Betta Breeding Tips

 Bettas  are beautiful  fish  and among the easiest aquarium fish to  breed . However, if you do not understand and plan a few things ahead you could end up with a bad experience. Here’s how to avoid that.

This may seem backwards, but we need to first consider the end result. If your  betta   breeding  goes even a little bit well, you are going to have as many as five hundred little  fish  to take care of. That’s why no breeders keep all the fish they breed. In fact, they kill, or “cull” as many as 90% of the fry from each hatching. Are you ready to do that? Really? It is not for the faint of heart, though there are humane ways to do it. If you simply can not bear to cull even 50% of your fry, you will need to find homes to place your  bettas  in. The only way I can think it would work is if you gave them away as prizes at a fair or a school event.

Now that we have covered the hardest part of  betta   breeding , let’s move on. To  breed   bettas , you are going to need a male and a female  fish , and both of them are going to have to be nice enough to be worth  breeding  and young enough to be interested in breeding. This may mean getting on one of the  fish  trade sites and buying a “proven” pair (a pair that has  bred  successfully before) or finding a pair of  bettas  that are exceptional enough to warrant all the work you’re going to do. Surprisingly, most of the  bettas  sold in pet stores are too old to  breed  — they are usually six months to a year old when they are at the pet store, and ideal  breeding  age for  bettas  is three or four months, though anything up to a year old is good enough.

Prepare your pair by feeding them extra well and keeping them in separate aquariums so they can rest. Meanwhile, get yourself a five gallon tank and fill it about four to six inches deep. Put a sponge filter in, a heater and some java moss or something that the female and fry can hide in. Finally, put a round plastic container top in so it floats on the surface. This is what your male will use to build his bubble nest from. It needs to float reliably, and should be about five inches in diameter.

Put the male in the tank. Move the female so she’s right next to the tank, or even in the tank, but separated so the male can not reach her. Wait until the male has started to build his bubble nest and the female and the male are clearly flirting. The female will show dark vertical bands on her side when she is ready to be let in the tank. Carefully put her in and watch the two like a hawk — your male is as likely to beat up the female as he is to mate with her.

Mating for  betta   fish  consists of the male wrapping himself around the female and squeezing her gently until eggs come out. He then leaves her, grabs up the eggs in his mouth and puts them in the bubble nest. This can go on for hours. And before full courtship begins, your female may end up hiding in the java moss until she is sure this whole thing is a good idea.

After all the eggs are out and in the bubble nest, get the female out of the tank. Let her rest for a few days before you put her in a normal community tank setting. Leave the male in the tank. He’s got about 48 hours before those eggs hatch. During that time, he will mostly be maintaining his bubble nest and picking up eggs that have fallen out of the bubble nest.

When the fry start hatching, some will fall out of the bubble nest. Its the male’s job to pick them up and put them back in. The male will be doing this round the clock for about two days. After that, take him out and begin feeding the fry microworms and baby brine shrimp — about every four to five hours. You will be doing this for about two weeks. You will also have to keep the water in the tank very clean, which means daily water changes. Changing water with fry is difficult. Many breeders use a turkey baster and just accept that it is going to take a long time.

At about 10 days old, your fry’s labyrinth organ is developing, so they will begin to be able to breathe air like their parents. In a few weeks you may notice some fry are strong enough to be aggressive, and they may need to be separated from the others. Nature’s culling process has begun.