Thinking of a new betta strain…

[Slammin’ Aquascaping]

Hey fishkeepers, I was hoping that I can get your general opinion on what kind of bettas I should breed next. I love breeding fish, especially bettas, and I currently have three breeding pairs at the moment. If you guys are interested, my pairs are a black samurai pair, a galaxy koi pair, and lastly, my favorite, the black orchid betta male crossed with a female hellboy. I am indecisive about my next pair, and I want your opinion.

 

[NoodleOfDanger0]

I think the black orchid x hellboy sounds amazing. I've always thought that black orchids are amazing bettas.

 

[Slammin’ Aquascaping]

I think the black orchid x hellboy sounds amazing. I've always thought that black orchids are amazing bettas.

Thank you. Do you have any suggestions on what I should do next?

 

[NoodleOfDanger0]

Have you ever tried Black Orchid to Black Samauri? Or Halfmoon to Crowntail to get Half Suns? I've heard it's hard to get good quality Half Suns though.

 

[gwand]

Thank you. Do you have any suggestions on what I should do next?

how about trying to breed out betta’s violent behavioral phenotype. This has been done with foxes in around 10 generations of breeding the most docile males and females. Interestingly as one breeds foxes to maximize docility their appearance changes as well. Certain physical phenotypes are in linkage with specific behaviorAl phenotypes. The genes are in what’s known as linkage disequilibrium. Maybe true for fish.

 

[betta4ever!]

Wild Bettas are the best

 

[GaryE]

If you have just three pairs, I assume you are still gathering your broodstock. It takes serious resources to breed one line of fancy Bettas well, and the usual way to do it is to breed a few hundred young, raise them, choose the next generation and sell a bunch, then maybe put that strain on the backburner and attempt another.
Collecting pairs because you like them is as legit as breeding them, but how are you set up to run four strains as a breeder?
I knew a guy in eastern Canada who had a stand alone garage he could heat for breeding high end Bettas. He sold pairs he bred along with fish he imported. I haven't seen his fish for sale for a few years now and I think high energy costs and the amount of work took the pleasure out of what he was doing and he stopped. You'll have similar energy issues in Toronto. How are you set up to expand like that?
I don't linebreed fancies and the labels on them mean nothing to me, but I know hard work and space demands when I see them!

 

[Slammin’ Aquascaping]

If you have just three pairs, I assume you are still gathering your broodstock. It takes serious resources to breed one line of fancy Bettas well, and the usual way to do it is to breed a few hundred young, raise them, choose the next generation and sell a bunch, then maybe put that strain on the backburner and attempt another.
Collecting pairs because you like them is as legit as breeding them, but how are you set up to run four strains as a breeder?
I knew a guy in eastern Canada who had a stand alone garage he could heat for breeding high end Bettas. He sold pairs he bred along with fish he imported. I haven't seen his fish for sale for a few years now and I think high energy costs and the amount of work took the pleasure out of what he was doing and he stopped. You'll have similar energy issues in Toronto. How are you set up to expand like that?
I don't linebreed fancies and the labels on them mean nothing to me, but I know hard work and space demands when I see them!

Oh I have recently been taking down and selling off breeding pairs before the pandemic so I lost a lot of my strains that I was ready to move on from. I breed fish for fun, not for profit so the money I made was a bonus. I used to have 26 breeding pairs healthy and going crazy. You are right about it taking up a ton of space. I swear I needed my whole basement for bettas at one point

 

[Slammin’ Aquascaping]

Have you ever tried Black Orchid to Black Samauri? Or Halfmoon to Crowntail to get Half Suns? I've heard it's hard to get good quality Half Suns though.

I used to sell what I called “bubblegum half suns” to my LFS. Black Orchid x Samurai sounds cool. Thats a good idea (you may have given me hope)

how about trying to breed out betta’s violent behavioral phenotype. This has been done with foxes in around 10 generations of breeding the most docile males and females. Interestingly as one breeds foxes to maximize docility their appearance changes as well. Certain physical phenotypes are in linkage with specific behaviorAl phenotypes. The genes are in what’s known as linkage disequilibrium. Maybe true for fish.

That brings back memories of having peaceful Plakats (I KNOW!!!!) it was a one of a kind male, he never ever touched another fish, I could keep his young in community tanks! The male fry still attacked each other so that was something I couldn’t do. That’s instinct for the fish