betta_101
Fish Fanatic
okay here is another thing i wrote... if you could read this and see if it sounds okay then that would be great! and i have a few quesions at the end.
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Breeding Bettas
Well you decided to breed bettas huh? Well i'm gonna try to help you with everything i can. Well first you want a good quality pair if you want to sell the fry, your not going to make money off veil tails. So spend a few more bucks on some halfmoons or crown tails, whatever you want. And you want to make sure you have all your supplies before you even let that male put his eyes on that nice female you got.
Conditioning
First you need to take good care of them bettas. They better be healthy and fed good. This is called conditioning. You need to do this for two weeks. And during this two weeks they need to fed live foods. If you can get mosquito larvae that is a good choice but they are really hard to find. You can also get freezed dried bloodworms, frozen bloodworms.. They both need fed a lot. 2-4 times a day and a lot! Remember to get out the uneaten food at the bottom.. You want the water to be so clean for them. So you can have a filter in the tank that you are keeping them in. Unless they are in a bowl then change the water... Just keep the water clean! and people also let the male and female see eachother for a little bit each day..
If you are keeping the male in the breeding tank before you breed them then you can have like a power filter to keep the tank clean, but only for conditioning! So lets move on to a different topic.
Culling
Now culling can be taking them to a pet store or a giving it away b/c you don't like the colors it has. But what i am talking about it killing them b/c of their colors. I think it would be okay if the fish was deformed til it couldn't live a happy life but killing them b/c they arn't the color you wanted isnt right to me. They are living, not some thing. People who do that have no respect for them. They have emotions just like us. People will do this b/c that isn't the finage that you want or the color... they are living, breathing creatures that should have a life, not just based on how pretty in color they are or how glamorous their fins are. Their life should not be based on that. So keep that in mind. And don't kill no fish based on their looks.
What you should have
Now here is a list on what you need.
A breeding tank - at least 10 gallons
A Male and Female betta fish - obviously!
A styrofoam cup for the bubble nest
Medicine - for rips in their fins - can get at pet store
Plants - live or fake - live is better
A dechlorinator for the water - to remove chlorine from tap water - can get at pet store
Sponge / Corner Filter - this is optional - you can do water changes instead.
Air pump - for filter - if you use one.
Valve - to control air flow - can get at pet store - makes the filter less powerful for the fry
air line tubing - for air to the filter
Aquarium Salt
Hurricane Glass - to put the female in to separate the male and female, but so they can see each other
A heater - i don't use one b/c i use a light to keep the water at 80-82 degrees but the water needs to be at least 80 degrees.
Lights so the male can see the eggs..
What you are going to need later for the fry
A lot of jars to house the aggressive fish - you can also use like containers - some people use 2 liter pop bottles..
Microworm culture - to feed them!
Baby Brine Shrimp Eggs - BBS
A grow out tank for the fry - say 30-50 gallons. 30 at the least.
Setting up the tank
Now first fill the tank up to about 5 inches of dechlorinated tap water, also put some salt in the water. Have your plants on the left side. The Hurricane glass or you can use a two liter pop bottle with the top cut off ( ive heard people use that) , should be in the middle. The styrofoam cup should be taped to the front right corner and should be floating above the water. Some people use leaves, lids, plastic wrap.... for the bubble nest. The Sponge / Corner Filter should be in the back left corner, Do Not Turn It On!!! And some people don't deal with filters and just do water changes. Its up to you.
So you have set the tank up and conditioned the pair and got all the supplies ready? if you do then move on.
And here are some notes - You should not feed the male or female during this period of breeding. Some people do and some people don't, it is up to you. and do not feed the male once there are fry for 3 days, also again it is up to you if you should feed him or not. You can go through trial and error til you find what is right for you. i will tell you more of this later about the fry.
The male could already been in the breeding tank before. Now if he wasn't then put him in a container and float it in the water of the breeding tank. Do the same with the female. They will see each other and the male will flare and the female might have vertical bars on her sides. And she might be swimming with her head down. These are signs that she is ready. Well anyway i would float them in there for about 30 minutes and then add some water from the tank in the containers and then wait another 30 minutes so the temperature can settle.
So after an hour or so of letting them sit release the female into the hurricane glass. Then release the male into the tank. He will swim around her and flare at her. He will start to build a bubble nest under the cup or what ever you have. She might have the signs that she is ready. Which is the bars and swimming with her head down.
Give the male time to build a good size bubble nest. Don't rush him! you could give him a day or so....
