted for judging.
Hahn also picked up awards for longfin, male and female, iridescent steel, light solid color, patterned marble single tail female, crowntail, doubletail, and show plakat patterned male.
Hahn was back at her stall Saturday at the Kauai Community Market, a partnership with the Kauai County Farm Bureau and the Kauai Community College.
How cool is it that we can buy a betta from the #2 breeder on the planet for about $40 at the KCC Farmers Market? I have one of Liz’s fish and it’s doing great after over a year.