Betta Breeding Help?

[saffholly]

I have had a male betta for a few months now and also a femal, so far they have not met (male is on his own and female is living in a comunity tank), i would like to breed them as they both have fab colours (purples and blues). I have cleaned out my fry tank (moved the fry to another tank) so i have a 60ltr tank set up with a few silk plants, heater and filter (tank is already cycled as the fry were in there).

Whats the best way to go about it? do i put the female in first, let her get used to the tank and then introduce the male?

How long do i leave them together? do i then put the female back in his smaller tank and leave the female on her own to lay her eggs? how long until she lays?

Sorry for all the questions, i have only ever had guppies and molly so never had eggs.

Any advice welcome xx

 

[Fish Guy]

I had the best luck with this method when it comes to breeding bettas. Place the male in the breeding tank with floating plants and/or a styrofoam cup cut in half ( either in a ring or lenght ways) I usually use a fine bubbled sponge filter to reduce water surface aggitation so not to up set he males bubble nest. Once the male is in there I'll feed him very very well, live and frozen foods and his usual food. Take out about 25% of the water and raise the temp, this has gotten my males to build a bubble nest within a few days. During this time the female should be being conditioned as well. There are many methods of introducing the female. I use a bottomless clear platic tube and place her in there in the tank. The male will start to display to her, if you notice vertical bars along her side, she is interested. If the make has a bubble nest at this point you can lift the tube right out leaving the female in there. Its a good idea to have some caves, plants etcc in there for the female to hide in.

 

[Dieses Madchen]

There are a lot of things to consider before you begin to breed bettas. There are a lot of recources you can check out on the Betta forum, or online. Breeding bettas can be one of the hardest, most time consuming, and space consuming things you can do in fish keeping. You can end up with 80% male offspring, which would require you after a while to separate each of them. you also need to remember that baby bettas wont accept anything but live food in the beginning.

If you don't mind me asking, what have you done so far to prepare for breeding? (I only want to know so I don't bore you with the stuff you already know)

 

[saffholly]

Thank you, sounds like it might take a while (i'm in no rush), i have moved my betta to a bigger tank which i planned on doing anyway, i will let him settle in before i consider introducing the female. I dont have any live food at the moment, he's very fussy and will only eat dried bloodworm (wont touch lake, have tried several). I think i need to do a bit of research before i consider doing it and will need to make sure i have the space to seperate fry. Thanks for your advice xx