Breeding Bettas

[dominicbeha]

i SAW THIS ARTICLE ELSE WHERE AND THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE OF SOME USE:


first the pair must be "conditioned" - meaning feed them live foods for about a week to stregthen them for the
spawning
then the male is put into the breeding tank, at least a 10 gallon ok

The tank must be clean, you may add stuff like plants and lilly to provide shelter for the female and young fry ok.
how i introduce the male depends on how aggressive my male is. if he very aggressive i put the female in a smaller
net breading trap and just let it float in the tank, that way he could get use to her without hurting her. if he not too aggressive
you can jusT put her in. NOTE WELL there will be fin biting and rough housing ok, you need to observe whether the male
attacks continuously ok. most males would chase the female (may take a couple bites at her) then leave her to make a
nest. he may repeat it alot. (that is, chase female, nuild nest, chase female, build nest lol)

When the female is ready she would go under the nest and they begin spawning. the male actually wraps himself around
the female and "squeezes" her. they may spawn for hours ok. to know when they are done is easy. the male becomes
aggressive again, and stays under the nest most of the time. the eggs can be seen if you look closly, they white lil
dots. YOU MUST REMOVE THE FEMALE. after breeding the male will defend his nest to the death literally, and that
includes against the female too. so take her out and give her meds for her injuries ok.

luckily you wont have much damage, some pairs seem to fall in love on sight. i had a pair that spawned and raised the babies together, then
spawned again. this is rare so you need to pay attention to your fish.

After about two to three days the eggs hatch. the male would try to keep them in his nest so dont panic if you see
him taking babies into his mouth ok. after about 4 days all the babies would be free swimming and not need daddy no
more. you can remove the male then. now the babies are fragile so any sudden change in water conditions culd kill
them. try to keep it as close as it was to their time of birth for best results. also after they reach two weeks or
so, you could use a filter to keep the water clean. but it must not create a current that is too strong for the fry
ok.

BEFORE BREEDING MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL YOUR EQUIPMENT READY INCLUDING MEDS AND BABY FOOD
hope this helps u a bit

 

[mommyof2bettas]

That was a good article except...
-Females should always be put in a chimney glass, breeding trap, whatever before the male builds her nest. Don't let the female out if the male's nest isn't built.
-After they wrap the female will float, paralyzed. Just thought I'd add this so nobody freaks when this happens!
-The eggs hatch in about 48 hours, and the babies are free-swimming in about 3 days.
-You need specific foods for fry, not just any baby food. You'll need microworms, vinegar eels, or baby brine shrimp. It's best to feed infusoria, vinegar eels, or microworms for the first days, and then switch to baby brine shrimp, or keep feeding microworms and vinegar eels.
-You can add the filter even before you introduce your pair. Just make sure the current is verrry slow.
-An awesome website is bettatalk.com, her beeding and raising the fry sections are very thorough and helpful!
Other than that...