How can I breed Bettas, I love those fish and I wanna have some of my own. How?

Question

I lover those fish, I had many at many different times and I think it would be interesting to breed some, how do i do it. What precautions, what do i buy etc.

Answer 1

Betas are cool and you are wise to ask before you begin trying to breed them. Good stock is the starting point and the best stock in the world is available from IBC breeders. But those aren't cheap and you might want to start with pet shop fish. Another option though is joining the IBC (International Betta Congress) and requesting a free pair of fish. If available from a breeder that donates them, they will send you a pair, you just pay shipping. Pretty cool of them IMO.

As for breeding, this is how I have been doing it for over 20 years.

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 separate 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 adding 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 success. 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 separate them. Once separated 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!

If I can help any more feel free to email me.

MM

Answer 2

If you want them to have babies, the best thing for you to start feeding them is freeze-dried bloodworms and/or live brine shrimp (you can get them at local pet stores or aquarium shops). These foods are good at supporting hormone developement, and will make them want to have babies.

Within two weeks, the male will start to make a bubble nest. He will take in air with his mouth and make little bubbles on the surface. At the same time, you will slowly se a change in color in the female, and she will get fatter too.

When the bubble nest is about a half an inch tall, put the female in with the male. They will fight like how you see them now... remember, its normal!

When the time is right (within 2 weeks) they will begin their mating "dance." The male will wrap himself around the female and squeeze the eggs out. The eggs will fall to the bottom, (so make sure that your gravel isn't too big, or the male will lose the eggs.) Then the male will take the eggs one by one in his mouth and put them in the nest.

After this you must take the female out of the males tank. DO NOT RUPTURE OR EVEN RATTLE THE BUBBLE NEST EVEN A LITTLE BIT WHEN YOU ARE TAKING THE FEMALE OUT!!! It should be easy anyway because the female will be tired from laying eggs.

The eggs should hatch within 2 weeks.

After the eggs hatch, take the male away from his babies. You can feed the babies liquid fry food (which can also be found in a local pet or fish store) for about a month. But the babies will not eat for about a week, because for the first week of their life they feed off their yolk sack that they were born with.

After about 3 weeks to a month you can feed them betta food, but you should mash it up into a powder.

Then watch them grow!

Answer 3

Yes, Betta breeding isn't easy you often end up with a dead male or female because one has killed the other. When males are ready to breed they'll make a bubble nest (it looks like foam on top of the tank/bowl whatever) a very fat female (this hopefully means she is carrying eggs) should then be introduced. If courting goes well the male will actually push the eggs out in a strange sort of dance - it looks like they are fighting.

This book had some great information and photos for bettas and other labyrinth fish.

http://www.amazon.com/Labyrinth-Fish-Bubble-Nest-Builders/dp/3893561374/ref=sr_1_1/103-1990967-7147053?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178243326&sr=8-1

Answer 4

THis is not easy,I have tried it!
It is good to have a small tank for breeding, but only fill it about half way up. get a hurricane glass lamp cover, and put it in the middle of the tank. Introduce the female into the hurricane cover, this will keep the male from getting to her right away and hurting her. Let them get used to each other for maybe like a day or so. Let him start to prepare his bubble nest. It is very important that there is a bubble nest!!! This is where the eggs will need to stay! Gently pull out the hurricane lamp cover, so as not to disturb the bubble nest. Keep an eye on them, just in case they really hate each other and try to kill each other instead of mating. You will know when they mate when the male curls his body around the female and her eggs drop, then he fertilizes them. She is "stunned" and paralyzed for like a minute. During this time them male grabs as many eggs as he can get, in his mouth, and gently places them in the bubble nest. I think they might do it a few times, but when they are done, GET THE FEMALE out, SHE will eat the eggs, it is the male who watches and tend to them until they hatch! Then take the male out.

YOU GOTTA GO HERE!
http://www.bettatalk.com/breeding_bettas.htm

Answer 5

I think that you can buy a breeding trap at petsmart for fish but I dont know how to use it.

I dont know if that helped.

Answer 6

I love bettas, too. I was going to answer this, but Magicman has the best answer to your question, without a doubt.