Breeding

[Valyrian]

I've been reading a lot about breeding and wanna start some time. I'm particularly interested in crowntails. My question is should I try to breed VT's first? Because I don't want anything bad to happen to a good pair of CT's due to my inexperience.

 

[wwestar2000]

So having a VT like a test dummie. That sounds really shallow.

 

[Kiarra]

Some people would say that you should, but I say just start with the Crowntails. As long as you know how to do it, there's a lot less risk to the breeding pair. Just learn EVERYTHING you can before you start.

 

[Synirr]

And what would you do with 100+ VT fry once you had them?

Definitely not. Just read everything you can, and if you still don't feel confident, post your breeding plan here and have everyone approve it

 

[Valyrian]

Alright, thanks.

wwestar2000, I was only wondering if I should start with VT's because from what I hear, they are hardier and easier to breed so I thought that it might be a good place to start.

 

[Kiarra]

They aren't easier to breed. Pretty much the same as everybody else.

Except some of the more heavily inbred types, that haven't had any new blood in a LONG time. Those are harder to breed than the average Betta, no matter what the tail type.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If you want to breed bettas its much better to breed quality ones than mutts- VT's are very common and there are basically too many of them around while as crowntails aern't so common and so have a higher demand.
Bettas produce a huge amount of fry and even if you have all the tanks to raise the fry in, if you breed VT's hardly anyone is going to want them and you'll find it very difficult to sell/rehome them- crowntails will be much easier to rehome than VT's.

 

[Valyrian]

Another question about breeding, when I hear about guppies, I hear about problems with inbreeding. However, I see people breeding bettas brother to sister all the time. Is it different with egg layers?

 

[splashluff]

hey Valyrian

I agree with everyone about going ahead and breeding CT's... people HAVE told me to start off with a more inexpensive pair (and look at me, starting with a $85 pair ) just to get you feet wet. As long as you research like crazy and talk to lots of experienced breeders, and you have plenty of time and money to put into it, go ahead and breed a nice CT pair. As was said, it will be SOO much easier to sell and more rewarding for you to breed quality Bettas than to breed mutts.

My pair is a brother and sister. I think it's a really good idea if you want to get a certain color, pattern, and finnage to breed similar siblings... it's much harder to fail/get any suprises with a sibling pair. However, I've heard that excessive and non-selective inbreeding can cause infertility, deformities, etc.

 

[daudy_dojo]

its sad that you would use a harsh word for VTs... i know they are common but come on mutt?!?! why use that word? i wouldnt want to be called a mutt if there was alot of me... so are humans mutts!?

 

[splashluff]

Veiltails are mutts its like calling a dog that is half Great Dane and half Pomeranian a mutt. They're a combo of tail types and colors.. not to say they aren't beautiful .. its just that you cannot predict what the offspring of VT's will look like, so breeding them doesn't really involve much selectiveness or certain pairing and you could get anything. On top of VT's being overwhelmingly common and discarded sooo much in pet stores everywhere, VT babies tend to be much harder to find good homes for.

 

[Kiarra]

Inbreeding is used to fix certain traits, such as a tail type, or a certain color. However, it also increases the possibility of finding a bad recessive in the line that pairs up and manifests itself. Guppies are so bad because they were capriciously bred, and all those bad recessives in genetic lines that otherwise wouldn't show up, are showing up.

I spent the last while going through my old posts, to find something I wrote specifically in relation to Guppies and inbreeding. And here it is:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...=0&#entry723172