Keeping Bettas Warm

[Kaleidoscope]

Hello,
I'm going to be getting into breeding bettas for profit soon. I have a grow out tank, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to keep the containers warm when they area ready to be cupped. In the hopefully next half year or so, I'm going to be looking for a house with a garage where the garage will just be heated for fish, but I'm not sure how to go about my first bettas until then. My current area stays at 73/75 degrees. Any suggestions on how to keep them warm once they're ready to be separated? I'm also currently working in a very limited amount of space at the moment.

 

[GaryE]

Heat the room. It's the only way, if you are going to be raising a lot of them.

Usually, energy costs knock the local Betta breeders out of business fast (I'm in Canada) as it's hard to compete pricewise with breeders in tropical climes.

 

[JuiceBox52]

I was gonna say the same thing. Have a room that's about 78°f and keep them in there

 

[Kaleidoscope]

Hm.... guess I'll just have to keep the door closed to raise the temp in the room for now until I get my designated breeding room

 

[Colin_T]

The other option are electric blankets for pets or reptiles. You can put them under tanks or containers to warm things up. But heating the room, as others mentioned, is the most efficient way.

FYI, you will be competing with people in tropical countries who have no heating bills, low cost or free water, free or very cheap food, and very cheap labour.

You need to culture food like daphnia and mozzie larvae (altho mozzies are illegal to culture due to the diseases they spread). And you need to get clean cheap water and cheap heat.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Have you considered maybe breeding a fish that is well known and popular but not quite so easily available? It may end up going better for you

 

[Kaleidoscope]

Have you considered maybe breeding a fish that is well known and popular but not quite so easily available? It may end up going better for youY

Yea, I will be doing that. Big goals for 2022 with my business I want to open up. Just getting the feel for breeding now until I buy my house that will have a designated room (probably a garage that I can heat up) and have many more tanks to work with.

 

[GaryE]

There is a local guy who buys REALLY expensive Bettas from Thailand, then breeds them and sells the young. The problem he encounters is the small market. There is a lot of competition even for high end Bettas.
If he goes to the stores, they want to retail at the price he wants to wholesale at. Nice Betta splendens are dirt cheap coming from Asia. I once unpacked a shipment where the Asian shippers had used bags with Bettas in them to fill the spaces between bags of the fish that had been ordered. The last really nice Cambodian Betta I ever kept was from one of those bags, and I was busy rehoming Betta in our local club for a couple of weeks after that one.
They were no charge, live bubble wrap - a terrible system but one that shows how cheaply the fish are viewed as.

 

[Fishmanic]

Yea, I will be doing that. Big goals for 2022 with my business I want to open up. Just getting the feel for breeding now until I buy my house that will have a designated room (probably a garage that I can heat up) and have many more tanks to work with.

Perhaps you could start a Journal on our site about the progress of your expansion endeavor. Post pics of your setup and the fish you will be breeding. Sounds very interesting. Best of luck with your plans.

 

[Kaleidoscope]

There is a local guy who buys REALLY expensive Bettas from Thailand, then breeds them and sells the young. The problem he encounters is the small market. There is a lot of competition even for high end Bettas.
If he goes to the stores, they want to retail at the price he wants to wholesale at. Nice Betta splendens are dirt cheap coming from Asia. I once unpacked a shipment where the Asian shippers had used bags with Bettas in them to fill the spaces between bags of the fish that had been ordered. The last really nice Cambodian Betta I ever kept was from one of those bags, and I was busy rehoming Betta in our local club for a couple of weeks after that one.
They were no charge, live bubble wrap - a terrible system but one that shows how cheaply the fish are viewed as.

It really sucks at how they can be viewed as for just money. I love the small amount of breeding I've already done and love watching them grow and caring for them. I know of a store not too far from me that prices their bettas VERY high. I need to talk with them about if they would like to buy from me and that would be a good start.

 

[Kaleidoscope]

Perhaps you could start a Journal on our site about the progress of your expansion endeavor. Post pics of your setup and the fish you will be breeding. Sounds very interesting. Best of luck with your plans.

I may do that. Once I get the house, I can start showing off the area I'll be using and all the steps I'll be taking. I'd like to have a journal of the journey for myself as well. Thankfully I am currently self employed and get paid decently, so I have enough money coming in that it doesn't have to be a rush and I can have the time to do things right.

 

[dhjaksu]

Hello,
I'm going to be getting into breeding bettas for profit soon. I have a grow out tank, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to keep the containers warm when they area ready to be cupped. In the hopefully next half year or so, I'm going to be looking for a house with a garage where the garage will just be heated for fish, but I'm not sure how to go about my first bettas until then. My current area stays at 73/75 degrees. Any suggestions on how to keep them warm once they're ready to be separated? I'm also currently working in a very limited amount of space at the moment.

when I breed mine I plan on putting the male babies in black plastic cups and floating them in tanks to maintain the temperature

 

[itiwhetu]

There are easier fish to breed. Bettas are complex and take a lot of work. If you want to breed a fish for profit, I would suggest something else.

 

[Kaleidoscope]

There are easier fish to breed. Bettas are complex and take a lot of work. If you want to breed a fish for profit, I would suggest something else.

I've raised up a few already from my first attempt. Second attempt is going much better. Bunch of healthy fry. I learned I wasn't feeding the fry enough the first time around but things are going well now. I don't really find them all that complex. I understand how to condition and mate them and the few babies that I did raise look very healthy.