Betta Breeding

[JohnRossDele]

id like 2 breed show bettas for a hobby, ive bred splendens before but i quit 1 because the werent breeding too well 2 the male always broke the bubblenest & 3 they were just taking too long about it. I got to the fry at yolk sac stage but thats all the far i really got!! so i lost interest in them, sold them back to the LFS & switched 2 mollies
heres my story!!

betta splenden breeding:

It all started when i got hocked on vids from utube about breeding fish such as cichlids, bettas, angelfish ect ect...
so i got interested in bettas as much interested as i needed to get them myself so i could breed them!!
i got them about a week or so later, and fed them on bloodworms and flakes
i first of all put 1 male & 3 females in the 18L which is now a breeding station for my mollies, and waited they had a couple of bubblenests with eggs, but it was a disaster, the male was more aggresive than a parent he would leterally bite a couple of fins off the females
during that peroid of time my cousins goldfish died at around 10 years of age *Bless him, RIP* then my cousin gave me the 30L tank and i used for the bettas
i had got no baby fry for ages until the last brood which lasted like 3 dats from egg to yolk sac fry but they all died and got ate!!
so i changed the bettas to mollies

molly breeding:

i got mollies coz i wanted stable fry and easy to look after
i got 6 for my breeding tank (30L) and had 2 pregenate females that i added to the 18L
i have got over 30 molly fry and i added the mollys to my 240L 2 days ago

so now u know my stories on to the show bettas!!

1) which are the best show breeders eg crowntails, dragons ect

2) which website is the best for buying a breeding pair of bettas off; keeping in mind that im from ireland so the shipping needs to go to my house

3) is a Hagen Elite Style 95 ok for show bettas

4) are Black orchid crowntails good breeders; they look awesome!!

5) will i be able to sell them to my LFS for more money than ordinary bettas in your opinion

any more info would be great!!
thanx alot!!

 

[lilfishie]

the reason you were unsuccessful the first time round is because:

1. 18l is too small for a breeding tank
2. 3 females? you should only have 1 and she should be placed in a 'chimney' before hand
3. you left the females in after spawning, she (being only 1) needs to be removed straight after or he will kill her

and thats just for starters

 

[JohnRossDele]

the reason you were unsuccessful the first time round is because:

1. 18l is too small for a breeding tank
2. 3 females? you should only have 1 and she should be placed in a 'chimney' before hand
3. you left the females in after spawning, she (being only 1) needs to be removed straight after or he will kill her

and thats just for starters

K, can u answer the questions 1-5 if u hav the time
thanx

 

[mfcclc]

I can see a lot of problems with the way you were keeping and breeding bettas first time round. I think before you get anymore you need to do a lot more research. Try loking at netty's website, betta paradise (there is a link in her signature) and thebettalady as well, they both give really good info on keeping and breeding bettas, look up betty splendens as well. I have just had my first spawn and although ive only got 10-15 surviving fry it is still hard work. Are you prepared to care for 100+ fry?? It is rewarding and if done properly you can get stunning babies, i hope all goes well if you decide to take it up x

 

[emeleeliggett]

Hey there,

1) I don't know the answers to most of your questions but I think that halfmoons and crowntails are good for show breeders. Dragons are becoming a favorite of mine as well but I honestly don't know if you can show them...?

5) Usually LFS don't just buy bettas unless you've made a previous contract with them. At least that's how it is in my state (USA). They usually buy from big importers or have someone working at the store breed them. Just make sure you get a positive answer before you breed them or you might be stuck with 100+ betta fry with no homes. Aquabid as well as Ebay are good for selling you fish...

That's just my two cents... good luck!!

 

[Netty]

As has already been said, what you did before was completely wrong. You need to read up and research as much as possible before starting again.

Most lfs already have contracts with companys that supply their bettas and if you do manage to find one who'll buy your babies, you're looking at probably no more than £1 per fish and possibly less than that. So there are no big bucks to be made!!!

 

[LauraFrog]

Okay, I think you need to consider this VERY, VERY carefully. I absolutely don't want to be obnoxious or horrible, but so far you have done basically no research about anything you've bought, you've just put whatever fish in whatever tank you wanted, and been upset when it hasn't worked out.

