Mating bettas?

Question

I have a male in a 2.5 gallon divided tank, and a female in a separate 1 gallon tank. She is quite pudgy and looks like she may be full of eggs. (she was very slender when I bought her) How do I know when it is okay to introduce her to the other side of the divided tank? He just spends most of his time hanging out beneath the plant on his side, and hasn't blown any bubble nest yet. Or does he do that after I introduce her? Advise appreciated. :)

Answer 1

My first advice to you is to slow down and do a little planning. First, you will need some additional equipment, but you will also need to think about what you are getting into breeding them. You will have a few hundred fish at first that will need several feedings a day as well as daily water changes. Assuming all goes well, in a few months you would have about 6-75 bettas to house and take care of. You need to consider that aspect and plan for it before you even put the two of them together. I have been breeding bettas for sale and for show for over 20 years and this is how I do it.

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 do no longer think of you may mate bettas because of the fact whilst they are located with different bettas, they try to kill eachother. on the different hand, you may incredibly positioned a betta fish in a tank with different fish besides yet another betta. There should not be 2 bettas in a million fish tank mutually. The betta would desire to easily be with fish that are no longer aggressive. try to %. calm fish like guppies and garami's. We at present have a betta in a great fish tank with all our different fish and it does great. we've guppies, garamis, ram fish, knife fish, small fish like that. None are agressive and that all of them seem to get alongside with eachother nice. wish that helps! =]

Answer 3

you can't breed them in a 2.5gallon tank. do you know how many fry there will be? each of those will poop, creating tons of waste. this is in addition to all the uneaten food, the dad fish for the first few days, and the waste the mom leaves before breeding. do you have a separate tank for the male once the babies can swim? do you have hundreds of jars for the male fry once they're old enough to fight? do you have a place for all the fry to go? do you have a antibiotics and anitfungal meds for after breeding to treat the parent's water to prevent infection from mating wounds? do you have the breeding tank heater to 85°F? do you have a small corner filter?

if no, then I suggest you study up. a lot.
http://bettatalk.com/breeding_bettas.htm
http://bettatalk.com/rearing_the_fry.htm

Answer 4

The breeding pair:
1)- One pair of younger bettas from a good breeder. Pick a strain easy to work with and not too expensive to start with. $20 to $30 for the bettas and $20 for Express mail shipping costs. Please do not try to save a few bucks by having your pair priority mailed. Priority mail is not guarantied to not go in the unpressurized cargo area of the planes. Many bettas shipped priority mail have EXPLODED while on the planes!!! Please don’t jeopardize your bettas lives and spend the extra $10 to get them there safely.

2)- Two one gallon glass jars to house each of your bettas. $15

3)- Water conditioners and additives as follow: Amquel ($9) Novaqua ($9) Aquarisol ($3) PH down—in most cases—($4) aquarium salt ($5)

4)- First aid must have medications: Maroxy ($3), Methylene Blue ($5), Tetracycline and a few other antibiotics ($5 each)

5)- Food to feed the little critters: freeze dried brine shrimp ($10), or frozen foods or live brown worms ($1 a portion—you will need many portions over the next months)

6)- Two fish nets ($2 each)

Subtotal = $130

The spawning tank:
1)- 10 gal or 5 gal spawning tank (same price $20 with cover and light)

2)- Mini penplax corner filter ($5)

3)- Small airpump to run the above filter ($10)

4)- Tubing and valve for above ($4)

5)- SUBMERSIBLE (and submersible only) heater 25W to 50W no more or you will cook you fish! ($15)

6)- One stirofoam cup (free… Woaw that’s a new concept!)

7)- One piece of scotch tape

8)- One chimney glass (from your local hardware store) ($4)

9)- One or two very thick bushy plastic plants ($6 each)

10)- a pack of small plant weights ($3)

11)- a mini tank cleaner (vacuum) ($7)

Subtotal = $74

The fry related purchases:
1)- One microworm cultureto be purchased about 3 weeks before attempting the spawning. ($10)

2)- Brine shrimp eggs ($6) extra valve and T connector to send some of your air pump’s air to the brine shrimp’s hatchery. ($1). Also a 1/2 gal jar with lid to hatch the shrimp in ($1.50)

3)- About 50 to 100 jars for the males to be jarred when they grow and start fighting ($1 each)

4)- preferably another larger tank (40 gal) to move them to when they grow, with cover, light, filter, plants and heater (used $100)

Subtotal = $171.00






GRAND TOTAL you will be coughing up after the Heimlich maneuver :):

About $380.00

Aoutch.

This initial investment is the bare minimum to spawn one pair of bettas, that is of course if you want the pair and their fry to live. If you don’t care if they live or not, then you could cut the cost down. (Boooooooo!).

In all honesty, trying to skip any of the above items will probably cause you to fail in your endeavor. If you try to keep 200 fry in a 5 gal or a 10 gal, they will die of bacterial disease or nitrite poisoning. You must provide them with ROOM to grow and survive. Remember: Bettas may lay as many as 500 eggs! Hence the need for a grow out tank and many jars.

Hmmmm… You look pale. Are you OK? :))))

Ah, what the heck, it is only money, and believe me, the enjoyment you will get out of breeding bettas is well worth it.

Have fun shopping, and don’t let that fish store salesman anywhere behind your back!!! Face him at all time! (hehehe I can already picture you walking backwards out of the store!! LOL)

Answer 5

I don't know much about mating, but I know that my betta made a bubble nest and he didn't have a mate.