Should I Breed Them?

[92cw12]

Sorry, I offended you.

So then why are you in such a hurry to breed your Bettas? You really have your answer regarding breeding average lfs Bettas. We all love our VTs but, again, Bettas are very hard and expensive to breed and there is not the market for them. Most who breed their Bettas lose money and have trouble placing them all. There are usually a few special needs offspring that must be culled or kept. Even wuvmybetta who is very experienced (she's the mod) has repeatedly said she loses money breeding Bettas. Lots of money. She has a major fish room stacked with Betta jars. But as OohFreeshy said, if you must do this then invest in a major breeding pair. That will cost you about $20 or $30 minimum, unless you can pick up some from a breeder on here.

In addition read everything you can on breeding Bettas and raising Betta fry. In all honesty, we are trying to discourage you from this enterprise, because we feel you are unprepared. Most of us believe that you would be better off starting your breeding with a less complicated, easier to raise and sell, fish.

i think raising fry will be hard but fun at the same time. any way i asked my fish shop if they would buy bettas of me for 50p a fish and they said yes so if i sell 5 fish a week i can make 2.50 so its ok for a teenager
not offended in the least find it highly amusing.

 

[jollysue]

Betta spawn up to 500 eggs at a time. Five a week won't do it (unless you cull.)

 

[dwarfgourami]

Unless your lfs has an abnormally good turnover, you might run into trouble round about week 3. And even if they do manage to keep up a steady demand of 5 fish a week, in the meantime you have to provide separate homes for those male bettas. Assuming that there are 150 males, it would take you half a year to clear the backlog.

Or has the lfs actually offered to take fry from you, before they are sexually mature? If so, I would steer clear of them since they clearly don't know what they're talking about, and it is unlikely that they would be able to look after them in a satisfactory manner.

I would not have thought that selling them at 50 p a fish, even assuming you can get them all sold, would run at anything other than a loss, once you've factured in the cost of rearing them (special food, jars, water changes etc). This might not matter so much to an older enthusiast, but if money is tight, it is another consideration. Financially, it would probably make better sense to invest in a more expensive pair of breeding fish, so that you could sell the offspring at slightly higher prices, and have a chance of getting them all sold. But I have a sneaking suspicion that unless you are a professional, breeding bettas does not make financial sense.

 

[Haeun]

Sorry, I offended you.

So then why are you in such a hurry to breed your Bettas? You really have your answer regarding breeding average lfs Bettas. We all love our VTs but, again, Bettas are very hard and expensive to breed and there is not the market for them. Most who breed their Bettas lose money and have trouble placing them all. There are usually a few special needs offspring that must be culled or kept. Even wuvmybetta who is very experienced (she's the mod) has repeatedly said she loses money breeding Bettas. Lots of money. She has a major fish room stacked with Betta jars. But as OohFreeshy said, if you must do this then invest in a major breeding pair. That will cost you about $20 or $30 minimum, unless you can pick up some from a breeder on here.

In addition read everything you can on breeding Bettas and raising Betta fry. In all honesty, we are trying to discourage you from this enterprise, because we feel you are unprepared. Most of us believe that you would be better off starting your breeding with a less complicated, easier to raise and sell, fish.

i think raising fry will be hard but fun at the same time. any way i asked my fish shop if they would buy bettas of me for 50p a fish and they said yes so if i sell 5 fish a week i can make 2.50 so its ok for a teenager
not offended in the least find it highly amusing.

Please please please don't! If it's $2.50 you want to make, go mow a lawn for someone or dog-sit for someone. Also, you can't just "sell 5 fish a week." They don't stop themselves from growing just for you. LFS usually want older fishes so that the adult bettas can show off their fins and people can go "ooooh pretty" and buy. By that time, you will need to have invested a whole lot of time, money and effort to feed them, change their water, etc. If you do breed and like others have said, you end up with 500 fry, where are you going to keep them? Do you have 500 jars to separate them once they get big enough? Do you have space to keep all 500 jars? Do you have the time and energy to change the water in all 500 jars every day?

I'm relatively new to betta keeping and more so to betta breeding, but that much I know, not to get into breeding unless you have the time, money and time again to handle everything that comes with it. I too would like to get into breeding but (1) I am a student, I don't have enough time to dedicate many hours every day taking care of them; (2) I am a student; money is not a luxury; (3) breeding lfs quality fish is only bringing in more unwanted bettas in the world; haven't you heard of pounds and excess cats? people go "awwwwwww, kitties. cute." but the truth is, there are too many cats that die, too many cats that are abused, etc that could have been prevented if they had been spayed. Same concept; you don't want bettas to suffer just because "oooooh, breeding sounds fun."

Please don't take offense at this: You are 13. You must be starting high school now. My younger brother is that age. I have seen some very mature 13-year-olds, but I'm sorry, I feel that you are a bit young and don't understand the consequences of what you're doing. I'm not exactly Granny Wisdom here, but I was pretty stupid when I was 13-years-old. I did things I regretted later on.

I feel that you're doing this just because "it would be cool."

Pick up another hobby if you are that bored. Or if you genuinely want to breed bettas, please follow the advise the other members have given:
(1) Read up a LOT, research exhaustively all about betta breeding. Not just looking at one website and saying "OK, one-two-three step, done! easy!"
(2) If you're going to breed, please choose some nice bettas from breeders or maybe aquabid and propagate pretty bettas that people will want, not ones that will just sit on lfs shelves until they die.