So the male has a good size bubble nest? Thats good if he does. Does the female have bars and swimming with her head down? yes, then your in good shape! if not give her some more time.. It was always the female that i had problems with... lol.. or maybe the males wern't good enough for them.
so if you see both of these then i give you permission to put your big hand in tank and take out the hurricane glass, releasing the female. Now you have to watch them closely. They can get hurt badly and could possibly be killed. So if you see that they are in danger of being very badly hurt or killed and then you should remove them from each other and put some fin repair - the medicine- to treat her... or him ( sometimes )
More notes - You should leave on the lights at night so that the male can see the eggs if they spawn at night.
The male will chase the female and thats why you have those plants in that tank so that the female can hide if she wants to. The female might get tears in her fins. But that is normal.
So then the male will chase her and stay under his nest. Now once the female is ready to spawn she will go under the cup to where the nest is. This is a sign that they are going to spawn.
Spawning
The female goes under the nest. The male is under the nest too. They circle each other. Now what happens is that the female flips upside down and the male will wrap his body around her to where both of their abdomens are touching. So then he squeezes the eggs out of her. Eggs fall out of her and sink to the bottom. She seems paralyzed and doesn't move for a couple seconds. The male will rush down pick up eggs in his mouth and then rush up to the bubble nest and then spit the eggs into the nest sticking them to the bubbles.
They can do this many times having a lot of eggs in the spawning process. So once you see that there are no more eggs and that the female moves away from the nest it is this time to remove the female.
Give her nice clean water betta medicine for those fins and feed her.
The male and the eggs
The male will now take care of the eggs for the next 36-72 hours depending on the temperature of the water. Now he will rearrange the eggs, blow some more bubbles, clean the eggs, look on the bottom for more eggs, vent them with his pectoral fins to keep water moving and prevent fungus from attacking them, replace popped bubbles, blow more. Overall he just takes care of them.
So remember these - leave the lights on night and day, and do not feed him, but if you decide to then just a little bit.
They Hatch
You got these little things that look like little hairs hanging from the bubble nest? Yep. Then you have fry! And they keep on falling, up and down they go. The male is running crazy, or swimming crazy, going up and down pick them up putting them in the nest.. picking up more putting them in the nest. picking up more and spitting them in the nest.... you get the idea. This could go on for hours or even days!
Hopefully after a day they will go up to the surface and settle there. The bubbles might be gone but they should be able to float on the water. So don't freak out. But sometimes there are spawns that sink for 3 days, but at 3 days they should be free swimming.
So they are still growing. Their tissues and organs have not completely formed yet. They are feeding off of their yolk sac, which they will from day 1 until day 3. So you don't have to feed them, yet. Keep off of them and stay away. don't mess with them. lol... just keep your big ugly hands out..
Rearing the fry
At Day three they have used up their yolk sac and can now swim b/c their swimming organs have developed. So they will swim away from the nest and now Mr.Betta needs to be removed. So get some water from the breeding tank and net the male in it. Make sure you don't get any fry in the net. You can feed him now once he is in his own tank.
The fry will need fed b/c they are free swimming and have no yolk sac left. So get a small amount of microworms and put that in the breeding tank for the fry. You can order them off of ebay or other sites..
You need to feed them four times a day. You will have to feed them every four hours. And you can also feed them Baby Brine Shrimp (BBS).
Some notes - you need to turn off the lights at night for the fry, and cover the tank. Microworms take 7 days to bloom, so get the food earlier. Be prepared!!
Now about keeping the tank clean. You can use a filter if you want to or you could have no filter in the tank and do water changes. Here is a thing you can go by if you are doing water changes.
On the fifth day you can do a 30% water change up to two weeks. And then after that you can do 100% water changes. I was told this by someone on a forum.So do the changes gradually. And keep the water at the same level, which should be around 5 inches.
- so i know i already wrote something before on here but i wrote another one and wanted to see if this one sounded okay. i also added this to my site - which really isnt BIG or anything special but....
well i need some help with rearing the fry. i researched a lot on all of the stuff i have in the article.
IF you could give me some information about feeding the fry at like a week or later that would be awesome!... And i know that you have to seperate the fry since they could get aggresive towards eachother but i was wondering when exactly is this - at how many weeks... well i heard a lot of differnt weeks from people....
i guess it depends on that fry...
