The betta breeding project

[Jessie J.]

My betta breeding project is starting in just a little while. I have a 5-gallon breeding tank already cycled and set up, with a male betta already in it. I am going to get a female for breeding. I might get her tomorrow, or maybe sometime next week.

 

[NickAu]

Before you do anything do you have a breeding plan?

Where are you going to house the female?
Where are you going to house over 100 fry?
What are you going to feed the fry?
Can we see a photo of the male and female to see if they are worth breeding?

Pet shop bettas are generally not worth breeding

 

[Jessie J.]

The male betta that I'm going to breed is shown on my avatar. I can post some more pictures, if needed. The female has not been added/gotten yet. And as for the fry, I have a 55-gallon I can divide up for them once the weather warms a little. I'm going to feed them crumbled-up fish food in addition to the stuff already in the tank. Do you know what age baby bettas will start fighting each other if they are males?
Thanks!

 

[NickAu]

I'm going to feed them crumbled-up fish food

This just wont work, Baby Bettas wont eat it they must have live food

For the first three days after becoming free-swimming the fry will need very miniscule foods. Infusoria and tiny free-living nematodes like Vinegar Eels, Microworms, Banana Worms, and Walter Worms make great first foods.

After 3 days they will be large enough to also start feeding on baby brine shrimp.

After a week continue to feed baby brine shrimp, but feeding the tiny nematodes will no longer offer any nutritional value.

At 3-4 weeks continue to feed baby brine shrimp, but you can also introduce finely grated frozen foods. Frozen Bloodworms and frozen Daphnia work great. The Hikari brand is a good choice because their frozen foods have vitamins added before packaging and the food goes through a strict parasite decontamination process.

At 4-5 weeks you can keep feeding brine shrimp, but you can also introduce live Blackworms. These are aquatic worms and are great because they will live in the tank until they are eaten. Grindal Worms are also a good food that can be introduced at this time. Brine Shrimp, Blackworms, and Grindal Worms can all be fed to adult bettas as well.

At about 8-9 weeks the fry are starting to mature. Live Brine Shrimp and Bloodworms are still ideal foods, along with frozen foods. At this time dry foods can also be introduced.

And as for the fry, I have a 55-gallon I can divide up for them

Thats not good, Once the fry are old enough they will need to go into their own tank.

This is the correct way to house male Betta fry.

Do you know what age baby bettas will start fighting each other if they are males?

Around 8 weeks.

Do you know anything about Betta genetics?
Look dont take this the right way but I do not think you are ready to breed Bettas

 

[Colin_T]

The following link has information about preparing and culturing live food for baby fish.
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/back-to-basics-when-breeding-fish.448304/

Try to prepare the food before you breed the fish.

Bettas and gouramis have very small fry that need green water or infusoria as a first food. If that is not available you can hard boil an egg, remove the shell and eat the white. Then push the yellow yolk through a handkerchief into a small container of dechlorinated water. Put a lid on the container and shake it up, then use an eye dropper to add some of the liquid to the fry tank. You need to add food several times a day and do regular water changes on the fry container to keep the water clean. An established air operated sponge filter is useful in fry tanks and can be adjusted to provide a small amount of current without knocking the fry around.

 

[CometBetta]

How long have you been fish keeping? If you just started within a year or two, you probably aren’t ready. When you have fish fry you have to put a lot of effort into keeping them healthy. Betta fish lay many eggs, over 100! You have to have the space and time to keep fry. And once they grow up, where are you going to put them? Dont try breeding fish for “fun” if that’s what you are thinking. Also, if you haven’t done breeding you should think about where 100 fish will go. If you were going to sell them they would have to be very high quality betta fish or else no one would be very interested in them. It takes many generations of betta fish breeding to produce a high quality batch of fry.

 

[NickAu]

Bettas you buy from a pet shop are not worth breeding, the hobby is full of second rate Bettas that should have been culled.

 

[Jessie J.]