It makes me so sad when I go for my weekly local Petsmart visit and there are shelves of bettas that people don't buy and are dying. The last Petsmart I went to, there were bettas floating sideways on the top, bettas that looked like they were having seizures, bettas that had such severe fin rot, etc. Please.


/rant

 

[jollysue]

One time, I was working in the school system. At the end of the year a teacher wanted to unload the rats that she had had for her classroom. It was a male and female. She told me where she got them and that the pet store had said they would buy the babies. I took the rats. The pet store confirmed that they indeed would take the babies as feeders for snakes. It is a very reputable pet store that I still do business with gladly.

But when I started bringing 20 babies at a time, they rolled their eyes and said they would take five. Before long I had a spare room full of rats that had gone feral and were eating and chewing everything, including each other, having chewed through the cage. I had a real mess to clean up.

Now Bettas aren't rats, and we assume you won't breed repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly as did my rats. But what is your pet store going to say if, when you do an excellent parenting job (having given up your sports and other extracurricular activies), and come in with 30 or 50 female VT Bettas? (I do believe btw that your girlie is a VT--although I am not an expert on this.)

I believe you love your pet Bettas and think they are pretty and full of personality. Anyone would be blessed to have such lovely pets. And I believe you are right; they are. It is natural to feel that way. (If indeed that is how you feel.) We all feel that at times with our pets. But the responsible pet owner resists that impulse and just enjoys their pet. If they do breed, they make sure they are able do it responsibly in the real world.

You seem to be open to hearing what is being said. I am taking a chance that you won't be offended and will read the posts with an open mind. As several have said. Read, read, research, research before you do anything. Search some spawn threads that disclose everything that the breeder encountered--not just the thrills.

 

[tetraman]

Given this, I find it hard to understand why so many betta owners are desperate to breed, while several less problematic species are expensive or hard to find in the shops because nobody cares to breed them. Of course, there is a greater interest in watching the breeding process of bettas than in watching guppies, but there are lots of species that do have interesting mating habits, but not so many of the problems of the bettas. Why aren't more people breeding clown plecs, red whiptails, leopard frogs, peacock gobies, sparkling gouramis, or - for those of you who really want a challenge- khuulie loaches?

I'll tell you why. More or less everyone likes the looks of bettas, and that the colors can vary. With most egglayers, the babies are more or less clones. I want to breed them, and I'm probably getting a breeding tank on Wednesday, which is my 13th birthday. I'm going to be a teen!

 

[33moths]

It's terrible that some young people who have no idea how hard it will be to keep up with the care of these fish want to breed them. And it's probably worse that, when they fail, the ethics of the situation won't bother them too much.

 

[tetraman]

What ethnics? I'm sure if i bought a nice pair of crowntail bettas on Aquabid the fry would have no problem selling. My dad was somewhat of a novice and he bred them. Remember that this is in the 70's, and I know a heck of a lot more about fish then he did.

 

[33moths]

What ethnics? I'm sure if i bought a nice pair of crowntail bettas on Aquabid the fry would have no problem selling. My dad was somewhat of a novice and he bred them. Remember that this is in the 70's, and I know a heck of a lot more about fish then he did.

.....hahahahahahah ethnics. Hahhah.

Ethics = moral principles.

moral |ˈmôrəl; ˈmär-| adjective concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character : the moral dimensions of medical intervention | a moral judgment. • concerned with or adhering to the code of interpersonal behavior that is considered right or acceptable in a particular society : an individual's ambitions may get out of step with the general moral code. • holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct : he is a caring, efficient, moral man. • derived from or based on ethical principles or a sense of these : the moral obligation of society to do something about the inner city's problems. • [ attrib. ] examining the nature of ethics and the foundations of good and bad character and conduct : moral philosophers.

I can't even begin to attempt to explain to you Life, if you don't even know what ethics are.


Go and breed your little moneymakers. Enjoy.

 

[Liberty802]

Is there really a need to be so condecending? It's just plain rude

 

[jollysue]

Remember to play nice. Count to ten before you answer or the mod will be forced to close the thread.

 

[33moths]

I apologize! But ethnics? Come on, eh? Eh?

If he makes it work, more power to him.

 

[Liberty802]

At least he's attempting to find a decent pair of crowntails and not just breeding any random off the counter veiltails. Its a start.

 

[jollysue]

Yes, gentlemen, and we do applaud you for being in a forum, attempting to get answers to your concerns. Just remember that wisdom is a high calling and truth is always better than ego.

 

[33moths]

I don't think breeding slightly more interesting bettas into a world where so many bettas are dying from being mistreated through ignorance is a better start- and that works for any pet. It's a strong issue, and avoiding it by looking at the more palatable aspects of what someone is doing isn't something that should be desired. Pets dying by ignorant hands while ignorant people breed more? However, I recognize that he is trying to be responsible about it; I'm sure if he does not do well, he will learn from his own experiences anyway. I don't think tetraperson is ignorant. But perhaps he shouldn't start breeding bettas until he has the full ability to do it the best way possible.