Thanks,
Chris
B)
-
Breeding Bettas
Well you decided to breed bettas huh? Well i'm gonna try to help you with everything i can. Well first you want a good quality pair if you want to sell the fry, your not going to make money off veil tails. So spend a few more bucks on some halfmoons or crown tails, whatever you want. And you want to make sure you have all your supplies before you even let that male put his eyes on that nice female you got.
Conditioning
First you need to take good care of them bettas. They better be healthy and fed good. This is called conditioning. You need to do this for two weeks. And during this two weeks they need to fed live foods. If you can get mosquito larvae that is a good choice but they are really hard to find. You can also get freezed dried bloodworms, frozen bloodworms.. They both need fed a lot. 2-4 times a day and a lot! Remember to get out the uneaten food at the bottom.. You want the water to be so clean for them. So you can have a filter in the tank that you are keeping them in. Unless they are in a bowl then change the water... Just keep the water clean! and people also let the male and female see eachother for a little bit each day..
If you are keeping the male in the breeding tank before you breed them then you can have like a power filter to keep the tank clean, but only for conditioning! So lets move on to a different topic.
Culling
Now culling can be taking them to a pet store or a giving it away b/c you don't like the colors it has. But what i am talking about it killing them b/c of their colors. I think it would be okay if the fish was deformed til it couldn't live a happy life but killing them b/c they arn't the color you wanted isnt right to me. They are living, not some thing. People who do that have no respect for them. They have emotions just like us. People will do this b/c that isn't the finage that you want or the color... they are living, breathing creatures that should have a life, not just based on how pretty in color they are or how glamorous their fins are. Their life should not be based on that. So keep that in mind. And don't kill no fish based on their looks.
What you should have
Now here is a list on what you need.
A breeding tank - at least 10 gallons
A Male and Female betta fish - obviously!
A styrofoam cup for the bubble nest
Medicine - for rips in their fins - can get at pet store
Plants - live or fake - live is better
A dechlorinator for the water - to remove chlorine from tap water - can get at pet store
Sponge / Corner Filter - this is optional - you can do water changes instead.
Air pump - for filter - if you use one.
Valve - to control air flow - can get at pet store - makes the filter less powerful for the fry
air line tubing - for air to the filter
Aquarium Salt
Hurricane Glass - to put the female in to separate the male and female, but so they can see each other
A heater - i don't use one b/c i use a light to keep the water at 80-82 degrees but the water needs to be at least 80 degrees.
Lights so the male can see the eggs..
What you are going to need later for the fry
A lot of jars to house the aggressive fish - you can also use like containers - some people use 2 liter pop bottles..
Microworm culture - to feed them!
Baby Brine Shrimp Eggs - BBS
A grow out tank for the fry - say 30-50 gallons. 30 at the least.
Setting up the tank
Now first fill the tank up to about 5 inches of dechlorinated tap water, also put some salt in the water. Have your plants on the left side. The Hurricane glass or you can use a two liter pop bottle with the top cut off ( ive heard people use that) , should be in the middle. The styrofoam cup should be taped to the front right corner and should be floating above the water. Some people use leaves, lids, plastic wrap.... for the bubble nest. The Sponge / Corner Filter should be in the back left corner, Do Not Turn It On!!! And some people don't deal with filters and just do water changes. Its up to you.
So you have set the tank up and conditioned the pair and got all the supplies ready? if you do then move on.
And here are some notes - You should not feed the male or female during this period of breeding. Some people do and some people don't, it is up to you. and do not feed the male once there are fry for 3 days, also again it is up to you if you should feed him or not. You can go through trial and error til you find what is right for you. i will tell you more of this later about the fry.
The male could already been in the breeding tank before. Now if he wasn't then put him in a container and float it in the water of the breeding tank. Do the same with the female. They will see each other and the male will flare and the female might have vertical bars on her sides. And she might be swimming with her head down. These are signs that she is ready. Well anyway i would float them in there for about 30 minutes and then add some water from the tank in the containers and then wait another 30 minutes so the temperature can settle.
So after an hour or so of letting them sit release the female into the hurricane glass. Then release the male into the tank. He will swim around her and flare at her. He will start to build a bubble nest under the cup or what ever you have. She might have the signs that she is ready. Which is the bars and swimming with her head down.
Give the male time to build a good size bubble nest. Don't rush him! you could give him a day or so....
