Breeding Betta Splendens

Breeding Betta Splendens

Here is an excellent video care of Jeremy Balanos showing Bettas breeding

Bettas are fantastic to breed. It is hard work keeping everyone healthy and happy but very rewarding.

The reason they are probably the most rewarding fish to breed is their colours. Bettas come in just about every known colour bar a few. Once you understand the genetics of their colours and how to get them you can aim for any colour you want. You can even play with different colour and mutation mixes and try and come up with one of your own.

The betta lines are getting better and better so to speak. Breeders in USA , Thailand and other Asian countries are doing amazing things with bettas and now you can buy Halfmoons, Superdeltas, Deltas, Spadetails, Rosetails, Crowntails, Double tails and not just the pet shop Veiltail.

OK, so you want to breed bettas. Pick a male and a female that you think are worthy. By this I mean, not to old and not young. My belief is they should be between 6-12 months to be in their prime. Younger ones tend to eat their eggs, not pick their eggs up and take ages to learn how to spawn right. Older ones im told dont have the stamina to do the hard yards and produce fewer spawns. I have not spawned older parents so i cannot comment.

Make sure your betta's are healthy and well fed. I have read a lot about making sure you condition your bettas for weeks before breeding them. I do not do this, i ensure all my bettas are well fed and healthy. I choose to simply place the male in the tank an hour before the female. I have in the past put the female straight in the tank with the male but have mellowed this and put her in an enclosure such as the top end of a 2 litre coke bottle so they can both see each other but cannot be hurt for the first few hours. This seems to work well.

Another thing, you will hear mostly wait until the female is full of eggs. I have also read in other betta sites that a female if she is ready does not have to be fat with eggs, if she is a healthy female she will produce eggs and the spawning will take place soon after. I have found this to be true. I dont worry so much about her girth, she may not produce a large spawn but 40-50 eggs is enough.

This is purely my preference and there are plenty of other sites that will state differently.

Ok, let the spawning begin! Once the male and female are aware of each other the female should band vertically, that is her stripes will turn vertical, her colour will darken and she might flare at the male or put her head down south. The males colours will brighten, he will flare his fins and he should do a sideways sort of dance so the female can see him in all his glory. If the female's stripes are displayed horizontally it shows fear. She will dart away from the male and try and become as still as possible. Dont worry to much this will change when she is ready. Most females will band vertically. The games begin, once they are released together in same tank the male will either chase the female, nipping at her and then returning to his bubblenest or the place he will build one. Or the female will swim straight over to the male. They will play the cat and mouse game for some time even a couple of days. They might come out of spawning process with their fins shredded or they might come out in perfect condition. Only consider separating them if one of them is overly aggressive and looks like he/she might do some serious damage to the other.

The female when ready will swim over to where the male is and sort of point her head down, she might wiggle her body, this is to show the male she is ready. If he is receptive he will come over and nudge her backside. He will be flaring and their dance will be in unison. The male will try and wrap himself around the female whilst turning her over. This might take quite a few turns, this is why it is better to have a larger male to a smaller female or equal sizes. Once the wrap is done right the male will squeeze the upside down female and force the eggs to come out. This also might take a few turns to get eggs to produce. The male will release his sperm when the eggs are released and this is how fertilisation is achieved.

The eggs will drop to the bottom, at this stage the female should float to the top stunned, she is ok and wil recover shortly to spawn again. At this time the male should go to the bottom and collect the eggs and place them in his bubblenest. If this is his first time or if he is really young he might not do this, the female will probably go down and eat her eggs if he does not. This is if the female is also young and not experienced. If things all go right the female should help the male and place them in the nest.

Spawning could go on all day, If the pair are eating their eggs or not picking them up, take one out especially if it is down to inexperience. Consider spawning the male with an experienced female so she can teach him the good habits of being a father. Otherwise its all heart ache and they will teach bad habits to other young fish when given the chance to spawn again.

You will know when spawning is over, the female will be on the other side of the tank and their will be eggs in the nest. Take the female out and let the male tend to his nest. Eggs should hatch in about 24 hours.

The babies will look like tiny sperm hanging vertically from the bubblenest. Dad will have a hard job catching them as they drop and putting them back up. They cannot swim horizontally yet because they have a great big egg sac to absorb, hence they have no need to be fed for the first few days. I place a bit of sera micron in the tank to get the infusoria to flourish on the second day. Ensure there is plants in the tank as infusoria lives off plant life. The babies will eat the infusoria once their egg sacs are depleted.

You will notice betta fry are tiny and food for them must be tiny. I have changed my fry diet from microworms to baby brine shrimp and the growth in fry is amazing after about 3 days. I still top up with Sera Micron mainly for the littlies that cant quite get to the bbs. Sera Micron is a very fine dry green powder. It doesnt seem to foul the water and snails love it, so does the tiny infusoria. It is rich in protein which bettas need. It is also an ideal brine shrimp food.

If im home that day they will probably get a midday meal too.

Be very careful not to overfeed the fry or they will drop like flies. Especially careful with liquifry or other dried powders. These foods will easily foul the water. Microworms are a fantastic food as the fry can hunt for live foods that they can actually swallow. Baby Brine Shrimp is another good food to feed the fry.. I have now mastered hatching these guys.. found out I was using a completely dead batch of eggs that were never going to hatch. (TIP...buy good eggs).

As the fry grow you will notice some bigger ones and other smaller ones. Some seem not to grow at all. This is because betta fry put out a hormone that stunt their siblings. When this happens jar the larger fish and you will see the smaller ones quickly catch up. Keep jarring the larger ones to keep the growth rates going. If not it will get to a stage where the larger ones will eat the tiny fry. Some betta fry grow big enough to sell within 3 months, others take 4-5 months to reach the same size. It all depends on the water quality, feeding and breed of fish.

Now to the water quality. This is so so important. Betta fry cannot handle huge fluctuations of water temperature. It will kill them outright. Warm the water to about what they have in their tank before putting it in. I learnt a trick off another breeder, if you dont have a heater in the aged new water then pour in a jug of hot water until it reaches the right temp. Place your fingers in both tanks and you will be able to feel the difference. Hot water does not contain chlorine, so as long as it does not make up the whole amount it does not need to be aged. I have found this to be true. Probably 6 litres of aged water to 1 litre of hot water from tap will do it.

My opinion on adding water to fry tanks has changed over the months. I now believe that you will lose fry every time you change the water when they are young, so the less water changed the better. I have heard a theory of having enough water in the tank at the beginning to allow for water to be syphoned out each week, as in syphoning the gunk on the floor. This way there is less toxins in the tank to kill fry but without changing the water you will have less deaths.

Make sure the container you are syphoning into is clear. Only take out as much water as it takes to remove the detritus from the floor. Once syphoned let the gunk settle in the container and then wait, when everything is settled, get a magnifying glass or just take your time looking, for little black eyes with tails. Syphon them back into the tank.

I now begin water changes of about an inch a week into fry tank when they are about 1 month old. I find at that age they can handle slight water changes. By the time they are 6-7 weeks they are jarred and handling full water changes every couple of days. It is just the first 4 weeks I find I lose fry when adding water.