How To Breed Bettas?

[Man of fish]

I'm hoping to get 2 new bettas 1 male 1 female and breed them but my question is how do you do it? (they'll be in separate tanks or are dividers best?)

 

[Fishy friend2]

Before youtry breeding them make sure you can provide these things.
Equipment - a grow out tank for the fry, this tank has to be 20 gallons or larger. 30 gallons is recommended. A spawning tank, this tank should be a heavily planted 10 gallon or larger, tank, about 7 to 8 inches full. live foods. 80+ small containers for the bettas.

And keep in mind that bettas water temperature should be 78 degrees, so heating the small containers might also be a problem

 

[Man of fish]

Ok well looks like I won't be breeding bettas lol. Unless a ten gallon growout for the fry would work. Why 80+ containers? I could do it but I don't have a grow out other than a 10 gallon fry tank.

 

[Fishy friend2]

Because that's how many bettas you could end up with. And a 10 gallon would not work
Here is something from another forum I'm on

RAISING THE FRY
Whew!! I got them to spawn and all went well!! Well you’re not off the hook yet. THIS is the hard part. Now you have a tank full of little tiny bettas who require more attention than a litter of puppies. Lets get into the basics of raising fry and keeping them healthy.
Food:
· For starters most fry won’t eat flake or powdered food. I personally prefer baby brine shrimp but microworms and vinegar eels can be fed to. Eventually your fry will need baby brine shrimp so keep that in
Micro worms
· Vinegar eels
· Baby Brine Shrimp
· Betta fry require being fed at least twice a day. If feeding baby brine shrimp you can do one hatch a day and keep it all day for several small feedings.
· Clean your tank with a turkey baster after every meal.
Water:
· Like adults betta fry require lots of clean water. Betta fry require even cleaner than average water to avoid disease outbreaks and growth stunts. The larger fry will produce a hormone that stunts the growth of the other fry…the only way to get rid of this hormone is to clean your tank often.
· For the first week or so work on dripping water slowly into your tank. Once it’s full you can start water changes.
· For water changes on your first spawn I recommend either using a turkey baster or airline tubing siphon with an airstone on the end. The latter will completely avoid sucking up fry but will remove nasty, stunt hormone filled water. I recommend removing 25%-50% of the water with each water change and drip the water back into the tank. As you gain experience you can find what works best for you. Like now a days I just drain the water until just a little bit is covering the heater and then drip water into the tank. But for a first spawn just stick with small water changes until you get comfortable.
· I recommend using small plastic cups to fill with water and float in your tank. I can fit about eight, 16oz cups in a 10 gallon. After an hour I dump the cups into the tank and then fill them back up for another addition of water. As long as the water has been aged and is of the same temperature as the spawning tank and is added slowly it’ll be fine.

The growout:
· Now your fry have survived the difficult first two weeks, and now have started putting on size during weeks three and four. Now if you’ve been doing things right they should be about ½” long but if not it’s ok.
· A growout tank should be at least 20 gallons. Any less is pointless since they’ve been living in a tank that size anyway. The larger the better.
· The growout can be either decorated or left bare. As long as it’s heated it’s fine.
· Now what I do at the end of week three I fill up my growout tank and add the heater and plants. After the tank has been set up for a week I then remove everything from the spawning tank and drain the tank to about four inches of water. I fill a few cups with water and grab my brine shrimp net. I net the fry out of the tank and place them into the cups. Once all the fry have been collected I float them in the growout for a few hours and then release them.
Feeding the juvenile fry:
· Food is still an important part of raising your now juvenile fry. During their first few weeks in the growout you should continue to feed baby brine shrimp. As they grow you should start feed frozen baby brine shrimp and later frozen bloodworms. I really like feeding Atison Betta Pro when they start getting to adult size. It really gets them to grow.
Water changes on juvenile fry:
· I like to change 50% to 75% of the water in my growout tanks every three or four days. Sometimes every other day. By this time I’m just pouring water in using my fishroom buckets.
Jarring the fry:
· Now once fry start fighting many people grab the jars and start pulling the males. But doing this too soon can cause growth problems. Unless they are really terrorizing each other I’d just leave them in there. Like puppies and kittens betta fry have play fights.
· An example of a play fight: http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Ulal2pNXY
· Once the fights get more extreme then begin jarring. Try cleaning your jars everyday and continue feeding them a lot.
Selling the adults:
· Now here’s where breeding quality fish is important. People want a unique fish. Also many breeders want to know the genetic history of the fish. Be sure to document everything. Sell your fish on forums, aquatic auction sites (i.e. Aquabid), or on your own website.

 

[Man of fish]

Looks like I won't be breeding bettas for a while oh well. I'll just get a male and a female anyway. Should I go 2 separate tanks or go the divider route.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Considering the problems you have already had with easy beginner fish, I would seriously NOT think about doing anything intriquet like breeding bettas until you have mastered the basics. I consider myself at this point pretty knowledgable when it comes to fish, and I wouldn't even attempt a betta breeding at this point in time. The few on here that are breeding bettas have been keeping bettas for ages and have researched multiple site and books to achieve success in that. Do not attempt it unless you are well informed and 1000% (yes i know there is an extra 0) committed to providing EVERYTHING the fry need. If you can't do that, then its really the fish that suffer.

 

[Fishy friend2]

It doesn't matter whether you want a divider or seperate tanks. If I were you I would just divide that 10 gallon that you have

 

[Man of fish]

Thank you I wasn't thinking of doing it for another at least 6 months but now it looks like I'm not going to until I have everything I need and know what I'm doing thank you for all the advice.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

yeah, i have given though to breeding bettas. with all the research I am doing i might start to try in about 5 years or so lol

 

[Man of fish]

It doesn't matter whether you want a divider or seperate tanks. If I were you I would just divide that 10 gallon that you have

Divide it like betta on one side fry on the other? Because that's my fry tank so can't really do that.

 

[Fishy friend2]

I don't think that would work very well, so maybe you could buy a 5 gallon tank and divide it and have those two bettas one on each side

 

[Man of fish]

Ok thanks for the help!!

 

[Fishy friend2]

Your welcome