I have for years tried to breed bettas and failed tried numbers of ways and systems all fail . Ive tried removing male after hatching ,Ive left male in till swimming Ive lowered water levels to 2 inches I had water levels to tank tops Ive fed infusiora, baby brine vegetable smoothies nothing seems to work ,Got any ideas ?
2007-02-13 13:18:00 · 5 answers · asked by maxiumdamage 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
This system has always worked for me
Breeding tank: A 10 gallon makes a good breeding tank for bettas. Place in on a dark surface and set it up with no gravel or decorations. Use a small sponge filter and a heater. maintain the heat at 78-82, the temerature is not really that critical. Using a hood is a good idea to hold in heat and moisture.
Conditioning: Condition the male in the breeding tank. Condition the female in a seperate tank and be sure they cannot see each other. Feed well on frozen or live foods alternating with flakes or pellets for at least a week. The female should be plump with eggs and the male should be flaring and showing his best color, maybe even building a bubble nest.
Spawning: Drop the water level in the breeding tank to about 5" deep. Place the female in a bowl or other container next to the breeding tank so that the male can see her. As soon as there is a good bubble nest in the breeding tank add the female. Check for eggs in the bubble nest every few hours. You know they are finished when the female is hiding from the male and he no longer leaves the nest to chase her down. He will also not be trying to attract her to the nest. At this time remove the female from the breeding tank. If they fail to breed within a few hours go back and repeat the conditioning steps for a week.
Eggs and fry: The eggs will hatch in 2 days. At first the male will collect the babies and return them to the bubble nest, this is normal. Once you see that the babes are able to swim in a normal fashion, remove the male. Now is the time to start feeding the babies. Feed them newly hatched brine shrimp, micro worms or vinegar eels. Feed several times a day for the first week to 10 days. At that time you can start addig some powdered flake food to their diet and begin increasing the water level in the tank.
Care: The babies need very clean water. Do a 50% or more water change every day and be sure to remove any uneaten food or dead babies that you see. Keeping the water clean and changed very often is one of the major keys to sucess. Be sure you cull the brood. Culling is to remove unwanted fish. Remove any deformed fish right away and destroy them.
Rearing and selection: Eventually you will need to split the batch as they will over crowd the 10 gallon. Removing the females to another tank is the best way. The males can stay together without a problem. Continue to feed quality foods of increasing size working your way up to frozen or adult brine shrimp and continue to do large daily water changes. Once they begin to develop color, you should cull based on color. Keep the color you like and remove the rest. Even if you started with two reds you will get a few that are not red or are not evenly colored. If they are near adult size a shop should buy them from you or at least give you some store credit. Be ruthless, keep only the very best to breed with next time around.
The males can stay together basically for their entire lives as long as you never seperate them. Once seperated even for a day they will begin to fight so keep that in mind.
Best of luck and stick with it, you'll have baby betta before you know it!
MM
2007-02-13 14:33:25 · answer #1 · answered by magicman116 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i have found success with a ten gallon tank, half full, with a few live plants, water softish, low pH and hot, 85F and low lighting, keep the female for a few weeks then introduce him with a glass divider, after he does it, take mom out and let him hang out with the fry for two weeks or so, every day do a tiny water change with ariline tubing. change a few quarts. you can feed them anything but the live plants will provide the first week of rottifers to eat, and after that you can come up with either crushed flake or crushed pellets, or best, a frozen marine diet, formulate for carnivores. keep up the water changes daily as babies make alot of waste
2007-02-13 13:29:10 · answer #2 · answered by drezdogge 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cycled the tank? Tested the water? Babies are quite fragile and a little bit of ammonia can kill them all.
2007-02-13 13:21:54 · answer #3 · answered by bzzflygirl 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well magicman im not saying your wrong because you arnt
but what if your whole list stops at when the male is SUPPOSED to make a bubble nest and does not??
i dontunderstand why mine isnt
2007-02-13 18:11:02 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i have never tried but here is a website with pix and everything.
http://www.flippersandfins.net/BettaBreedingArticle.htm
2007-02-13 14:53:14 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