betta breeding

[spegheticonfeti]

i am interested in breeding betta fish but does anyone have advice? ive been 2 lots of websites but they all said something dfferent. thanks

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

I could probably write an 18,000 word essay on the topic...Hows about zeroing in on a few specific questions...You will get more respose to your thread if you make the question clear and concise...

[spegheticonfeti]

lol ok well how many betta eggs are usually laid and do u have 2 put them all in separate cups?

[khombre]

i think its the males that u wud want to put on separate cups..

i read sumthing sumwhere stating that the females can live together.. is this right mightyqueen? :confused:

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

The male tends the eggs in the bubble nest...Young males are eventually separated (and some aggressive females) to keep from destroying each others fins. Bettas are very challenging to breed and unless you plan on being available every 4 hours for feeding during the day and constantly keeping the fry tanks clean (not to mention jarring 100 fry), you should probably avoid them. You can be looking at a significant investment just to rear 1 spawn.

Yes Khombre, most females can live communally...

[Emg]

MQ is right.....I raised one spawn of betta...that was enough for me...lol. I thought it was pretty cool when I realized they had hit it off and started laying eggs...very cool....

I got over 200 eggs the first shot and the fry did very well. It was pretty easy taking care of them the first 3 months...but then I had to start seperating them... :eek: ...I went out and bought a plastic shelving unit for about 30+$ and a bunch of plastic 10oz cups..(really, larger cups are better..but it's all I could find at the time that would work..so think ahead before you start if you decide to do this)...

I had a pretty good system setup for cleaning all these cups every day and I really had alot of fun with it. It was interesting to watch and see how they grew...but I got mostly females. As much as I enjoyed the process....it took over 6 months before they were ready to go to homes..that in itself was a challenge..finding homes for them..ended up giving alot of them away though I did sell the females to a lfs for 25cents each.

It was a pretty involved process and taking care of them after work was about all I did for those 6 months. Think it through very carefully....lol...

Of course..if I was a bit more ruthless with the culling...I would't have had so many to care for....consider if you would be able to euthenize the ones that are less than quality....not too difficult if you have a friendly neighborhood oscar to feed....I didn't.

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

EMG: 25 cents a head! Robbery...They should of given you atleast a buck! When you do the math, rearing a spawn of common veiltails will net you about a penny a day...Take into consideration water and hydro and there goes the big profit lol!

[Emg]

I didn't care MQ...lol.....I just wanted to get them out of my house....!!!


At first I thought you were saying I should have paid THEM to take them!!...LOL ! I wasn't in it to make money...thought that would have been nice...I just wanted to see what would come from the pairing. The parents were two steel blues and the male was a CT. Most of the fry ended up as common VT with hints of some crowning on the fins. Got one beautiful orange female with clear fins..but as she aged she turned a muddy brown color. I still have her. It was fun, but I wouldn't do it again unless I had a decent barracks system setup in my basement.

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

Yeah, gotta do the barracks thing or your hands will constantly by pruny and reaking of bleach lol...I am working on a barracks situation for my 100 gal...Tedious, but it should work out...Ill post picks and a DIY on it when it is complete...

[Emg]

I had a system where I had plenty of the 10 oz cups. Every day I would syphon out the cups using a piece of airline tubing, leaving just enough for the betta to swim in....then I would use a pitcher to refill the cups. Once a week I would pour each fish into a new clean cup and then wash out all the used cups to be ready for the next cup change. I used very hot water to wash them...NO soap !

It worked rather well and suprisingly didn't take all that much time to syphon out and refill the cups...it was WASHING them that took time. I had 3 shelves full of betta cups...lol...about 40-50 cups on each shelf...with a few extras that didn't fit on the shelf..sitting on the dinningroom table. What a project !!

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

Oh it can totally take up alot of space...I had 80 one bakers rack in the kitchen alone..There was not a room in the house that didnt have fish of one variety of another...Had an open house when i had the house for sale...Word got out and they started to tours of the "aquarium"..People actually just brought their kids by LOL..That lasted exactly one day...No more open houses after that :0