Community Bettas

[ileopard]

You can have female bettas together in one tank without any other fish in most cases. Anything beyond that and it's a matter of luck.

 

[tetraman]

What type of setup would I need to breed them? I know this much: sponge filter, little or no current, 1 male, multiple females, floating plants.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

ive had neons and bettas togather, actually it was one male betta 5 neons and 4 white clouds they did good until my betta killed abunch then got rinrot and died

 

[pica_nuttalli]

oh dear, the inevitable new-to-bettas question... nothing wrong with asking, mind you, its just that the answer is long-winded and complicated

this is the simplified version:
--read all of the pinned topics at the top of the forum about breeding bettas.
--its generally unadvisable to breed veiltail or crowntail bettas that you buy at a petstore because there's too many of those bettas being bred by farms and so hundreds of them die each day just sitting on shelves
--you only need one male and one female; they'll both need to be conditioned (fed lots of protein) for 2 weeks before each breeding attempt
--the female should be lose in the male's tank for only a couple of hours just for the actual egg-laying and then be removed to her own tank.
--betta breeding can be a very expensive hobby and is definitely time-consuming; betta fry must be fed tiny food 3 times a day and have to have pristine water conditions
--once betta fry start to fight, you will need to separate the males into jars (as many as 100!)
--it can be difficult to find homes for all of your fry, especially if you breed veiltails or bettas without known genotypes. bettas can easily produce anywhere from 50 to 500 fry in one go, so unless you are willing to cull some of them, you may have to sell them in cups at a pet store.

 

[jollysue]

The reality is that Betta are not a community fish. Do some have success, at least for awhile? Yes. But most I think may just be trying to save tank space. At least I did. Even the famed sorority tank is a risk because of nipping and fin rot as a consequence. And while some seem to be good at getting that under control, there are those like me who don't. This really isn't fair to the fish, who is much better off in his own little tank with you as his friend.
You will find that healing any desease outbreak is very time consuming.

 

[tetraman]

Maybe I'll try breeding them in a 5 or 10 gallon tank and selling most of them to the fish store.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

Maybe I'll try breeding them in a 5 or 10 gallon tank and selling most of them to the fish store.

you can do the breeding in a 10g, but please be aware that a 10g tank isn't going to be large enough to grow baby bettas to a size where a store can sell them.

have you read this link? its a really comprehensive pinned topic about betta breeding. http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=37944

 

[dwarfgourami]

There is a big difference between guppies and bettas not only in the breeding process but also in the selling process- and this is going to be essential knowledge for any would-be breeder.

Basically, you can trot down to lots of lfs with a batch of month-old or at least 3-month-old guppies and they will take them. They may not pay you much, or anything, but from their point of view taking them on is not too risky a proposition. They can keep a large number of juvie guppies together in a tank and sell them as they develop, it doesn't take long and requires very little care or outlay from the shop. Bettas require a lot of special care to grow at all, they cannot be sold until they are a good size, with full colouring+ finnage, nobody will want to know about them before they are sexable and after they are sexable the males require separate living quarters- you won't get a shop willing to take on all 200 or whatever. So until your young bettas look like the sort of betta you commonly see in the shop, they will have to live with you (unless they are such a rare breed that you can get them all disposed of privately), the males all in their own little separate containers. And each be fed and water changed separately.

I would stick with your other plan and breed some sort of dwarf plec- less work and more remuneration.

 

[tetraman]

I think I'm going to breed some crowntails, or whatever they're called. I read something that said the bettas at pet stores are too old to breed. Is that true?

 

[pica_nuttalli]

depends, but generally yes.

breeding crowntails sounds better than breeding vts! have you given thought to how you're going to handle feeding the fry? they need lots of small feedings throughout the day; if you're in school right now, then it might be tough to keep them alive.

 

[tetraman]

You're right, my dad works every day and my mom works three days a week, so there wouldn't be anyone to keep the fries' stomachs full. My livebearer fry seem to do fine on the current feeding schedule. M y friend was bored with his fish and gave them to me, and now he might give me the tank, which is 10 or 20 gallons.