How do you go to selecting a good pair of Bettas for spawning?

Question

Ok, um i have an air pump, a 10 gal tank w/ hood, some brine shrimp eggs, among other things. How do i select a pair so that i can breed them easily? Are the fish at petsmart and petco at the right age to want to breed (between 4-11months)? I really want to know how do condition the bettas for spawing too! Thanks for all your help Mis amigos/as!

Answer 1

You might also want to order a microworm culture and get it going before you start breeding, but that's another post.

In my opinion, if you are serious about selecting the best pair for breedig you really need to join the International Betta Congress and by your breeding stock from a show breeder. You can select you color, tail style and other features and purchase a few males from one breeder and a few females from another breeder and start your own line of that fish. These fish are much healthier, larger and most importantly have very stable geneology and genetic make up in their favor. That is to say if you get a red male crowntail and a red female crowntail from IBC breeders, you will get red crowntail babies. Rarely is this the case with pet shop fish.

To select from pet shop stock try to find fish with the most of the color you want already in them. If you want green, buy green fish. At first like this, the females color is more important than the males. Also look for fish with good finnage and good thick veins in the fins. Avoid fish with more than two colors if at all possible or it will take you years and years to get the color you want.

Here's a little info on a breeding method that has always worked for me. Please feel free to drop me a line at [e-mail] for more info.

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 temperature 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

Answer 2

bettas are best for breeding ages 6-11months
ok
so
www.bettatalk.com

you would want a female a little smaller then the male so he can wrap around properly
she should NOT be bigger then the male
try to pick a younger looking male and female
look for better color
more movement
then just sitting there doing nothing
and fins are not torn up
also try to get a male and female of the same color
i have a blue and red male
and a blue red and green female
so the main color is red (i bred my bettas last thursday)

also
BBS or the brine shrimp are not all that amazing for a first food
you should get a microworm culture
they work better
dont get me wrong BBS are so good for growing because they have a lot of nutrients in them
but the fry cant eat them rigth away

conditioning
you should keep your female and male seperate from each other
and feed them well
3 times a day
they say use frozen bloodworms
i used pellets anf freeze dried bloodworms
and my male didnt eat any babys neither did my female
so

anyways that site should have everything
if not
do a search on google untill you find everything

msn if you want more info
[e-mail]

-Ivan

Answer 3

make sure you have two bettas that are around the same size. You don't want the male chasing around the female. Put the male with the female for a few minutes to allow him to acually see her. After that, remove the female. Have a 5 1/2 gallon bowl or tank. Put a few plants for the female to hide (if nessisary) and make sure the water is warm. NO ROCKS! Put the male in the new tank for about an hour or two to allow him to adjust to his new surrowndings. Add the female after this is done for only a couple hours at a time. Repeat untill the job is done.

Answer 4

I find the following website very useful;
www.bettatalk.com

Answer 5

tell the pet shop if they could condition them