any breeding tips for bettas?

Answer 1

I have bred bettas for over 20 years and this is what works we 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 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

I have a few for you.
First off make sure you have food for the fry such as microworms, infusoria, vinegar eels and baby brine shrimp. The microworms and vinegar eels can take a couple of weeks to produce enough food for the fry. You should also condition the parents a week prior to spawning. Feed the parents foods that are rich in protein such as bloodworms. Live food will also work.
This is the method I use to breed my Betta's and it works well.
Tank:
I use a 10 gallon tank without gravel. Fill it up half way with treated water. Put a sponge filter or a filter that barely bubbles. (some people don't use a filter they do more water changes) Place some floating plants inside the tank. Doesn't matter real or fake. Make sure you have a heater set to 80 F.
Introducing the parents:
Place the male inside the tank. He will probably start blowing a bubble nest pretty quick. If not get a new oil lmap globe and set it in the middle of the tank. Place your female inside of the globe. Your male will dart and swim around and at her. This way she will not get hurt. Once the bubble nest is a good size you can release the female. You will need to watch them for the next few hours. Betta's are very aggressive even when they mate. The male will chase the female for a while. When the female swims with her head down she is ready to mate. He will lure her under the nest and then wrap his body around her and squeeze her. When he does this he fertilizes the eggs as they come out. He will release the female and swim around to pick up the eggs and he will blow them up in the nest. This will take 2-12 hours. When you see the male chasing the female away from the nest this is when you need to gently remove her. Careful not to touch the nest or to make too many waves. Leave the light on in the tank 24 hours a day so the male can see the eggs and the fry falling. You will need to remove the male after most of the fry are free swimming (swimming side to side not floating up and down) then you will need to feed the fry with infusoria or microworms. At least for the first week to 10 days. Then you can introduce newly hatched baby brine shrimp.
Remember Betta growth is a slow process. In order to get healthy fry you must do water changes when needed. I don't touch the tank for the first two weeks. Usually around the third week I will siphon the uneaten food up (becareful not to such up any fry..always double check for them in the bucket) I will also add about a gallon of treated water to the tank every few days until the tank is full.
If you have any questions you can contact me.

Answer 3

Do not put the parents together before the fry are born. After the fry are born, do not put the fry together with the parents. Also, it is going to be hard to keep the fry that survive unless you have lots of tanks that are big enough.

Answer 4

I have to agree with the above posters. I would say to research.

Answer 5

go to this site


http://www.ehow.com/how_2002252_breed-betta-fish.html

Answer 6

try this site it has lots of info.
www.flippersandfins.net /BettaBreedingArticle.htm