Why?

[afireinside]

Why do bettas have to be a year or younger to breed? Just wonderin...

 

[nino]

Some say that if the dad is too old, fry will end up deformed. I have this betta book though by Goldstein ( I think) and he says that the older the dad is the more of one sex you will have (not sure which).
If you've been keeping up, Synirr just tried to spawn one of her CT's but he was a horrible dad and she thought it might be due to his old age. Maybe the young ones are just more energetic and overall better fathers? I'd do some googling on this.

 

[Ethos]

I think Nino hit it on the head.
Maybe you should try, just as a mini expirement?
Then you can become famous in the Betta-world because you wrote a book.

 

[Synirr]

Same reason it's better for humans to have children before their 40s. Bettas are in their prime before the 1st year. This is when they have the most energy, are best able to cope with the physical stress of spawning, and make the best parents. Sex drive usually diminishes with age as well, so older fish are less likely to spawn in the first place. I'm not sure if this applies to fish or not, but the older a human female is when she becomes pregnant, the more likely the chances of birth defects in the child. For instance, Down syndrome occurs in only one out of every 1,600 children born to a mother in her early 20s, but the odds increase to one out of every 100 if the mother is in her 40s!

 

[Mr.September15]

Yeah, I agree with Synirr. Fish are almost the same as humans. We have to keep in mind that the hormones in younger people are more active than older people. That's why people dont usually get babies when their 50. The older fish are than the more "risk" of the fry to be deformed. Almost the same as humans, people don't have babies when there older because they dont want to take the risk of a "special" child.

 

[ral]

Advice from the local betta seller, was breed them when they are older so as not to waster their beautiful finnage.

Six attempts... the only succesful pair was a set from a repautable breeder who were both about 6 months of age. Previous (failed) attempts had at least one fish over 12 months of age or fish of unknown age...

 

[Durbkat]

Now unless somebody comes up with a viagra for fish then older bettas will continue to lose there sex drive as they get older.