Breeders - how do you know?

[cation]

I know that most bettas can be bred by the time they're 3-6 months old. My babies are 12 weeks old, and in the last week, I've seen the male blossom into a miniature adult, colered up, flaring and displaying for his sisters next door, and building bubblenests. His sisters have begun to display verticle bars when he displays. All of them are about 1.25 inches long now.

How do you guys decide when your babies are old enough for some nookie?

 

[wuvmybetta]

I think it has a lot to do with when they're seperated. For example,my jarred reds are more than ready and they're precious nesters. But,on the other hand, I have around 30 males from the same spawn who still live in the grow out with their sisters and they're still of a baby-ish frame of mind even though they're the same age and size. I removed a female last week so I could spawn her. I figure some time alone would make her more willing than say pulling her from the grow out and breeding her. If I did that she would just be like "Hi,how are ya?" when she saw a brother rather than "Well hey there,how you doin? "

So,you can pretty much just tell. Like you said,he's displaying and nesting and she's barring so...
From what I've seen though, when it comes to choosing perfect sibling coupling,it's tough because the females grow much faster than the males. This is the only drawback when it comes to sibling pairing. Out of your four to choose from,I certainly hope for you that he's large enough to take her. I have that marble DT that I want to spawn,but his body is so short that most of his cowish sisters would be too much for him. So I had to pull a little bitty girl for him. Same with my other spawns. It took my males a loong time to catch up to the girls in order to breed. They never would have been able to handle those monsters a few months ago.

 

[GuppyDude]

im sure its can be done at a very young age but iv heard its best to do it at around 4-5 months

 

[cation]

wuv - good deal. My male is about the same size as his two sisters. I'm staring to think the smaller one is a male too, and there's no way he'll be big enough for either of them, I'll probably pair him up later with with one of the ones that are nearly 4 weeks old right now. I guess I'm going to watch the larger male for a few more weeks, and if he's still keeping up with (or passing) his sister in growth rate, I'll give it a go then. In the meantime, it's probably time to card him.

GD - Yep, you can start breeding them around 3-4 months, usually. But I am wondering about individual bettas, not the subject as a whole. There are many things that come into play for individual fish - like individual growth rate, whether or not it's a plakat, etc.