1. You cannot just buy a pair and start breeding show bettas. It doesn't work that way. The most popular strains at the moment are halfmoon (especially feathertail), HMPK in gold, orange, red or platinum dragon, or you could go on the 'fallback' strains like extended red and royal blue. Breeding show bettas doesn't just mean buying a pair of that strain and sitting back to watch the show. You will have to buy a GOOD pair, not just any pair, if you want good quality bettas. That means paying top dollar for them. Also, the maintenance of a quality show strain takes time, work, money and dedication. Buying a good pair will mean that you get good fry in F1 (the first time you breed them.) From then on, it's up to you, and considerable knowledge of genetics (and a CLEAR PATH about where the line is headed) will be required if you want to breed anything other than mediocre fish.

2. In the UK, try netty and bronzecat (link in their signature) or Shell: www.thebettalady.co.uk

3. You cannot breed bettas with one tank. You can't breed bettas with two, three or four tanks either. Here's what you need in terms of tanks:
3-5 gallon tanks, heated, preferably filtered, one for every male that you intend to keep long term. OR a divided tank of at least 4ft; depending on how many males you want.
At least a 15 gallon tank for a sorority, this would allow you to keep about 10 females. Note that sometimes you will get a tank bully or a tank runt, and she will have to be removed and housed separately like a male.
A breeding tank, about 10 gallons is good.
Growout tanks - 1 x 3ft for an average sized spawn, you will need more if the spawn is big.
Cups for the male fry - up to 150 individual cups that you will have to waterchange EVERY SINGLE DAY (so ask yourself seriously if you're up for this).
At least one 3-5 gallon spare tank.

4. All bettas are pretty much the same in terms of ease of breeding, and none of them are easy to breed. In my opinion crowntails are no more difficult than anything else although I know modaz has had some bad luck with them. If you're a beginner fishkeeper and breeder I seriously don't recommend bettas. They are difficult to get breeding, difficult to raise the fry, and difficult to linebreed into a pleasing strain.

5. No. The fact is that most people (as in the average people walking into Pets@Home to buy a betta) doesn't give whether it's a veiltail, mass produced in Asia by the thousands, or a halfmoon which hundreds of money and months of dedication has gone into producing. The customer is not willing to pay even enough extra for these premium fish for you to get your expenditure back (remember that breeding bettas is VERY EXPENSIVE). As a hobbyist breeder, you will spend a LOT of money buying and importing your fish, a LOT of money getting your setup ready, a LOT of money feeding all the fry which CANNOT be fed on crushed flake etc. like molly fry can but require live food... if anybody tells you that you'll get it back selling to pet stores, they're lying to you.


I'm not saying don't do this, I'm just saying think about it very, very carefully. You are a beginner and bettas are NOT easy fish to breed, as you found out the first time. You can't just chuck a male and female in the same tank and wait, it requires weeks of careful conditioning, and very careful timing, and about 1/3 of the time it still doesn't work and you have to do it all over again before you get fry. Sometimes, no matter what you do, a pair just doesnt' click and you won't get any fry at all. You can go to all the time and expense of conditioning a pair, all the nervous excitement of a spawn, only to have one of the parents eat the eggs, this happens a lot. Breeding bettas is for the dead-set-betta-lover, not the casual hobbyist who thinks they're kind of cool. If you want an easy, satisfying fish to breed, where you'll actually get results and maybe make a little on the side, I'd stick with mollies. I've been intending to breed bettas for at least a year, I've invested hundreds of dollars in it, I've made five or six serious attempts at a spawn and done everything by the book, and I still havent' seen eggs, let alone fry.

 

[Storm20]

There is a full page on breeding betta here http/z3.invisionfree.com/Tropical_Fish_Z...;st=0&#last

 

[bronzecat]

There is a full page on breeding betta here [URL="http/z3.invisionfree.com/Tropical_Fish_Z...;st=0&#last"]http/z3.invisionfree.com/Tropical_Fish_Z...;st=0&#last[/URL]

There's nothing but a advert for making forums on that link