conditioning/feeding

[Kittycat]

I just want to ask--where do you draw the line between conditioning a betta for breeding, and overfeeding?

 

[wuvmybetta]

to be honest, a well kept betta should always be conditioned to breed. As long as they're kept clean and fed frozen/live food regularly.
So don't stuff them

 

[Kittycat]

Thanks, wuv! I thought people fed less when they're not conditioning.

 

[yeeviabetta]

Oh. you have to feed them real good food about a week before you breed them. Then the eggs are bigger and also the male are stronger. Makesure both are full. When breeding, never feed them. So that is mean conditioning it.

 

[ral]

Initially, I planned to feed them better food before breeding, but once you start producing live food for your fish, it is actually cheaper than pellets, so they get fed a mix of pellets, frozen food (blood worms) and live food (larvea). Right now it is 50% dry and 50% frozen or live. Before breeding we will probably just reduce the intake of dry food and increase the intake of live and frozen food.

First attempt at breeding failed, but will give it another go. Was probably to impatient and worried about the fish gettig hurt the first time so we distrubed them too much.

Surprisingly, both fish came out of the breeding thougher than before they went in. The female is now having snails for breakfast

Will give the first spawning pair a few weeks to rest and will give the second pair their turn.

 

[Joepmaster]

I agree with the fact that a healthy bettas should always be able to breed. I personally always feed my planned breeders a bit more 1-2 weeks ahead for the actual spawning process. I prefer using live food (red mosquito, artemia and white mosquito), but also feed granulat and frozen foods. This way they can build up just a little more reserve which may come in handy in this energy-costing process.

Many greetings from the Netherlands,

Joep

 

[yeeviabetta]

Ral, i used live black worms from California. They just loves it and make the eggs bigger. It has a tendency to make the water dirty fast. I do feed then blood worms too and some pellets. Oh yes. I read a breeder that let the water gets real dirty from their waste plus food Somewhere (three to four days ) and then take them out to the clean water breeder tank to breed it. I do that and it is really work great. Try it out you guys. You guys might know who is the breeder. He can make the pair lay eggs but very hard for him to raise the babies.