Betta Breeding Experiment

froglover007

froglover007

Obsessed 13-year-old
Apr 15, 2009
893
0
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Alberta
Hi all,
I am doing an experiment on line breeding bettas to produce certain traits and the probability of those traits coming up further down the line. I have a limited budget ($300 max, maybe a bit more) so I would like the cheapest and most efficient way to go about this. I was thinking of buying the following equipment:

17 Large Glass Jars (to hold the males awaiting sale)
1 5 gallon Tank (to hold the breeding male)
2 30 gallon Tanks (one to hold the females, the other for breeding/raising the fry)

Will this be enough and do you have any ideas for saving cash on this? I will probably sell the bettas that are less pure to my local lfs in exchange for fish food to keep the experiment running. Also, do you think I could do this for only $300?

Thanks,
Tom
 
You can expect 100 fry easily from a good sized female. Once you can sex them THEY can sex each other and if you want perfect males you'll need to separate them at that point. That's alot of small containers. If you're looking for a specific trait like long fins, you'll have to raise them for 4 months to really know what you have and whether or not it's inline with what you want. I guess what I'm saying is I don't think your setup as described will work. You'll need alot more small containers, unless you build some sort of central system which would no doubt be more expensive than $300. And you're looking at a whole lot of fun when water changes are due!
 
Just make sure that as you raise the fry, there will be a stage as they develop their labyrinth. This is where Bettas are able to gulp air from the surface. The temperature of the water should roughly match the temperature of the air. If not, they will develop an infection and die. Most breeders lose their fry during this stage. Good Luck!
 
I don't know much specifically about Betta breeding, but I can offer a bit of advice on generally setting up an efficient, cheap fishroom.

10 gallon tanks are probably your best bet, being only about 10-14$ from Petsmart or Petco. I just got two for 11$ onsale. They're also an easy size to manage, and easy to make compact racks for. Take a look at my rack in the DIY section under "Fish shed build thread". One moderate sized air pump could power maybe 10 sponge filters as well, available for abuot 4.50each from Kensfish.com. Also you'll probably want to heat the entire room instead of each tank. It saves on buying a bunch of heaters, as well as not having to plug all of them in.

I think you can do it! Form a plan for your major equipment purchases, then go for it! Keep us all updated.
 
I used a 30 gallon with a separate type net inside so that both the male and female could look at each other and while the male looks at the female he will make his nest. You could buy some Dried Almond Leaves on ebay they speed the betta procces up. You will need lots of jars. Expect 100 babys at first but some will die. Keep the whole tank covered. When the babys grow up more you can place them into their own jars or cups whatever you get. And make sure you take the female out after all eggs dropped the male does all the work later. Then once the babys can swim on their own take the male out too. So the male and female need their own tanks now plus jars for the new ones. Hope this helps.
 
I will look more into it and I am doing a lot of research. I will be very careful with the fry and I hope to sell them off quite quickly as soon as they are adults. I hope to achieve this by striking a deal with my lfs. I could probably get lots of jars to hold them in the meantime. I am going to keep all the females together until I sell them off and I will be smart about the water changes for all the tanks. I might fail the first time but I will keep trying. Thanks for the advice,
Tom
 
If you live in an area where fluctuations are normal in weather your bettas are gonna suffer without a heater. As well as baby bettas seems to grow faster with heated water when my uncle bred his halfmoons a long time ago.

He had a 10 gallon tank filled with 2/4 water, barebottom with a heater and he had both the male and female in there to spawn. Less water equals to less work for the male to keep going up and down the tank to gather eggs. Took out the female after breeding and placed her into her tank to mend her fins and recuperate.

Also this has to be expressed a lot, veiltails are the most common betta bred and is not the way to go. If you want to make some profit to fund your experiement get a strain of betta not likely seen on the market OR buy a real nice one with coloration and strain and breed the fry for profit.

Anyway... Uncle than fed the fry baby brine shrimp and microworms. When they started turning into boys and girls he seperated the sexes and put all the girls in a 40 gallon tank. As for the boys he had this rig he bought on aquabid.com or some other place which is considered a "betta hotel". Which latches onto the 10 gallon tank with 4 hotels as well as place dividers into the 10 gallon tank which pretty much made a 10 gallon tank hold 8 males.

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Culling is also a factor, any deformities will need to be culled.

10 gallon tanks at petsmart are usually around $11.99
Dividers are... maybe $10
Heater $14.99
A microworm culture is $3 easy with free shipping with air mail and lasts forever as long as you keep making new batches
Baby Brine shrimp packets are usually around $5 or buy the vial of eggs for cheaper around $3
The Betta Hotel is called betta barracks on aquabid.com and the price ranges from each seller $$$
Than if you want to make some cash get a very nice pair of bettas which will be likely a bit of $$$$

Jars are fine and all only if you live in an area where the temperature doesn't fluctuate a lot and you do water changes almost everyday. I would also like to point out his female tank had a lot of plants and they had beautiful colors always. A jar seemed to be stressful so plants and a background helps.
 
Thanks SO much. You were very helpful and this will probably greatly reduce the prices of seperate jars. Again, I thank you very much.
 
If you take a 2L bottle and cut the top off a few inches down where it starts to taper, you would end up with about a 1.75L container which i believe would be big enough for one male.
 
um i hate to break it to you but 17 jars is not even close to the amount you'll need bettas have hundreds of fry. I cull mine so in the end i end up with about 50 offspring.DarrylR are those bettas yours?
 
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