Interested In Breeding

[catherine896]

I have my one male betta who Ive had just a few days now. He is yellow and has blue flowing through his tail and fins. His tail and fins were mostly nipped off when I bought him, which is why I bought him! I can see that its growing back already so Im sure hes happier being away from lots of gourami! Hes in a 50 litre tank, with a heater and small filter. I am really interested in breeding him though. How would I go about this? I have a 125 litre tank that houses 6 guppies and 8 neons at the moment (noticed few baby guppies today!)
The male and female betta cant stay together after she has laid eggs though can they? So would a female be OK in the 125 litre tank? The male was in there until he attacked a neon! I'd love to see him looking after his bubble nest and caring for the eggs and babies though!
Any advice?
Thanks!

 

[stang1]

Hi Catherine.
Breeding Bettas takes a lot of time, space, equipment and money unfortunately. You would need a decent sized tank for them to breed and then the female would need to be removed for her own safety.
It is also best to let your male get used to the female (in seperate tanks but where they can see one another). This can take weeks or even months if at all.
If the male builds a bubble nest then you can put the female with him but they will need to be watch closely in case of aggression. If they do perform, the female will need removing from the tank.
After 2-3 days the male will need to be removed also as he will eat the fry. I'm not sure at what age but the fry will then have to be kept seperately in small tanks/jars, again to stop any fighting. These jars/tanks will need to be kept heated and clean until you decide what you plan on doing with them.
A lot of people successfully breed Bettas but from what I can understand, it takes a lot of time and there is not a lot of money to be made from it.

 

[zoekin8yg]

Sorry I dont mean to sound rude, but you had to borrow some money to pay for the stuff to seperate the male. Breeding is a time and money consuming business and takes a lot of reasearch. Ive been researching since october and havent actually bred yet. Also you have a VT betta, this isn't the best type to breed especially one from an lfs as you have no idea of the genetics. However if you really do want to do it there is a lot of info on the pinned topics about breeding and a lot on the internet. Have a good read and see if you think its for you. You can get up to 500 babies from an exceptional spawn, and at least half of those are likely to be males, once they have grown a little you will need to jar each one, so that would be 250 jars. Obviously thats excessive and you arent likely to get that many but its something to think about. Im sure if you have any questions someone will be able to answer them

 

[t1tanrush]

Lots of time money, and chances are unless you have some very high quality fancy tail typed bettas you won't even come close to making back your money. It takes a few generations just to get sale quality fish, so its really not something you can just do real easily. If you want to get serious, it will take lots of time/money before you get to see the rewards..

 

[Amunet]

Yeah, as others have already said. Unless you have the time and the money, I wouldn't try your hand at breeding.
It's not like breeding other fish where you just have to keep the parent fish from eating the little ones. You'll have to seperate each male fish and from what I understand... there is a possibility of them producing alot of babies at once. And then when you have them all.. what are you gonna do with them? Do you know if any of the petstores near you would take them?

I just wouldn't even go there. It sounds like a very intriguing idea until you realize just how much you'd have to put into it.

 

[Darkerwhite2]

I was thinking about it too but i decided not to... until i find a nice imported beauty of a betta to breed, and thats after i get myself a barrack system set up and have a room exclusivley for fish tanks... But that probally wont happen till i retire.
(im 18 btw)
Good luck if you decide to try it but i would be weary of the time and money youl need to spend