How do i get a male and female betta to breed?

Question

when i put them together all they do is fight

Answer 1

I have been breeding bettas for sale and for show for over 20 years and here is what works well for me. Be sure you plan very well for feeding and housing the babies BEFORE you try to breed them again.

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!

MM

Answer 2

Separate the male betta and the female betta with a trasnparent divider. When a male sees a female, he will build his bubble nest. Then, condition the female heavily on live food. After the male builds the nest and the female is heavily full with eggs, then it is time to put them both together. Just remove the divider. Keep an eye on them if the male starts to bug her, then put the divider back in. Try this over and over again till the male is really ready to breed.

Don't worry about the fry being eaten, the male will guard them and until they will be free swimming. When they are free swimming, the male should be fed a lot and the fry needs to be fed tiny infusoria to eat. They should be swimming around in about 5 days. The mal will soon abandon the fry and the fry should be lef alone. Decrease the water level to about 4 inches from the gravel.

To make infusoria, take a small jar and fill it up with water. Boil a small potato. Place the potato inside the jar with the water. Infusoria are tiny small airborne organisms that will start to eat the the potato. After about a week, your jar should be full with infusoria. Dump some of the water with infuaoria and feed them to the fry. I hope your fry gets well.

Answer 3

Most Betta's you buy at pet shops are too old! If you are serious about breeding contact a local breeder to get a young one! This will help your success rate! Separate them until he starts to build a bubble nest, then add female, if they fight take her out and try again later, if she lays eggs after she is done remove her, the male will tend to the eggs till they hatch and for a couple of days after that. If he shows any aggression to the fry remove him! Good luck!

Answer 4

Females cannot be housed with males, because the only time a male tolerates a female is when the female is in condition to mate and is full of eggs for him to fertilize and take care of. Yes the male takes care of the eggs and fry (babies) after hatching until they are free swimming.

Here is how I have done it on more than a few occasions.

Breeding bettas is not easy, but can be accomplished if you are willing to do it right. You must keep them apart while you condition them with good high protein food for about two weeks. Once the female is fat and shows a white dot close to her anal opening, she is ready to spawn.

Both tanks must be kept at or about 78 degrees. The breeding tank should have an air stone that bubbles slightly so as not to disturb the nest (preferably in the opposite end of the tank from the nest).

Float her in a jar in the male's tank so he can see her. If he has not already started a bubble nest, he should start one in a day or so. If he has one started, he will add to it until it is roughly 3-4 inches in diameter and about a half inch high.
Once he has the nest built, slowly release the female, without disturbing his nest. You must now watch them for the next couple hours. If she is ready, they will start the spawning. They will wrap around each other and as she releases the eggs, he will fertilize them.

Next he will pick them up in his mouth and place them into the nest. They will repeat this until she has no more eggs to give him. He will then chase her away or kill her if she cannot get away. You need to remove her at this time to save her life. This will happen in the course of 2-3 hours or sooner if she doesn't have a lot of eggs.

The male will then tend to the eggs and keep up the nest until the eggs hatch in about 3-5 days. You will see lots of little tiny tails hanging down from the nest if you look closely at the under side of the nest. If one becomes dislodged, he will retrieve it and spit it back into the nest.

Once the fry start swimming on their own and straying from the nest he will give up trying to keep them under control and you need to remove him to another tank. Increase the air stone bubbles now so the water surface does not develop a film that could be fatal to the fry as they develop their air breathing (anabantoid) chamber.

Start feeding them VERY fine food three to four times a day as soon as they are free swimming. Infusoria is excellent, as is mashed up hard boiled egg yolk in water. When they get a little larger, start them on baby brine shrimp (BBS). These can be bought frozen at better pet stores. If you do not feed properly, they will not grow and will develop deformities if the tank is not kept spotless.

Keep the fry tank perfectly clean (siphon debris with air line tubing) and do 30-40% water changes every 3-4 days. Keep feeding them good and in a few weeks the males will start fighting and you will have to separate all of them so they don't kill each other. Good luck!

BTW, betta is pronounced bet-tah, not bay-tah...

Answer 5

Very extensive article on steps to breeding betta from an experienced betta breeder:

Answer 6

heres a good site for breeding bettas

http://www.bettatalk.com/breeding_bettas.htm

Answer 7

What size tank are you using. Do you realize often the female will kill the male after breeding and she will often eat her young. She may not like your choice she may want to make her own.

Answer 8

me dont know

Answer 9

Try Viagra