breeding Bettas

[BettaBoyz]

i do believe i have some gorgeous boys, but doesn't every Betta owner? anyway, i was thinking of getting a few females and breeding them. i really don't care about color, but i do care about my fishies! all of them have attempted bubble nests, only to have other fish/current/'oil' destroy them. my LPS has been trying to find someone reliable to breed Bettas, as they have to go all the way to Quebec to get some decent pairs. the other fish they've sold have paired and spawned up and down in both the show tanks and home tanks so they're getting a ton of fry back (mostly Platties, Guppies, Swordtails, Tiger Barbs, Angels, Kissing and 3-Spot Gouramis and a few Gold Barbs) they can get the ones that aren't pairing from a local breeder, but Bettas are harder to come by. they'd definately take on any fry i can get from my pairs, and even though they're mutts they'd probably make some gorgeous offspring.

the males i plan on breeding are a mint-under-dark, purple-under-light combveil; a lavender, blue and white butterfly with purple calico spots longveil, and a five-star drapingveil. the females would also be picked up for their spunk, activity and strength. each will get her own home similar to Flash's home now and King's soon-to-be home; a glass drum bowl with a pound of gravel, one 6" silk plant and one 4" silk plant and three quarts of water.

i plan on spawing my fish in these big ol' red bins we have (which will of course be scrubbed raw with aquarium salt and water!) which hold about fifteen gallons. i will definately get heaters for these, and outfit them with two smallworld sponge filters. one will be on when the pair are nest building/spawning, then turned off until i remove the father. i'll wait 'till the fry can safely avoid the tiny filter and turn one on, then turn the other one a week or two later. i will obviously be changing water and cleaning the bins every other day. the top will be saran wrap poke through with a few holes, and lighting will be a pair of small pals pen lights.

i do have questions now ^^

- how long 'till my boys and girls start beating each other up?
- how many eggs can i expect from the spawn?
- how many fry will survive?
- what do i feed the fry? i have NutraFin Fry Food i use for my Platy fry, will that work?

and does anyone have general comments on what i plan to do?

 

[FishHeads]

When it comes to spawing you need to be removing the female, not the male. The male does all the spawing work when it comes to building the nests, blowing fallen eggs into the nest, and taking care of fry. In my experience, the male will start attacking the female aout a half-hour or so after eggs have been deposited into the nest. The male becomes more aggressive towards his new eggs and does everything in his power to protect them. Very soon after the fry hatch (less than a week) the male needs to be removed, for he will start eating his fry. (Ironic huh?) I feed mine all-purpose fry feed, so what you have you should be fine with. My Betas usually put out about 20 to 30 fry at a breeding, but I always loose about half to complications. It is different for each Beta, however. My male, Big Blue, is currently taking care of his bubblenest full of about 22 eggs. They haven't hatched yet.

 

[BettaBoyz]

i know to remove the female, i wouldn't want a Grrlie to be eaten! by removing the male i mean removing him after his work is done; if my dad didn't like watching us howl and run around like hooligans i'm pretty sure a solitary Betta-dad wouldn't like watching his babies do that