How long do you have to have a betta for it be able to breed?

Question

I have a male betta fish and got a female to breed them. Although the male is a little older how long do you think i should wait until they will start to breed. Also do they need to have a place where they can hide or shelter to breed?

Answer 1

Breeding bettas is not particularly the easiest thing to do. Especailly rasing the young. But it is rewarding, when you get a brood to adulthood. It's a pretty rough process for them. Often the female, though sometimes both of them, will be nipped and bitten, have torn fins, etc., by the end of the ordeal.
How to go about it...
After you feed them on live and or frozen food for two weeks prior to the breeding (live's best, gives them the added exercise of the chase.) (Brine shrimp, mosqoito wrigglers, blackworms, blood worms, etc.) You need to have very specific temperature (80-82 degrees), the water at a depth of 4-6 inches, plants put in (real or plastic, live plants can help with the infusoria culture, but can die, and can kill many of your babies at the same time if they do..), and what I've found works great to hold the male's bubble nest, is a small styrofoam cup cut in half lengthwise. You put the male in, first. Let him have a day in there, then put the female in there in a clear container, so he can see her, but not get to her. Glass hurricane lamp shades work best for this, though you can use basically any jar. Leave her there for another day or two (Don't rush them, give them time), to allow him to build the nest and display to her, make her ready as well. When she seems to be swimming with her head slightly downwards whenever he comes around, and she has slightly visible virtical stripes on her sides (harder to veiw on paler females), let her into the male's tank. He'll probably nip her, and chase her around whenvever he sees her, but eventually (It may take another day or two), she'll come to him with her head down again; and they'll mate. This involves the male wrapping his body around the female and 'squeezing the eggs out' as they do a little shake, as they do this, the male fertilizes the eggs with his 'milt', or sperm. The eggs fall to the bottom of the tank, the male goes to pick them up, and often the female will float to the surface in a funny position, looks like she's dead sometimes (she's just stunned, gives the males a chance to get the eggs to the bubblenest before she 'wakes up' as some females eat the eggs (some males do, too), but some females help put them in the nest as well...), but will come to in a moment or two. And the process happens again and again. When the female's finally emptied of ripe eggs, she's chased off by the male, and you have to remove her from the tank, or he will kill her, as females in the wild eat the fry (In the cinfines of the tank, she can't get away, you MUST remove her...), he protects the nest from all other fish, especially bettas. After a day, sometimes two, you'll see the little fry hatch. They sink to the bottom, the male puts them back into the nest. (Sometimes males will eat them, too, but that's not genearlly the case, depends on the individual male..) After the fry become free swimming (swimming horizontally), then you remove the male, or he will eat them. You feed the newly hatched fry things such as infusoria, vinigar eels, and micro worms, from which they graduate to baby brine shrimp or decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and daphnia, working their way up to adulthood, to start the process over...
And don't just remove him when the babies hatch. They will die. They need put back up in the nest until they are free swimming. Bettas are labyrinth fish, they need air, and the babies can't swim properly when they're newly hatched. If left on the bottom of the tank like if you remove the male, most of the babies will die, leave the male until the babies can swim.
Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Generally you want the male and females the same size. Also the younger the bettas the better. A 1 year old is nearly past prime breeding age. As most of the larger store bettas are a year old. They don't tend to make good breeding stock.

PS- You might want to read up on breeding as it's rather complex process. Also a good breeding can easily result in over a hundred offspring.

Answer 3

I wish to share my experience on breeding betta.

To prepare for spawning, feed both male and female well before bringing them together cos the male usually dont prefer to eat during the breeding process. Best size for female to breed is about 4cm or larger. You need to first prepare your tank for the two. 6 inches high water level is sufficient though I have tried 10inches and it still did well. I used 2ft by 1ft tank. Add stones or something for the female to take shelter. Add plants with broad leaves that can reach to the surface of water so that bubble nest and secure upon. I also use dry leaves that can make water turns brown -- good for babies.

Introducing the two together is important. place the male into the breeding tank first. Cut away a top portion of a 1 litre coke plastic bottle and fill it with water. Place the female into this coke bottle and then the whole bottle into the breed tank. This method can prevent a not-ready female to be attacked by the male. When the female is ready -- can tell by its head slightly down swimming pattern or body colour change back to normal darker shades responding to he male. Now you can release the female to the tank.

From first introduction, male will prepare bubble nests. Two days later, the female will approach the male for egg-hatching. You will see that they actually curl themselves while the eggs are released from the female stomach. The male will fertilised the egg at this point. Eggs will drop to the bottom of the tank and the male especially will pick up all the eggs and blow them to the bubble nest on water surface. about few hundreds eggs will be released depending on the female size. So if the female is not fully grown, you will not be able to expect more eggs. Some females will help to pick up the eggs too. Seperate the female once no more eggs are released as the male will get frustrated at this point and will attack the female.

Leave the male to guide the eggs. 48hrs later or more, the eggs will hatch to fries. Feed the fries with liquid food -- a few drops is sufficient throughout their growth. Apply some amount of bubble air from air stones. At this point, majority of the fries will die. Introduce freshly born brine shrimps as the fries growth slightly after one week later. On the air bubbles throughout but ensure not too much current generated that will disturb the fries. Maintaining fries is a tough experience. You will need few tries to be successful.

Good luck..

Answer 4

I have only been able to get my bettas to breed a few times. You MUST keep them seperated until they are ready though. Here is how to tell:

After your male is happy & healthy, he starts to blow a bubble nest. You will have a bunch of bubbles at the top your bowl. Only then should you add the female. He may harm or even kill her otherwise. If the bubble nest is ready, they usually mate (keep an eye out though incase one of them is fickle). They almost look like they are dancing together when they mate. After about a day of this, return the female to her own bowl. They male watches over the eggs & the young fry.

It is also advisable to seperate the fry after they hatch so they dont become dinner for anyone else. Be careful though, you may end up with countless fish otherwise. They do grow relatively quickly under the right conditions.

Good luck!

Answer 5

Um, are you sure you want them to breed? They can porduce 20-200 offspring. Not all will live of course but still, they all have to be in separate containers. You should wait until the female and male have some weight or fat on them, since mating is a stressful experience. There are so many great websites, I can't recall....search on google to find out more, since the babies need a special environment.

Answer 6

Be very very careful before you attempt to breed this species. The male will harm the female if it is not ready to breed. I suggest you go to a pet shop and buy a book on the species and how to breed and raise the young. It may be more than you expected to have to do...

Answer 7

Just a few months. Put the male and female together, but watch them. She will pop out eggs and he will provide the shelter for them. Then be sure to get the male and female seprated ASAP.

Answer 8

it doesn't matter too much but it is good if u keep them for a month