Successfully Bred My Bettas.

[fishlover101]

Well, its been about 10 failed attempts, at trying, losing females, fighting, torn fins, hard work. And finally, with some faith, and extra hard work, my bettas have spawned. I wasn't too sure as of yesterday, The male looked like he was putting eggs back into the nest as they fell out, and he was refusing to leave the nest, however I wasn't 100% sure. This morning I woke up and immediately looked inside the breeding tank. I looked really close and could see little fry hanging down. I counted about 3. so hopefully many more show up. I'm beyond excited and decided to post pictures and keep updating this thread. My goal is to sell the bettas to a LPS. I have a few questions:
How long does it take betta's to grow? Can I feed them ground flakes that have turned into powder? (ill be purchasing other frozen foods very shortly) I would have already prepared the food, and done my own cultures, had I known this would ACTUALLY work. Another question, my female and male's fins are both shredded from the spawn, how long will it take to heal?

 

[Wildbetta]

It will be around 3 months or so before you will have them big enough to consider selling them.  Before that time you will need to make sure you have to start separating them into individual containers to keep aggression down between them.  The fry need live food for around the first 6 weeks of their life.  Flakes are not a good food for bettas in general so I do not recommend trying to feed them to the fry.  Betta fry do not really do well with food that does not move and it can be difficult to get them to take anything but live food.  It is best to start with something like microworms for the first week and then transition over to baby brine shrimp.  Since you do not have the live food prepared, you can search around for people in your area that might have the cultures to buy as that tends to be the best option.  
 
For your adults, they both need time to recuperate and heal.  Keeping them in tanks by themselves with the heat at around 82F or so with really clean water should be all you need for them to heal their fins.  You should start to see new growth pretty quickly.  Make sure they are getting good food while healing.  Frozen food and a good quality pellet is best for this. 

 

[fishlover101]

thank you for all of the help! I will be updating with pictures with in a few weeks!!

 

[bluesword23516]

That is so exciting! I plan on breeding fish when I am older and betta fish are on my list! Definitely post pictures of mom, dad, and babies!

 

[fishlover101]

the mom and dad aren't very fancy, the male is old and doesn't have very colorful fins like he used to, and right now their fins are very torn. but in about a week ill be posting updates daily about the fry.. I would post pictures now but my camera on my phone has bad quality, and they are so small that you can barely see them! Thank you for the support.. I thought it would be impossible, but I now feel so accomplished. I cant wait to see how the fry turn out!!

 

[bluesword23516]

That's alright if mom and dad aren't super pretty. It just depends on what people's definition of beauty is. I would still love to see them after a little bit of healing.  

 

[fishlover101]

alright. will do. like I said , nothing fancy, just got them from the LFS

 

[GuppyGirl20]

About seeling to a LFS: I know where I live (in the U.S.) its basically impossible to sell to chain stores and people have better luck in thr locally owned businesses (also known as ma and pop stores). Can you sell to chain stores where from or do d you mean just local shops?

 

[fishlover101]

No, I can't , chain stores such as petsmart have 1 supplier and 1 supplier only. I live in Canada, im assuming its basically the same... There's several "ma and pop" stores in my area. I've already spoke with one last year, a few times actually and my parents go in there very often. I will start making calls in about a week when I can see vividly how many fry I have. I can't sell to any chain stores, as far as I know.