So the male has a good size bubble nest? Thats good if he does. Does the female have bars and swimming with her head down? yes, then your in good shape! if not give her some more time.. It was always the female that i had problems with... lol.. or maybe the males wern't good enough for them.
so if you see both of these then i give you permission to put your big hand in tank and take out the hurricane glass, releasing the female. Now you have to watch them closely. They can get hurt badly and could possibly be killed. So if you see that they are in danger of being very badly hurt or killed and then you should remove them from each other and put some fin repair - the medicine- to treat her... or him ( sometimes )
More notes - You should leave on the lights at night so that the male can see the eggs if they spawn at night.
The male will chase the female and thats why you have those plants in that tank so that the female can hide if she wants to. The female might get tears in her fins. But that is normal.
So then the male will chase her and stay under his nest. Now once the female is ready to spawn she will go under the cup to where the nest is. This is a sign that they are going to spawn.
Spawning
The female goes under the nest. The male is under the nest too. They circle each other. Now what happens is that the female flips upside down and the male will wrap his body around her to where both of their abdomens are touching. So then he squeezes the eggs out of her. Eggs fall out of her and sink to the bottom. She seems paralyzed and doesn't move for a couple seconds. The male will rush down pick up eggs in his mouth and then rush up to the bubble nest and then spit the eggs into the nest sticking them to the bubbles.
They can do this many times having a lot of eggs in the spawning process. So once you see that there are no more eggs and that the female moves away from the nest it is this time to remove the female.
Give her nice clean water betta medicine for those fins and feed her.
The male and the eggs
The male will now take care of the eggs for the next 36-72 hours depending on the temperature of the water. Now he will rearrange the eggs, blow some more bubbles, clean the eggs, look on the bottom for more eggs, vent them with his pectoral fins to keep water moving and prevent fungus from attacking them, replace popped bubbles, blow more. Overall he just takes care of them.
So remember these - leave the lights on night and day, and do not feed him, but if you decide to then just a little bit.
They Hatch
You got these little things that look like little hairs hanging from the bubble nest? Yep. Then you have fry! And they keep on falling, up and down they go. The male is running crazy, or swimming crazy, going up and down pick them up putting them in the nest.. picking up more putting them in the nest. picking up more and spitting them in the nest.... you get the idea. This could go on for hours or even days!
Hopefully after a day they will go up to the surface and settle there. The bubbles might be gone but they should be able to float on the water. So don't freak out. But sometimes there are spawns that sink for 3 days, but at 3 days they should be free swimming.
So they are still growing. Their tissues and organs have not completely formed yet. They are feeding off of their yolk sac, which they will from day 1 until day 3. So you don't have to feed them, yet. Keep off of them and stay away. don't mess with them. lol... just keep your big ugly hands out..
Rearing the fry
At Day three they have used up their yolk sac and can now swim b/c their swimming organs have developed. So they will swim away from the nest and now Mr.Betta needs to be removed. So get some water from the breeding tank and net the male in it. Make sure you don't get any fry in the net. You can feed him now once he is in his own tank.
The fry will need fed b/c they are free swimming and have no yolk sac left. So get a small amount of microworms and put that in the breeding tank for the fry. You can order them off of ebay or other sites..
You need to feed them four times a day. You will have to feed them every four hours. And you can also feed them Baby Brine Shrimp (BBS).
Some notes - you need to turn off the lights at night for the fry, and cover the tank. Microworms take 7 days to bloom, so get the food earlier. Be prepared!!
Now about keeping the tank clean. You can use a filter if you want to or you could have no filter in the tank and do water changes. Here is a thing you can go by if you are doing water changes.
On the fifth day you can do a 30% water change up to two weeks. And then after that you can do 100% water changes. I was told this by someone on a forum.So do the changes gradually. And keep the water at the same level, which should be around 5 inches.
- so i know i already wrote something before on here but i wrote another one and wanted to see if this one sounded okay. i also added this to my site - which really isnt BIG or anything special but....
well i need some help with rearing the fry. i researched a lot on all of the stuff i have in the article.
IF you could give me some information about feeding the fry at like a week or later that would be awesome!... And i know that you have to seperate the fry since they could get aggresive towards eachother but i was wondering when exactly is this - at how many weeks... well i heard a lot of differnt weeks from people....
i guess it depends on that fry...
Thanks,
Chris
B)
. Even with the filter you'll need to do water changes. I do not suggest doing 100% water changes, it'll be hard with all the fry. Do a 50% water change evry week, you can use a turkey baster, syringe, or gravel vac and oyu have to make sure you don't suck in any fry. You feed them microworms, bbs, or ve's until they are too big, at which they'll eat normal betta food. They have to be jarred whenever they start showing agression-this varies but could be from 2 months to 3 or 4 months (I think).
