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Rivermud76

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Hi,

I was curious whether there were any official IBC members on this board. I was reading about their free betta program and it sounds interesting to me. I have bred many species of fish in my career mainly livebearers and cichlids (african substrate and mouthbrooders). I am keen on the idea of trying my hand at some of the more fancy bettas. I have already read the posts regarding the breeding of betas and why to breed or not breed. I was thinking of trying to breed some of older varieties that are no longer very popular including spadetails and pintails. I would also like to get into some show quality fish and see if I can get a decent strain of Half Moons going. If anybody has any suggestions for this beginner in bettas I would greatly appreciate it. If anybody here is a member of the IBC and would like to be a mentor I would also appreciate it.

Thanks,
 
Hi there Rivermud! I joined IBC last summer, and my local IBC chapter. I'm afraid I couldn't be your mentor because I'm still new to the hobby, but I'll offer any knowledge or advice I can to you. Betta pals is a program that IBC created to allow new members to aquire a nice pair of breeding stock for the price of just shipping. It is a good program and you can be assigned a mentor from your area, or closest to you, when you join.

Warning-Bettas are addicting! :hyper:
 
I am finding just researching them is addicting. I have probably put over 50 hours of research into everything from filtration to tank size for optimal growth. Some of the varying opinions have me amused. The idea of keeping females in a grow out tank while placing males in jars seems a bit off to me because the females with have better filtration, more even heat and thus will grow faster. this in my opinion would throw off your breeding routine because your males wouldn't mature fast enough to keep a line breeding setup going correctly. Also, I have not heard of anyone trying to cross out with a wild type to try to preseve a level 2 gene. This is common practice in other types of line breeding so I am curious to learn how it's done with bettas. Thanks for the offer of help and the encouragement..
 
Impressive.
You are really doing your homework and I really LOVE to see that when people decide to breed bettas. Normally people just decide out of the blue that it'd be fun to see tiny bettas everywhere and they're not at ALL prepared for the journey.

Congrats on your decision!
 
yer he has done his homework, sounds like he just copied and pasted it lol

just joking though, good luck
 
Hi rivermud. Welcome to the betta breeding. I hope you get 500 over in your first batch of babies. LOL J/K.
If you need help, we are here. :D
 
Bloomjack said:
yer he has done his homework, sounds like he just copied and pasted it lol
Don't be mad ,just because (s)he can spell and actually construct a paragraph.

Rivermud~ females are often kept in grow outs because of space,they do grow larger when in a large tank but not so big that you wouldn't be able to spawn them. If you get a female of choice (excellent rays and form) then you can jar her and use her as your breeder. They also grow so differently that sometimes they need to remain in a grow out in order to catch up.

Betta Pals is the organization that you've read of with the free bettas. When the IBC put on a betta show and members send in fish they usually put them up for auction. If the fish does not sell and the breeder did not include shipping money to send them home they are donated to Betta Pals. When you join the IBC you will be appointed a Betta Pal as a mentor,it's your choice whether you use them or not. You will alo receive a letter in the mail telling you who to get your free fish from,they will often fill you in on what they have to offer or give you an addy where you can get ahold of them and ask.

As Yeevia said,we here are more than happy to help as well. When you say crossing wild types,that is often done with some species but the truely wild species are another fascinating branch of the IBC. The species maintenance program is set up for breeder to keep wild caught and F+ generations of wild fish. They're often traded amongst a certain number of breeders who keep records of breeding info and such. There's also a class for showing wild types. Fun,fun.

Aside from the show season ( :hyper: which is finally upon us!) my favorite thing about being a member is the exclusive forums that you can join to rub elbows wth the big wigs and also Flare magazine :wub: Gotta love the Flare!
 
Bloomjack said:
i was joking actually looks like you didnt get it, was very complex
Yes,you're obviously too deep for me :rolleyes: Now quit spamming,if you can't add anything of value,don't post.
 
:nod: Very nice homework indeed...I think there was even some extra credit work thrown in there lol.

*wonders if this new member knows he is smart mouthing a Mod* lol I'd take note if you didn't..or that is my perception of the situation anyways :lol: .


*also wishes there were more DT's avliable on AB for her to buy.....mumbles off in search of one now that she thought about it* :fun:
 
I'm an IBC member as well (though relatively new to bettas). It's definately worth joining! Flare magazine, as wuv said, is great!

As far as the Betta Pals program -- it tends to be a slow process (at least, from my experience), so you have to be a little patient. (I imagine it's a LOT of work for them sorting out all those fish and who gets what and assigned to what betta pal... makes my head spin to think about it!)

I'd love to see someone bring back spade tails ... I'm really fond of them. :wub: Though, I'm not sure where you'd find breeding stock to begin with (though if you join the IBC and post on their "members only" boards -- if there's spade tails to be had, you'd find a breeder there, I bet)... definately would be an interesting project though!
 
Wow, I never expected this much in teh way of replies. Thanks. Anyway, I appreciate the words of encouragement. I suppose the main reason I posted on here was because I knew there were several members with years of experience keeping bettas and I value that experience. It will probably be another month before I am ready to order my first fish. This is due to several things including building the setup, stocking the med cabinet, and performing more research.

I have a few other questions. Since several of you breed bettas, do you have any sort of genetic records? I have created a small database to keep records of my guppy generations. This basically allows me to click several drop down menus to detail things like batch size, growth rate, color throws, and other things so i can accurately trace whether a particular gene was recessive or dominant and whether or not that particular gene was specific to the female or male side of the strain. (helps so much to be able to track what coloration comes from what side) Anyway, if you all have a standing database or a program that tracks these already in place for bettas I would appreciate any information you could give me on it.

Thank you all again for the words of encouragment.
 
Okay, so I have what might be considered a relatively dumb question. (Won't be the first time I posted one of those, won't be the last :rolleyes: )

Anyway -
the IBC - can you join that if you just have little veiltail walmart rescues?
Do people really just send in their beautiful fishies for shows and then never get them back? Hmm..
 
Betta Momma, yes, everyone can join IBC. We will just not like you because you don't have the right type of betta :rofl: :rofl: (Kidding you know) People don't send their bettas off to a show and not get them back due to the show or IBC, but they normally choose to allow the club to keep the fish and auction it off to keep the proceeds or to donate to the Betta Pals program. Most breeders don't get their fish sent the fish back to them because shipping twice can be stressful, and sometimes too much on a fish. So, most will auction them off and then the buyers don't have to pay shipping charges to get nice fish into their area from good breeders.

I haven't made any type of recording system that detailed. I considered it, but I don't have near enough time to keep it up. Instead I use a subject divided notebook and make notes, and each fish gets an index card to hold their info.
 
You can join IBC if you don't own a single fish! :thumbs: As for gettting fish back from shows, you can pay for them to be shipped back to you if you don't want them auctioned. But for many people, the auction after the show is an effective way to find loving homes for their spawns - they don't want to go home with the 20 fish they entered!

Rivermud, betta genetics are a bit of a sticky wicket - there is a lot of current discussion going on about many traits. However, in the pinned topic with betta links, I believe you will find some links to pages that discuss betta genetics. I like Jim sonnier's genetics page as a starting point - then you can decide what specific traits you are interested in working with. Also, there are some great articles here - I particularly recommend any of the articles by Gene Lucas,
 

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