How long have you been fish keeping? If you just started within a year or two, you probably aren’t ready. When you have fish fry you have to put a lot of effort into keeping them healthy. Betta fish lay many eggs, over 100! You have to have the space and time to keep fry. And once they grow up, where are you going to put them? Dont try breeding fish for “fun” if that’s what you are thinking. Also, if you haven’t done breeding you should think about where 100 fish will go. If you were going to sell them they would have to be very high quality betta fish or else no one would be very interested in them. It takes many generations of betta fish breeding to produce a high quality batch of fry.

I've been keeping fish since I was six years old- bettas and mosquitofish, wild tadpoles, now guppies, danios, and soon ram cichlids.

 

[Jessie J.]

I just got four female bettas, three veiltail and one halfmoon (Daisy, Queen Shasta, SierraSequoia, & Empress), and now they are settling in before breeding. Only one looks big enough for breeding, the others are a little small. They are all in a 10-gallon which will be the breeding tank. When it comes time for breeding I'm going to remove all but one of the females, put the female in an open-neck vase, and put the male into their tank. Then let the pair sit for a night and release the female in the morning.
After he's done raising the fries (a few weeks or months, I suppose), he'll go back to his tank and the other females will return to the 10-gallon. As for the fry, I have a lot of 1-5-gallon+ containers for the male bettas to stay in till they get their colors. And then I can sell them to my LFS, though I'll keep the high-quality ones for breeding or pets. The males I can use for breeding are:

One mustard/speckled male veiltail (shown on my avatar)
One royal blue veiltail male

The females I can use for breeding (some of them a too small right now) are:

One red veiltail female
One iridescent emerald-top turquoise veiltail female
One bluebar shiner veiltail female
One female with red fins & tail and a silvery white body (not sure what this color form is).

 

[Colin_T]

Bettas you buy from a pet shop are not worth breeding, the hobby is full of second rate Bettas that should have been culled.

That's not totally true. You can buy different grades of male Betta from petshops ranging from cheap short finned males to show fish with huge fins.

You look at the fish at the shop and see if they are nice enough for you. If not, ask the shop if they have any show fish on their wholesale catalogues and if they can order some in for you.

for Nick, where did you get your original and current Bettas from?

 

[NickAu]

A breeder,

 

[Colin_T]

Was the breeder at a local fish club or were they advertising somewhere?

 

[The Lumpfish Guy]

quality ones for breeding or pets. The males I can use for breeding are:

Just a little tip, To reduce the possibility of inbreeding source your fish from different breeder and LFS's (I know a lot of places get from the same wholesaler but it can help if they don't)

Obviously without a way to test the relatedness of your broodstock, so make sure you have as many different phenotypes (eg colour, tail shape, fin lengths) read up on how these phenotypes behave ( are they dominant, recessive ect) and aim to widen you gene pool as much as possible before selecting out for desirable traits. you want to avoid inbreeding depression which can happen if you have too many related fish breeding together. (especially if you are selling these on to other people!)

just an example, if you bought those females at the same time, chances are they might be related so your effective population size is actually maybe half of what you think.
Keep adding in fish from outside your gene pool with desirable traits to make sure you avoid inbreeding too much.

As the guys have said, make sure you do your reading into this, it is important.

 

[Jessie J.]

So I should breed my halfmoon female with my veiltail male to help reduce inbreeding?
Okay I also had a couple more questions:

1. My girls have some severe fin-picking (tail stumps) from a few mosquitofish that were hiding un-noticed in the rocks. How much time should I give them to recover for breeding? I'm waiting two weeks for breeding but since there's fin picking should I wait longer?
2. If I put the male in the tank with all four females for breeding would this be a terrible idea?
3. When should I start feeding the fries? I'm going to feed egg yolk. Should I wait a few days after they start free-swimming to feed them?
4. Which male should I breed? The mustard or the royal blue? Which one do you think looks more breeding-quality, and which color is more popular/expensive, for ease of sales? Persia had some fin-picking when I first got him (shown on my avatar), but he's healed up now and has some impressive fins. He flares more often, sometimes at nothing.

 

[Jessie J.]

Oh,I forgot. My royal blue was exposed to tapeworm so I'm not going to breed him.